The Zack Snyder Superman reboot, Man of Steel, finally gave us the Superman film we deserved. With stylish graphics and a controversial ending, 2013's Man of Steel proved to be one of the most successful films that year, and one of the most successful super hero films of all time, also boasting the title of the second highest reboot ever. As we patiently wait for the forthcoming sequel, Batman vs. Superman, more and more news from the set leaks onto the internet and the movie sounds like it's moving in the direction of the Justice League but is it a little to soon?
In 2007, before the Amazing Spider-man Reboot, the original Spider-man trilogy ended it's run with Spider-man 3. The box office juggernaut was the highest selling movie of the trilogy and the highest grossing film for Sony/Columbia until Skyfall's release in 2012. Spider-man 3 was a largely popular film and end of Sam Rami's Spider-man Era, but it's still largely argued amongst fans as being the worst of the three films. In the end, it's down fall was ultimately led by the introduction of several villains, some that felt nearly unnecessary and crammed into the over the top action film, not to mention the now iconic evil Peter Parker dance sequence. The movie suffered from it's trio of antagonist, the new Green Goblin (Harry Osbourne played by James Franco played in the earlier films,) Flint Marko a.k.a. the Sandman and Venom infect both Peter and Eddie Brock, Peters rival journalist at the Daily Bugle. On paper, this sounds like a lot to juggle and unfortunately it was. Venom, a beloved comic book villain hardly got the screen time he deserved, basically being used as a fuel to set up Peter in this less than favorable and often laughable scenarios, Harry Osbourne is knocked unconscious early into the film and spends part of the movie in a amnesiac state until he later regains his memory and forces Mary Jane, who's relationship with Peter was strained by his change in behavior, to break up with Peter. The movie, while being financially successful, still received generally positive reviews but was ultimately held back from being a fantastic ending to a great franchise because of the introduction of too many villains.
It's no secret where DC wants to take the Super man film franchise and that leads to a potential problem. In Batman vs. Superman's case, we are being introduced to too many heroes. It was a shock when the sequel was announced featuring Ben Affleck as a re-cast Batman, after the finish of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy only two years ago, but the addition of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Ray Fisher as Cyborg leads a lot of fans to believe that DC is going to use the success of the Man of Steel to spring board their way to a Justice League movie in time for a the next Avengers sequel. The big difference is that Marvel has nearly a decade worth of films under their belt and Man of Steel was really the first major step towards building a strong DC presence after the lack luster Green Lantern film. With all of these additional characters, as well as Batman being in the title (which I'm sure will mean he will play a pivotal role) and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, we can only imagine just how influential the roles of Wonder Woman and Cyborg will be in the film. Will they be mere plot devices or secondary characters who will be stripped of their potential development?
The biggest potential threat however, comes from one soldier. The sequel to one of Marvels best reviewed and strongest franchises, Captain America 3, is set to open the same day as Batman vs. Superman. While this is still under dispute, I have no doubt in my mind both movies will make money, coming off of the record breaking debut that Captain America: The Winter Soldier had on April 4th, 2014, it's hard to imagine that the 3rd installment won't do equally as well if not even better. DC is playing a hard game and Marvel has been ahead of the curve for years now. The real question is, will the Man of Steel sequel receive the same praise as the first movie did or will it fall victim to the curse of too many characters?
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