DC Is Better

DC has received a lot of criticism for its movies “Batman vs. Superman” and “Suicide Squad,” while the MCU receives praise for every movie it puts out, good or bad. Do not be fooled.

Now, I have not even seen “Suicide Squad,” and I realize it was a bad movie. However, “Batman vs Superman” was a good movie. Superman did Superman things and Batman did Batman things. I did not see the trailer with Doomsday in it before I saw the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised when he showed up. (Doomsday was not in most of the trailers.)

The same cannot be said for Marvel movies. For the vast majority of their movies, some key surprise of the movie or too much of the plot is given away in all the trailers. In “Ant-Man,” significant portions of scenes from all the final battles were featured in trailers, and upon watching the movie, I felt as though I wasted my time, despite the funny moments from it.

Fox was guilty of this too with “Deadpool.” Luckily, they redeemed this mistake with “Logan.”

Giving away too much in the trailer is not the only sin I hold against Marvel. Marvel also has watered down the intensity of what superhero movies should be. Though this is a stylistic choice, I feel it really degrades the quality of the movie when characters that we as an audience care about are never in danger, and even make jokes in the middle of significant battles.

Additionally, some of the  characters feel thrown in or forced, coupled with the rapid rate of expansion of the MCU.   While Iron Man still feels right at home with the audience, characters like Hawkeye were never given enough development to be understandable for how we are supposed to feel.

You can accuse “Batman vs. Superman” for doing the same thing with Batman and Wonder Woman, but it does not hold, because Batman’s perspective is well explained in the movie and makes sense. Wonder Woman was supposed to be more unknown, as she played a spy character for most of the movie, and now is getting her own movie.

DC may be late to the superhero party, but they  will not be the ones ruining it. I can only hope that DC does not ruin their films by not learning from “Suicide Squad,” or by trying to follow Marvel’s footsteps. I also hope that Marvel tries to make their movies better by following more serious themes and taking more risks, as Fox has done.

Though Marvel may be dominating box offices, DC is winning over fans, and Marvel should recognize this.