Marvel has been the undeniable king of the comic-to-film translation for the last five years. Last weekend's $372.5 million box office numbers of "Iron Man 3" proved just that. Not to mention last year's behemoth of "The Avengers" that went on to become the fastest film to gross $1 billion and the third highest-grossing film of all time.
On the other hand, DC hasn't been as successful outside of Christopher Nolan's genre defining "Dark Knight Trilogy." Entries in "Superman," "Catwoman," "Green Lantern" have been critical and box office messes. So much, that DC executives are banking on "Man of Steel" to be the first step in a future "Justice League" film. This is why they chose Zack Snyder to direct this "Superman" reboot. Snyder has had a good run of adapting graphic novels "300" and "The Watchmen" though he's still feeling the effects of "Sucker Punch."
Warner Brothers president Jeff Robinov said this to Entertainment Weekly:
"What Zack and Chris have done with this film is allow you to really introduce other characters into the same world."
What does this mean?
The big wigs at Warner will be respecting "The Dark Knight Trilogy" as a stand-alone series because it just really wouldn't work within the scope of the DC Universe. This is what makes "Man of Steel" so important; if it succeeds it not only means a "Justice League" film but, a standard blueprint for future cinematic renditions of DC heroes that can cohesively fit together like Marvel has done.
Early test screenings for "Man of Steel" at Warner's headquarters have been positive according to reports even after Snyder alluded to the fact that Kryptonite would be missing from the film. According to a leaked review that's floating around the web from thanks to Joblo.
Here's what we know:
- Imagine a Nolan story with Snyder effects/action.
- It's the best movie of the year.
- There's TONS of action with Superman kicking all kinds of ass in his suit.
- The cape is CG'd most of the time so it can look awesome.
- They have intentionally left out most of the the Super action in trailers to save it.
- It's not nearly as dour and serious as the trailers suggest.
- The movie is complete, minus the 3D post-conversion, which is currently taking place
With that in mind, it looks like Warner Brothers are finally starting to take the right steps to make proper DC films. Think they can pull it off? Comment below.
