Director Barry Sonnenfeld confirmed his “Metal Men” movie was still in development at DC. The news was met with, “Who?” and “What are the Metal Men?” If this were a Marvel property, I’d have seventy videos in my YouTube feed telling me what this could mean for the next phase of the MCU. It would be big news.
But, this is DC and they have had a rough go of it lately when it comes to the cinematic universe stuff. The trouble started with the lukewarm reception of “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” and kind of just got worse from there. I’m not saying there weren’t some highlights. “Wonder Woman” was great and “The Suicide Squad” was so much better than just “Suicide Squad” (that “the’” made all the difference). Still, we are awaiting the next crossover event movie from DC, because frankly I don’t think we know if there is one coming.
With Marvel, we know we got Kang as our next big baddie to be teased about for the next decade or so. Over at DC, they seem to be taking it one project at a time. This approach does have its benefits. Directors likely have way more freedom with the source material and don’t need to fret about setting up the next “Avengers” movie. Films like “Joker” and James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” would not have been possible if that were not the case.
Still, I wish we could have seen a proper “Justice League” movie. I know we did get the Snyder Cut, but let’s be real, you don’t build a cinematic universe off a 4 hour HBO Max release. Also, while Snyder’s darker tone did a good job at setting the DC canon apart from Marvel’s, if you were a fan of these characters, then you were painfully aware of how poorly they were being handled. Not everything has to be one to one to the comics, but if you grew up watching the Bruce Timm-Paul Dini animated shows, then you would know a live action recreation of those series’ tones and characters would have been the best approach to making a DC cinematic universe happen. They’d be printing money over at Warner Bros if they had gone in that direction.
We do have that “Flash” movie that is supposed to reset the canon, so maybe after that, we can be more optimistic about what is to come from the DCEU. That said, I’ll believe the DCEU when I see the DCEU and right now, I am not a believer.
