Back in May of last year, renowned Batman scribe Geoff Johns was brought on as the Kevin Feige analogue for the freshly rebranded “DC Films” (formerly the DC Extended Universe). Given that the majority of the foundation leading to Justice League had already been established by Snyder and Goyer, this past San Diego Comic Con was monumental in restoring faith in DC’s trajectory; what would the future of the franchise look like completely liberated from the framework initiated by 2013’s Man of Steel? Well, for the most part, pretty solid.
The Batman will now be directed and rewritten by Matt Reeves, right off the heels of War For The Planet Apes. Wonder Woman is getting a sequel (duh). The first chunk of footage was released for Justice League, following the announcement that Joss Whedon would fill in for Snyder, and it looks … better. Ohm and the Flash solo film, you know the one that chewed through a couple of directors and scripts, is officially gonna be an adaption of Flashpoint in one form or another. Shit.
A big screen adaptation of Flashpoint in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, in fact I’d go so far as to call it imperative to any worthwhile Justice League arc. The problem with it lies in what adapting that particular story implies about the confidence of the honchos behind the scenes.
Flashpoint is a fun five issue mini-series that details the ripples that are created when Barry Allen enters a world wherein his mother never died. Alone, it’s a deeper version of the typically tawdry “what if” storylines that features delights like a Thomas Wayne Batman and a government lab rat Superman, but in the grand scheme of things it was DC’s canonical way of relaunching its titles without eradicating the best parts of their 30-plus year history. The result? In service of keeping this thing on track, I’ll merely say “short lived.”
You know that old breakup maxim: If we would have met five years from now, would this have worked out? That’s how I feel about so many of the decisions ushered in by DC Films. The kind of deconstruction stories Snyder and Goyer were trying to tell in both Man of Steel and Batman V. Superman, were genuinely compelling ones but you can’t deconstruct a status quo you haven’t properly assembled in the first place.
Enter Flashpoint.
I’m assuming the Flashpoint film will be an adaption in only name and tone, as that seems to be the current trend, but even still the DC cinematic universe is much too green for alternate universes. Hell at least wait and see if we like Ezra Miller’s turn at the speedster before you start strapping world defining stories on him.
Say what you will about the CW’s crack at the Flash but if there’s one thing the silver screen can learn from them, it’s their sense of fun. Barry’s first outing should be every bit as jaunty and earnest as his debut in Showcase # 4 back in 1956. Let us get familiar with the cinematic Justice League so that when Barry effectively effaces them, we feel the weight of his actions.
Greater minds than mine believe that the rush to adapt Flashpoint is really a sly machination to can the unwanted aspects of the Snyderverse, one of which being Ben Affleck as Batman. In the instance that Justice League, Aquaman, Wonder Woman 2 , and Shazam get released and one or all gets critically panned, Warner Bros. has a reset button currently in development. Affleck too old? Well turns out when Barry fixed the timeline, Dick Grayson wears the cowl instead of Bruce. Hated Luthor Jr.? He was never born, bring in Cranston to play his Dad and never mention it again. Oh, and Leto’s Joker was a “cosmic-time-fart” or some shit, (they won’t really have to explain that one too much).
On one hand, Flashpoint is a genius blockbuster wet dream. It’s the perfect sort of continuity charged excursion that fans of the property live for, as well as a cache clearing device for the studio. I’m not saying I don’t understand the value in adapting such a benchmark run, even creatively, I mean it's a story that is so fundamentally good, both The Flash TV series and DC’s animated department adapted it from drastically different angles and still managed to do it justice. I guess I hoped Comic Con would have proved that there was a comprehensible sense of direction over at DC films. There’s like five films slated for release from now up to 2020, most of which are bereft of either key cast members, directors, scripts or all of the above. Are the powers of Whedon and Johns enough to rescind Goyer’s wraith? I’d say so, though we’re hardly out of the woods.
Justice League is set for release November 17th, 2017
