The reviews are out for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and the highly anticipated superhero flick is getting slapped around like a purse snatcher who wanders into the Hall of Justice.
The Post’s Lou Lumenick branded it “bloated,” the New Republic deemed it a “joyless slog” and Time Out slammed it as “a $250 million tombstone for a genre in dire need of a break.”
Tell us how you really feel, fellas.
The poisonous word of mouth could prove particularly disastrous — and not just because of the aforementioned $250 million production budget. (The film, opening Thursday night, must reportedly rake in well over $1 billion at the box office just to break even.)
As years of pre-release hype have hammered into our brains, “Batman v Superman” is intended to be the launching pad for DC’s entire cinematic universe — a web of interconnected characters and stories designed to rival what Marvel has successfully done.
Back in 2014, studio Warner Bros., who controls the DC stable of heroes, announced an ambitious slate of 10 films all the way through 2020.
If all went according to plan, we’d get “The Flash” in 2018 and “Shazam” in 2019, for example.
And next year was meant to bring “Justice League Part One,” directed by Zack Snyder of “BvS” and starring Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Ben Affleck as Batman, among other spandexed heroes.
Unless you count 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” it’s hard to think of a movie in recent history with so much riding on it. Even Marvel’s inaugural film, 2008’s “Iron Man,” escaped similar pressures. Its failure would have been far less embarrassing, in part because, back then, there was no precedent for a cinematic superhero universe.
Now there is, and it’s earning billions for Marvel’s parent Disney, and you have to believe that WB executives wake up sweating every night wondering how to compete.
And now their (less than carefully laid) master plan could be in jeopardy. (“BvS” was reportedly hastily greenlit so the studio could have something to announce at 2013’s Comic Con.)
The question becomes, what now? It’s almost impossible to contemplate, considering how long “BvS” has been in the works and how much the studio has invested in it, but what if it’s a failure?
Oh, it’s going to pull in a lot of cash on its opening weekend. That’s not in doubt. But so did 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” and that movie was so reviled, it killed a planned franchise and forced its studio, Sony, to cut a deal to lend the character to rival Marvel Studios.
If “BvS” underperforms, WB will have a difficult choice to make.
Do they completely scrap the whole line of planned superhero films, reasoning that you can’t build a house on sand?
Next year’s solo “Wonder Woman,” which began filming last November, has apparently wrapped, so we’ll get that one in one form or another.
“Justice League” is reportedly prepped and set to start filming in April, so it seems unlikely that any major changes would be made at the eleventh hour.
But stranger things have happened in Hollywood.
The Internet was buzzing with rumors a few weeks back that the studio was unhappy with Snyder and that he was going to be removed from “Justice League.”
The reports seem to be unfounded, but that doesn’t mean that Snyder’s influence can’t still be downgraded in favor of different voices.
Think of it like George Lucas and the original “Star Wars” trilogy. He launched the thing, but then had the good sense to step back and let others take over. The resulting “The Empire Strikes Back,” written by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett and directed by Irvin Kershner, is considered by many to be the finest of the seven films.
Of course, WB could just put its head down and plow ahead, rolling out film after film as they planned back in 2014 and hope for the best. Considering the enormous cost of tent poles and the probable diminishing returns for each successive one (anyone in line for 2020’s “Cyborg” yet?), that strategy seems unthinkable.
Some sort of shift will no doubt have to be made. But what?
Do you start over from scratch with new actors and directors? It could be done, and the move might not be a death knell for the superhero universe. DC, unlike Marvel, allows multiple concurrent iterations of its characters in TV, film and beyond. The Flash who appears every week on The CW’s television show, for example, has no connection to the one who cameos in “BvS.”
So someone could just hit the “reset” button and audiences might let it slide.
Maybe that someone could be George Miller, the man behind “Mad Max.” He was weeks away from filming a “Justice League” movie back in 2008, when it was kiboshed for financial reasons.
Could he be brought back? Would he want to come back? If “BvS” doesn’t break even, someone should pick up the phone.