After the immense success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was only a matter of time before DC tried to emulate that success with its own library of iconic superheroes. The DC Extended Universe started off with Superman’s origin story, which was a logical jumping-off point in theory, but divided fans with its bleak, gloomy tone in Zack Snyder’s execution.
Despite this controversy, Man of Steel made enough money at the box office for Warner Bros. to pull the trigger on a cinematic universe. The muddled ensuing franchise has given audiences some of the best and worst comic book movies in recent memory.
8 Suicide Squad (27%)
Warner Bros. gave David Ayer six weeks to finalize the script for Suicide Squad, then got anxious about his movie’s dark tone when Batman v Superman underperformed at the box office and Deadpool defied all expectations to become a hit.
So, the studio butchered Ayer’s cut by hiring the editors of the well-received trailer to basically cut the whole movie like a feature-length trailer. The result flits between clunky exposition and incoherent action.
7 Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (29%)
The hype surrounding a movie called Batman v Superman resulted in bitter disappointment when the movie itself turned out to be nowhere near as fun as a movie bearing that title promised to be.
After Warner Bros. got the bright idea to use BvS as a springboard to their own Marvel-esque cinematic universe for DC characters, Zack Snyder lost interest in telling a cohesive story and took the opportunity to fill the movie with J.J. Abrams-style “mystery box” teases like the Joker’s murder of Robin and the Flash’s brief visit from the DCEU’s future. The scenes that do serve the story, like the infamous “Save Martha!” moment, are even dumber.
6 Justice League (40%)
Considering it suffered from one of the most troubled productions in film history, it’s a miracle that Justice League is even coherent, but it’s certainly not a good movie. Zack Snyder planned a dark, gloomy, mega-sized follow-up to BvS, but the negative reception to BvS gave Warner Bros. cold feet, so they told Snyder to keep his gigantic movie under two hours and give it a lighter tone.
After a personal tragedy forced Snyder to step down, Warner Bros. took the liberty of completely changing his movie. The studio brought on Avengers director Joss Whedon to cram in a bunch of bad Marvel-style jokes and the result is a tonal disaster.
5 Man Of Steel (56%)
Zack Snyder kicked off the DC Extended Universe by giving Superman’s origin story a dark, gritty Batman Begins-inspired reboot in Man of Steel. While Snyder’s creative decisions proved to be controversial among diehard Supes fans, Henry Cavill proved to be a perfect casting choice for the role.
Like Fant4stic and The Amazing Spider-Man, which were similarly influenced by Batman Begins, the dark tone of Man of Steel didn’t suit its property. The last thing the bright-eyed symbol of optimism that is Superman needs is a bleak, dreary, pessimistic movie.
4 Aquaman (65%)
Aquaman was the laughing stock of the DC Extended Universe until Zack Snyder cast Jason Momoa to play him. With his hulking physique and infinite coolness, Momoa made the king of Atlantis one of the world’s most popular superheroes overnight.
After Joss Whedon’s reshot version of Justice League bungled Arthur Curry’s characterization, James Wan came along to deliver a standalone movie with the globetrotting adventures of Indiana Jones and the large-scale battle sequences of The Lord of the Rings that went on to surpass The Dark Knight Rises to become the highest-grossing DC movie ever made.
3 Birds Of Prey (78%)
While there are a couple of issues with the script, Birds of Prey was a huge improvement over Suicide Squad, basically by taking the one good thing from that movie (Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn) and getting rid of everything else, including her romantic connection to the Joker.
The main problem with Birds of Prey is that it doesn’t know if it wants to be a Harley Quinn solo movie or a team-up movie; it’s set up as the latter, but seems desperate to be the former. It’s never a good sign when a studio renames a movie in the middle of its theatrical run.
2 Shazam! (90%)
After Zack Snyder got the DCEU off to a decidedly humorless start with Man of Steel and BvS, David F. Sandberg injected the franchise with some much-needed comedy with the zany, self-aware fun of Shazam!, in which a teenager is granted the ability to turn into an adult superhero by uttering the titular catchword.
Zachary Levi carried the whole movie as Billy Batson’s superpowered alter ego, bringing all the character’s immaturity, incompetence, and irrepressible urge to have fun to his superhero form.
1 Wonder Woman (93%)
Patty Jenkins was the perfect director to bring Wonder Woman to the screen. In stark contrast to the MCU’s overuse of bathos, Jenkins decided to excise the word “cheesy” from her vocabulary and took Diana Prince’s journey from Amazonian warrior to world-saving superhero seriously.
This paired well with Gal Gadot’s steadfast commitment to the role and resulted in the DCEU’s greatest entry. The “No Man’s Land” sequence is one of the most breathtaking set pieces in recent blockbuster memory.
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