Hey guys! How were your weekends? Mine was decent. I went with my parents to visit my grandmother yesterday afternoon, but otherwise I didn't do a whole lot just because it was super hot out again this weekend and I'm technically not supposed to be out in that kind of heat. I do it anyway in certain circumstances though. Anyway this weekend was DC Comics's virtual event, the DC FanDome, where announcements and updates were made for upcoming movies, video games and TV shows. I didn't follow everything going on during this event, but I did watch a few of the trailers and read a couple of the announcements. So I wanted to just give you my thoughts on the three trailers that I watched as well as on some of the announcements.
The first trailer I watched was the first full trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, the sequel to the 2017 blockbuster, Wonder Woman. I loved the first movie, but I've been keeping my expectations low for this sequel, because I know that I'm not going to have the same experience with this movie that I did with the first one. This way I won't be too disappointed if this movie ends up not being as good as the first one. I'm sure it's going to be a really good movie from the trailer, because that trailer was awesome, but I'm just trying to keep from being too disappointed if it isn't quite as good as the first one. I'm not a fan of Wonder Woman in the comics, so this is my first real experience with the movie's villain, Cheetah, aside from a quick appearance in an issue of Green Arrow from The New 52 that I have in my collection. I know from talking to people who know Wonder Woman's world way better than I do that Cheetah is basically for Wonder Woman what the Joker and Lex Luthor are to Batman and Superman. That's all I know. So I'm interested to learn a little bit about the character through this movie.
The only thing I didn't like in this trailer is the amount of CGI used for characters who don't need to be CGI. Like Cheetah in her full feline form. Though I suppose after the whole Cats fiasco back in December, I guess I shouldn't complain too much that they're using CGI for Cheetah in this movie. Still though, it's still fairly rough CG work at the moment, so I wouldn't be surprised if they cleaned it up a bit before the movie comes out in October. So far there aren't any plans to put this movie out on Video On Demand platforms, just a theatrical release. If that's going to be the case then I'll have to wait until it comes out on Netflix and DVD to see it because I'm not going to the movie theatre this year.
The next trailer I watched was the teaser for The Batman, which doesn't come out until next year. The teaser looked really good and Robert Pattinson looks great in the Batsuit. However I'm kinda sick of the dark, gritty Batman story where his family was secretly involved in some criminal conspiracy and Bruce has to come to terms with it. So many things have done this in the past fifteen years. The Dark Knight Trilogy, Gotham, Batman: The Telltale Series, Batman: Earth One, Scott Snyder's run on Batman for the New 52, and I'm probably forgetting a bunch of others too. Just once I'd like a Batman movie where he's solving a case, and his parents are only mentioned as his motivation and that's it. Like it was in the '90s with Batman: The Animated Series, and the Burton/Schumacher movies. I also don't like that they cast Colin Farrell as the Penguin, just because he's one of those actors that actually creeps me out, probably because he was in a bunch of heavy, unsettling, movies in the 2000s and I just never liked him that much. Hopefully he does a really good job as the Penguin and doesn't try to make him more creepy than Danny DeVito was as the character in Batman Returns.
The last trailer I watched, because I have no interest in The Suicide Squad, and the other movies aren't far enough along in production to have a teaser ready, let alone a full trailer, is Zack Snyder's Justice League. I honestly don't see the point in even doing the Snyder cut of this movie. I mean it's still the same script, same story, and same cast and Whedon couldn't've done that many reshoots, so I don't understand why fans were clamouring for this version of the movie when it really doesn't seem to be that different from the version that was released in theatres in 2017. It just seems like the only difference is that it's going to be longer than the original movie, with some extra scenes included. At least with Superman II I can tell the difference between the original theatrical version and the Donner Cut that came out in 2006. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that fans will have the opportunity to see Justice League the way that Snyder had intended it to be, but I don't see the point in releasing it on HBO Max when not everyone has access to that platform. Especially when there really doesn't seem to be a huge difference between versions like there is for Superman II or Watchmen, which was directed by Zack Snyder as well.
The last couple of things that I want to talk about are Black Adam and The Flash. These are two movies that don't have trailers yet, but there were some stuff concerning them that came out this weekend. The Flash is a movie I haven't been looking forward to at all. I don't like Ezra Miller's version of Barry Allen/the Flash and he's not an actor that I enjoy watching on screen. However, this is actually going to be more of a DC Universe movie than a Flash movie since it's taking elements from the 2011 mini-series, Flashpoint that started The New 52 reboot. It was also confirmed this weekend that not only is Michael Keaton returning to reprise his role as Batman from the Tim Burton movies, but that Ben Affleck is returning to reprise his role as Batman from Batman v Superman and Justice League. I don't know how true this rumour is, but I was watching Near Mint Condition's DC FanDome Overview video and Omar and Maddie mentioned there was this rumour going around that Grant Gustin, who plays Barry on The CW/DC Comics Television series, The Flash, could make an appearance in the movie. Comic Book Cast also did a video on it. Unlike many other rumours going around about these movies, I think this one is more likely to happen. I'll explain why.
Back in part 4 of the CW crossover, Crisis On Infinite Earths, which aired as the eighth episode of season 8 of Arrow, Ezra Miller made a cameo as the DCEU version of Barry Allen, meeting the TV show version inside the Speed Force and they had a brief conversation. So it's possible that if Grant were to show up in the movie it could be footage filmed for that episode, but taken from a different angle and that's all it's going to be. However, given that Keaton is returning as Batman and it looks like he's going to have a significant role in the movie, depending on the logistics of having Grant go to wherever the movie is being filmed from where the TV show films in Canada, he could also have more than just a brief cameo in the movie. So even if this movie is a total flop, the fact that Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck are both going to play Batman, and Grant Gustin could show up as well, is the sort of thing that I, as a fan of DC Comics, can, and should, get really excited about. I guess we'll see in 2022 what happens.
Black Adam is the other movie that I want to talk about briefly because outside of conversations with my buddy Aaron, I haven't talked about this movie at all. To be perfectly honest, I'm not excited for this movie at all. I like Dwayne Johnson as an actor, but I'm kind of sick of these villain turned anti-hero movies about characters that were meant to be villains and that's it. As much as I have no interest in watching Venom, that character is the only one who makes sense to do that with since they started doing that in the comics way back in the '90s, around the time that Carnage first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 and that's been his journey since the beginning pretty much. Other characters like Black Adam, the Joker, Deadshot, Harley Quinn and pretty much every other villain in the DC Universe are either not interesting enough to have their own movies or they were meant to be the bad guys and that's it. Though one exception is Two-Face. That's a movie I actually wouldn't mind seeing Warner Bros. make.
I wouldn't mind seeing Black Adam in the sequel to Shazam!, but I have no interest in a movie that he's in as the main character/protagonist. Even if the Justice Society of America is going to be in it. There's just something wrong with having a villain as the protagonist of a movie and the superheroes being the antagonists. Not every villain can be Darth Vader or Two-Face. But I think that speaks more to where my headspace is versus the state of the world these days than anything else. Not saying that Black Adam is going to be a bad movie by any means. It's just not something that I'm interested in seeing.
The final thing I want to talk about is comic book related. There wasn't a whole lot coming out of the comic book realm for this part of DC FanDome. In fact they were extremely light on comic book announcements this time around. However DC did announce they were relaunching the Milestone line of comics. Milestone was an imprint of DC comics by African-American writers and artists that had minority characters as the focus. Primarily Black people. The character of Static is the only one I'm familiar with as he had his own animated series on the Kids' WB programming on The WB, which is now The CW, from 2000 until 2004. I never watched the show itself, but I did see him in Justice League Unlimited so I know him from there. They've attempted to revive these characters in the past and failed, so I hope they succeed this time, but comic book sales aren't what they used to be these days either, so I guess only time will tell if DC is successful with this relaunch.
Apparently there was a panel for the Flash TV show, but with Season 6 having been abbreviated due to the pandemic, there wasn't anything new in this panel that the fans didn't already know, like who the villain is for Season 7, and that the remaining episodes from Season 6 would air as the first episodes of Season 7. I actually stopped watching The Flash only a few episodes after Crisis On Infinite Earths because the crossover was actually the best part of the season. The first part was okay, but I kinda felt like the writers didn't know where to go with the characters now that the crossover was done since that was supposed to be the crossover that ended the Arrowverse in 2024 but was moved up because Stephen Amell was ready to leave and they were cancelling Arrow. And because the season wasn't great post-Crisis, I dropped it. The show is on Netflix here in Canada so I could just watch the whole season before Season 7 starts, but I don't care about newer villains from The New 52, DC Rebirth and DC Universe like Bloodwork and Godspeed so I'm not interested in finishing Season 6 or in watching Season 7 when that starts in January.
That's all I wanted to talk about today. I'll put a link at the end of this post so you can read about the other announcements that I didn't talk about in this post as they're for things I have no interest in like the two video games that we got trailers for and shows like Titans. I've got lots of posts coming your way this week, including a Living with Disabilities post tomorrow and a comic book review on Wednesday. Later.
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