In the book, “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” authors Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards note that “in the age of Peak Superhero, DC Films wasn’t as successful as Marvel Studios, but had created a distinctive style.” That style, according to the authors, was “brutal, self-serious, and largely joyless” — a view seemingly shared by Richard Donner, who had some strong opinions about the DCEU’s take on Superman. When Zack Snyder debuted his vision for Supes with 2013’s “Man of Steel,” the titular hero was shown brooding, snapping necks, and laying waste to the city he’s supposedly sworn to protect. This was the exact opposite of Richard Donner’s iteration of the character, who represented a shining paragon of morality and clean cut American values.
That, according to Kevin Feige, is the ideal approach for any superhero filmmaker to take. The Marvel Studios head told Robinson, Gonzales, and Edwards that he considers Donner’s “Superman” to be “the archetype of the perfect superhero film origin story,” before revealing, “We watch it before we make any one of our films.”
That makes total sense considering the way the MCU started. 2008’s “Iron Man,” 2011’s “Thor,” and 2012’s “The Avengers,” to name a few of the early MCU movies, maintained a light-hearted tone. They treated their hero protagonists with a palpable reverence that recalled Donner’s summation of his approach to “Superman” as trying to “make a good movie about this beloved character and treat him with our greatest respect.” Feige’s own reverence for the 1978 superhero movie that kickstarted it all was seemingly infused into everything his studio was pumping out.
Kevin Feige might be the boss of Marvel Studios, but his touchstone for making superhero cinema is Richard Donner’s DC movie Superman. Read More