Batman, Superman, and Why Nobody Seems to Care

On Thursday Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters and will become the latest in an ever growing line of comic book movies to grace the big screen.  BvS is the second installment (out of eleven planned) in the new DC comic book franchise, following 2013's initial entry Man of Steel.  It is also the first live action big screen movie featuring both Batman and Superman.  There is an awful lot to be excited about here, so why is there so little excitement?  Comic book movies are usually events, large stepping stones on a epic journey.  The previous X-Men titles, though in sort-of separate franchises, were part of a great story.  The first three Spider-Man movies helped launch the comic book movie craze.  The current run which the Marvel Universe is on is nothing short of iconic.  So Batman and Superman, two of the most popular comic characters ever, are finally getting their shot on the big screen and the majority of scuttlebutt going around is either negative or apathetic.  I personally fall into the apathetic group despite the fact that I love almost all of the previous Batman movies.  I'm also a fan of Zack Snyder, who previously directed The 300 and Watchmen.  So what has lead to the apathy and negativity?  Depending on who you ask you'll get quite a few responses, but here we will look at the most popular reasons for the failure of BvS's hype machine. Out of Sight, Out of Mind This is one of the most popular reasons among comic book/comic book movie fans.  A lot of this has to do with what the Marvel cinematic universe blueprint.  The movie which eventually brought us to Avengers was the first Iron Man.  From there The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man 2, and Captain America slowly rolled out the plot with it all culminating in The Avengers.  Not only did this buildup create massive anticipation for the end result, but the timing was such that everything was nicely spaced out over the course of four years.  Since this started in 2008, twelve movies have been released, never more two in a year. Man of Steel came out in June, 2013.  It's been nearly three years since then and there's been nothing.  Needless to say, despite the anticipated anticipation, interest has waned.  Now, after the extended layoff, DC is looking to pump out nine more movies in the next four years.  Granted they are sticking the Marvel rule of no more than two per year, but rather than let the story build through individual character stories they are launching straight into the group dynamic.  BvS will feature appearances from at least Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, and probably some others.  Instead of creating suspense, DC is just throwing them together.  It feels too much like DC is trying to play catch up to Marvel, and when you start chucking in this many characters without establishing who everyone is, then the story starts going backward instead of forward. Casting Reservations There were a lot of reactions when Ben Affleck was announced as the new Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Some conspiracy theorists even came up with a rumor that Christian Bale was actually going to revive the role and that Affleck was a decoy.  Affleck's acting career has had its ups and downs and he's been the butt of more than a few jokes.  Affleck's recent history, though, suggests that he's turned a corner in his acting career.  Argo, The Town, and Gone Girl allowed him to not only showcase his acting chops, but he played roles that shows he can play gritty characters.   I'm not really worried about Affleck.  This particular iteration of Batman seems to fit Affleck so that should be fine. I wasn't a huge fan of Henry Cavill's Superman in Man of Steel.  This has more to do with the fact the Superman is a hard character to pull off.  Superman is a fairly one dimensional character and pretty uninteresting.  My biggest gripe is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.  In trailers, Eisenberg's Luthor comes off as a jittery and overexcited.  It's very likely that the character can turn into the egomaniac super villain, but bald Eisenberg seems more Dr. Evil-ish than Lex Luthor.  It's hard to gauge too much from trailers, but the absence of a more powerful actor in a role such as Luthor contributes to the lack of enthusiasm for the movie. Little Brother Syndrome This is the elephant in the room.  Marvel has killed it with just about every one of their releases since Iron Man.  DC has hit pretty well with the Batman franchise, however, Superman hasn't been a big screen success since Christopher Reeve and we won't even get into the debacle that was Green Lantern.  There is certainly a contingent of comic book fans who are DC and are probably looking forward to the DC universe movies.  The movie industry isn't trying to assuage comic book fans though, they want to make money by appealing to the broadest fan bases they can and quite frankly Marvel owns that piece of the market right now.  I would be willing to bet that if you got a focus group together and asked which comic book movies they were most excited about this year, Captain America: Civil War would win in a landslide.  Even X-Men: Apocalypse would perform better. With DC so young in its burgeoning franchise there is still ample opportunity to establish itself as a viable alternative to Marvel.  Fortunately, the groundwork for successful comic book movie franchises has been established so DC can piggyback off of Marvel's success.  After all, there's no rule saying both can't coexist as big box office draws.  There is also little doubt that BvS will make a ton of money this weekend, but in order to start building that brand though, BvS has to be good.  These are the cornerstone characters in the DC universe so if this movie falls flat, there will be little hope for the franchise to rebound. Be sure to check Funkhouser after the release for a full write up from our very own Matt Mahone!