Superhero movies could learn from their TV counterparts

With Justice League’s tepid reception at the box office, we wonder what the problem might be with DC Entertainment’s biggest properties translating to the big screen.

Looking back over the last handful of decades we see that there have always been superheroes on television with a smattering of high budget films sprinkled here and there. Lately, though, it seems like the big movies can’t hold a candle to their small screen counterparts and it leads us to wonder how to fix that issue. The solution, it seems, lies in the story.

Adam West brought the Bright Knight to life in the 1960’s campy Batman television series. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher rose to fame in the 1990’s Lois and Clark series. We’ve seen Superman’s younger years brought to life on Smallville and we’re presently watching the rise of the Baby Bat on Gotham.

Without question, one of the most successful iterations of Batman has been on Tim Burton’s masterpiece Batman: The Animated Series. Debuting in 1992, this cartoon made for children had just as much to offer adults viewing it, and even 25 years later the series has withstood the test of time by giving us several spinoff movies and shows. Kevin Conroy is still voicing Batman and Bruce Wayne to this day. It was on Batman: The Animated Series that we saw Dick Grayson’s transition from Robin to Nightwing, and Batgirl figured prominently into the story and subsequent animated features. And we can’t forget the villains. B:TAS gave us Joker as voiced by Mark Hamill, and it’s here that Harley Quinn made her debut.

With so many successful versions of the stories we all know so well, why is it that the most recent Batman and Superman movies have done so poorly? (By poorly I’m referring specifically to not meeting domestic box office expectations; they have performed well overseas and that has made the difference in the final earnings tallies)

I watched Burton’s Batman in theaters as a 9 year old in 1989. I could follow the story and understood what was happening. Some of the dark humor didn’t manifest for me until I was older, but it didn’t matter. That’s what made the movie appealing to young and old alive. But unlike the current run of films, Batman wasn’t dependent on big explosions or battles. There was a story to be told.

The same can be said of the Christopher Reeves Superman films. (At least the first 2.5, anyway) The story is what makes the stories so compelling. There were fight scenes, surely (“Kneel before Zod,” anyone?”) but it wasn’t all about the big explosions and battles.

In a lot of ways, it feels like the studios believe that audiences are looking for the biggest battles and most amazing effects. Marvel is just as guilty of this as Warner Bros after Avengers: Age of Ultron. Wonder Woman was amazingly refreshing because it was set in World War I and gave us the perfect blend of action and story. If the box office totals for Wonder Woman are any indication, the Patty Jenkins film was exactly what audiences wanted. No offense to Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon, who have collectively worked on both Marvel and DC movies, but perhaps the recipe needs to be tweaked a bit.

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I’m not saying that Justice League is a bad movie. It’s entertaining, and it gives fans the vision of the Justice League we have been waiting for. But perhaps the reception would have been warmer with a more developed story rather than extended fight scenes and extraneous explosions for the sake of showing that one studio can do it better than the other. The movie studios should pay attention to how superhero stories have developed on television and capitalize on telling great stories first and foremost.

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