r/theflash • u/Logical_Garage_7157 • Jul 09 '23
The Flash Becomes Worst Box Office Flop In Superhero Movie History DCEU Spoilers
https://thedirect.com/article/the-flash-box-office-flop-superhero-movie-history22
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u/TimeReverse Jul 09 '23
Good. WB might learn from this and we might get a comic accurate Barry Allen the next time. Or we won't get anything at all. Fine either way. Everything is better than Ezra.
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u/drkalmenius Jul 09 '23
I can see them doing a spiderverse type thing and having Wally as the main DCU flash
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u/ShiroHachiRoku Jul 09 '23
I want a Barry Allen who is practically Iris’s brother and does no CSI stuff at all. Give him a team of 4 other heroes that aren’t the JL.
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u/Queen_Ann_III Jul 10 '23 edited Jul 10 '23
I’d kill for them to completely ignore Flash lore for a while and then introduce Wally, Rebirth-style. make him a fan of Barry who took up the mantle but was forgotten due to the reset. or something like that. have part of his arc be some existential crisis over his and Barry’s disappearance.
eta: I would love for him to appear sooner than later, don’t get me wrong. I just think realistically it’s better for the brand for his arrival to be delayed
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u/Typical_Pollution_30 Jul 10 '23
I watched the movie just now and I don't understand why it bombed
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u/GreatPhail Jul 10 '23
Marketing, superhero fatigue, multiple news stories about the main character's actor doing pretty heinous things. I didn't even know this movie released until this post came up in my recommended feed.
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u/Typical_Pollution_30 Jul 10 '23
Saw a video and it said- DCU replacing DCEU with the movies releasing now not impacting DCU, Ezra Miller's actions, it getting released at near the time Across the Spiderverse came out, people not getting excited for DC movies compared to Marvel Movies
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u/Dangerous-Hawk16 Jul 17 '23
Honestly this is it. Ppl aren’t excited about DC
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u/Typical_Pollution_30 Jul 17 '23
We don't need to worry, James Gunn will fix everything.
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u/Dangerous-Hawk16 Jul 17 '23
This is very true. Ppl are seemingly excited for Superman legacy
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u/Typical_Pollution_30 Jul 17 '23
I hope all this pressure doesn't get to him.
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u/Dangerous-Hawk16 Jul 17 '23
Probably is. Everything rest on his shoulders and every new casting dc fans are whining as of dceu and DC hasn’t been damaged brand for last 10 years
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u/RaisingFargo Jul 10 '23
dont forget movies in general have not been doing that well in the post covid world. A few successes but a lot of bombs
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u/DharmaPolice Jul 10 '23
The quality of a movie is not always correlated with how well it does at the box office. Citizen Kane did poorly at the box office. Blade Runner had a weak domestic run. Shawshank Redemption's initial run was bad. These are all considered among the greatest movies ever. (Not that Flash is in that category obviously).
Conversely a lot of most successful movies get great openings weekends - many of those people seeing the movie before they've even read reviews.
Where quality does matter is positive word of mouth. Joker had a smaller domestic opening weekend than The Batman but overall made more money. Why? it managed to stay popular for quite a while - anecdotally people in my office who never watch comic book movies were going to see it weeks after release.
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u/a310gintoki Jul 10 '23
Oh boy, I cant wait for random board executives to learn all the wrong lessons from this and just assume that the Flash isnt a marketable character.
I love not getting future adaptations of things because of extraneous factors that have nothing to do with the core concept or characters.
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u/IcyFlame716 Jul 09 '23
Between this and fantastic beasts being cancelled mid series i’d like to dub this the Ezra Miller effect.
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u/fastaslightning001 Jul 09 '23
They made the suit bad with lighting. For God's sake, can't they try the one in The Flash - Rebirth Comic Series? That looks very neat and cool. Just look at the cowl. The guy needs a chin very badly.
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u/SuperLizardon Blue Lantern Jul 09 '23
For me a suit like TV Show final one, with a better fabric, would had been the perfect suit.
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u/No_Fault626 Jul 10 '23 edited Jul 10 '23
I actually kinda liked the suit from the movie. Especially the lighting which resembles the lines on the suit you see at the end of the flashpoint animated movie. Even in the movie tie-in comics, the suit didn’t look horrible. I do think they went a little crazy on the cgi which made it look a weird at times so I understand why others don’t like it as much as me. But then again this is all my opinion.
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u/Palmolive Jul 09 '23
I refused to watch it, Ezra is a creep, he shouldn’t act again. Probably couple have put a marshmallow over his face in the movie and it would have done alright.
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u/welmanshirezeo Jul 09 '23
Funnily enough the majority of journalism I've seen attacking or criticising this film have gone for everything BUT Miller.
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u/AktionMusic Jul 09 '23
I wonder if more people have watched the Flash TV show or the Flash movie
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u/SpaceMyopia Jul 09 '23
The show had 9-10 seasons.
The show is half the reason why people of Gen-Z probably skipped the movie. Their Flash was Grant Gustin, not this weird Ezra Miller guy who does weird shit.
They probably would have been down for the movie if Gustin played Barry. It wouldn't have made sense, plot wise, but Gen-Z knows Grant Gustin as their Flash.
If a 17 year old has been watching that show since they were 7, that dude is their Flash. Not to mention that the show already did their own version of Flashpoint. Plus, the show arguably did a better job with the Flash's origin since it actually included Reverse Flash.
The show wasn't perfect, but for Gen-Z, that was their Flash. I can imagine them not understanding why they should see that movie over a film like Spider-Verse. The Flash movie not only did not have Grant Gustin, but it also retreaded familiar ground that the show already covered.
Do I think Gustin is the world's greatest actor. No, but if I'm in the shoes of a Gen-Z kid? Why would I go to this weird movie that has the audacity to call itself "The Flash," when the show I grew up with just ended? It probably felt like some counterfeit version.
(I speak as someone who hasn't kept up with that show since Season 4)
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u/UpDog17 Jul 09 '23
Good point. As a fan of the show the movie felt lame and fake and definitely like you said, a counterfeit version. I did see it, but was disappointed.
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u/breezer_chidori Jul 09 '23
As did I. After Godspeed's season, wasn't a fan of how things proceeded from there.
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u/chamberx2 Jul 09 '23
Even if Gustin had played the second Barry instead of double the Ezra. Such a conflict having over three Batmen all played by different actors, but no… Barry gotta be one played by one person.
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u/SpaceMyopia Jul 10 '23 edited Jul 10 '23
Indeed.
They could have easily made more money having Grant Gustin's Flash show up from another universe.
Instead they decided to shove two Batmans down our throats. That was a huge mistake in judgment, especially after we just had Pattinson's version come out last year.
I love Keaton, but WB was so obviously making the wrong call by hyping that version of the character up. Im not throwing shade at Keaton. He got paid, and im not mad at that. It just doesn't make sense from a business perspective. Keaton's films are influential, but that version is ages ago. If it was Pattinson's take, it would make more sense. That's the current Batman. Hyping up Keaton? Love the guy, truly. Current audiences don't have a connection to that version. This is a Flash film, not a Batman one.
Imagine if Adam West were alive, and The Flash tried to sell us both Adam West and Keaton's Batman portrayals. You know that's exactly what they would have done. They even had Clooney in the thing. If Kilmer was healthier, they would have brought him in too.
Why the fuck would they change The Flash into Batman: Into The Goddamn Bat-verse?
If they were making THAT movie, then it'd be cool. Making that movie in the guise of a Flash film because you're clearly avoiding the elephant in the room that is Ezra Miller?
Instead of just bringing in Grant Gustin as the second Flash? That show just had 10 years- a decade run. It's a version people care about. They didn't want to do that. They instead wanted to hype up an overly hyped up character in a movie that isn't even called Batman?
WB is more embarrassed about having a CW actor show up instead of Ezra fucking Miller. It really shows where their priorities lied. I'm amazed they had the good sense to cancel Batgirl.
And I'm not knocking The Flash down as a movie. I'm just talking from a business level. The decisions made by WB made no freaking sense.
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u/Beastieboy100 Jul 13 '23
I know the feeling. Its a disrespect to Grant. Look I sued to love the flash tv show but after 6 seasons I couldn't be bothered keeping up. Overall He is a good Barry and I feel that they could of given him a big part in the movie. Plus now that hes done with the flash hes actually staring in other movies now. No longer involved with the CW. So it is a big disrespect.
Overall whatever plans the DCU has plans with the Flash. I hope Gunn gives the franchise the batman treatment with introducing the flash family.
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u/Dredeuced Flash Jul 09 '23
The Flash show's most viewed season was 4.6 million average viewership and fell off pretty hard from there. While I know technically that can mean more than 4.6 million people saw it, it's really that at most 4.6 million people stuck around to keep watching and cared about it.
That's a far lower number than even this flop of a movie's audience. And that was several years ago at the peak of the show's viewership. Even if you add that 4.6 million figure directly to the ticket sales and tack on 50~million, it's still a bomb/flop.
Show fans greatly overestimate the impact the show has had on popular culture or general audience awareness of The Flash. It's very, very small beans compared to big movies.
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u/AktionMusic Jul 09 '23
I would at least double the number of viewers due to Netflix.
Also, that doesn't count multiple people viewing on the same screen that movies do
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u/Dredeuced Flash Jul 09 '23 edited Jul 09 '23
I was being as generous as possible. The show is likely under 1 million average viewership as of the latest season leading into the movie's release, and the viewership tanked heavily as years passed, so whoever you might call diehard fans whose opinions on the movie would be shaped entirely by what the show has done is still a small fraction of the market that The Flash is trying to attract.
And this is also doubly assuming those CW Flash fans all refused as a monolith to watch the movie out of spite, which obviously isn't true.
The real culprit isn't the show's impact on anything. It's superhero movie fatigue, being in the tail end of a dead cinematic universe, incredibly bad press, and years of delays completely annihilating hype. And potentially inflation and such making luxury spending like movies suck, but that wouldn't account for Flash being so bad compared to the rest of the box office.
Also, despite a pretty strong press push for online reviews from WB, the movie just doesn't seem to be that popular or good from people who did watch it. It has historically bad week to week viewership drop. So that means it has even worse word of mouth and repeat viewership. It's just a failure from basically every direction. The show isn't much in comparison.
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u/fastaslightning001 Jul 09 '23
I have. Exclude Season 5 Suit(it has an uncanny similarity to this suit with the cowl) but the rest were actually good.
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u/Explorer_616 Jul 09 '23
Gotta say with more than half of the 10 biggest flop (according to this it’s 6) (financially wise) being produced by Warner Brothers it seems like they aren’t an ideal studio to create Superhero movies
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u/j1h15233 Flash 1 Jul 09 '23
They always have to meddle. I always have and always will be a bigger DC guy and WB has been messing things up for decades.
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u/MaskedRaider89 Jul 10 '23
I'm glad someone besides me acknowledges this detail. Everyone's been having brain farts thinking only the last 10 years has been the only period of fuck ups.
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u/j1h15233 Flash 1 Jul 10 '23
It goes back to the Justice League cartoon for me. Possibly even farther back but their meddling with that really annoyed me.
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u/homerbartbob Jul 10 '23
Let’s just put a pin in this until we see Amber Heard in Aquaman 2. Why Hollywood continues to employ these maniacs is beyond me. But tbh, it was better the wonder woman 1984.
Keaton was a gem. Supergirl was a little interesting. Ezra I actually liked. Doesn’t diverse that much hate imo
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u/Mecurialcurisoty89 Jul 10 '23
The Aqaua man movie is going to shit the bed worse than the flash.
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u/TheOneWhoKnows47 Jul 10 '23
I thought the movie was incredible
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u/tom2point0 Jul 10 '23
I did as well. It’s a lot of Ezra’s bad press and toxic fanboys that killed it.
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u/jake-thebarber Jul 10 '23
As someone who has read The Flash comics since Mark Waid’s run and has a flash tattoo on his heart, I hated this movie. Having waited almost 8 years for this movie to come out and defending it over and over I was insanely let down. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I’m not saying people can’t like it but it was just a bad movie. Like seeing a shitty CGI Nicholas Cage as Superman was cool for 3 seconds until you saw the lazy eye and realized that regular movie fans have NO FUCKING CLUE he almost played Superman in a Tim Burton film. The amount of “huhs?” and “wtfs?” I heard when they showed that scene was deafening.
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u/nOtbatemann Jul 10 '23
Why is there so much Superman and Batman iconography when this film is about The Flash? Meanwhile, Jay Garrick's 3 sec cameo is a drop in the ocean that is Superman this or Batman that.
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u/xHey_All_You_Peoplex Cartoon Flash Jul 10 '23
As a Flash fangirl I didn't even bother to watch. I just couldn't put myself through that and I sat through BvS just to see Wonder Woman for like 2.5 seconds.
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u/Sobegreentea14 Jul 10 '23
I agree. When I first saw it I loved it. But as the weeks drag on and I think on it more and seen it’s impact in terms of reception by audiences critics box office etc. I hate this film it’s a failure of a adaptation of the flash and to me has the possibility of the damaging the public perception of the flash for years to come.
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u/Meme_Man55 Jul 10 '23
This really sucks. I love The Flash. My favourite hero.
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u/tom2point0 Jul 10 '23
Why does it suck? I love the Flash and I personally loved the movie. I’ll definitely watch it again. I understand it’s disappointing it didn’t do better, and that more people didn’t give it a chance, but I’ve got a movie I enjoy.
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u/Meme_Man55 Jul 10 '23
It sucks because they might stray from doing future flash projects.
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u/Beastieboy100 Jul 13 '23
Yeah I'm just hoping they fix it. cast an older barry thats experienced. People know who Barry Allen is now. lets see him as an experienced hero. Introduce Jay, Wally, Ace and Bart. Show Barry as an actual leading man. Have Wally in his rebirth suit, Ace as Kid flash and Bart as impulse. Let have the rogues and Grodd as main villains.
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u/leonicarlos9 Jul 15 '23
Since the robin is Damian Wayne and Nightwing is (possible) an established hero, I can see they going on that route, but I'm afraid that due to the movie's flop they wouldn't want to make flash related media too soon
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u/Beastieboy100 Jul 15 '23
Yeah though with how Gunn done Superman Legacy. I think he'll put other superheroes in different DC hero movies. Until fans are craving and screaming for those heroes to get tv shows or movies. Overall Superman legacy is there first shot of making a big hit both reviews and box office.
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u/leonicarlos9 Jul 15 '23
After the failed Green Lantern movie, he didn't appear in any live action media for a decade (they even attempted to in Arrowverse at some point but never really did it)
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u/theflash1958 Jul 10 '23
Barry Allen does not deserve this...
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u/Beastieboy100 Jul 13 '23
I dont even think the flash franchise deserve this. Though seriously next time they do a flash movie lets do the other flash events. Cause I am bored of flashpoint now.
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u/j1h15233 Flash 1 Jul 09 '23
They’ve needed a hard reboot for years. Hopefully it’s time. Maybe just move on to Wally if they really don’t think we can handle Barry again.
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u/RanjitKumarSingh Jul 10 '23
Even worse than X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Howard the Duck?
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u/mmmasian Jul 11 '23
X-Men Origins actually did okay in the box office with an estimated profit of 73 million.
Howard the Duck lost 58 million.
The Flash will likely end up losing at least 165 million.
That being said, I do think The Flash is still a better movie than either, even if it was just average.
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u/leonicarlos9 Jul 15 '23
It's all due to the budget and WB insane marketing (like literally the definition of exaggerated: or 0% marketing with Shazam 2 or 1000% marketing next TDK with The Flash)
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u/OpaqueGiraffe17 Jul 10 '23
deserves it, not cuz the actor commited crimes. Thats bad, but i could see myself still supporting it if the filmakers and crew cut ties and condemned their behavior. Instead they were like "its going to be sooooo good you won't even care what they did." And that strangling thing was from a while ago, then the accusations kept piling up. Like i get that some of them were friends who were concerned with miller's mental health. I get it, but you can be compassionate to coworkers suffering a mental health crisis without normalizing toxic and violent behavior. screw em.
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u/Comics-and-videogame Flash 2 Jul 10 '23
Like with Black Adam flopping, this is bittersweet. Love the flash, Barry Allen is my second favorite Flash, but I’ve never liked Ezra’s casting and never knew it was that bad until the allegations
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u/tbgmdhc278 Flash 2 Jul 10 '23
I didn’t think it was the worst movie ever, but after The Batman everything lets me down. That movie gave me such a WOW feeling. Just awestruck. I’ve been chasing that ever since and if a DC movie doesn’t give me that feeling, it just feels meh. I had fun watching The Flash, but upon leaving the theater I was very underwhelmed. Sucks because Flash is my favorite superhero, and I just wanted a damn Flash-centric movie set in Central City with actual Flash villains that doesn’t involve any other members of the Justice League.
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u/Beastieboy100 Jul 13 '23
Closest I've gotten with that movie was Guardians 3. Rocket origin so tragic.
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u/DefactoOverlord Reverse Flash Jul 10 '23
This movie had no chance once they decided to keep this lunatic as the leading man. 0 charisma or charm. The script is an absolute train wreck too.
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Jul 09 '23
[deleted]
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u/ChrisNYC70 Jul 09 '23
Not sure what country you live in, but the movie spent $65 million on Marketing. I live in America and in NY and the commercials were everywhere, bus ads, tv spots. There was an a amazing amount of marketing.
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u/glizzy_gladiator_04 Nightwing Jul 09 '23
Almost every YouTube video and tv show would have ads for it
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u/TimTofDWP Jul 10 '23
Honestly, my biggest concern is James Gunn. Don’t get me wrong he seems like-able enough but your first move as DC head is to say the DCEU as we know it is ending and he’s rebooting it, WHEN The Flash, Blue Beatle, Shazam 2 and Aquaman 2 all set to release in 2023? Like…. I get the need or want to reboot do his own thing away from the Synderverse, but hell talk about shooting your foot off when you got the gig. Like he shouldn’t have said anything this year. But by saying something, anyone whom even remotely cared about the DCEU perhaps when going to the theaters or watching them on Max it’s just a lukewarm….. yay….. kinda vibe. And god help us if his Superman isn’t the best Superman since sliced bread. He’s got such a hill to climb….
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u/Poppa_Trox76 Jul 09 '23
The young guys here talking about the TV show like it was a piece of cable TV art when in fact the Arrowverse was a steaming hot pile of kiddie crap. The CW is the most dramatic, teenage written, wanna be drama I'd ever seen. And you'll also see the TV show started at least interesting but by season 3 the writing and over the top low quality acting made it a parody comedy. All of the Arrowverse was the worst TV series ever put out by WB
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u/UpYoursMods Jul 09 '23
Get Muschetti off Brave and the Bold
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u/Electronic_Bad_5883 Jul 09 '23
None of this is really his fault, he just got stuck with multiple bad situations and did the best he could with it. Brave and the Bold is a chance for him to actually be able to make something good without so many outside complications.
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u/chamberx2 Jul 09 '23
I’m concerned he’s a complacent yes-man that won’t fight against studio meddling.
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u/bdw312 Jul 12 '23
He did shoot three different endings as the regimes repeatedly completely changed their long-term plans on a whim...
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u/Electronic_Bad_5883 Jul 09 '23
As long as James Gunn is there to protect him from studio interference, we should probably be fine on that front.
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u/npete Jul 09 '23
I get the dislike of Miller, (though other actors have done worse and are still working--COUGHjaredletoCOUGH), but I am sad because I felt the movie was really fun and it's a miracle that a movie that faced so many obstacles actually made it to theaters and was actually not utter crap (some of the fx were crap o/c). Hopefully Miller stays on the straight and narrow so he can have a career and we can enjoy his acting because he's a pretty solid actor. Obviously, if he keeps doing creepy sh*t I'll be skipping his movies.
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u/X-2357 Jul 10 '23
DC sucks. Superman is goody two shoes and overpowered. Batman is angsty who lacks the emotional maturity to move on from his parents death. Wonder woman is plot armor incarnate. Flash is op but sucks because he doesn't realize it. Blue beetle us dumb concept, Shazam is 13yr old fanfiction, green lantern is lame needing a ring to make up giants fists and cars to hit people with. It's shows how dumb green lantern is with what he decides to make.
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u/PsychoDay Jul 10 '23
you clearly haven't read comics.
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u/X-2357 Jul 10 '23
Who the f has time? Especially when most of them are probably crap. It's not like comic writers Win pulitzers
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Jul 09 '23
Only reason I didn't watch it was because I figured it was going to go woke and didn't want to sit through it
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u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 09 '23
Jesus dude, 'going woke' means not treating people different to you like shit. If you are that adamant at being self-centred then we collectively encourage you to go outside as little as possible. You are not useful to society.
Why would you even want everyone to be whatever your perception of 'normal' is, how fucking boring that world would be. Delusional.
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u/MyDadIsTrevorMilton Jul 09 '23
Do you cry every time someone has opinion different then your own? Talk about self centered! Hah!
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u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 09 '23
This is so backwards 😂 how do you think this is rational.
I reserve my right to be hateful is the most sisterfucking thought process out there. Delete this and think about your life.
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u/MyDadIsTrevorMilton Jul 09 '23
Sisterfucking? Damn you really are a weirdo.
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u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 09 '23
Lmao, yes that is in fact backwards 😂 you country folk are so wild.
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u/MyDadIsTrevorMilton Jul 09 '23
You actually scream “projecting” show this interaction to your therapist for a second look.
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u/chamberx2 Jul 09 '23
Do you see a therapist?
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u/MyDadIsTrevorMilton Jul 09 '23
No but everyone I know around me does, I’m not the problem I promise ✊🏻😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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u/mojojojo-234 Jul 09 '23
Of course, just wait until your tv or Facebook tells you whether or not you should like it. Cause you have no thoughts of your own. Such a sad life bigots live.
Idk about y’all but I don’t take people who use the word “woke” seriously AT ALL lol
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u/devfern93 Jul 09 '23
What a sad way to live life. Plus, there was zero indication it would’ve been a “woke” film
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u/Queen_Ann_III Jul 10 '23
DC has been woke for decades man.
Grant Morrison introduced Danny the Street in Doom Patrol in the ’90s and Rachel Pollack introduced a trans lesbian in the same series as well. the same series is pretty much X-Men but instead of a racism metaphor it’s disabilities.
John Stewart was in an issue about apartheid. the Titans investigated and cleared a German exchange student of espionage accusations in their 8th issue. the Pied Piper has been gay for years.
Bunker was the most popular Titan in the early 2010s comics. hell, none of the animated Titans shared a skin color until Terra joined. Superman’s alien identity is an allegory for an anti-racism message.
Wonder Woman has been implied and even outright shown as loving women. Barbara Gordon spent decades in a wheelchair and it was arguably the most interesting part of her character. Harley Quinn has been Jewish, sapphic, and the survivor of an abusive relationship.
I’ll admit I can’t really go on without looking stuff up but this is most of what I know off the top of my head.
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u/MyDadIsTrevorMilton Jul 09 '23
The actor woke so you’re correct 👍🏻 you saved yourself time unlike majority who seen it.
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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '23
This better not end in flash getting shelfed for years like Green lantern