So, five more movies, if you can call them that. And the DCEU is in the books as done.
I really didn’t expect The Flash to be my favorite of the death throws of the DCEU, but here we are. The franchise that started overearnestly and too quickly by giving too much creative control to Zach Snyder and then flailing about when Zach Snyder kept making Zach Snyder movies instead of Marvel movies had to die at some point.
So, the ranking is completed…again. It’s here below (I’ve also updated the original version here).
Maybe things will improve with James Gunn in charge. I’m a bit uneven on him, though. Anyway, it’s not like I really care.
Oh, well, here’s the definitive ranking of the DCEU as it stands today. (12/29/2020: Now with Wonder Woman 1984. 3/19/21: Now with Zack Snyder’s Justice League.) (3/22/2024: Now complete with the death of the DCEU.)
15. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
“This movie was poorly written, poorly shot, and poorly edited. It has the ambition of an aggrieved Tumblr account.”
14. Suicide Squad
“This is one of the worst superhero movies ever made. And, I repeat an alternate cut would only fix so much of it. This movie is a disaster that Warner Brothers just made worse.”
“This movie is awful. It’s truly terrible. A tighter cut would have made the first hour much shorter and less boring, but it would have done nothing for the sheer stupidity that dominates the last ninety minutes.”
12. Black Adam
“This is an overstuffed bore of a film with annoying, flat characters, no clear idea of why it exists beyond trying to extend a moribund franchise, and no creative energy behind it except to make its star look awesome…at all times. Bleh.”
11. Aquaman
“I really did not like this movie. It’s thin with little focus and an almost complete inability to tell a story. I imagine it’s not going to age particularly well for those who were blown away by it on their first viewing.
“So, I’d say it’s an improvement over the first, but it’s still kind of just terrible. It’s not much of an improvement, is what I’m saying.”
9. Blue Beetle
“Anyway, it’s not the worst of the DCEU, but it was never going to be good enough to raise the franchise from the dead. It’s manic, over-produced, has some small amount of charm, and feels redundant of a whole bunch of super hero films that came before. It’s not good, is what I’m saying.”
9. Wonder Woman
“I don’t hate the movie as a whole, for sure. It’s lightly entertaining for long stretches. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine develop really good chemistry to the point where Steve’s goodbye to Diana ends up feeling quite genuine and affecting. It often looks very good, embracing speed ramping and slow motion far more than Zack Snyder ever did for his Superman movies despite having popularized the technique in 300. What this movie is not is particularly intelligent thematically, nor does it know how to create and effectively use any antagonists (its best, Doctor Poison, gets sidelined for most of the runtime). I sort of understand the affection people have for it, but I definitely don’t share it.”
“Still, the movie has its charms. Its second half works pretty basically after the flagging first half. It looks good, and there are winning performances all around. It’s mildly entertaining, but nothing exactly special.”
“At over two-hours, it struggles to justify its length, and that struggle creates tangents that don’t pay off very well. Heck, a good portion of the tangents are Skittles and Phillies commercials. Still, it has a decent throughline and some laughs along the way. It’s not good. It’s not as good as the first Shazam. However, it’s…okay.”
“I know this film is getting pretty universal praise, and I sort of get it. It’s thinly entertaining, but it doesn’t really gel overall. It’s the best the DCEU has been since Shazam!, though.”
5. Shazam!
“In the end, though, the movie’s an unchallenging little superhero movie that aims primarily towards children. It’s amusing and cleanly told. For some that will be a more than welcome change to the franchise that they’ve considered to be off the rails from the beginning. For me, it’s nice, but I look back at the cinematic ambition of the first two DCEU films and sigh, happy to have something better than okay but much less than the aims of where the franchise started.”
4. The Flash
“Andy Muschietti threw the kitchen sink into this, and I’m just happy that some of it entertained me along the way. It’s a mess, but sometimes I really do get a kick out of messes.”
3. Man of Steel
“I love the ambition of the film. It’s desire to reach beyond mere spectacle and enter into something of mythic scale is quite well handled. I also like Superman’s challenge in finding how to make himself known to the world, and it ultimately comes out of necessity and to make up for his own contribution to the violence being visited upon Earth. It’s rough, though.”
2. Zack Snyder’s Justice League
“It’s good.”
1. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
“All in all, though, the Ultimate Cut of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is a ride through a complex plot with some interesting stuff on its mind at the same time. There’s great spectacle along the way as well. It could have used more time as a script to hammer some stuff out and clear some stuff up, but as it is, I find it an entertaining three hours.”
David Vining, Author 