To an extent, you are making the other point. You can't just look at this from the eyes of a fan who is giddy that you get a Superman/Batman movie. I understand that you are excited, but that isn't the point. You have to look at it from the corporate side.
Why? Believe it or not, I'm a fan in the minority when being "giddy" about a film. I've spent FAR too much time already worrying about the "corporate" side of things. As a fan, why dwell on that aspect of things? Why can't one just like comic books, movie adaptions and just watch the shit out of things and enjoy them for what they are rather than worrying about "corporate"?
Nah, I'll leave the corporate bullshit up to other fans who embarrassingly lose sleep over such things.
Instead of a long running franchise of Superman by himself making tons of money and then doing the big collaboration that's a smash, they are throwing Batman into the film now in an effort to assure that the film will make enough money.
Justice League has been the goal for years and MOS was that benchmark. Don't insult my intelligence. I get that WB has had the pressure to lift a movie this big of magnitude for quite some time.
Over the years, Marvel has left DC/Warner Brothers in the goddamn DUST and failures like Green Lantern were major set-backs. Marvel is doing cross-overs left and right and have been giving their fans a hoot of a good time.
Superman/Batman has been in the works since 2001. It's time NOW to lift it and create the new age of shared universe's before it's too late and falls flat later. MOS gave the greenlight. This needs to happen NOW.
To some extent, Warner Bros has been painted into a corner. You have a Superman movie that they spent WAY too much money making compared to what it brought in. I'm not saying it didn't make money--just that it should have made a lot more for the budget they threw at it.
This wasn't Superman Returns's $270 million dollar budget we're talking about here. Before all of this, Goyer said in an interview the studio put the gauntlet on the movie that in order for a sequel to occur, $600 WW would be that number. Man of Steel is at $635 WW and counting and alas, the sequel was announced almost immediately at comic con.
I don't get where people get these non-existing numbers to what they claim would have been victory for Warner Brothers, which brings me to my next point....
Then, you have a Batman "franchise" where the immediate future is iffy at best considering it's basically at reboot stage.
Essentially, you're explaining exactly the problem Superman just faced. Superman was working against that same fate as a character. Superman Returns, in the eye of the public, was considered an audience WHOMPWHOMP and shelved the Super-franchise for years.
Even in the critical reviews, people are using MOS against its own merits because it's being compared to the Reeve years so how could MOS possibly live up to a billion dollar, rebooted franchise when fans were already turned off by the studio with bombs such as SR and GL?
MOS had a ton working against it, the same way this new Batman will. The studio is confident MOS did its job to introduce a NEW Batman not named Christian Bale.
That's CONFIDENCE to put these two together. If MOS would have failed, noway they would have continued with this universe with BOTH new and fresh flagship characters.
Fans got this imaginative number in their heads that it was a billion dollar or bust for Supes (thanks to TDK and AV) but in reality, there was no way MOS was going to contend with that, not when people were iffy about moving in a new direction to begin with.
What MOS DID do, was give the studio it's most successful reboot EVER and the smashing opening weekends of the June BO record prove there's still interest in the Superman mythos. It's the perfect time to give the fans the Justice League in time. It starts NOW.
two words....Batman & Robin.
You're really going to pull a mid 1990's Joel Shumacher film that was supposed to be campier than the Adam West television show to compare the downsides of what could go wrong? That era of Bat films was more into selling kids merchandise and make a ridiculous coloristic, family pop-corn crunching movie than anything. I don't think Batman and Robin was supposed to be takin as serious as this Superman/Batman introduction we're getting in '15. Bad comparison.
As for the script, this EASILY writes itself. No way they can fucking mess this up.
Unlike the Marvel movies, where there seemed to be a coherent plan, this seems to be throwing stuff at the wall trying to get something to stick.
Huh? Marvel's "coherent" plan was to use a B-list character nobody cared about and force the team of the Avengers within that film. I'm sure Marvel Studios was shocked how crazy IM exploded and Nick Fury assembling the Avengers. They followed up IM with a piece of absolute shit that was IM2, so if anything, they just threw their shit together at the perfect time to get to the Avengers.
Superman/Batman has been trying to get a cross-over for decades now. This is now WB's plan and it's a great way to introduce their universe. I don't think it's throwing up shit at the wall and hoping it sticks. This is DC's flagship partner duo for the FIRST time on screen. Decades in the making. No, this is their plan and was for some time. This is finally happening.
At the end of the day, it's all a big dick-measuring contest. This is going to be a fun next few years
