For the 7th chapter of the series, I wanted to give some deeper insight into a collection of films that I couldn’t help but respect as opposed to the hatred of many others…if not the vast majority of all human beings, it seems. As many of us know, James Gunn is now a full-time employee at Warner Brothers. There, he is going to make a valiant attempt to reconstruct something that had a spark when it began, but since then has quite possibly become THE shining example of what is wrong with how studios create their slates…
THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE
I almost want to offer a trigger warning to anybody who has developed a distaste for superhero films mainly because of this creative endeavor. I am not entirely on the side of hate when it comes to many of the DCEU movies that have become punchlines as of this point. I’m not trying to be contrarian just for the hell of it. I genuinely believe some of these have not gotten a fair shake.
Anywho, without further Ado, here is…
THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE TIER LIST:
GREATNESS 🤩
WONDER WOMAN
A really good movie to cheer you up from the mediocrity that was Batman v Superman. If there’s been an MVP to the DECU, it most certainly has been Gal Gadot, who embodies this character so much that one would think that she’s just playing a ramped-up version of how she is in real life. This is one of the better origin stories in the superhero genre, and it’s kind of a miracle that it turned out that way. The trash fire that was the sequel to this film only makes me look back at this in a more endearing way.
THE SUICIDE SQUAD
James Gunn has proven himself to be a pretty great director in a very short amount of time. Taking the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY from relative obscurity into one of the most, if not the most, beloved cinematic trilogy in all of superhero movies is an incredible feat. A feat that he practically duplicated with the suicide squad. I don’t think this is looked at in the right way when it comes to how hard it had to be to make a viable sequel to the atrocious first suicide squad movie. Had this movie simply been feasible, it would have been a vast improvement over what came before. But instead, he created a GREAT DCEU movie that was good enough to generate hype for a spin-off series and prove himself to be the best guy for improving the DCEU as a whole.
GREATNESS ADJACENT
MAN OF STEEL
I was the guy who said that Daniel Craig wouldn’t be a good James Bond. I quadrupled down on that and can own up to that mistake. As bad a statement as that was, I got to say a good statement in equal standing was when I was shouting from the rooftops about how great this movie was and how great Henry Cavill was as Superman. An absolute f***ton of individuals will claim to be with me in unison on this opinion, and that’s just false. The vast majority of y’all are so mad that Superman snapped General Zod’s neck that you considered this blasphemy. But I guess we have collective amnesia on the backlash of this movie.
That first Superman movie in 1978 was pretty good and stands neck and neck with some of the best tent-pole-ish action movies of its time. Man of steeL is the silver medal. I know Superman 2 does exist, and yes, it has more action than the first Superman movie, and because of that, a lot of you guys hold that close to the chest. But it’s horrible, and y’all know it. You guys are just holding on to nostalgia. Henry Cavill is the best Superman ever to be put to screen, and he more than likely will continue to be that.
GOOD 😊
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
To say it’s overstuffed is being relatively kind (of course), but if you do like I did and watch the film in chunks, you will have a greater appreciation of what’s happening. I am a fan of Snyder. I appreciate the effort he puts into every one of his films, even if I don’t like them. I do have to give him credit here for saying that there is a lot of stuff here to build a cinematic universe. And a lot of good ideas at that. These ideas took too long to explain, but they are good nonetheless.
Is this anywhere close to being a classic? No. Is this one of Snyder’s best films ever? Also no. But is this a film that exposed the incompetence of the DCEU and completely justifies Joss Whedon being…. washed. Whedon’s version of the Justice League in comparison to this here?…… Whew. Light years apart.
MEH….
AQUAMAN
Sometimes, you just get these movies that are average at best but are carried by a movie star with so much charisma to spare that you feel you can watch them every day for long periods. None of the pirates of the Caribbean or Jurassic world films are all that great, for example, but they have A-tier movie star performances at the helm that are entertaining enough to keep you square. So does Aquaman. Jason Momoa might be the single greatest casting of any superhero in any particular studio film. Ever. How in the f*** could this have ever worked if he weren’t as awesome as he is here? Aquaman also has some of the low-key best CGI in all of the dceu. It’s not mentioned a lot, but it is worth noting to me, given how so many of the DCEU films have absolute garbage CGI in this day and age.
AQUAMAN 2
I sat down and tried to write a review for this movie, only to realize that it’s about as close to a copy-and-paste job as movie sequels can get. What in the world can you say about this movie that you cannot say about the first one outside of Amber Heard’s reduced role and the deadpan comedic performance of Patrick Wilson? Outside of that, it really does do the exact same things. Let me count the ways of the things that are so much like the first film that are absolutely undeniable if not duplicated:
- The special effects.
- Jason Momoa’s performance.
- Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman get 10 minutes of screen time apiece.
- Black Mantis is an absolutely incompetent antagonist.
These movies are so alike that if you spliced in footage between them and put the film on mute you would not be able to tell what scenes are from the first movie as opposed to the second movie. It almost seems like people uniformly agree that the first one is that much better, but I’m pretty sure none of them can really comprehend why outside of it being a good origin film.
BOTH SHAZAM FLICKS
I’m going to lump both of these together respectfully. These are films that are average at best when compared to the field of superhero movies over the course of time, but (like the Aquaman flicks) when these SHAZAM! movies compared to the dceu counterparts they’re pretty good. Liking the first one and hating the second one is absolute nonsense. Zachary Levi is perfect for the character and does provide laughs that I’m pretty sure are improvised completely by him. Both of these movies have disposable villains, both of these movies have decent enough CGI and run of the mill action sequences, both of these movies are movies that you wouldn’t mind watching at the gym as you finished a treadmill session. Respectfully.
Both of these flicks do the same thing. Popcorn fun. You guys are just mean.
BIRDS OF PREY
Margot Robbie can do no wrong as Harley Quinn. She’s been excellent every time she’s played the character. Excellent, and nothing less. She is not the problem with this movie. The real problem with this movie is that it is a Deadpool clone in every way, shape, and form. The narration, the one-liners, and the comedic maturity of the action itself scream Deadpool, even though Deadpool is a superior action film. The secondary characters to Harley Quinn in this film barely get the shine that they’re given credit for… Except for the villain.
Perhaps this is a freezing cold take, but Ewan McGregor’s performance as the Black Mask might be the singular best villain in the DCEU. He’s so much fun and elevates the film way more than it deserves to be.
BLUE BEETLE
It’s pretty crazy how much potential the Blue beetle film had, only for it not to be given a chance. I’ve seen way worse superhero movies get more promotion and bigger ad campaigns. Blue Beetle was a frustrating watch, not because it was terrible, but because I felt that I saw moments that could have been made a lot better and just weren’t. Were there the kind of test screenings for this that could have helped to enhance the things already there? Was this a movie hacked to s*** in the editing room like so many other films in the dceu? I don’t know and don’t want to make excuses for what’s on screen. But the Blue Beetle is a good character, the family of the Blue Beetle are comically viable characters that add to the story in a way that makes it endearing. It is an easy popcorn movie (like the SHAZAM flicks are) for the most part. Also, as previously mentioned, simply being decent gets you pretty far in DCEU, considering how much disappointment you’ve been hit with for all these years.
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
It’s mid. I understand that real fans of Batman and Superman will see this as one of the more sacrilege films that there has ever been, and to an extent, I don’t blame them. However, even they should know that there have been worse movies featuring these two characters that exist. I previously mentioned Henry Cavill’s excellence as Superman, and we know that Ben Affleck isn’t a terrible Batman. Yes, Jesse Eisenberg is an unfortunately warped version of Lex Luthor who probably didn’t need to be here in the way he is, but he is not even remotely close to being the worst villain in the dceu, and y’all know it.
Y’all want to be angry at stuff. Sure, there is nothing remarkable about this film, but the ratio of “garbage trash” to “okay enough” in this movie is about 50/50. That being said, I can’t think of a better example of a cinematic layup than this film…. only to have it be so underwhelming.
WTF IS THIS GARBAGE?! 🤮
THE FLASH
Consider this a retrospective review of The flash. Back in June, I wrote a decent review of it, pointing out its flaws and everything like that, all the while giving Ezra Miller his credit for being the one comic relief character in The dceu that worked the most. I gave credit to Michael Keaton for proving himself to be the best blend of everything important to the character of Bruce Wayne and why he may be the best Batman to this day. I still stand by all of this…
However, all these months later, when I tried to watch it again, I found that doing so was kind of a chore. Much has been said about the CGI towards the end of the film, and I have to be honest, the CGI throughout the film isn’t the best either. This is the worst CGI in all of the dceU and makes horrendous use of one of the very few dceu villains that there was in General Zod. There’s a lot to be said about the hype for this movie that I will cover in a future episode of rv8, so I won’t get into how this made the cinematic experience that much worse. But many things outside of this film negatively added to it. I’ll explain that soon, but trust me, it makes sense.
BLACK ADAM
Perhaps I’m being too harsh with this, but I had every justifiable reason to expect this film to completely change the course of the dceu. I know that’s a rather large task for one movie, but this was sold as THE CHANGE that was needed. And yet, this one makes every single mistake that dceu films make.
Black Adam is the least interesting character that Dwayne Johnson has ever played, without question, and the supporting cast has a lot to do but ultimately doesn’t affect a lot. The action doesn’t look any different, the jokes are still unfunny, the villain is still very bad, and the third act is still extremely CGI-stuffed and lackluster (including a hilariously bad CGI sequence involving a flashback of Johnson’s character before he became Black Adam) and the proverbial bland DCEU aesthetic of the film doesn’t seem to have changed at all. I was sold a bill of goods with this one. Oh, and that whole Henry Cavill Easter egg at the end of the film was all for nothing, and it is all the more infuriating, the more I think about it.
WONDER WOMAN 1984
Last year, there was an article about the best & worst sequels of all time that we did on this website. In that article, I said everything about this film that I won’t repeat here. What I will say is this: there are a lot of absolutely dreadful sequels of films that were in and of themselves dreadful….none of them compare to this here.
There are only a handful of sequels I have EVER seen throughout my history of being a Cinefile that have had this much of a drop off in quality from a previous film.
suicide squad
Unquestionably chopped to s*** in the editing room. Worst Joker of all time, and it’s not even close. Action that is poorly lit, to say the very least. The Enchantress is not only the worst villain in the DCEU but possibly THE worst villain in all of superhero movie history. I am not f****** around when I say that.
There are three good scenes in this film. Just three:
- When Deadshot meets Batman
- When Deadshot climbs on top of the cars and starts shooting people.
- When Deadshot means Amanda Waller the first time.
Notice a theme there? I sure do. More than anything that Will Smith has done, SUICIDE SQUAD is a testament to his likability and charisma as a movie star, and even that could only get you so far before the BS takes over.
Joss Whedon’s Justice league
I mentioned it before, but I’ll repeat it…considering that this film is the Frankenstein-ish, circumcised, chopped up, and shortened version of the f*** Zack Snyder version of this film not only makes it, at a bare minimum, a bottom three-superhero movie of all time but absolutely exposes Joss Whedon’s creative bankruptcy.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that the scene in both Justice League movies where Superman effortlessly beats up the entire Justice League is complete bull****. Yes, I understand that in the comics, that’s the type of thing that would happen, given how ridiculously overpowered the standardized version of Superman is, but it does make the entirety of the Justice League seem like G-League superheroes that Superman does not need whatsoever.
Maybe that’s the point of the scene, I don’t know. But convincing me that Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg are competent superheroes after that scene is laughable.
THE DCEU CINEMATIC APOGEE
People must understand how good that final trailer was to Batman V Superman. It was a trailer with a last-second image of Batman blocking Superman’s punch and Superman looking shocked as hell that Batman could do so. It was a perfect way to further the hype of a film that had already reached something VERY close to peak hyped-ness.
On March 25th, 2016, I sat down to watch the very average superhero movie BATMAN V SUPERMAN, and in that first hour… Got to be honest, it is pretty underwhelming stuff. And I know I wasn’t the only one saying to themselves that eventually this film will have to live up to its title….
After Supes got his little offensive attack off, Batman baited Superman with a kryptonite gas grenade. He then talked SOME s*** and then proceeded to whoop his ass for about 3 minutes one-sidedly…
….and the patrons of Auditorium 12 at the Century City theater in Los Angeles, California, became absolutely un-f******-glued.
We all were so happy to see Batman whooping that ass. The auditorium at this moment felt like a Steve Austin crowd pop. Superman got his offense back, and the crowd went silent… Batman rallied, and the crowd went nutso again. And then it was over, and we were back to watching the movie. But man, what a 5-minute run that was. World Peace had been achieved, racism was over, and the human race was united for 300 seconds. Or so it seemed.
Batman has never ever had a more badass moment in a movie. Not ever.
****************
In closing, If we’re going to keep it super real about the DCEU, then the following should be seen as unanimously true if we’re being honest with ourselves:
One must think of how many superhero movies there have been over time. Not only things from the MCU, 20th Century Fox, and the DECU, but things outside of that as well. Things like the R-rated Superhero movies like WATCHMEN and the crow, animated superhero movies like The Incredibles and megamind, original superhero fare like chronicle and Hancock, as well as tons and tons of other entries into this genre… This all kind of counts as one thing.
I mention all that to reinforce further the fact that the dceu needed to die. Why? Because the average dceu project had much more money behind it than many other non-MCU and non-X-Men superhero films. There is a lot more brain trust behind this shared universe. It can be said with relative certainty that of the bottom 15 superhero movies that have ever existed, regardless of studio, regardless of budget, and regardless of the attached cinematic universe… the dceu may have no less than a 3rd of the entries in that bottom 15. No less. Think about that.
I’m not only excited about where these DC properties will go, but I’m looking forward to the day when we don’t look at these properties and roll our eyes because of how much this brand has killed our faith in anything they do. I’m sure that things will get better from here. Okay, well…almost sure…
….Kinda.
