DC United, Finally?
Full confession: I am a bit of a comic book nerd. Not in the "my room was once decorated with an unhealthy amount of Wolverine and X-Men posters" way, but I probably knew more mythology about any given character than the general public. This was primarily my cousin's fault, who had an outstanding comic book collection (and still does to this day.) When I started working at Fox, my knowledge of the mythology of the X-men enabled me to grasp the story better than most. I was, however, not just versed in the Marvel-verse. I also knew a fair amount about the DC-verse. That stemmed from my love of Batman, which came mainly from my older brother. He was, after all, the one who took me to see Tim Burton's Batman when I was probably still too young to go solo.
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All this illustrates how I've enjoyed the growth of the Marvel Universe since the first X-men appeared in 2000. DC however, has been somewhat of a mixed bag. They had a bright spot with Nolan's Batmans, and Man of Steel had its moments, but WW:1984 was unwatchable, and let's not rehash the Justice League debacle. However, Marvel has come to show its age as well. I couldn't find any real reason to watch She-Hulk, and I found Thor: Love and Thunder silly. I have begun to wonder if we're heading into the twilight of the comic era, but wait. Someone is riding to the rescue. A hero is on the horizon, and The Hollywood Reporter is on the case to announce his ascendancy, and that hero is none other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
You can all detect my sarcasm in the last few lines. Yes, the Hollywood Reporter did have an "Exclusive" (i.e., Dwayne and his team wrote the article) about DC’s new era. Johnson's film Black Adam releasing this weekend is the beginning of the new era. The article also coincides with the departure of DC Chief Walter Hamada, who had the unenviable task of repairing the DC brand after the Justice League disaster. However, one interesting tidbit from the piece is that Henry Cavill's return as Superman in a recently leaked post-credits sequence was engineered over Hamada's head when Cavill's manager and ex-wife of Johnson, Dany Garcia, went to new film chief Mike DeLuca to get the go-ahead. Hamada was determined to move beyond Cavill and focus on a story developed by Ta-Nehisi Coates featuring a black Superman. No one knows where that story will fit in the new DC era as it appears a Man of Steel 2 is now searching for a writer with Cavill donning the cape, which is not necessarily bad. Cavill certainly looked the part and brought a gravitas to the role that hadn't been seen since Christopher Reeves.
Another tidbit of this article is how DeLuca and his co-chief Pam Abdy seem to be making a play to run DC and the Warner Bros film slate, which makes sense. If David Zalsav, the Warner Media chief, installs someone to run DC Film and T.V., DeLuca and Abdy's supervisory landscape decreases when they already have a smaller purview than their fellow film chiefs. As I mentioned, the timing of this article is quite shrewd, with the movie tracking to clear $60 million, which is a downgrade from $70 million earlier in the week due to poor reviews that started rolling in. Johnson, Deluca, et al. either believe the movie will be a monster hit despite the reviews, or it's a public pitch to Zaslav to let them run the show. My money is on the latter, but this weekend will surely tell.
I miss the quality of the Nolan Batman films, and the villains of DC provide a treasure trove of interesting storylines far surpassing that of Marvel (Hello Joker.) I hope that no matter who takes the reins, they finally realize that a coherent story and filmmakers who respect the mythology are keys to DC’s success. This is something that Kevin Feige, Kingpin at Marvel, understood from the get-go, and DC still struggles with. Let's hope the next chief opened a comic book before they set foot on the Warnes Lot.
Halloween Kills Its Box Office
Oy. Well, I don't think that went to plan. Halloween Ends opened this past weekend with a domestic cume of $41.2 million (about $15 million off from tracking estimates.) A friend of the Brew, Sean McNulty, pointed out the last installment, Halloween Kills, opened to $49 million a year ago when Peacock (Ends premiered in theaters and on Peacock as did Halloween Kills) had 50% fewer subscribers. What went wrong?
First, the budget on this iteration was only around $30 million and change, so Universal will come out just fine. Also, Halloween Kills came out last year during the surge of the Omicron variant, so people were still cagey about running to the theaters, but I also think a more significant issue is that the quality of the films decreased with each installment.
The original Halloween is probably my favorite horror movie. You can't watch the original and NOT get spooked. It was pure genius. When I heard that there was a reboot, I looked at it as a money grab, and then I saw the trailer. I thought to myself, here is a filmmaker in David Gordon Green who understands what makes the original so great. The pure manifestation of evil in a simple six-year-old boy who grows up to be one "with the blackest eyes, the Devil's eyes." The Shape who moved in the shadows. I honestly didn't care that they basically ignored Halloween 2, which explained why Myers was pursuing Laurie (SPOILER ALERT: She's his sister.) Honestly, I loved the movie, and I thought it brought life back to a turgid franchise (Halloween 4 and 5 aren't even worth mentioning, although H20 had moments.), but Halloween Kills came, and it just went off the rails. Suddenly, the dialogue became canned, and Myers became just another killer in a basic horror movie. It was almost like Green, and his writing team, which included Green and Danny McBride (yes, Danny McBride), threw in the towel and decided to go for the horror cliches.
Well, I was completely out, and maybe I was intrigued enough to watch Halloween Ends, if only to see how they wrap up the trilogy. Then I saw the reviews, the comments on Twitter, and the Cinemascore, and I realized that nothing had been learned from their previous mistakes with Kills. This ultimately leads back to what I was discussing with D.C. You must have a modicum of respect for the mythology and, when dealing with remakes, at the very least, a basic understanding of what made the original popular. In other words, you have to understand the "Why?" Why are we telling this story? Why is the original so good? Maybe they looked at those questions. Maybe they didn't. Either way, I don't think this relatively poor opening can just be chalked up to a dual streaming/theatrical release. It is deeper than that. I hope whoever takes the inevitable next remake of Halloween grasps that basic concept.
Pages from the Commonplace Book
This week, we're trying something a little different. We highlight a selection from the Massachusetts State Constitution, the world's oldest functioning written constitution. In fact, it was written by a Brew Fave, John Adams.
"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of people [are] necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties."
I've got a great idea on how to diffuse all those general good qualities amongst the populace: Cancel Social Media. Ah, if only it were that simple, but it'd be a great start.
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