What DC Can Learn From Logan

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     This past weekend, Hugh Jackman’s seventeen year-long run as the iconic superhero Wolverine came to an end with Logan, the first R-rated film starring the character and directed by James Mangold. Critics loved it, audiences love it, it’s doing extremely well worldwide, and I hold it as the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight back in 2008. In short, it’s a pretty damn good movie. Jackman gets a proper send-off, as does Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, and we finally see the brutal violence Wolverine is known for along with a well-written, dark, dramatic and heartbreaking storyline that left this reviewer in tears more than once. It’s a smashing success for Fox and for comic book movies in general. 

     Now I know what some of you are thinking: a dark and more thoughtful superhero movie is getting praised… But what about DC? They’ve been doing that since Man of Steel, and everybody hates them for it! What makes Logan so good and not DC’s movies? Well, in short… Logan got great reviews because it’s a great movie, one with objectively good performances, expert direction, well-filmed action sequences, and a great script. Is it perfect? No, of course not, but it’s leagues above (pun intended) DC’s recent output, most of which have been savaged by critics and just barely approved by audiences. So DC faces a crisis: you can’t build a cinematic universe without unified critic and audience support, and good will based on the characters can only go so far. Since DC wants to be darker and more serious, I thought that I’d go through some of my favorite parts of Logan and see if it can help the Distinguished Competition improve their films and finally put up a real fight against Marvel.

1. Hire Good Filmmakers (And Let Them Do Their Damn Jobs) 

     One of the biggest hurdles that studios have to go over when making these sorts of movies is whether or not to let the director have a lot of say in the outcome. At Marvel, those films are so specific and follow the formula so closely that they could probably hire the janitor and it would turn out similar. DC was supposed to be the “director’s studio,” allowing good filmmakers to step in and create their own vision while creating a universe out of it. Sounds like a good plan, so what went wrong? Well, I’ll leave that to your interpretation...

Bleeding Cool

But the correct answer is Zack Snyder.

     Fox has had its fair share of studio meddling in the past, setting fire to the garbage heap that was Fantastic Four and derailing James Mangold’s last film in the X-Universe, The Wolverine. However, the success of Deadpool changed that, as they stepped out of director Tim Miller’s way and just let him go do his own thing. Turns out that when you have a good director and you let them do what they do best, they can create gold sometimes! Who’d have thought? Probably inspired by Deadpool and the positive response to it, Fox (despite some reservations) stepped back and let Mangold do what he wanted, and this director created a masterpiece of comic book cinema.

     However, it’s not just about getting a good director, it’s about pairing the right director with the right movie. James Mangold had extensive experience with Westerns (which Logan definitely is), so the script he co-wrote and his vision were a good match for the movie Jackman wanted to make. This is where DC actually has the upper hand in many ways. Noted genre director Matt Reeves, the man who brought us Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is bringing us The Batman. Another great pairing is Furious 7 director James Wan (who came from horror, showing how versatile he really is) and Aquaman. The talent is there, with even Zack Snyder having talents that could be utilized if he is put with the right movie. He loves slow-mo and bright stylized action so much, so why not put him (and a good script, mind you) on Flash? DC, it’s simple. Don’t do what Kevin Feige does. Don’t do what Disney did to Gareth Edwards. Don’t repeat the David Ayer mistake. Let your directors actually direct. You might be surprised. 

2. Stop Catering to the Fans

   

   Amino

     It’s easy to fall into the line of thinking that if you’re making a film based off of a pre-existing property, you need to do all you can to placate the fans first and then worry about everyone else. After all, if you can’t secure the guaranteed crowd, how are you going to make the film a success? Hell, Deadpool’s entire existence is owed to the fans and that made pretty good money. However, that doesn’t always need to be the case. Marvel stays just faithful enough to the source material to hook fans, but also opens up the movies so that general audience members can feel invested, too. While some (okay, just me) might complain that this leads to a vanilla and generic feel to these stories, the financial gains are undeniable. 

     DC took the fan approach and went way too far with it. Man of Steel was a pretty accessible take on Superman, but Batman v Superman was a downright confusing mess if you didn’t know some pretty deep stuff about the DC Universe. Don’t know what Parademons are, or who Darkseid is? Well, Batman’s nightmares will make zero sense to you. Why does the Flash appear to Batman in that dream/reality/whatever thing? Not sure? Well too bad, this is “for the fans,” not plebs like you! See how this might explain why a movie starring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, three of the most iconic superheroes ever created, couldn’t make a billion dollars at the box office? 

Rolling Stone

Thanks, Zack Snyder.

     Which leads us back to Logan, the rare franchise film that actually doesn’t really require you to have seen the other movies in order to enjoy it. Sure, it definitely adds a new layer of depth and emotion if you’ve seen the past nine films, but the script is so well-written that it’s powerful enough on its own. Things in the previous films are alluded to but never outright stated, and despite Fox’s best efforts there are no surprise cameos so that people will say “Hey I recognize that!” It’s just a story about Logan trying to save a young girl’s life and find his humanity again, and it doesn’t need a bunch of callbacks, commercials for other films, or fan service to do that. DC isn’t as blatant about these things as Marvel is, but it’s time to drop the "it's for fans" excuses and start making better movies, period.

3. Take Risks, and Dare to Be Different 

     There is no bigger red flag in the movie industry than the word “risk.” Everybody chases the ultimate billion dollar sign when they make blockbusters, and if something is too risky most studios won’t even bother with it. And this makes sense, as the risk/reward balance is a key component of basic economics. No studio has found the way to take little risk for maximum reward like Marvel does. Take an old script, put a lame villain in it, make sure not to establish any lasting stakes/complex emotional or moral quandaries and throw a lot of action at the audience, and they will be sure to enjoy it. And those are totally fine, until you’re getting eight of them a year. If a studio is really going to make their mark and carve out a profitable place for themselves in this genre, they have to stand out. They have to take risks. 

CNBC

But how will I afford my fifth beach house if I take risks? OH THE HUMANITY!

     There was no bigger risk for Fox than releasing Deadpool last year. An R-rated superhero movie with lots of blood, foul language and dirty jokes? Inconceivable! So Fox gave them a low budget to balance out the risk, probably thinking that it would just die quietly and they could move on with their lives. But on opening day, not only did fans come out to see it, but general audiences intrigued by this new property (to them, at least). As a result, Deadpool was fresh, exciting and a complete breath of fresh air in a gradually bloating genre of film. Logan is another film like this, transforming the story of the Wolverine into a Western, feeling more like Unforgiven than Iron Man. The result is something more beautiful and interesting than any other superhero movie, not to mention more emotionally resonant. DC could stand to learn from this example. Give us a fun and lighthearted Flash movie and then hit us with a darker, grittier Batman movie before going on down to a Game of Thrones-esque Aquaman story and so on. Keep the audience hooked and excited to see what comes next, not dreading he next film hoping that it doesn’t suck ass through a straw! 

4. A Little Levity Goes a Long Way 

   

   ComicsAlliance

     I’m gonna start by saying that unlike most of these examples I’m actually not talking about Batman v Superman. That movie did have some genuinely funny moments to break up the dour tone, particularly with Alfred and Perry White. What I’m referring to is Man of Steel, perhaps the darkest and least fun Superman anything I’ve ever seen on a screen without even an ounce of humor to it. With comic book movies, hell movies in general, having literally no humor is one of the roads to disconnecting the audience from your story. Even some of the heaviest movies or TV shows have humor in them. Breaking Bad becomes a dark comedy at times and The Wire has several laugh out loud moments throughout its five seasons. Comedy doesn’t make drama less dramatic, it actually heightens the drama in certain ways because in real life nobody goes about their day even in the darkest of times without telling a joke. It helps the characters feel more relatable and makes us more invested in their story. 

     For my money, comedy in a dramatic film works best when it either gives the audience a moment to breathe or when it tells us something about the characters while also making us laugh. Logan contains both of those things. In one early scene, Logan (who is a limo driver in the movie) takes a group of young women to a wedding and one of the women drunkenly flashes her breasts at him. It’s an odd moment, but the wry smile on Logan’s face points out how absurd the situation is and allows us to laugh with him. On the other hand, there is a scene where the young girl Laura is riding a mechanical horse outside of a gas station. There has just been a heavy scene where her backstory is explained, which is right after a scene where she eviscerates some bad guys in combat, and it tells us how she was raised in a lab and has never really been in the real world. Cut to her riding this horse and she seems content like a small child would, with that juxtaposition being rather amusing while also reminding us that she still is a little girl. DC, your movies don’t have to be laugh riots (unless you’re doing a comedic movie, which please do that with Flash, thank you), but they need to have those moments to give us all time to breathe and enjoy ourselves again. 

5. Be True to the Characters 

     There’s a line in the comics crossover Infinite Crisis where the villain explains how “everything begins with Superman,” and that is where my deepest criticism of the DC Cinematic Universe lies. From the moment Superman killed General Zod in Man of Steel I said “this is fine, but it’s not a Superman movie.” In Batman v Superman, the very first time we see Superman is when Lois Lane is being held at gunpoint by an African terrorist. Does Superman race up with super-speed, take the gun and crush it as he would in the comics? No, he puts the very human guy through a wall, presumably injuring him severely if not outright killing him. Make all the arguments you want, all the justifications you want, but that is not Superman. This is Superman, in a nutshell: 

Pop Matters

     From that moment in Batman v Superman I knew that Zack Snyder still failed the grasp the essence of Superman, and this is why I saved that criticism for last: you have to understand the characters before you can write their stories. A superhero film without a grasp of the superhero is doomed to fail in at least the writing department because the reason why we love these characters so much is because of their personalities and the way they relate to us. We love Superman because he is kind and gentle despite having the powers of a god, just like we love Spider-Man because he’s an average everyday guy with superpowers. If the person making the film doesn’t understand the basic essence of that character, then they need to move on and find something else to do with their time rather than wasting all of ours. 

     Logan works on the level of an action film, is well-directed and acted, and has a great script, but it wouldn’t be as powerful and satisfying as it was if it didn’t get the character of Logan right. It would just be a generic yet well made Western knock-off with brutal violence, like an upped version of the mansion scene in X2 but without any heart or passion. Instead, Mangold and Hugh Jackman treated us to the most complete version of Wolverine to date, combining the best elements of the comics and film portrayals into a perfect package that rings true from start to finish. These are people who love and understand the character, and were dedicated to giving him the best send-off they possibly could, and that love is felt in every single frame of this film. Somebody at DC needs to make sure that they get these sorts of people behind their projects and fast, because otherwise all their movies are just going to be viewed as pale imitations of Marvel, made only to make a quick buck rather than out of true devotion to those characters. 

     Look guys, it sounds like I’m being super harsh on DC, but that’s because I really love the concept behind what they’re doing and want it to work, but most importantly I love the characters and I want to see them done right. I would love to see a cinematic universe where each film is really great and really unique, crafted by capable hands to fit a truly original vision, but that’s not what we’ve seen so far. However, there is hope. With Geoff Johns, one of the great modern comic book writers and the architect of DC’s Rebirth relaunch (which has been successful primarily for all the reasons I mentioned above only in comic form), as the head of DC Entertainment I’m crossing my fingers that he can make the movies going forward an accurate reflection of their vision and characters. Otherwise, they just need to pack it up and go home before they damage themselves any further. 

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