Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)

I’ve been feeling very hesitant about this whole Dawn of Justice thing. I mean, I’ve expressed my reservations before, but I guess my fantasy is what if it doesn’t even happen? I know that seems wildly implausible, yet it’s like the Wonder Woman movie. You know, they tap Joss Whedon to work on it. They even put out a movie poster with an image of Wonder Woman’s silhouette in theaters. The thing is they hadn’t even settled on a script at the time the poster came out. The marketing had kicked into high gear before the movie was even being made.

See, my gripes about jumping head first into a Justice League movie instead of making a solid three Superman films not withstanding, that Aquaman poster is pretty hardcore. If you’re going to start a marketing campaign with an image of Aquaman with the words ‘UNITE THE SEVEN’ plastered on it, shouldn’t it be immediately followed up with another poster reveal every week for the next two months or something like that? Like shouldn’t a poster like that be the start of a whole barrage of images to get you psyched for this movie?

But see, I’m not even convinced that they’ve cast the other JL members yet besides Wonder Woman. Because no one seems to be getting them into costume, slapping them onto a poster, and printing that. Right? Shouldn’t six other posters of cast members with messages like ‘JUSTICE BEGINS’ or ‘STAND TOGETHER’ or something like that logically follow? It feels like it’s the start of an aggressive marketing campaign before they actually have enough of the movie fleshed out to do an aggressive marketing campaign.

I feel like this poster coming out, nearly a year before the movie is released, might be an unsettling foreshadowing of what is going on with this movie. My fear is that there’s a good idea here (maybe) and a bunch of people have been tapped to work on it and some people have even been cast. But it isn’t really coming together into something solid. Granted, it’s not real hard to dream up the scenario that the movie will revolve around. Probably something about Batman and Superman at odds and then finally settling into an alliance with each other that will shape the Justice League.

I just feel like this movie has been in development for a long time here. Shouldn’t we know something? Some rumors or something about the exact details about the plot? Look at Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. You’ve known this movie has been in the making for a year and the rumors have been circulating like crazy. Because there are people that are visitng the set. The movie started what, last year? And now it’s been released at the end of this year. This is probably just in my head but I just feel like Dawn of Justice has been in development just as long as Avengers: Age of Ultron has. But there’s far, far less to show for it other than an Aquaman poster.

I mean, this is probably just all in my head. They’re probably just taking their time in order to make sure this goes well. And despite all my griping I think there is an opportunity here to really do something cool with the DC universe, to make it feel like a ‘place’ where all of their characters co-exist (not an easy trick to pull off). But my fear is, they’ve gotten some people together, they’ve even gotten one of them in a costume and taken some photos, but there isn’t a lot of clear direction for this film. They’re probably shooting right now and I should be eating my words. It just all seems kind of vague to me. Does anyone else feel that way?