Is it time to End the Cinematic Universe?

This has been the one question that has been rattling around in my head for a while now (well the last couple of weeks mainly) since seeing Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice and not hating it as much as others have but the more I come to think about the film the more I just think that it's an absolute mess of a film script and direction wise.

But perhaps those problems are only symptoms of what could be a much larger problem for DC given that this film was to be the seed from which 2013's Man of Steel planted and with that would also come the much anticipated DC Cinematic Universe to rival Marvel Studios' MCU slate of films.

But things have not gone to plan as Dawn of Justice has been trashed all over by both critics and fans alike (the film suffered a 70% drop in attendance this last weekend and both of my cinemas have said the film has not done very well and in the case of my main cinema not having 1 person tell them they loved the film.)

But getting back on track to the question I pose in the title I think this has to be seriously considered for these three key reasons:

- First and foremost is the rush from studios be they Warner Brothers or Columbia Pictures or 20th Century Fox to create their own shared universe with the Superhero properties they own under their roof be it Spider-Man at Columbia or the X-Men and the Fantastic Four at 20th Century Fox and the DC slate of characters at Warner Brothers.

And almost all of them have since been revealed to be near complete and utter failures purely because they rushed in where the Angels at Marvel feared to tread and also Marvel under the leadership of Kevin Feige did the hard yards setting up their universe from 2008 to 2012 which included their own missteps along the way with the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 but those along with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America all culminated with the Avengers in 2012 which became a triumph all around.

Meanwhile, Columbia tried and failed with the Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014 to create their Spidey Universe and that became such a debacle for them that they had to go cap in hand to Marvel to get the show back on the road again, Fox suffered a humiliating blow with Fantastic Four last year which was meant to eventually crossover with the X-Men and now Warner Brothers has egg on its face with the failure of Dawn of Justice.

- This leads nicely into my next reason and that is the compromises required to simply get these movies made as all of those films mentioned above came with very high budgets (Dawn of Justice cost $250m to make, Amazing Spider-Man 2 cost $255m and F4 cost $120m to make)

Now contrast all of those with Fox's recent smash Deadpool and that cost wait for it, wait for it...

Only $58m to make.

Yes $58m to make and Tim Miller and his team didn't have to make any compromises at all in order to get that film made and make in a way that they could fulfill the vision they had for it, the tone they wanted to strike and do justice to the story they wanted to tell in a way that would satisfy the fans of the comic as well as the broader public and Fox mainly because they weren't pouring in so much money to make it were smart enough to let them make the film they all wanted to make.

And what was the result you might say: Well it's the biggest hit of the year so far save for Disney's Zootopia and the buzz I felt when I came out of the film both times was very positive (and I mean really positive)

Meanwhile the likes of Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio on Dawn of Justice, Marc Webb and his writers on Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Josh Trank and his team on Fantastic Four all had to either compromise their visions in order to satisfy the greater good ("The Greater Good") of the broader cinematic universe or had to deal with constant studio meddling for the sheer cost of simply making these big movies where so much rides on them can see a compromised mess play out on screen that in the long run never really ends up satisfying either the fans or the general public and indeed all of those films struggled to cut through at the Box Office and/or with Moviegoers and Critics.

- And lastly the effect it is leaving on the overall film industry is slowing but surely creating a choking effect to the point where only a select handful of films receive the comfort of studio financing as opposed to independent financing.

Just thinking about the past 6 months of my own movie going experience I keep coming back to how it feels like I'm only seeing just 3 to 4 kinds of films being made:

-- The Big Summer Blockbuster
-- Family Films
-- Arthouse Productions
-- Awards Contenders

In the end well at least for me you want to experience a wide mix of films to be able to go and see at the cinema I mean look at 10 Cloverfield Lane which I really enjoyed this was just a mid range Thriller film that rarely gets the kind of safe, secure Studio financing that 10 to 20 years ago it would've gotten but because JJ Abrams is one of the top Hollywood people right now it got that financing whereas now a lot of those sort of films that would've been the studio's mid budget pictures now find themselves on the independent and arthouse markets where financing comes with greater risk and mainstream distribution is much harder to come by.

And all of this when I think about it as well as my recent column about just how long a Franchise can really last before it resorts to just using the same bag of tricks multiple times over I feel that the time is soon coming where a major rethink of this Cinematic Universe formula that is currently on show here must be considered.

And one studio that I feel has started on this road has been 20th Century Fox now yes Fantastic Four has been nothing but trouble for them and they should let that go back to Marvel Studios ASAP but their handling of the X-Men franchise has been first rate save for some pretty big and crappy potholes along the road.

Deadpool along with X-Men Days of Future Past from 2014 have for me been the 2 best comic book films of the past 3 years and I feel that way because they tell their own story from beginning to end, they tip their hate to the larger universe but they never feel like the setup either overwhelms or sidetracks the main story and as a result they have been well received by fans and reviewers for the most part.

Part of this has also come about for them because they were not so heavily locked in to the Cinematic Universe formula in the way that Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures are which took away from them that crucial period where if the film fails they have no time to stop, take stock and reassess the situation going forward.

And indeed Fox could've done this very thing after F4 left them humiliated (which they brought on themselves let's be honest about that) but because they were not so locked in to that formula it allowed them time to reassess things and regroup going forward and now they're looking at 2 very big hits this year with Deadpool and X-Men Apocalypse while WB is now looking like Wile E Coyote after an ACME bomb blew up in his face and Columbia threw in the towel and arranged visitation rights for Marvel Studios regarding Spider-Man.

Now look there is still a very very long way to go before change happens but if more studios can learn from their misfires like I feel Fox has after Fant4stic then perhaps there is still hope somewhere to be found but as in all things we wait and we see what will transpire.