Another DC Rant (Keaton Batman Returns)

So I know I'm a week or so late on this news. It registered with me when the news was all over social media, but I didn't really have the time to sit down and think about it last week. On top of that, there are some other things regarding the DCEU that are worth taking about.

In case you're unaware, there are reports out there that Michael Keaton will be reappearing as Batman in future DC projects, starting in Andy Muschetti's The Flash with an in theory release date of July 2022. Moving forward from that movie, Keaton will be the "in-universe" Batman of the DCEU, the first two Burton Batman movies will be canon in the , and Batfleck will be an odd memory reserved for a weird pocket universe of the Snyder films (and the Synder cut, which I'll talk about later).

It's worth talking about the current state of the DC cinematic universe or the lack of one.

It feels like decades ago, but Justice League and the films leading up to it (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman) had the intnetion of building a DC cinematic universe similar to the likes of the MCU. Justice League was supposed to be the jumping off point for shared movies and my guess, with the intention of building Darkseid up as the big Thanos-like badie of the universe.

But Justice League ended up being a mess that reshuffled a lot of the slotted films happening, or at least changed the trajectory it seemed like the film was going. On top of that, casting issues came up with Ben Affleck going from directing his own Batman standalone to essentially quitting the role, and DC having a weird falling out with Henry Cavil that put any future outings for him as the Man of Steel in question. But something weird happened after Justice League.

DC had a trio of movies that came out that were actually well received: Aquaman, Shazam, and Joker. Add onto that a sense of excitement for the upcoming sequel to Wonder Woman, the future of DC movies looked confusingly optimistic. Any plans for a follow up to Justice League were put on the back burner and the emphasis was instead put on standalone films that didn't have any call backs to the Snyder led films. Aquaman in his solo film is quite different than the one in Justice League, Shazam makes mention of Superman, but in a way that keeps it vague if it's Henry Cavill or not. And it's very clear that Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is its own thing that will likely never connect to the larger DCEU films. Two major changes occurred, the production schedule was reduced where there was only one live action DC film from 2018 onward, and the connections were really loose to a larger cinematic universe.

Even the Harley Quinn movie seemed to be in its own little world with no real connections to Jared Leto or the previous movies pre-Justice League.

The Keaton news is the first inkling of a shared universe since 2017 and I'm skeptically fascinated.

The Flash has been in production hell for quite a bit of time with consistently changing directors. I am continuing to be skeptical because there were some stories about Ezra Miller gettting into a pretty violent altercation in April so I think there are still a lot of production hurdles to jump through, on top of the background issues with COVID-19.

But, if you get through all of that, bringing Keaton in feels like a smart choice to breath some life into DC having a cinematic universe. Michael Keaton remains a fan favorite Batman to this day and it's not the fact he's not an award winning and critically recognized actor is gonna hurt a franchise. The reports claim that he'll be a sort of mentor/Nick Fury type of character so his role will be a supporting one and probably not very difficult for him to pull off, especially if WB is paying him enough.

And the truth is, there's a lot of opportunities with this move. While I personally liked Ben Affleck's Batman, I think you remove a controversial actor from your universe considerations, especially if it seems like he doesn't want to be involved anymore. You create an actual older Batman to serve as a mentor figure for other characters (like Batgirl allegedly), and you kind of let Batman take a break (sort of) by having him take on that secondary role. Also there's talk about multiverses, Batman Beyond, and throughout it all Keaton is the anchor.

I guess I just feel like I need to hear more.

For as much as I like Michael Keaton I would hope at a certain point the creative heads took a step back and asked, is this the best way we can tell an overarching story? Is there a plan for an overarching story or is it a way to keep things relevant?

I also wonder if this story is going to remain relevant and interesting all the way up to the supposed release in 2022.

A lot is going to happen between now and then. Robert Pattinson is heading his own Batman that I guess is going to be its own separate thing, but what if we really like it? What if Ezra Miller has to get recasted? What if we really like something in The Suicide Squad? There's also reports that Henry Cavill is going to have a role in future DC films as Superman again, what if they get their act together there and the need for Keaton doesn't feel as relevant? I have no doubt that Keaton will fall back into the role of Batman like a glove, but what if the Flash movie sucks because of how long its been in production hell?

Like I said, I'm skeptically optimistic. A part of this feels a little ploy-ish but has the potential to be something really great... if they do it right... I'm not getting too excited because DC's attempts at a shared universe have been rough to say the least and it doesn't matter how good Keaton is, if the thought, creativity, and of course just patience in general isn't put into the creation of this universe, it could fall apart really quickly.

There's a couple of other notes on recent DC news I wanted to talk about and how they connect to this news.

Apparently Henry Cavill is still playing Superman and will likely show up in future DC projects. There's not a whole lot here that I haven't already said. Someone needs to take on a Superman sequel and do it right. I don't wanna hear that people aren't into Superman right now, people need some freaking hope right now and there's nothing more hopeful than Superman. Give him a sequel where he's facing Brainiac or someone, I don't care, just do it.

I'm really late to this party, but apparently the Snyder cut is being released on HBO Max in 2021.

I have mixed feelings on this because on one hand, it's kind of a big deal. It's not like the Director's Cut of Batman v Superman where they add a couple of scenes here and there, there is apparently a whole slew of scenes that were cut out of the original cut of Justice League that will be produced to create close to a four hour long film.

There's still uncertainty on how it will be produced on HBO Max, where it will be released as a 4 hour cut or if it will be released episodically like the way that Netflix released the Director's cut of The Hateful Eight.

But on the other side of things, I have to do a pretty big eye roll at this whole endevour. This would never have happened if there wasn't a huge movement on social media for years calling for the release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League. I am by no means saying that the original cut is very good, but there is no indication that this version is going to be any better. Now I know that there is a sect on the internet who believe that Zack Snyder can do no wrong, that Batman v Superman is a perfect movie, and that Snyder deserves satisfaction for a movie that was stolen from him.

But I'm here to tell you that this four hour long movie could be really terrible. I have no qualms with WB releasing it. They have nothing to lose at this point because you better believe no matter how skeptical I am of this film, I am still going to see it. You're going to see a surge in HBO Max subscription the month that this comes out. They clearly see the financial benefit, especially in the middle of COVID to start work on producing this cut to something that is presentable. But regardless of the incentive, that doesn't mean it's going to be good.

The other element of this that ties it all into this whole look at the DC Cinematic Universe is that this could be one of those things that changes the playing field before The Flash film is supposed to be a launching point for some semblance of a shared universe.

Let's give the Snyder cut some credit that in my opinion has no reasonable evidence to support, let's say its good. Let's say this was really a cover up by WB to inhibit a master vision by Zack Snyder and everyone loses their mind over the Snyder Cut. What do you do then?

Do you continue the route you're headed with this Keaton driven universe? They already seem to be creating pocket universes with multiple Batmans so is there another one where Zack Snyder comes back and creates a dark and gritty universe that looks like the Injustice Universe and that coincides with the main universe?

And to give that possibility some credit, I might just be looking at this with MCU tinted glasses. Marvel is going to start delving into the multiverse here soon so why can't DC? Why does there have to be a main timeline and not multiple? Audiences are not dumb, it's not like we can't figure out that the Robert Pattinson Batman is different than the Keaton one. It would be kind of cool to have multiple universes that we get to check in on like an Injustice timeline where Superman is evil.

My concern would be the dilution of central character's developments that we see multiple times if they're appearing in multiple universes and experiencing different things. I think there is general consensus that we like Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa playing Wonder Woman and Aquaman respectively. Multiple timelines and universes stunts us from seeing that development across their sequels not only because we're checking in on different versions, but it fills up the production schedule that those movies are farther apart.

In my opinion, the reason that Justice League failed and the DCEU was stalled so much was because they put less emphasis on the characters that make up their pantheon of heroes and instead relied on your love of the character as a concept. They relied on that love the concept to bum rush their cinematic universe and get to their big team up movie to compete with Marvel without putting in the time to get to know anybody in that team.

Even the TV shows on the CW seem to understand that you can't get to these massive team up moments without doing years of set up. I don't think it's about tone, it's about development. Phase 1 of the MCU was four solo films that had very minimal cross over elements before jumping into their first big team up movie. The one that tried to do more crossovers with unknown characters (even relatively at the time small characters) like Nick Fury and Black Widow in Iron Man 2, led to one of the worst films of Phase 1 (arguably in the entire MCU).

The DCEU started with Man of Steel, which I think was a good start for character development with Superman, but then was followed by two team up movies and was only book ended by the other good film in their "phase 1" in Wonder Woman. Why? Because Man of Steel and Wonder Woman took time to get to know their characters and set up interesting development moving forward rather than doing the equivilent of taking your Batman and Superman toys and bashing them together like a 5 year old.

Now to give the guys at DC some credit, they have been doing more solo centric films and plan to continue that trend for the foreseeable future. Hell, even Birds of Prey for all its issues, was better than Suicide Squad because it focused more on Harley Quinn than the team dynamic of Suicide Squad. There is no plan for Justice League 2 any time soon.

The overall is that the Keaton news shows some revived interest in creating a shared universe, and considering the slate of films coming out in the future, the multiple universes that may or may not connect, and he fact that there is clearly an interest in these films, I just want DC to reapproach this with a new perspective rather than competing with Marvel.

We find ourselves in a post-Endgame world where the franchise/shared universe hype has died down a little bit and where others like Fox Studios X-men and the Dark Universe failed to reach that same kind of success that Marvel perfected, DC, while in a diminished capacity, probably still sees an opportunity to capitalize on the idea of Batman showing up in a Flash movie. And I would like to see this. While I have my issues with the Snyder swing at a DC shared universe, I still love the idea of these crossover movies, especially with DC characters who I prefer over Marvel.

I just want it to be done right, and I'm willing to wait to make sure they do it correctly.

But those are my thoughts on the recent DC news that came out in the last month or so. What are your thoughts? Where should DC head with their movies? Is it time to revitalize the DC cinematic shared universe? Comment and Discuss below! You can also share your thoughts with me on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films, TV shows, or topics I should cover in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!