Too bad they decided to scrap the excellent Batman trilogy (even though it ended a bit clumsily - why would Bruce Wayne have to "die" even if Batman would?) altogether, even though the ending would have allowed them to continue by having Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Robin/Nightwing take up the caped crusading. Alas, no. Also, what a missed opportunity: just imagine if there had been a post-credits scene in
The Dark Knight Rises with Chief Gordon being handed a printout: "This just came in from Metropolis. There's a vigilante jumping off buildings wearing a leotard. Sounds like right up your alley."
Then, they had the atrocious failure called
Green Lantern, but at least they could have considered it as a "sunk cost" and try to utilize it to the max - let the character's next outing be a "requel" (rebooting sequel), just that the name stays in the mind of the public (like Marvel did with
The Incredible Hulk). Alas, no.
No wait, it gets even better. Two succesful TV series of some of the same characters -
Arrow and
Gotham - will not be a part of this shared universe. What is this I don't even...
Now, origin movies are the hardest of superhero movies. You have tons of exposition that too easily turns into a frakking Powerpoint presentation with talking heads (
Thor, I'm looking at you). What does DC/WB do? They are only going to keep Supes from previous movies, and are going to reboot Batman and introduce a ton of characters with complex backgrounds, without giving them their own solo movies first. Never mind that many of the characters have been past their prime for decades and were never that well known outside the States. It's like Marvel starting Marvel Cinematic Universe directly with The Avengers immediatly after The Hulk, with even less known characters. Guardians of the Galaxy in 2004, how would that have fared?
Also, there's the problem with Golden Age superheroes (basically the entire DC catalogue) that they were the creations of a more simplistic time. They simply do not work in the 21st century, not after all that has happened and not with current mindset. Batman is an exception - namely that he has no superpowers (besides immense wealth). The rest of the crew however are a bunch of near-omnipotent aliens, demigods, and the like - how is a normal human supposed to relate to them? Marvel's superheroes were a "counterculture" reaction to all this - many of them were humans with nearly ordinary problems, the superpowers were just a metaphor on top of that, highlighting things like growing up (very relatable to kids reading the comics), civil rights movement (a minority wants to be recognized, the other half of them resort to violence and the other want a peaceful solution, and the other faction is led by a dude called X), any given minority (people ostracize you because of what you are), etc.
It will be nothing short of a miracle if WB gets this to work, and even though it might be seemingly profitable, the return on investment will no doubt leave a lot to be desired. Sure, marketing will probably push this north of the 500 megabucks mark, but it's going to be an uphill struggle.
Also, direct competition against Marvel who has a ten-year lead in a "cinematic universe" of superheroes is stupid. There's two ways WB could have tackled this and made it a differentiated, unique franchise.
The first would be to make the DCU a period tale, setting it in the 1930's, before the horrors of WW2, back when you could unironically have black and white morality tales. Of course, you could eventually advance the story into WW2 so when all else inevitably fails, you could revitalize the franchise and bring in the Nazis as the bad guy.
The way other would be to make a spiritual sequel to 1960's Batman set in the modern times, but with all the campiness turned up to 11 and this time with a twist: "Pride League of America". It's not even that much of a stretch: besides Superman written as a xenophile from the get-go (Lois Lane is not even the same species as him!), Batman is obviously a furry (dressing up as a bat and having hots for Catwoman, hello), Green Lantern already came out of the closet in the comics, and the creator of Wonder Woman - who likes to tie up naughty boys and girls and more often than not gets herself tied up too - admitted way back when that she really was just an excuse to draw approximately work-safe BDSM porn (and then came Comics Code).