14
votes
Warner Bros.’ quest to build a better ‘Aquaman’ sequel: Three reshoots, two Batmans and non-stop test screenings
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- Authors
- Borys Kit
- Published
- Jul 19 2023
- Word count
- 1028 words
They need to move on from superheroes and do something different. There are no amount of sequels that will make me excited for Aquaman.
Seriously, even Marvel can't compete with peak Marvel anymore. DC never stood a chance. Time for something new and then maaaaybe some superhero reboots in another 10 years
The last Marvel movie I saw was Endgame.
I keep meaning to watch everything else that's come out for the sake of completionism and because I genuinely love many of the MCU characters, but for me the saga really ended with the death of Tony Stark and the retirement of Steve Rogers. With the story in a sense being complete, there's no urgency to watch basically what I consider the side stories.
That is understandable.
However, you can't really follow a major saga directly into another major saga. These interludes are unavoidable in serialized fiction, you will find them in the comics as well. Those periods can be quite enjoyable and experimental.
Even the first MCU movies were not heavily serialized, the encompassing saga took shape in installments. Stories do not start as epics. They become one.
I think I understand that, but I do feel like everything they're producing at the moment feels too big for that. While they are definitely doing quite a bit of experimenting (e.g. Eternals, Black Panther 2) and it's not all bad, they're still all major big budget movies, which makes them feel shallow and unrewarding. These movies keep setting up what feels like dozens of future plot hooks while sometimes having less than little to show for themselves. I guess I'm mostly just feeling overwhelmed by it.
You're right. In my opinion, ideally, they shouldn't be trying to make current stories feel more world changing than they really are. A few low scale independent tales focusing on character development would make more sense for a while.
I'm not a big fan of The Batman, but that was a good direction in that regard. Joker too.
Oh, for sure. But my top 2 faves are out of commission, and the move to TV series on Disney+ has meant that short of sailing the high seas, I'm going to miss out on the little bits of interwoven lore. I liked the way the movies were mostly independent but included bits of the connected universe, it made everything easy to follow in semi-annual bits. But with Wandavision and Loki, well, the MCU fractured for me, and by now I'm so far behind that it seems like catching up isn't worth it.
I agree, making the TV shows "required reading" was a bit much for me as well.
Um, what about the many epics that are not part of a franchise?
They too did not start as epics, but ended as ones. It makes no difference if you're talking about a single work, or multiple works which are made to compose a single story.
Achilles was not yet heroic in the first passages of the Iliad.
Well that's not really true. Achilles was the most famous Greek fighter before the war. That's why he was there and why the army looked to him for inspiration. In the opening lines Homer calls Achilles the "best of the Greeks" and it's not because of what comes later that he has that epithet
I don't think they needed to take that long of a break, but certainly pumping the brakes on the acceleration would've been helpful.
The pacing of the MCU kind of oversaturated the fandom experience - Thor, Ironman 1+2, and the Avengers movie all were spaced a year apart or more, giving us time to luxuriate in theories and anticipation of the next drop. Towards the latter half of the Infinity Gems saga, we were seeing 2 or more MCU releases per year. And then 2021 was like a nonstop hammering of new releases on Disney+ or theaters every. single. month.
I couldn't watch Spiderman: Far From Home in theaters because it was only 3 months after Endgame and I was still grieving, in a weird way. 2020 passed in a different sort of haze, and then it was like 2021 Disney was determined to cram more MCU in my face everywhere I turned and I kept falling further and further behind. The fun of anticipation became more stress about missing out in an already stressful time.
Too much of anything ruins it, regardless of quality. (Though I'm not surprised that quality has dropped. Sequels are challenging to begin with, never mind the breakneck pace of managing the vision of multiple sequels at the same time)
God, don't even get me started on the sad state of trailers right now. Half the time they tell me the whole movie via the best scenes and leave me zero things to look forward to. That sort of spoilery sloppiness shouldn't fly in today's viral-ready social media stratosphere...especially since they went to the trouble of making most of the Endgame marketing campaign centered around the slogan "No spoilers!" *cue headdesk*
Both very solid movies. I actually really loved trailers before they all became summaries, but generally the last decade or so I've avoided them where possible. The best way to enjoy a movie is to go in with zero expectations!
I hear they basically shot mostly without a script with Robert Downey Jr. and the director essentially winging it day by day. It worked so well and was so damned entertaining that it held up to multiple viewings. The Avengers too. Not all of the MCU movies hold up to even a second viewing, nevermind a third or fourth.
What's that?
That's one of the film series I genuinely regret falling behind on, because Dr Strange is such a blast!
Normally, this would describe me as well, as I'm a completionist at heart. But as I mentioned in another comment, trying to catch up with MCU became too much a source of stress during an already trying time. And I guess the stress is still there when looking at the massive backlog that I would need to tackle at this point. Makes me sad, because I know I'd enjoy the experience of at least a couple of them, especially if I'd been able to see them in theaters for the full surround sound fight scenes.
They have definitely been more hit or miss after that, but there are still a handful of fantastic ones. I recommend the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, the latest Doctor Strange, and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in particular. Also some of the Disney+ shows are excellent like Wandavision, Loki and She-Hulk.
Disney+ has never been in my budget, which is basically why once they looped in TV series into the MCU they lost me there.
And tbh, Wanda is my least favorite character in the entire franchise, which admittedly is one of the reasons I've tended to just let Endgame be the end of things, because watching that actress is akin to torture. Shame, because from the gifsets I've seen, the visual design of the show is fun.
Tom Holland is sweet, but he's been my least favorite version of Spiderman too lol.
All fair points! I will say that Loki is more fun than any of that stuff. If you ever wanted to do a free trial of D+ to binge that and cancel before you get charged, I would call that worth it
I'm just confused altogether with where DC is even at. I've never really followed their continuity too closely and it never really seemed to matter before, but now with James Gunn taking over, isn't he just rebooting the whole thing all over again anyways? Isn't this Aquaman still part of the older Snyderverse continuity, does it even matter anymore?
And DC has so much good non-superhero stuff, why not try branching out into DC-Vertigo stuff? Stop trying to do a shared cinematic superhero universe that they ultimately won't be able to commit to and just do random one-off movies.
There are so many good superhero stories to make still. There are just 15 movies in the DCEU, and DC Comics has a century worth of stories and IP, so much that was not explored yet. Both Marvel and DC barely scratched the surface.
I understand the appeal for definitive categorical put downs, but superheros are not the issue, and are far from being exhausted.
The issue are bad movies.
My guess is even the most competently made vertigo series won't put people in seats like a superman or batman movie will off of sheer brand recognition alone
My favorite recent DC film was The Batman largely because it was its own standalone film. It was so refreshing to watch a complete story without little breadcrumbs for other movies sprinkled throughout. I didn’t need knowledge of what happened in several other films. I could just go in, watch a Batman movie and be done with it. I can’t believe WB is still trying to make a “cinematic universe” even their own half-finished snyderverse crumbles and their competition and inspiration is struggling to overcome “Marvel fatigue”. DC would be so much better off if they just made standalone films people could enjoy and stopped trying to imitate Marvel. I felt like The Batman was such a good example of this, but they refuse to learn the lesson. Instead they are goi g to reboot the universe and try to ham handedly force in the few movies of the Snyder era that sorta worked. It’s mind boggling.
Aquaman has been my favorite DC movie so far, so I'm excited for the sequel. I hope the reshoots downplay or remove Batman, though. I just want a fun movie without having to break out the continuity chart. And fingers crossed they don't kill his parents or brother.
I enjoyed Aquaman as well. I don't share a distaste for the presence of Batman, but a this point, what Batman are we talking about?
That's part of the problem. According to the article, one of the reshoots involved bringing in Keaton as a sort of Nick Fury type character, but after flash was delayed, they brought in Affleck to reshoot Keaton's scenes. Now that Aquaman was delayed, and they are planning on rebooting the whole thing makes me curious what direction they went.
No Batman is what Gunn wants.
Logically speaking, it should be George Clooney though.
I think it's funniest if it's Affleck, because as it stands, we can just imagine that Ezra Miller Flash has changed the timeline or whatever, but if Affleck is in the new Aquaman, that would mean Flash didn't just get home with some stuff changed, but instead he never made it home and the DCEU is going to end with him stuck in a bizarro world George Clooney alternate universe. Ezra Miller Flash is going out like Dr. Sam Becket.
No amount of cinematic magic and good writing can make Aqua Man cool. I mean even South Park lampooned his character with cheap sexual gags in such a way that not even the DC original can really recover from it.
Someone needs to tell the DC execs to stop cramming less popular superheroes down everybody's throats.
Yeah, I loved Jason Momoa in Stargate: Atlantis, but I don't even care enough to torrent it.
Like... what is the appeal? ...fish?
First he is already cool and secondly the first movie made a billion at box office. A sequel was obvious, set to make another big load of cash. All they needed was a decent watchable movie. That's not certainly not the case anymore from what news I've heard.