Sunday Best: Ranking the DCEU - The Final Score

 With the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, we now draw the DCEU to a close.  With James Gunn's intention to reboot the entire universe, the world created by 2013's Man of Steel is now over.  I have been a fan of the DCEU, despite its many ups and downs.  Let us now look back and evaluate what these past 11 years brought us.  (some points below are reposts)

It is no secret that DC struggles to have the same success as Marvel in the film.  Success leads to greater output.  And so you can see the marked distinction between DC's 16 theatrical films (and one straight to streaming) to Marvel's 33 theatrical films (and 23 TV shows and specials).

If I were to put my finger on the basic difference between the two it is this: 

DC was director-centered (originally)

Marvel is producer-centered

DC hires directors with strong visions like Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, David Ayer, Cathy Yan, and James Gunn.  They give these directors great latitude to do what they want.  The problem is that when you give creative people no restraints, you will get the extremes of greatness or awfulness.  The great movies of the DCEU are some of the best super hero films ever made.  The bad ones are some of the worst.  And you cannot try to constrain the vision after-the-fact.  This leads to the muddling of the work as in the theatrical Justice League and Suicide Squad.

Marvel, on the other hand, holds tight rein of their directors.  They give them strict guidelines as to what can and cannot be in the movie.  This is so much so that often some of the action sequences will already be determined and pre-visualized even before a director is chosen.  This is why some directors like Edgar Wright and Joss Whedon drop out of big projects.  But the result is that you have a product that has mass appeal for the largest audience.

In other words, Marvel gets on base while DC swings for the fences.

Now, this is not a hard and fast rule for both companies.  Aquaman and Black Adam very much followed the Marvel formula and we can see in Phase 4 some experimentation with the MCU, but generally these views apply.

With that in mind, here is an updated ranking of the 16 DCEU films (and 1 TV show):

17. Birds of Prey:  And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

In my Film Flash for The Suicide Squad, I said that it was the worst of the DCEU films.  But I had completely forgotten about Birds of Prey. 

As I wrote previously: "Birds of Prey is a failure on every single level of film-making.  This movie isn't so much a movie as it is a rant.  Nothing is fun, nothing is funny.  As a comic book critic I follow says, the movie is filled with 'LOL so random!' humor that it never actually approaches anything like real comedy.  All of this would be tolerable if we connected on any level to the characters, which we do not.  There is nothing enjoyable, likable, approachable, or sympathetic about any of them.  And while I know that movies tend to deviate from their comic counterparts, what they did with Cassandra Cain is a complete waste of a fantastic and interesting character.  

"What makes it worse is that the movie is completely and utterly smug in how it presents itself, right to the final frame of the film.  The only time the movie has life is during some of the action sequences, particularly in the jail breakout.  For a moment we get a glimpse of what a real Birds of Prey movie could be, but it quickly collapses under the weight of its own inanity."

16. The Suicide Squad

This one is so morally rancid that I don't see it getting much better.  Unlike Birds of Prey, there is some real talent in the writing and directing and there are moments that are very good.  King Shark alone was entertaining enough.  But this bright bowl of nihilism never takes off the way it could.  Over time, it has gotten worse in my estimation, rather than better.

15.  Peacemaker

This movie keeps the same tone as The Suicide Squad, which is not a good thing.  I know that it's horribly unfair to make moral judgments of an artist based on the art, but I get the sneaking feeling that James Gunn enjoys the idea of hurting people.  There is a glee that this show takes in causing pain.  The "heroes" are straight-up murderers and this is never properly addressed.  The only thing that makes this slightly better than The Suicide Squad is that it peels just a few layers back on Peacemaker to reveal an actual character.  

Both this and The Suicide Squad make me very nervous over the fact that James Gunn has been given creative control over the DCEU.  (I'll more on this later)

14. Wonder Woman 1984

This is an incredibly flawed sequel, but it is one that I still enjoy.  It is bright and colorful, but often forgets that it is an action film.  I know a number of people who think this movie is awful and I really don't have an excuse for all of its mistakes.  I can say that despite its shortcoming, the movie has enough good moments for me to enjoy.

13.  Blue Beetle

There is nothing horribly wrong with this outing of the hero.  But by the time this movie was released, it didn't seem like there was anything that it had to say that wasn't said before and better by other superhero films.  That is a shame because the lead actor was good and there is some potential for story growth.  But this one just didn't land the way it should have.

12. SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods

This sequel is fine and sometimes quite enjoyable.  But with the origin story out of the way, I was looking forward to a greater expansion of the SHAZAM mythos.  I know that this sequel got hampered by Dwayne Johnson wanting his Black Adam to stand against Superman rather than SHAZAM, but it would have been nice to see the matchup.  And Zachary Levi is always fun to watch.

11.  Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

This movie works best when it is a buddy adventure film between the two brothers.  But you get the sense that this movie was re-written and re-shot several times and it doesn't quite hold together with the same sense of fun as the first one.

10.  Suicide Squad

This was a bold choice for this franchise's 3rd film.  And the risk almost pays off.  The premise is unlike anything in the mainstream of super hero movies beforehand.  You had charismatic performances by Will Smith and Margot Robbie.  Heck, even the perennially unwatchable Jai Courtney was amazingly fun to watch.  But the movie suffers from three things:
a. a Joker performance that, while not terrible, suffers in comparison to Nicholson and Ledger
b. a incredibly uncompelling villain
c. a moral black hole in the middle of the movie from which the film never recovers.

This movie actually improves from its original standing having watched the much worse sequel.  

9. SHAZAM!

As I wrote earlier: "SHAZAM! is primarily a comedy with big action set pieces.  Because of the highly subjective nature of comedy, enjoyment of the movie will probably vary a bit more than standard super hero films.  But the humor is broad and varied, with plenty of silly jokes and slapstick.  The main source of the film's humor is in the concept of a young, immature child with the powers of someone like Superman.  The comparison to the Tom Hanks movie Big are unavoidable and the filmmakers lean heavily into it, even making a funny visual reference to that movie during a scene in a toy store."

8. The Flash

As much as I loathe Ezra Miller, I found myself enjoying this movie more than I thought.  That is in no small part due to Michael Keaton's incredibly cool return as the Caped Crusader.  But despite some of the janky CGI at the end, I found myself moved by Barry's ultimate dilemma and call to sacrifice.  If you cannot get past its flaws, I completely understand.  But underneath there is a good super hero film here.

7. Justice League (Theatrical)

I was never someone who hated Joss Whedon's Justice League.  In fact, I saw it multiple times in the theater because I like it so much.  Whedon was given a terrible task of trying to completely change and already completed film.  As a result, the movie is very uneven.  Still, the movie is not nearly as bad as everyone claimed it to be.  But the film does suffer in comparison to Zack Snyder's original vision which we can now all see.  Of the two, this is the inferior one.

6. Aquaman

As I wrote earlier, there are two things that make this film so enjoyable:

"The first is Jason Momoa.  This man is a bonafide action movie star.  He is a charisma machine.  Like Dwayne Johnson, he connects to the audience in a simple way by letting you feel like you are in the good guy's corner and are part of his team.  His effortless charm is horribly disarming.  If that was the extent of his ability, however, Momoa would be another interchangeable movie tough guy.  But this man act.  ...

"The second is director James Wan visual direction.  Aquaman is a great action movie.  Wan knows how to film the up-close-and-personal fighting as in the movies sub rescue.  He also knows how to film a thrilling chase, as we see in the Black Manta sequence.  And he knows how to create the epic scope of an full-scale battle.  In a movie like this, the visuals must not only be dynamic, they must also be cool.  This is essential to get us to buy into these mer-men battles.  The over-the-top nature of the sequences makes it easy for the film to collapse under its own ridiculousness.  But Wan hooks you in and makes you want to see what new visual feat he has planned next.  The scope is like something out of a Peter Jackson fantasy."

5. Black Adam

Since this is the newest, this film has the most potential to slide up and down on this scale.  At this moment, I am still filled with good-feelings towards this film.  Dwayne Johnson makes the film incredibly watchable.  It is very similar in tone to the MCU style that we find in Aquaman, and the script could be smarter, but I see myself watching this film many more times in the future.  

In fact, I might go see it again in theaters before it leaves.

4. Wonder Woman

As super hero origin stories, this is one that was done right.  While it has familiar story beats to other films that have come before it, it feels epic and iconic.  I have seen so many comic book movies, but the No Man's Land scene might be one of my favorites of all time.  Wonder Woman is a fantastic hero whose strength and femininity, courage and innocence, are all wrapped together to make a great movie.

The third act villain falls apart a bit, but the movie still holds up.  When you compare it to the sequel, you can feel how this one holds up better.  All of this is held up by Gal Gadot's charisma.

3.  Zack Snyder's Justice League

This is one of the most satisfying super hero film experiences I have had.  After years, we finally were able to see Zack Snyder complete his vision, of which we only received glimpses before.  The result is a much improved story that fills out the characters, their relationships, and the performances, and this includes what we find with the villains.  This would be higher on the list if it felt like a finale.  Instead, Snyder ended his movie with an epilogue that looks too much into an uncertain cinematic future rather than into a "Happily Ever After."


2.  Man of Steel

There are so many moments in this movie that still give me chills.  People knock on the movie for Superman not being the pillar of optimism and hope that he normally is.  But that was one of the things I loved about the movie.  Superman has to rise above the cynicism of the age that he was also raised in.  He is called to be more, to rise above.  And he does.  Even though he stumbles, he rises.

1.  Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

My love for this movie only grows and grows.  Zack Snyder fully committed to make a movie that used these iconic characters to explore deeper questions about life while still being focused on that iconography.  The movie, to my mind, is unappreciated genius.  And I am more convinced of this with each viewing.  One of the best things about Zack Snyder's Justice League is that you can see the trajectory of the characters, particularly Batman, over the course of the series.  With that, knowing that Batman v. Superman is the Dark Knight at his moral lowest, it is a pleasure to see him rise again to the hero he should be.

Thoughts?