Justice League wasted a lot of awesome opportunities, but the biggest letdown for me was Cyborg. Something about him wasn’t all there for me… he had a cool backstory but the way it was executed left a LOT to be desired. I also have mixed feelings about his look and the overall performance. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but regardless, I have a lot of questions about the future.
Aquaman was a super good film and restored some hope in the DCEU for me. James Wan knows his shit. I didn’t even like Jason Momoa in JL but he killed it in his standalone film. Wonder Woman was great as well. Considering how much I actually loved Ezra Miller’s portrayal of The Flash in JL (my favorite part of the film), as well as the fact that a solo movie for him IS coming in 2021, I see no reason that a Cyborg movie won’t happen.
My first question is, supposing that the Cyborg movie will happen for sure, should it run with the same take on the character introduced in JL? Should The Flash? Aquaman was able to do it successfully, but it also came out only a year after JL, so the universe’s take on Arthur is still fresh in everyone’s minds. With these Cyborg and The Flash movies tentatively slated for 2020 and 2021, is there even a point in keeping everything connected?
We don’t have Cavill anymore, and we probably don’t have Affleck either. BvS had an extremely mixed reception, and JL had an extremely poor reception. Should the story arc those movies set up be continued at all? It already has been, in a way, but there’s also no reason it needs to be continued. I liked the mid credits scene in Aquaman. It set up a future Aquaman movie, and that’s it. No bigger tie-ins. Plus, we get more Black Manta and more Randall Park! I definitely don’t mind either of those things.
Here’s my point. It seems like the Aquaman film loosely acknowledges that the events of Justice League happened. Should future standalones try and do that, or should they completely disregard them and have full creative freedom? I’d wish for the latter without a doubt if not for the fact that Wonder Woman and Aquaman are both tie-ins. It’s hard when the actors are all the same! I personally would love to hit the reset button completely on Cyborg, but I also said that about Aquaman and we got a good movie in the end. I don’t know, “soft reboots” just seem like a copout to me. You can’t make subtle references to Justice League while also refraining from fully embracing it.
If every future movie was definitively NOT tied to the BvS/Justice League narrative at all, I would be totally fine with that. Aquaman could get a pass because the only references to JL in it had to do with Steppenwolf, which is a storyline that still could have existed in my theoretical new universe in its own new way. If Wonder Woman 2 doesn’t acknowledge JL at all, there’s even less of a reason to attach future movies. But at the same time, The Flash had a lot of great moments in JL and I’d like DC to stick with that arc! And though I wasn’t a fan, there are others who appreciated Cyborg in JL as well, and would probably like to see his arc continue. But if we don’t have Cavill or Affleck, we can’t get another Justice League movie in the same universe! Or one that I’d be satisfied with, at least.
I won’t accept another Ed Norton–>Mark Ruffalo situation in this case, because Cavill and Affleck have established themselves in the larger narrative in a MUCH bigger way already. They also don’t turn into an indistinguishable green monster half the time. If the universe continued, it would be hard to attach Batman and Superman to new faces. To make things more confusing, Shazam has been reported to be a possible tie-in! This is all so frustrating. There’s no perfect way to go about this after losing some actors, having a fluke movie, and struggling with consistency and committed directors. It doesn’t help that these movies are coming out so far apart from each other. No offense, but I don’t want to have to keep remembering Justice League!
Any thoughts? Am I missing some crucial behind-the-scenes information? What were your thoughts on Aquaman, as well as Justice League’s takes on The Flash and Cyborg? Let me know! I’m new to this service and am excited to have some conversations, ESPECIALLY regarding Titans. 