Big plans for the future of DC Entertainment and Warner were revealed in April. Superhero films like The Suicide Squad or Wonder Woman 2 are made here. DC should have one Leader of the caliber of Kevin Feige develop that turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) into a money printing machine (reported Variety ) Because unlike the MCU, DC lacks one “coherent creative and brand strategy”. Put simply, the DCEU should become more like its competitor, again.
Joker 2 shows: The MCU just can’t keep up with DC
Luckily for us, that wish list was apparently crumpled up and burned in a fireplace. Because two months later we are faced with this Joker 2. Which is supposed to be a musical! With Lady Gaga and as Harley Quinn! And it’s called Joker 2: Folie à deux! That’s French and means something like “madness for two”. Coherent strategy fucked up! Who needs a coherent strategy when you can have Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix sing a duet up the Joker Stairs in comic book costumes? And who needs Kevin Feige when you can have Todd Phillips, the unleashed former Hangover creator turned Joker director?
If someone walked into Kevin Feige’s office and suggested a movie like Joker 2, the Marvel boss would call security through a microphone in the collar of his short-sleeved shirt. Joker 2 is more than just a kind of freaky-sounding comic book movie. It sets a bright green underlined exclamation point in the creative competition between the two superhero brands. DC with the MCU just hit the ground running.
Next big DC movie: Watch the Black Adam trailer
Black Adam – Trailer (German) HD
DC vs MCU: From whipping boy to mainspring of the superhero genre
DC has had to take a lot in recent years. Attempting to emulate the MCU (or rather, its success) spawned trunk films like Suicide Squad (2016) and Justice League (2017). The MCU equivalent DCEU remained unfinished, his most important head was first disillusioned according to all the rules of the art and then pardoned with the Snyder Cut. For DC’s learning curve, the Justice League disaster has been a boon.
Now in home cinema: The most successful film of the last year *
To the deal
Rather out of necessity, because things had to go on without a connecting plan, a new approach for the many disoriented superheroes was born at the end of the last decade: DC as a playground for auteur filmmakers like James Gunn (The Suicide Squad) and directors with strong voices like Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) and Matt Reeves (The Batman).
With that, DC lost although the attraction of a continuous, coherent narrative that one long envied the opponent.
But it gained freedom. In addition to standard goods like Shazam and Aquaman, there is a lot of room at DC for special films that assert themselves on the market through a new approach, a unique style or an original casting. See Joker 2, for which the 15-year joker ban has been lifted.
The musical Joker 2 is not that surprising
Joker 2 is the continued (1) one Superhero Movies (2)which is on the most famous Super Villain Character (3) a traditional one Comic publishers based (4) and also in one Crossover (5) meets the equally popular Harley Quinn. Superficially they are 5 crosses on the modern day cinema franchise’s bullshit bingo ticket. This is deceptive.
In fact, the superhero cinema under this DC is as exciting and unpredictable as perhaps never before. DC blockbusters are superhero movies, but very often something else:
Joker was a psychodrama in the guise of a superhero movie.
The DC Blockbuster is an enclosure, but anything is possible in this enclosure.
Unlike DC, the MCU is locked in its own formula
That is the difference. MCU movies are superhero movies, nothing else. At most buddy comedies (Thor 3) or family comedies (Ant-Man 1+2). Ultimately, the Feige cinema stays in its popcorn channel and does what is expected three to four times a year. Which is okay, but also dead boring.
We go even in bad Marvel moviesbecause they are reliable. All success is built on it. That’s why the most exciting thing this system cinema is trying out right now is the multiverse thing – and even that has so far only served as an excuse for even more crossover, cameos and nostalgia load.
The MCU is in an artistic lockdown, a state of isolation that only allows external influences to be filtered out, if at all. If striking directors like Chloé Zhao in Eternals only vaguely weave their own styles into their films, the MCU fabric repels the foreign body with irritation. The rest is lost in the corporate identity.
Horror director Sam Raimi had similar problems. In an interview with Moviepilot, the creator of Doctor Strange 2 said of his work on the film:
It’s definitely different. The filmmaker’s most important job is no longer to do something unexpected, to shake the audience up or take them to a place they’ve never been before.
You have to as a director “suppress one’s ego” and think of the big picture. That’s why DC filmmakers don’t have to worry. The Batman was clearly recognizable as a Matt Reeves film.
The Batman: My thoughts on the Joker in the new scene
DC trusts people, that’s its secret formula
Because at DC people decide about films and not formulas, Joker 2 now seems like pure chaos. Nobody wanted to believe in the success of the rather dry-sounding approach of Joker 1. But Todd Phillips had brooded over his idea for a long time and put his heart and soul into it. Joker could have flopped terrific (it didn’t), and Joker 2 isn’t immune to it either.
“Everyone who was looking forward to the sequel is mad. Anyone who thought the sequel was unnecessary is happy.”someone wrote on Twitter about Joker 2. Will this film be successful? No idea. And that’s the beauty of it. Anyone who wants the success of films to be precisely calculable makes films calculable. And because DC doesn’t do exactly that, it’s head and shoulders above the MCU right now.
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