re: Warner Bros. Shifts DC Strategy Amid Executive Change-Up

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One launched a decade long empire.

The other launched a mediocre sequel.

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LOL on what planet does any of that matter when comparing the quality of two specific movies

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The Batman fanboys dismissed Iron Man as a light movie while The Dark Knight was something with substance back in 08.

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Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are better than any 1&2 in the MCU:
IM 1 and 2
Thor 1 and 2
Avengers 1 and 2
Guardians 1 and 2

The arguable exception is definitely CA:TFA and CA:WS. I personally like Batman better, but those two captain America movies are by far my favorites in the MCU.

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And they need to simply pretend that SS never even existed... never happened... nothing.

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But look at those dance moves!

double post

Marvel has laid out the map for how to produce an effective live action universe by having a unifying vision. DC, on the other hand, keeps wanting to make products that have little or no relations to other products (see: multiple tv universes that have no ties whatsoever to the movie-verse). Where Marvel has a unifying vision, DC's vision is to not be unified.

It might work if they were telling good stories with good casting. Sadly, more often than not their movies have gaping story holes and their casting is hit-and-miss.

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Obviously they weren't thinking big picture

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That's because the decision to turn Man of Steel into a launching pad for a DC cinematic universe was half-cocked and made on the fly by Zack Snyder. The difference between a film like Iron Man and a film like Man of Steel is that the former was MADE to be the start of a shared universe. When Nolan and Goyer proposed the idea of a Superman movie to Warner Bros., the notion of a shared universe was furthest from their minds. And as soon as Snyder proposed the idea of a shared universe, Nolan bowed out for greener pastures.

Marvel came into the MCU with a plan. Warner Bros. just made it up as they went along but that wasn't their biggest mistake. Their biggest mistake was entrusting the start of that universe to a filmmaker like Snyder. When Man of Steel was first announced I was freaking pumped. But when it was announced that Snyder was going to direct it my excitement level went down several notches. I feel like the DCEU could have worked as originally planned if someone else had been brought in to oversee it at the beginning. Warner Bros. would have been better served thanking Snyder for the idea but then letting him go in favor of someone more talented.

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Marvel came into the MCU with a plan

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I don't think that's accurate. There were only 2 films at that point...Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. There was no real crossover other than the throw away tag line dropped at the end of Iron Man with Fury (that had the movie done poorly would have been nothing but a little Easter egg for fans) and THEN the tie in with Stark walking in to see Thunderbolt Ross at the end of Incredible Hulk a few months later that summer. But again, as far as I know, that was done after IM did so well at the box office and they decided to tie them together.

That's why IM2 was next instead of Thor or Cap or anyone else. He was the big draw and as soon as that hit they decided to roll them out.

They certainly did it right and recognized what they had and cast it perfectly and got the correct vision in place, etc. But I don't think it's true that they had the MCU laid out prior to filing Iron Man.

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It is 100% accurate. Phase One was planned out by Marvel before Iron Man started filming. Iron Man 2 was the only film not originally planned to be in Phase One because they never planned on the first one being such a massive hit. They actually thought The Incredible Hulk would be the most successful of the Phase One films because it was the character with the biggest name recognition. Ironically, that film is the only "flop" of the MCU so far.

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Went and looked it up...you're correct. I stand corrected.

LINK

Regardless, I agreed with your original point which was that WB/DC did a poor job at attempting to tie their universe together. I've said from Day one that I wish they'd have simply bitten the bullet and took Marvel's wail laid road and followed it with their A List heroes. Instead, they seemed afraid to be seen as copying Marvel and decided to rush to get Justice League out before anyone really cared about their universe or its individual heroes.

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It's pretty hard to blame DC other than to rip them for not thinking "Big Enough"

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No, it is.

WB/DC had the heroes most people knew and loved. They also had a team most people already knew. After Marvel went out there and primed the world for these comic book movies and a shard universe where fans would come back again and again to see what in essence was a serialized long form story, all WB/DC had to do was use the same blueprint but insert their own characters.

Marvel did the hard part, and they did it with characters most people either didn't know or kind of didn't like because they felt cheesy in the 21st Century. WB/DC has Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, WW, and a ton of great villains most people knew.

Instead, they handed the entire thing over to Snyder, who's vision for the universe was as terrible as Jon Favreau's was brilliant. It started a ball rolling that is still not fixed and even if they do manage to turn things around THIS version of their DCEU will forever have the beginnings of it be crappy thanks to those first set of movies.