This is somewhat old news but Disney have bought Marvel Comics. This means that not just the film studio but the comic book arm of the company are now owned by Disney. What difference does this make you may wonder? Well currently the movie rights to several Marvel comic book characters including Spiderman and the X-Men are owned by other studios, namely Sony and 20th Century Fox respectively. There are currently rumours going around that Marvel comics are putting the pressure on 20th Century Fox by discontinuing certain comic book publications of the Fantastic Four characters in anticipation of the forthcoming movie reboot by 20th Century Fox. While these are just rumours and may prove utterly false and ridiculous it does raise the worrying possibility that Disney could use their industrial muscle to eventually force other studios to sell back the rights to these characters.
What`s so bad about that some of you may ask? After all seeing Spiderman in an Avengers sequel would be a dream come true for many Marvel fans. And I totally understand the desire to see a definitive Marvel shared universe. However, I think certain things would also be sacrificed in such a scenario. The current X-Men movie universe would be totally incompatible with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Mutants whether heroes or villains are treated with fear and suspicion in the X-Men movies. There is an internal logic to these films that deals with societal issues of xenophobia and discrimination against minorities and other people or things deemed "deviant" to societal norms and values. That would just not work in a MCU world of super-powered and celebrity superheroes such as the Avengers. Why should society hate mutants for being different and "superior" physically and even mentally to ordinary human beings, while superheroes who for all intents and purposes are alike mutants in their extraordinary abilities be loved and praised? Therefore should Disney own the movie rights to the X-Men there would need to be a completely new retelling of the X-Men story in order to make it consistent with the MCU. To some this retelling would be welcomed, especially as the X-Men movie franchise has taken some liberties with their characters. But for me, it is refreshing to see a different approach taken to the superhero conventions. The X-Men must fight for the ultimate good of society and mutant kind even if they are hated by humans and other more militant mutants alike.
Days of Future Past (DOFP) is a great example of how 20th Century Fox understands how to make a great X-Men movie. I loved DOFP, I thought it mixed drama with humour and action intelligently and skillfully. It combined two different casts and made them work together; it dealt with two different time periods and connected them in a believable way and it developed characters and their story arcs that gave the movie depth as well as excitement and great action sequences. I thought DOFP was a great achievement not just in healing past wounds created by former X-Men films which missed their mark, but also for comic book movies in general as a faithful adaptation of the spirit of a well known comic book. Would Disney Marvel Studios have done it better? Maybe, maybe not. But for all Marvel Studios successes - Iron Man springs immediately to mind - there were also failures (Iron Man 2 was a disappointing sequel to the original and Iron Man 3 was also a let down). I also thought the tone of DOFP was spot on, it was dark and dystopian in its vision of the future but also historically faithful in its past scenes featuring the younger, 70s versions of the characters. It also got the right balance between drama and humour with some genuinely funny moments that didn`t detract from the gravity and seriousness of their mission to save the future. Would Disney Marvel have replicated that tone? I`m not so sure. Thor managed to combine good natured humour with action but the story arc of the film felt a little too rushed to give it true poignancy.
Then there is the fact that Disney now own LucasFilm and the Star Wars franchise. Disney have already announced that they will make one new Star Wars Movie a year and have come good on that promise just recently by announcing that the director of the new Godzilla movie, Gareth Edwards, will direct the first Star Wars spin-off to be released after Episode VII, which comes out next year. Disney are currently saturating the movie market with their existing franchises. Time will tell whether this new chapter in Star Wars will be as good as the original Trilogy. JJ Abrams is a capable director and in many ways a natural choice for Episode VII but when the decision to give the relaunch of the Star Wars franchise to him was announced it didn`t automatically fill me with confidence.
Now regarding DC and all the hate DC gets in relation to the success of Disney Marvel Studios, I honestly get so annoyed by DC-haters or at least Warner Bros. haters. When the announcement was made that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice would be delayed a year to 2016, I was bitterly disappointed. But after the initial surprise wore off, I came to see the decision as probably the best call to make. Warner Bros. are handling two of DC`s biggest, most successful and beloved characters in their first live-action debut as a duo. This movie marks a landmark in superhero movie mythology. It is unprecedented. Therefore it needs to be done right. Man of Steel (MOS) may not have been a perfect movie, but it got a lot of things right in my opinion and the fact that it was an origin story left plenty of room to explore other stories connected to the ramifications of the main resolution to the film. Criticism of the portrayal of Superman`s character or of the plot itself I feel need to be put into the broader context of an origin story arc that is only the beginning not the climax of Superman`s journey. Criticism of the CGI heavy nature to the action sequences is also quite puzzling from my perspective. Fans of the Avengers, which was incredibly CGI dependent (the Hulk anyone?) complained at the level of destruction wrought on Metropolis and Smallville. So I think there is a little bit of Marvel fanboy-ism creeping in to the way some people viewed the movie.
Whether people like MOS or not, the fact remains that it created a shared DC Universe (DCU). Warner Bros. owns all the movie rights to the DC characters and so in one respect has an advantage over Disney Marvel Studios. Yet even though there is so much potential for the forthcoming Justice League movie there is already a lot of doubt and skepticism. Warner Bros. is accused of not believing in their own characters, DC has been criticized for creating characters that are too black and white in their moral values and the casting decisions for the movies already in development or filming have ignited hateful remarks and comments on internet forums and social media sites. The various negative reactions genuinely confounds me. Movies of comic books, like novels and other forms of literature are always adaptations of the original. Some things that work in novels and comic books don`t translate well into films or are more niche and not suitable for a more general audience. Movies must traverse that path between being faithful to the source material and having mainstream appeal. That is an incredibly difficult thing to do and in truth a job I am not envious of. Therefore, I think comic book fans need to cut the movie studios some slack and embrace different interpretations of characters and story lines. Even if you end up hating the film, try to approach each movie with an open mind.
