The Four Color Media Monitor

According to this recent Variety op-ed, this summer's 2 leading releases, the latest Superman and Fantastic Four reboots could decide where superhero fare will be going in live action:

It’s easy — really, too easy at this point — to proclaim that the era of superhero movie is over. At the start of this month, Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” opened to some of the strongest reviews the Marvel Cinematic Universe has received in years, and yet, by the end of May, it will have earned less domestically ($174 million to date) than 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” did in its opening weekend ($187 million). Last week, Marvel Studios announced that it was pushing “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” from May to December of 2026 and 2027, respectively, while pulling three other untitled Marvel projects set to open within that same timeframe from the schedule entirely. The former decision will allow directors Joe and Anthony Russo more time to marshal two of the biggest, most expensive feature films ever made. The latter decision is pure commerce, an easing of supply in response to the clear reduction in demand.

No, it's not too easy. Sure, some individual adaptations might prove successful, but in the long run, they're not proving very successful or profitable at all. Mainly because much of the audiences couldn't stand the woke directions taken at the turn of the decade, and possibly before. Naturally, Variety's writers vehemently refuse to admit an ounce of it.

In July, DC Studios and Marvel Studios are each taking striking creative risks in the hopes of reintroducing — and revitalizing — their respective cinematic universes. “Superman,” written and directed by co-DC Studios chief James Gunn, will be the first time the Man of Steel headlines a movie in which he is but one of dozens of other superhero characters — a decades-long comic book conceit that hasn’t ever really been tested with audiences that don’t know their Metamorpho from their Mister Terrific.

For “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the second feature film from “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman, Marvel is taking the opposite approach, reintroducing the company’s First Family in a retro-futuristic 1960s New York City that exists in separate reality from the MCU, no prior knowledge required.

Both of these movies shoulder a burden beyond their own commercial prospects. David Corenswet’s Superman failing to soar would be kryptonite for Warner Bros.’ longterm plans for its wider DC Universe. And Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach stumbling while taking their titular first steps would seriously weaken the storytelling foundations for “Doomsday” and “Secret Wars.”

When they speak of Doomsday, I'm not sure if they're referring to 1992-93's Death and Return of Superman event, or if they're referring to something involving Dr. Doom at Marvel. But, what difference does it make? Even if the films aren't PC, the actors involved, like Pascal, have done enough to make it difficult to overlook their onscreen starring roles after the PR mistakes they're making. Plus, let's recall the FF's cast and staff look willing to wokefy the screenplay. As for Metamorpho and Mr. Terrific, why don't moviegoers take a look at the comics instead, and check out the latter's beginnings in the Golden Age as Terry Sloane, and the former's in the Silver Age, and even his later co-starring role in the Outsiders during the mid-80s? Why must a movie matter, but not the comics? I'm sorry, but this being a Hollywood trade paper isn't an excuse for obscuring all that.

By cutting Marvel’s output over the next two years almost in half, however, Disney has mitigated its exposure and given its highest grossing division necessary creative breathing room. Gunn and his DC co-chief Peter Safran, meanwhile, have made a point of not flooding the marketplace with multiple projects, nor greenlighting anything until the screenplay is totally ready. Given the pedigree of the creative forces behind these movies and the cultural currency of the marquee characters at their center (like Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Black Panther), the odds are strong that moviegoers will continue to turn out for the kind of the popcorn thrills that have made superhero films such a reliable blockbuster engine for the last 25 years. There just won’t be nearly as many of them as there used to be.

I'm afraid that still doesn't alleviate concerns the upcoming films will be as woke as the ones before. Also, I don't like hearing that a director who worked on a TV program that set in motion the direction for Scarlet Witch seen in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is working on the FF movie. So much money being spent on special effects, but so little spent on refraining from alienating the audience with so much wokeness. I stopped feeling enthused about comics movies long ago. The DC/Marvel comics from until the early 2000s are better.

Labels: dc comics, Fantastic Four, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics, Superman