The DCU seems to be on an upswing with the summer’s slated movie releases. James Gunn himself has declared The Flash one of the best superhero movies he has ever seen, and Blue Beetle surpassed its DC brethren’s likes in a matter of days. With all the good in the future of DC it seems only pertinent to take a look back at how far the superhero genre has come in the last 20 years. Halle Berry’s Razzie award winning flick Catwoman has made its way back to streaming and the film has transcended its initial reputation and evolved into a piece of campy comic history, just like Adam West’s Batman. At just under a 10% Rotten Tomatoes Freshness rating, the 2004 action adventure is the purr-fect fit for a movie night with friends.
Blue Beetle is blowing up on the web, but some fans aren’t keen to join the hype train
The trailer for Blue Beetle dropped this week and the short preview immediately generated a plethora of conversations across the web. The buzz around the movie has almost completely washed away hype generated for Warner Bros.’ upcoming The Flash from plenty of fans’ minds. In less than 48 hours, the Blue Beetle trailer had surpassed the total number of likes that took The Flash nearly two months to accumulate.
Warner Bros. has come under fire recently for their lackluster marketing for the current run of DC films, with some fans assuming the minimal marketing for The Flash stems from the studio’s lack of monetary backing. Buying up a Superbowl time slot is no small expense, so maybe fans should look to the several years of negative press surrounding The Flash star Ezra Miller to help explain the studios hesitancy to plaster the convicted star across promotions.
Fans were quick to point out that likes don’t mean ticket sales in the long run however, and not everyone is convinced that Blue Beetle’s social media presence means the movie will outperform its counterpart.
Continued argument over Blue Beetle proves internet hasn’t ruined our attention spans
After the Blue Beetle trailer’s release, plenty of Batman fans took to the internet to shake their fists at the clouds. Their main concern – George Lopez deigned to joke about Batman being a fascist.
The angry fans immediately began to hope for the film’s downfall and felt that Warner Brothers had lost all integrity. While some actually broke down their argument as to why the Snyder Batman is a fascist (he brands criminals, wreaks havoc in his pursuit of holding said criminals accountable, lives by his own rule of law, operates as a paramilitary organization) or why he is not (DC canon says he is more myth than man, as a non-government entity how can he be a fascist, and — depending on the iteration —Batman either doesn’t kill at all, or only kills criminals). No matter what side of the argument you land on there is one thing for certain, Batman is beyond labels at this point. Just because the Dark Knight exists in the plane between man and myth doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy George Lopez dunking on one of the most intimidating heroes of all time.
The whole ordeal has left some fans with a bad taste in their mouth and wondering how such an innocuous throwaway joke could cause such a schism in the fandom. Others, tired of the kerfuffle over nothing, just hoped for a new piece of DCEU information to make the trite conversation stop. It’s hard to disagree with the sentiment that in order to sustain an extended universe, the success of one franchise depends on the others. But if the new DCU is ever going to build a believable world, fans are going to have to embrace the occasional depreciating joke about their favorite supers.
After nearly 20 years, Halle Berry’s Catwoman is still a baffling superhero entry
In a turn of events that no one (well maybe some people) asked for, Catwoman has made its way to Netflix. The early-2000’s film was a tour de force of hot garbage. Starring Halle Berry as the eponymous leather clad Catwoman, the movie stunned audiences with its terrible writing and its (somehow) worse acting. Despite failing to make back its budget and holding an abysmal 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has somehow landed itself a cult following for its supreme level of camp. Halle Berry herself has opened up about her stint in the suit, saying that even at the time she knew something wasn’t quite right. While it’s fairly common now for actors to lend a little input to their characters, Berry got none of those perks back in 2004. She could only follow directions and act to the best of her abilities, though the passion is clearly not there. With rumors abound about a brand new Catwoman being introduced in the near future, maybe now is the time to catch up on the worst of the series in case the best is yet to come.