Warner Bros. have caused quite a stir by dumping a nearly completed film - Batgirl - at the eleventh hour.

Originally intended to release straight to streaming (HBO Max in the US) it's now going nowhere.

Deadline report that the test viewing of Batgirl "wasn't that bad" but The Flash is "really amazing".

Marvel built their movie empire on quality and have raised the bar so dumping a mediocre film might be best for the brand.

DC already has enough of those.

Its directors are understandably keen for audiences to be allowed to see the film but with Warner Bros. having recently painted a very grim picture of the reality behind the social media campaign to release Snyder's Justice League, we wouldn't expect them to be moved by any amount of social media traction.

Interestingly Deadline also suggest its dumping adheres to the new entertainment philosophy of splashy theatrical release and quick (45 days) transition to streaming.

There's still a tonne of money to be made at the box office and for titles which perform well, that brings additional prestige to the streaming service.

Batgirl isn't up to cinema standard.

As it happens, Batgirl's writer is Christina Hodson who also wrote The Flash so maybe it's a good story with sub-par production values.

She also wrote Bumblebee which we thought was one of the better Transformers films.

Looking through the small number of images on IMDb, the costumes for both Batgirl and Batman aren't as impressive as those seen in more recent Batman films.

[ Main Image: Batgirl - Leslie Grace. Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb.com. ]

References

D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 3, 2022). ‘Batgirl’ Filmmakers On Warner Bros Discovery Discarding Movie: “It Is Critical That Our Work Be Shown To Audiences”. Deadline.

D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 4, 2022). David Zaslav Talks DC “Ten Year Plan” In Wake of ‘Batgirl’ Axing; ‘Flash’ Still On Track For Release. Deadline.

D'Alessandro, Anthony & Kroll, Justin (August 2, 2022). The Dish: What’s Behind The ‘Batgirl’ & ‘Scoob!’ Discard? David Zaslav’s Abject Rejection Of Jason Kilar’s HBO Max Strategy. Deadline.

IMDb.com. Batgirl. (viewed August 5, 2022)