Superhero films have existed for quite a while, but never in film history has a studio been able to so consistently and successfully milk the genre as Disney has in recent years with their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Warner Bros. is breaking a sweat in their frenzied efforts to catch up to the competition with their stable of DC comic characters. But can Warner Bros. turn their DC cinematic universe (DCCU) into another blockbuster institution, especially after the negative response to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice earlier this year? Here are 5 reasons we won’t be holding our breath.

They’ve Ignored Their Television Universe

DC has an illustrious television history that continues to this day, with popular network series based on their heroes like The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl. The popular DC properties have built-in audiences, but Warner Bros. isn’t interested in trying something new by intertwining their TV and film properties together in a way Marvel has never managed.

Green Arrow and Supergirl won’t be joining Justice League anytime soon, but the Flash will be joining the DCCU with his own film in 2018, starring Ezra Miller instead of the TV series’ convincingly doofy yet likable Grant Gustin. Why not try something new while simultaneously bringing in a sizable television audience? The decision is probably due to disconnect in tone, though I suspect it’s also because DC is hesitant to try anything Marvel hasn’t already pioneered for them. Either way, it’s a shame that points to a lack of vision at Warner Bros.

They’re Too Focused on Teasing Future Installments

Batman v Superman was a poorly told movie, and a lot of that comes down to the film’s eagerness to tease upcoming installments of the DC cinematic universe. There are several lengthy scenes that are basically trailers for future superhero films sprinkled throughout DC’s tent pole faceoff film. Warner Bros. has taken a cue from Marvel’s after-credits teases, but the ploys reek of desperation when done to such excess.

While the occasional unexpected reveal is nice—like the original Avengers tease at the end of Iron Man—you can’t build a good cinematic universe out of films too busy advertising future installments to become compelling stories on their own. Each film should function as a standalone first, a piece of the whole second, or we’ve effectively turned our blockbusters into serialized, overlong TV episodes.

They Have the Wrong Tone

Disney has turned Marvel into a brand of blockbuster with a built-in audience. Though that often means streamlining storytelling and limiting variation in tone and visual style between films, it works because of the established tone and world of the MCU—colorful, quippy, mildly self-aware, hologram-heavy and reliably fun. The blueprint was established right out of the gate by the original Iron Man, which, like most Marvel films, featured a roguish hero with little concern for secret identity dealing with global concerns and a disposable villain.

Compare that to DC’s establishing feature—the dour, gray Man of Steel, which borrows heavily from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy without capturing any of those films’ actual substance. With Zack Snyder planted firmly at the helm of the DCCU, this excessive, inexplicably dark film is the blueprint for the DC brand. When even a Superman film becomes an exercise in dreary pessimism and meaningless destruction, why should audiences keep buying tickets? Certainly not to have fun, and name recognition might not be enough after the reception for Batman v. Superman.

They Can’t Get Us To Care About the Characters

What did people like so much about The Avengers? It wasn’t the CGI battle in New York City, or the shiny space MacGuffin at the center of the plot, but rather the amusing back-and-forth between a collection of larger-than-life characters. Putting an ensemble of iconic (and less than iconic) superheroes into a room and letting them rub up against each other is inherently watchable, but Batman v. Superman showed that DC, or at the very least Zack Snyder, has no interest in the relationships that make a crossover or cinematic universe interesting. Sure, Wonder Woman shows up in Batman v. Superman, but what does it matter when she exists only to fight and doesn’t say even one word to Superman?

I’m not sure these characters have enough personality to have interesting interactions. Superman, for example, has been muted from a likable beacon of justice into a misanthropic, all-powerful alien whose uneasy relationship with the public and moody soul-searching make him almost identical to Batman. Compare that to the convincing polar opposite heroes that define the Avengers films—Captain America and Iron Man. If DC can’t distinguish between characters as iconic and opposite as Batman and Superman, it’s hard to imagine how he’ll turn to imagine how they’ll make characters like Aquaman, Cyborg or The Flash unique enough to care about.

They’re Planning Too Far in Advance

Most major studios like Warner Bros. are struggling to catch up to Disney’s rigorous franchise-building, leading them to develop future release schedules, announcing films half-a-decade before their intended release, whether audiences like it or not. Are we sure we want a Cyborg film in 2020? We’re getting one anyway, because Warner Bros. has to build their studio around their DC properties to compete.

Take Suicide Squad, which went into production well before the DCCU could find certain footing with a successful, beloved release. Batman v. Superman was certainly successful, but the widespread criticism of that film’s tone, coupled with the positive response to the “Bohemian Rhapsody” trailer for Suicide Squad, has already led DC to order reshoots to lighten up Suicide Squad. That’s good, since Suicide Squad should be demented fun instead of more dreary misery, but late reshoots rarely bode well for a film’s quality. Suicide Squad could be the course correction DC needs, or it could be another uncertain mess of various plots, tonal shifts and teaser trailers. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…