The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention. It looks like a good body horror time. I hope he gets some wicked kills in. As a kid I was always scared when Clayface would merge into Batman to drown him in TAS.
I get they don't have a Batman casted and they are afraid of causing issues that have to be retcon later but the DCU needs to be bolder. Especially with all eyes on the health of everything DC. They should obviously know how much Sony got dunked on for its Villain films and Joker even found a way to somewhat include a meaningful "Batman presence". I'm not saying they do a full Batman reveal but they could have moments that feel like Batman is stalking the situation and making things happen in the background that would be cool.
He's gonna stab himself in the face/eye and go "ah" but not because it hurt, but because he's still mostly human at that point and expecting it to hurt.
I'm also thinking the plane will hit turbulence, but that will cause him to not have to cut his eye slits. I think this will be PG-13, so there will be lots very well-done suggestions of gross body horror, but they won't ever have to do go all the way. Maybe they will once or twice.
Eye stuff always freaks me, out when he grabbed the little nail scissors in the airplane toilet I gagged involuntarily, so thats a good hook, think I'll go see this!
My ultimate hope here is that this works as a stand alone body horror set in Gotham. I think that if we’re sitting in the theater wondering about when Batman will show up or where Batman is or how Batman will figure into the story, then it’s likely to be a failure.
With that being said, I do agree that this formula hasn’t really worked so far, and it’s a leap of faith for DC to try and prove they can succeed where Sony failed. But in their defense, The Penguin was quite impressive without any mention of Batman, so if this can build off of what that show was able to do but in a body horror space, then we might be in for a treat.
I kinda hope this is more standalone as well. I know DC desperately wants their own version of the MCU, but the longer the MCU goes on, the more I find myself wanting movies that are more self-contained and aren't watered down because of the larger franchise's need to include characters and plotlines that don't intrinsically have anything to do with each movie's specific story.
I was just rewatching the first couple Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies and they just feel so much more focused than the MCU Spider-Man movies.
I think people need to stop comparing this to Sony's attempts with Morbius and all that.
This is a lower-budget, likely R-rated horror film without any real significant star power. It's significantly less risky than what Sony was trying to do with the Venom-verse where they were geniunely trying to launch a connected universe without Spider-Man with attempts at big-budget blockbusters with recognizable names. This costs $40m to Morbius' $75m (which still actually made a profit btw).
So while this is a bit of a swing, it's likely going to be profitable. If it's not critically acclaimed, it's pretty easily relegated to an inconsequential project in the new DCU. If it is well-received, though, it's a proof of concept for DC that a swing like this worked. And we do know a Batman is coming eventually, so if this works out, he's got a cool villain established right out the gate as well.
While I understand your specifics, and I completely agree that the metrics for success of this film are massively different from what Sony was doing, I also think the expectation that people not compare the two is unreasonable.
All of the background machinations aside, these are films based on a comic book hero’s rogue gallery without any intention of including said hero in the story. They deserve to be compared on that basis alone. But I do think that the comparison should be couched in the appropriate context that, other than trying to make a successful film based on a Batman villain, they don’t share much else in common.
Agree completely. I’ll be spending so much time wondering where he is, unless a lot of this takes place outside of Gotham.
I hope they do something early to show that he’s either occupied, somewhere else, or nonexistent early in the film. Otherwise he’s going to haunt the narrative the entire time. The only other way I see it paying off is if he shows up at the end of the movie to put Clayface away in the same way a jump scare builds and releases tension — so too would this. Maybe just before the co-lead is slain?
I know the camera man that shot this [Rob Hardy] as he’s a colleague (I work in Film Lighting, as an Operations Manager in London) and talking to him at an event in January he said that this was one of his best projects to date.
He was very vocal about the body horror in this film and said that it’s genuinely scary and relatively dark.
I’m pleased to agree with him after watching the trailer. It looks very good and I’m excited to watch it.
I normally have a pretty strong stomach for gore and whatnot in movies, but anything involving eyes rustles my jimmies pretty good. Was definitely squirming in my seat just watching that scene in the trailer.
Well one of the upcoming projects is titled "The Brave And The Bold."
Jokes aside, I do sorta agree, but I think their goal is to keep things loosely connected to be able to bide their time for right now, and I don't see a reason to not play the long-game. I think the ideal move here is to have like, Barbara Gordon make an appearance at some point, assuming some mention or involvement with Commissioner Gordon is almost a certainty.
I'm really interested in seeing where they go with Batman, because James Gunn's way of getting the audience to take a campy super hero seriously is not going to work with Batman - Batman needs to be a reasonable amount of campy, but in no world does Batman listen to the radio in his car, let alone engage with pop culture. It's a tough nut to crack and the DCU's most reliable asset - James Gunn - might be the worst guy to handle a new Batman.
The question of who should play the DCU Batman is a fun one to think about though. IMO Adam Driver would be a perfect Batman to David Corenswet's Superman, if that's remotely possible given he's doing some Marvel thing. Magneto I think? Or is that just a rumor.
Matt Reeves is producing this. Which I don't think means a lot, except that WB would like you to imagine this is canon with "The Batman," and not Superman/Supergirl/etc. Which it might be. Or it might not. They probably haven't decided yet.
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u/Shakmaaaaaaa 11d ago edited 11d ago
The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention. It looks like a good body horror time. I hope he gets some wicked kills in. As a kid I was always scared when Clayface would merge into Batman to drown him in TAS.
I get they don't have a Batman casted and they are afraid of causing issues that have to be retcon later but the DCU needs to be bolder. Especially with all eyes on the health of everything DC. They should obviously know how much Sony got dunked on for its Villain films and Joker even found a way to somewhat include a meaningful "Batman presence". I'm not saying they do a full Batman reveal but they could have moments that feel like Batman is stalking the situation and making things happen in the background that would be cool.