Post-Viewing: The bitter silver screen rivalry of DC and Marvel

Having been out for a few weeks now; Avengers: Age of Ultron is well on its way to being one of the most successful films of 2015; it’s also one of the best films of the year so far, pushing the envelope of its pedigree in every way that matters. But any successful film brings a greater drive of competition and a greater need to obtain a slice of the profits and that’s where DC comes in. Indeed the contest between the biggest superhero movie companies has reached boiling point in recent years; the fans argue back and forth and the film studios themselves make numerous business decisions that are influenced by the other. DC has taken the bigger brunt of these business decisions and as such, has never really been able to fully keep up with Marvel. Why is this? The answer lies from 2012 onwards.

When the original Avengers came out three years, everyone went to see it; the hype built up between 2008 and 2012 was so strong that the film became the highest grossing film of the year, beating out other popular contenders such as Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises. I can only imagine what went on in the DC boardroom at that time; as soon as they saw how much money The Avengers had made, they made the hasty decision to immediately dive into making their own equivalent to keep up with their biggest competitor.

I don’t mean to bash DC; their films still rake in plenty of money and do achieve a strong following with fans but The Avengers has undoubtedly impacted the way they approach their films and characters, and not in a positive way. There’s no denying that in terms of profits and overall quality, they’ve been lagging behind Marvel since The Dark Knight Rises came out and have been desperate in their efforts. Case and point: Man of Steel. As I mentioned in my review last year, the dark and moody style just didn’t do it for me; with Batman this kind of tone really worked as the hero himself was grounded in reality but for Superman it fell really flat. The issue that arises for me is that because The Dark Knight trilogy was so successful, DC has a misguided mind-set that this dark and brooding contemporary style is the be-all, end-all template for all of their films to come and this only works for a few of their characters.

DC’s way of doing things has been impacted in a number of ways by Marvel’s success. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice is a prime example; what was originally a sequel to Man of Steel is now serving to accelerate to the upcoming Justice League film; rather than giving both Superman and Batman time to develop into their respective roles, it feels like the film is blazing past character development to get to the far more profitable Justice League film. Add to that the shoe-horning of other characters such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg and you have a film which could end being a cluttered mess when it finally comes out next year. Marvel’s Iron Man 2 was guilty of this as well; the basic way they handled Nick Fury, Black Widow and SHIELD did end up getting in the way of the film’s pacing. There’s also the fact that Batman vs Superman was pushed back to 2016, which is clearly a response to Avengers: Age of Ultron to maximise potential profits. Compared to Marvel, DC’s practice in building up to a Justice League film feels incredibly muted; rather than allowing each character to be introduced and developed at a steady pace, the film is instead saving most of its character based films until after the first Justice League film.

Of course, all of this speculation may be completely scrubbed when Batman vs Superman arrives next year and the rivalry between DC and Marvel is bound to continue. The ultimate reason as to why DC just isn’t as popular in film these days is because of some questionable decisions in their filmmaking. If they weren’t so dead-set on beating Marvel to the box office, then they would be able to put a lot more consideration into the way they approach their respective superheroes.

Images sourced from Flickr via creative commons license.