An Address To Warner Bros. Pictures

Dear Warner Bros. Pictures,

As a long-time fan of your studio and the great films you’ve put out like The Dark Knight trilogy, Harry Potter, IT, and numerous others I’ve always had the highest of expectations for you. These are expectations that you’ve met and even exceeded in meeting. I can tell you right now that I am not the only one who feels this way about you or at the very least, used to. Yes, I’m addressing my feelings for you in a past tense as my general attitude towards you as of late has certainly changed and I’m confident in saying I am not alone. Why? Because I like many people have constantly voiced both concern and support for your handling and mishandling of the DC Extended Universe. Sometimes you heed our advice. Other times you willfully ignore it even if you know as well as we do that it’s the best course of action.

I want to better explain myself by saying to you that I am first and foremost a DC fan who wants to see these characters at their best. I am someone who has grown up with shows and films like Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, Arrow, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight which are some of the most successful business endeavors you have had with a property that offers monetary gain for you and entertainment for all of us. They were successful and entertaining because you seemingly valued the opinions of a fanbase that wanted to see all of the characters within the DC Universe be properly represented with the utmost respect. You were great at that. You brought in some of the greatest talent like Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and David Ayer to masterfully bring these characters to life. However, as of late you’ve squandered them and merely coasted around on brand popularity alone without truly working for the fans and our best interests. That is something that cannot stand anymore if you want to keep your fanbase satisfied and loyal to you.

What exactly am I referring to when I say that you squandered these talents? Well, it starts in 2013 when you released Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. There are a few people out there who generally hold a dislike for Mr. Snyder and the creative decisions he has made with a lot of his films and you didn’t care. You ignored those people and took a leap of faith with that film and I am glad you did it because it was a film that was well-worth the risk for a moderate Superman fan such as myself. Snyder gave us a Superman for today. Not yesterday. Fans were largely grateful for it and were excited for the next DC film which we were all under the impression that it was going to be a sequel to Man of Steel. Retrospectively this is where I am willing to say you began to stumble on the trek to compete with Marvel Studios without any consideration as to creative vision, strategy, character development, and the pacing of a universe. You took what was Snyder’s intentions for a Man of Steel sequel and morphed it into Batman v Superman with zero regard for him. This, of course resulted in well-deserved negative critical reception and a divide in the fandom like I have never seen. You then opted to fire him afterwards but chose not to because things were well under way as if he was the problem when it’s been proven that he wasn’t to blame. It was you. It was you and your corporate greed that allowed this franchise to go largely by the way-side when it had a promising start. Now the future of it is uncertain because of the fact you rushed to compete with Marvel and for another reason as well.

All of these negative articles about Kevin Tsujihara and Toby Emmerich just trying to preserve their bonuses because of the merger that I’m reading is just maddening. Were you really willing to sink this low? Were you really willing to foolishly sacrifice a brand that would have given you a much stronger and more solid profit than you’ve ever had? One that you’ve arguably never had since the days of Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings, and The Dark Knight trilogy? I guess so and I hope that bonus was worth it. I sincerely do if you were willing to sacrifice a brand and the careers of people like Zack Snyder for it without even considering how amoral the decision was instead of doing the right thing. The right thing being that you should have kept Snyder on the film, let him do exactly as he wanted, and pushed back the film until he was mentally capable to direct after his daughter died. I am certain that if you had made it your mission to adhere to honoring creative freedom which you claimed to be in favor of then you wouldn’t be facing the scrutiny from the media, from critics, and from the fans. You would have produced a product that people could gladly get behind without having to defend it all of the time.  You would have produced something that would have stood a chance in a world where the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a success and broken a lot of the ground for you. It single-handedly proved why there is no excuse for why you cannot make a franchise that is loved by both critics and fans. One that has something for everyone even in the face of a clear divide between it’s shows and the films. This whole new Avengers Infinity War trailer has just been one colossal smack in your face with the whole world laughing at you because you could have been at this big moment of hype in a few years had you worked towards a Justice League film and earned our goodwill like you did with Wonder Woman and The Dark Knight trilogy.

Yes, I may have seemed bias and contradicted my statement by largely endorsing the “competition” but from an objective sense you aren’t doing what you need to but the other side is. People are noticing it. They are running towards that side because despite all of the glaring problems that I have with those films they don’t look as messy at times, you don’t hear about all the problems they certainly probably have behind the scenes, and the fanbase does not have to constantly defend those films from all kinds of flack like with yours. You have some of the most popular characters in history that have proven to work over the years and have largely been more relevant than a lot of Marvel’s but somehow can’t make them work but Marvel was able to make a talking tree, a talking raccoon, and a size-changing man happen without any real flaw. Please. Get it together before Aquaman really hits off. Otherwise, the losses you may suffer will be far greater than they already presently are.

Sincerely,

Simi