Such a shame to see the reviews all over the place and of course everyone now looking at RT (which these days is putting a lot more pressure on movies). I won't be seeing this for a few more days so will be trying to avoid spoilers as best I can. I'm guessing I'll probably like it for what it is, which according to a lot of folks is a "reset"/"course correction" to try to nail the right tone. Unlike XMen, I don't think the DCEU needs a reboot. There are a lot of things that have been done very right IMO (casting, costumes, overall creative direction). You don't want to all of a sudden throw all that out the window, because who knows what and who you'll get (black leather costumes, Jennifer Lawrence as Wonder Woman, a lovable, wise-cracking Superman) Not to mention the franchise falling into 4-5 years of development hell. Yes, it would have been smarter for DC/Warner to go the Marvel route and build these characters up within their own individual movies before bringing them together. But 1) they didn't want to copycat the formula, and 2) they were already playing catchup. That said, one great marketing ploy might have been to release a series of 5- to 8-minute shorts over the year (focusing on each individual team member, a prequel short for Superman). These could have played with certain WB movies and been released a month later on YouTube. It could have helped bring folks up to speed on the individual heroes; provided some additional character development; and built up anticipation (not to mention probably brought in folks who would have come just to see the short).
I think Warner Bros needs to hire a top tier filmmaker--maybe someone like JJ Abrams or James Gunn; commit to the vision; and have the studio meddlers and second guessers get the hell out of the way. Zach Snyder, like George Lucas, is great at visuals and art direction, but he is terrible at narrative. I really like the aesthetic he created. And while I wasn't that crazy about the design of Krypton, much of the DCEU world-building has been pretty great. I don't want to see Snyder in the director's chair, but I would prefer to see someone pick up those tools, and build upon them, rather than go back to scratch.
Hopefully JL will hit $1B, in which case the studio will probably continue full steam ahead with some additional course correcting. If the movie can bring in $400M domestic, international will probably add another $600M. Affleck might hang up the cowl, which would be a shame, but maybe someone like Jon Hamm might be able to step in without missing too many beats.
