2016 didn't wind up being the year that infused copious amounts of hope for the future of movies based on DC Comics, like many thought it would be. Both Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were divisive at best, even though they were among the highest-grossing movies of the year. Still, in order for the DC Extended Universe to survive long-term, the quality of the movies will have to improve. Unfortunately, it is starting to seem like Wonder Woman won't be that movie.
On a recent episode of the Schmoes Know show, it was revealed that Wonder Woman may be a big mess. According to host Sasha Perl-Raver, someone with insider info has seen the movie, or at least a decent chunk of the movie, and claims that it is "discombobulated" and not the great movie the trailers have led fans to believe it might be. Here is what was said by Sasha Perl-Raver on the Schmoes Know show.
"So, I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. We have somebody within our community who has gotten insider information that broke my effing heart this week, because I have tremendous belief that Wonder Woman is gonna be awesome and I heard it stinks from the same person who told me that they heard that BvS stinks...The person who I spoke to...their response was 'I'm very disappointed in what I saw, and it seems like all the problems are the same problems. It's discombobulated, it doesn't have narrative flow. It's just very disjointed."
Pretty much all of the movies that have come out in the DCEU so far have had very lofty expectations placed on them for a variety of reasons, but Wonder Woman really may take the cake. Not only is it having to shoulder the responsibility of course correcting thanks to the lukewarm reception to both Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, but it is also the first female-led superhero movie of the modern era. Not only that, but Wonder Woman has never had a live-action movie, so there is a lot this movie needs to accomplish in order to satisfy fans. Sadly, if these statements are even half true, it looks like this first Wonder Woman movie may not be what everyone was hoping for.
Despite getting trashed by critics and really dividing moviegoers, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice still made $873 million at the box office. Many felt the movie should have easily sailed past the $1 billion mark and had it been more universally well-liked, maybe that would have been the case. Since that movie didn't hit in the way the folks at Warner Bros. were hoping it would, Suicide Squad had to try and fix things that it never really should have. Again, the movie was incredibly divisive and critics mostly didn't like it, but it still made $745 million worldwide. So, even if Wonder Woman meets the same fate in terms of perceived quality, it may very well still be able to make bank. But one can't help but wonder how long Warner Bros. can sustain that kind of success without more positive reception. Granted, there are very aggressive defenders of the DCEU, but for these movies to really succeed, the general public has to be behind them.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was one of the most positively received elements of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which gave fans even more hope that her first solo movie would be great. And yes, is tough to judge a movie solely by a couple of trailers, especially in the case of the DCEU so far, but the response to both of the Wonder Woman trailers we have seen so far by the movie community and fans has been overwhelmingly positive, which has helped set expectations for the movie very high. As they probably should be, but now we may have to temper them a bit.
There have also been recent reports that Zack Snyder's Justice League is a "mess," so fans may want to start tempering expectations now. Granted, these are unconfirmed reports and are based on word of mouth, so it also could wind up being untrue and both Wonder Woman and Justice League are every bit as good as fans hope they will be. We'll have to wait and see what director Patty Jenkins was able to do with Wonder Woman when it hits theaters on June 23. There is no telling how it will affect Justice League, which is set to arrive on November 17, if Wonder Woman is a mess, but it will surely complicate things even more for the DCEU moving forward. You can check out the clip from the Schmoes Know show for yourself below at about the 1:41:30 mark.
