San Diego Comic-Con - Some Belated Thoughts! DC first up...

Afternoon everyone!

Thought I would chime in with a few thoughts from this years Comic-Con in San Diego.  The rate this event has grown by every year is both exciting and frightening.  It's become as much (if not more) about the movie franchises than the lowly comic book reading industry.  That's not a complaint, not at all.  If you had told any comic book geeks 20 years ago that Hollywood stars would be adorning the halls of Comic-Con they would have thought you mad.

It's just understanding that this is what the Con is all about these days.  Panels for movies, tv shows, cosplay, guest appearances, it's a monster of an event now, and the benefit of that is that it brings more and more attention to the comic side of things.  

If you ever are thinking of attending one of the major Cons in the U.S. I would break it down like this - 

San Diego - Movies, TV shows, smattering of comic announcements and creator appearances.

New York - Focuses on more of the comics, creators, writers, artists with some entertainment news thrown in.

So, onto SDCC 2017...

Let's kick off with movies...

Justice League

As everyone expected, there was a new Justice League Trailer, and it was suitably epic.  Almost 4 minutes long, every character had their moment to shine.  There were also plenty of small easter eggs if you looked closely, and plenty to speculate over.

Lanterns were mentioned in the voiceover, where are they?

Was that Supergirl Bruce was looking at?

Who was Alfred talking to at the end?

Will there be a cooler image in the movie than Aquaman surfing on top of a Parademon and crashing through the roof of a building, nailing the Superhero landing?

As a general rule I try not to watch too many trailers for movies I know I am going to see (more on that later), but with Justice League I can't help myself.  

November can't come soon enough...

In addition to the Justice League Trailer, Warner Bros. and DC announced their upcoming slate of movies.  Reads like a Who's who of current titles!

* Aquaman
* Shazam
* Suicide Squad 2
* The Batman
* Justice League Dark
* Batgirl
* Green Lantern
* The Flash: Flashpoint
* Wonder Woman 2

All of these movies seem to be in varying stages of production.  Let's look at them one at a time -

1. Aquaman

Given Aquaman is deep into production, many fans were expecting a full trailer at Comic Con, but it wasn't to be.  There was a quick bit of footage shown, but has not been released anywhere else.  The buzz around that footage has been high ever since it was shown.

Really looking forward to this.  Jason Momoa looks the part and has the attitude to make Aquaman badass, Amber Heard looks excellent as Mera, and the cast also includes Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren and Willem Dafoe.

2. Shazam

Shazam is a bit of an unknown entity at this point.  Most of the news has actually revolved around Shazam's nemesis, Black Adam.  It has already been announced that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has been hired to star as Black Adam, but we still don't know who will play Shazam himself.

And now comes the news that Black Adam will not actually be in the Shazam movie but will be introduced elsewhere.

We do have concrete news on the director though, as Lights Out helmer David F Sandberg has confirmed he's onboard and refers to the story of a young boy who gains powers to rival even Superman as the 'ultimate wish fulfilment'.

Cautiously optimistic for this one...

3. Suicide Squad 2

I could fill a whole blog post on just my thoughts of Suicide Squad (maybe a future post), but in a nutshell, I view the movie as a missed opportunity.  It is the very definition of a movie that suffered due to studio interference.  They got a lot of stuff right, but so many other things very wrong.  It made a lot of money at the box office, but is the most slammed DCEU movie so far from the critics.

Where does that leave Suicide Squad 2?  Well, already without a director as David Ayer has moved onto Gotham City Sirens (not a bad move given how well received Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was).

A few names have been mentioned - Mel Gibson definitely being the most interesting one!

But no real concrete news just yet.  Just hope they don't build the marketing campaign around The Joker again just to leave him out of most of the movie...

4. The Batman

Bit of quality fan art right there...

The Batman has had a troubled history to this point to say the least.  Originally to be written by, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, it is now just starring Ben Affleck.  And even then the rumours continue to circulate that may be under threat as well.  I hope he does stay on, and at Comic Con he seemed to confirm that he's going nowhere, although his phrasing was quite elusive to say the least.

When under his direction, a lot of the action was going to focus on Arkham Asylum, there were going to be appearances by many of his Rogues Gallery, and the Villain was to be Deathstroke.  They even cast Joe Manganiello and released a teaser wardrobe test for his armour.

But now we don't know if he'll even appear.  Matt Reeves (War of the Planet of the Apes) has taken over as director and will apparently work on the script from scratch.  I have to say he is a quality action director and all the times he's been asked about the movie, he has nothing but positive things to say and wants to play up on Batman's detective noir roots.

Now that Apes has been released and the World Press Tour is done, we should hopefully get some more concrete information on the movie soon as Reeves said he couldn't focus on the project as much as he wanted to while he had those other commitments.

I'm a massive Batman fan so am of course looking forward to this.  But I just hope it's another Batman Begins, not Batman & Robin....

5. Justice League Dark

Another DC movie with directorial changes being the only big news so far.

First Guillermo Del Toro was tapped to direct, but delays put him off and he moved onto other projects.  Then it looked like DC had again struck gold when they hired Doug Liman (he of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow) to take over.  But then he got 'too busy' to make a movie to fit Warner Bros. schedule.

Now, who knows?

If there was one DC movie lined up that has potential to be completely different from the rest then this is it.  A team containing John Constantine, Deadman and Zatanna protecting the DC universe from the darker and more mystical aspects?  Sign me up.

The fact it was announced again at SDCC instead of quietly ushered to the background in the wake of the directorial situation gives me hope that they still have big plans.

6. Batgirl

I still can't quite believe that the DC universe has Joss Whedon as a part of it.  The man who basically defined the template for Marvel with The Avengers, is currently finishing up Justice League, after Zack Snyder unfortunately had to take a step back due to personal reasons.  And then he is doing Batgirl.

Now if there was ever a perfect match of director to material the this is it.  The man who introduced Buffy for a new generation, essentially leading a charge of female badasses and asskickers, now has Barbara Gordon and Gotham City to play with?

This project all sounds very exciting and it'd be wonderful to see Gotham City open up much more on the big screen.  It'll probably mean we see of Commissioner Gordon,  Nightwing may pop up, and I'm sure there will be many other DC characters.  

Any suggestions for who should play Barbara Gordon / Batgirl?  Emma Stone would be a dream for me, though maybe after playing Gwen Stacey that may not be possible.  Though Willem Dafoe did play the Green Goblin only to be cast in the Aquaman movie.....

7. Green Lantern

Oh Green Lantern, where even to begin?  By now, most people are aware of the Ryan Reynolds movie from 2011, or are doing their best to try and forget it!  Here's where I get a little controversial as I don't think it's that bad of a movie.  I liked Reynolds in the role (though will admit he suits Deadpool so much more!), the establishment of OA was superb, and the supporting cast were all good.  It did suffer from a terrible villain, and a rushed ending, bot to mention not enough demonstration of Green Lantern's powers.

But we are in desperate need of a reboot and I am very curious to see where this goes.

Do they cast a different Lantern and go with John Stewart?  Or Kyle Rayner?  Or Guy Gardner?

Do they set it all in space or link it to Earth?

There are so many questions, that is really is just a case of wait and see.  They did refer to Lanterns in the Justice League trailer so maybe we'll get a glimpse sooner than we think...

8. The Flash: Flashpoint

Now if there was one announcement which got me ridiculously excited, and one that was also completely unexpected, it was the official announcement of The Flash movie being titled - Flashpoint.

Flashpoint is essentially what kickstarted the New 52 universe in the comics.  Barry Allen decides to go back in time and save his mother.  However this has a butterfly effect throughout the DC universe. Suddenly Batman is now Thomas Wayne, The Joker is Martha Wayne and it was Bruce that was killed in that alleyway.  Wonder Woman and Aquaman are at war, with each race having seemingly conquered opposing halves of the planet.  Superman is held as a lab rat in an underground American compound.

The only one aware of all these changes is Barry Allen, and he enlists the help of Batman to try and help him fix it.

This is Geoff John's story and is thoroughly excellent.  I am guessing that they will use this story to reboot a lot of the DC universe and we may some roles change after this.  The most cynical of people would certainly think this is how they will replace Ben Affleck as Batman...

9. Wonder Woman 2

This needs no introduction.

After that first Wonder Woman movie, they own us.  Our asses are in those seats opening weekend.

And there you have it, all the DC movie news from SDCC thats fit to print.

There is a hell of  lot to look forward to.  After Wonder Woman, and with Geoff Johns overseeing these new movies there is every reason to be very excited.

Next up, Marvel's SDCC......