I will be doing two blogs on Thor vs Justice League, the second will be a box office prediction and who I expect to have a higher worldwide total at the end of the year, this blog will be talking about my predictions for the films and their outcome for the franchise. If you cannot be bothered to read the entire article, this blog is summarised in the last lines, and the second blog on this is about the BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS.
We are coming close to the end of the year. Soon enough, no-one really will be going to the cinema because only those “Oscar” worthy films will be flooding our screens, meaning they will be a lot of hype but no actual watching until it comes out on NETFLIX. Of course we do still have Star Wars: Episode VIII coming out, which is just going to destroy the box office and , er, (*laughs*) Jum…. (*laughs*), Jumanj……. Jumanji. Which is going to……………..
Until then, we have one of the biggest box office head to heads of the year. Marvel beat DC in 2016, when Civil War smashed it out of the park against Batman vs Superman and would you know it, in November they come head to head once again. This time Thor Ragnarök faces off against Justice League. This is definitely a battle I haven’t heard much of, maybe because the competition against the two movies (both on their release dates and in between) is weak, with all of them expected to make enough money to continue their franchise, case and point: Jigsaw (Saw 8), Bad Mom’s 2 (maybe not this one), and Daddy’s Home 2, this means that at the end of the day, both movies will be profitable and make enough money.
WHERE THE FILMS FIT IN
Marvel could release two hours of static and it would be classed as revolutionary and be a box office hit, I’m sorry, I sometimes am classified as a Marvel fanboy but it has to be said that Marvel can do no wrong when it comes to the films. HOWEVER, their weakest franchise within a franchise to date is definitely Thor, with Thor: The Dark World ranking among last for many “Best Marvel Films” lists. So, is their extra pressure for Thor Ragnarok, with his story always being redundant whenever a new filmmaker comes in. For example, in Thor (the first one), he destroys the bridge and Loki seems to die, but then in The Avengers, Thor is on earth and Loki is alive and well. In Thor: The Dark World, Loki fakes his death and takes the throne (something that has yet to be resolved), then in Avengers 2, Thor spends half the movie setting up Infinity War, and just doing nothing really. What I am trying to say is that Thor’s story has been whatever the director at the times wants it to be instead of the other way around. There has not been a clear story path for Thor. Ragnarok looks different, it looks fun and anything with Hulk in will be amazing.
And then we hit the brick wall that is the DCEU. Where Marvel can do no wrong, DC can do no right (Wonder Woman is over-rated, it is an OK film, not great). Not even a film that features Batman and Superman was done correctly, it takes a true idiot to mess up something so easy, something that fans had waiting for, for so long. Justice League looks better, but (I have said it before) whoever does the editing for the trailers for DC deserves an Oscar because, it always looks amazing. The DCEU has seemed to rush its entire franchise and try to create a good franchise when it has yet to produce a good film. The film itself, I am expecting to be OK, I think it will be better than Batman vs Superman but it will still be bad, trust me there is a grey area. It will be better than BvS but it will still have quite a lot of traits that people hated about BvS, it’ll be funnier but the tone will still be dark. But, one of the biggest things I am saying about JL, is that it will go too far. The problem with Justice League and the DCEU is that is goes too big, they destroy everything, entire cities, building and we never see the consequences. BvS tries to explore it but never fully goes through with it. Looking at the trailer below, it seems that entire cities will be destroyed again, and this just makes it unrelatable.
EXPECTED REACTIONS [WINNER: THOR RAGNAROK]
I have already said I expect for Justice League the reaction will be to that it is an OK film. It isn’t a great film but its something that can at least be expanded upon, it will get a critical bashing from some but some will say that the film is something that can at least be worked with. It will be better than BvS and Suicide Squad (although that doesn’t need to be said), the only problem with it, will be that it hasn’t learnt its lesson with BvS. But, hey Joss Whedon will save it right. In Whedon we trust,
Whereas, with Thor: Ragnarok, it will hit it out of the park. I am really looking forward to Thor, I think it could be one of the best films of Phase 3. It will come out, and all of the critics will be praising it and claiming it is fantastic. As a fan, I think it is going to be amazing, Thor, Loki, Hulk, Odin and others fighting as a team. My only scepticism going into the film is I don’t understand how Ragnarok will fit into the film. But,
CASTS [WINNER: HARD BUT C’MON IT’S JUSTICE LEAGUE]
And then of course we have the case of the casts. I am 100 per cent certain that when Marvel realised that this was going up against Justice League, they wanted to get a big a cast as possible and create a “Team Thor” to rival Justice League. Thor will include, the man himself, the return of Loki, Odin, Hulk, Hemdall and newcomers Valkyrie, The Grandmaster and the villain Hela. It isn’t so much the new characters that should excite but rather the actors that will play them; Cate Blanchett as Hela, Jeff Goldblum and The Grandmaster and Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie. But Justice League is Justice League, and we will see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg all share the screen for the first time. So, whilst it is hard, Justice League has to be the winner.
WHAT THE FILM MEANS TO THE FRANCHISE [WINNER: JUSTICE LEAGUE]
I might have said winner above but it is anything but that. Justice League means more to the DCEU, ultimately a Thor Ragnarok failing will not be the end of the MCU but if Justice League flops, I don’t see a way out of it, that is both critically and financially. If the films is ripped to shreds by the critics, and I mean worse than BvS and fans agree. Put the DCEU on hold and just release Wonder Woman films because I don’t see a way forward for the DCEU if Justice League absolutely flops. But it won’t, and it will still survive, so I don’t think it will thrive but it will still let the DCEU continue. Justice League is supposed be The Avengers for DC. If Thor flops, the MCU will continue, it will be interesting if Thor flops and JL succeeds, because it will mean the people at Marvel will be running scared. But that won’t happen, Thor and Justice League will succeed but Thor will be the better film but where it gets really interesting is the box office.
FUTURE FRANCHISE [WINNER: DRAW]
You may be thinking, what the hell of course Justice League is going to be more important to the DCEU than Thor Ragnarok will be to MCU. But, as I said before hand, Thor is always being used to tell a story, at the moment it is Infinity War. So I expect Thor Ragnarok to have consequences that will carry over into next year. Thinking about the Marvel schedule [seen above], there is only Black Panther before Infinity War, meaning that something has to be set up for us to see. Which is why I see Thor being important to MCU future but then of course, JL is going to be vital to the DCEU but originally it was supposed to be Part 1 and Part 2 which leads me to believe that the same may be done again, especially considering the dream sequence that occurred in BvS and how it has clearly been set up to come back to later on. Also, where do the respected spin offs fit into this, only Aquaman seem OK at the moment, God knows what is happening with The Flash, people don’t even know Cyborg is a thing, we haven’t seen any Green Lanterns (yet), so, only time will tell
AthemovieZ 
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