Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has had his share of terrible cinematic vehicles driven by established intellectual properties (Doom, Walking Tall, Get Smart), but perhaps none may be as putrid as the new Warner Bros/Brad Peyton project based on little-known, nor cared for DC comics character, Lobo.
In case you don’t know who Lobo is, here’s a primer. He’s a villain created in 1983 by DC, who looks like a filthy zombie on steroids with Predator-dreads. Lobo has his own bizarre terminologies and usually hangs out in Bizarro-world, a backwards dimension he once ensnared Superman in.
He’s an over-the-top goofball of a villain and in no way is one of the most-feared or even more-respected characters in the DC universe. Why is DC hoping to make him into a franchise film player?
Because they have no one left.
The Wonder-Woman project can’t seem to get off the ground. The Green Lantern film sucked and doesn’t deserve another. Superman is a tool (this is my opinion on why DC should kill the Superman film series; he’s too good. No one is all good. Audiences want their heroes painted grey, you know, like real people), a steroid junkie and wanna-be police officer flying around in a leotard. The Flash, well, do we want to see 90 minutes of a guy that can run fast? I mean, what superhero or villain can’t run fast? The Catwoman film was such a stinker, that Warner Bros. has probably been trying to burn and erase every copy of it in the universe. Anyone else left? Probably, but they’re not vital enough to recall.
Batman is all DC has and that series is about to end its trilogy. DC has to do something to keep their film boat afloat until another series of Batman films can make it back to the screen. That’s not going to happen for a few years, so what will come of DC’s film division if The Rock can’t save it with one of their least-known properties?
My advice to DC Comics fans (you poor, poor souls), is to take those $15 you were going to spend on the next DC film and blow it on the stack of $1 Booster Gold books you found at your neighbor’s yard sale. It’s not the best entertainment “bang for your buck,” but it sure beats any DC film not made by someone named Christopher Nolan.