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Let’s not kid ourselves.  ‘Batman V Superman’ and ‘Suicide Squad’ were BIG hits.  Warner Brothers might have hoped that at least ‘BvS’ was going to break a billion dollars, which it didn’t, but both movies made hundreds of millions and were among the Top Ten highest grossing movies of 2016.

That said, neither were exactly beloved by fans or critics.  After ‘BvS’ was nearly universally panned, WB went into crisis mode and ordered millions of dollars worth of reshoots for ‘Suicide Squad’ and completely recut the movie… twice.  Their hope was that this film would come closer to the irreverent tone of 20th Century Fox’s smash ‘Deadpool’ which was completely embraced by fans.  (It worked.  In the end, ‘Suicide Squad’ out-grossed ‘Deadpool’ globally.)

Now ‘Aquaman’ screenwriter Will Beall now reveals that the DCEU is shifting away from the dark vibe of its earliest films toward a lighter, more fun direction.

Beall– who worked on an early, discarded draft for ‘Justice League’ — has been working closely with ‘Aquaman’ director James Wan to craft a film that will be much more of a crowd-pleaser.

Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock, Inc.
Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock, Inc.

“It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be really fun. What we’ve come up with and James especially — he has a really clear idea of the tone he’s going to have, and I think Aquaman is one that’s going to blow people’s minds, not just visually, but I think the story and the scope of it is really great.”

“I think Justice League again is, what you’re going to see — I hope I’m not going to get in trouble for saying this — but it’s much more fun, much poppier, than … I haven’t seen Wonder Woman yet, but Batman vs Superman was a little more somber. But Justice League is a lot more fun. And I think that feels to me like the direction those movies are heading now.”

Marvel Studios’ films have their critics, who dismiss them as being TOO light and family-friendly.  Some were hoping the DC movies would serve as a counter to that.  But maybe they went too far in the opposite direction.

‘Deadpool’ was rated R because of explicit violence (which was almost cartoonish in nature), vulgar language, sexual content and nudity, but the film overall was a comedy for adults.  The extended Blu-Ray cut of ‘Batman V Superman’, however, earned the strict rating based… pretty much on its bleakness and intensity.

What do you hope to see in upcoming DC movies?  Would you prefer they shift closer to what we see in Marvel’s movies?

Source: Collider