Time Warner’s CEO Talks A Little Smack About Marvel’s Movies

I freely admit that I’m more than a little annoyed about the smack-talk regarding upcoming DC movies, largely because most of the people talking said smack are going to be there opening night. That said, this is something of a two-way street, so I’m equally annoyed at Time Warner’s CEO, Kevin Tsujihara.

During a conference call, he said this, according to Indiewire:

“The worlds of DC are very different. They’re steeped in realism, and they’re a little bit edgier than Marvel’s movies,”

Look, I’ll happily defend Man of Steel as a well-done Superman movie, bar a few missteps like recapping the plot every act for people who were out taking a dump, and the fact that Zack Snyder couldn’t resist sticking Jesus over Superman’s shoulder. But edgier? Than what? A pillow?

One of the fundamental problems I have with both universes is that by and large they’re happy being “product.” That’s not to knock having fun at the movies; there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s not like I don’t own and watch these movies on a regular basis, but you put out The Dark Knight, and it was a bombastic action movie that actually had a lot to say about surveillance, terrorism, and the fundamental mistrust between Americans after the events of 2001. Man of Steel did not continue this trend, and I’m not really expecting to see that change in the future. There’s too much money at stake to risk offending anyone.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the DC Cinematic Universe will take a slightly more serious tone. But I wouldn’t call it “steeped in realism” when you’ve got a flying space alien, a ruler of an underwater kingdom, an Amazon, a cyborg, and a teenager who can run at Mach 3 all on the docket. Besides, if you want to talk smack, you could always just bring up One More Day.

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