DCEU: Best to Worst

This is what happens when you put a genuinely talented filmmaker at the helm of a DC movie. You get an entertaining, funny, visually engaging and interesting movie. I don't think the plot is as cohesive or investing as Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies but it is a sincerely fun romp and one that I can actually recommend whole heartedly to other people, which is a damn sight more than I can say for most of the other DC movies.

Finally! A genuinly good DC movie! Well told, well acted and completely embracing of its inherent silliness. That, in a way, makes it very similar to Thor: Ragnarök, as well as the lightning themed hero. It is by no means a perfect movie. The villain doesn't completely work and the ending seems a little contrived but on par this is a very enjoyable, light hearted and fun movie. Special mention has to be made on behalf of Zachary Levy who absolutely kills it as the main hero, Captain Sparkle Fingers!

Really stylish, entertaining movie with a very enjoyable meta-layer to it. I absolutely loved the neon aesthetic and found the character engaging and refreshingly free of the restrictions that are usually imposed on female characters in a superhero movie of this sort. The movie has a sort of standard climax and is oddly paced at times, but none of it detracts from the overall level of fun I had with it.

This is the movie that people point to when they want to say that DC movies can be very good. I partially agree. There are a lot of really good elements to this movie. Gal Gadot's performance is ineffably delightful, the trench run was truly great, and the storytelling was, for the most part, solid. I do think that the cultural relevance of the movie (because there is no denying the weight of that) sort of inflated the impact of the movie. It still had major third act problems and the final villain was poorly handled. It felt like the writing was done by someone else in the third act, which was tonally bafflingly out of place. I will say that Wonder Woman is two thirds of a really great movie but I really wish it had stuck the landing.

Well, this movie cannot be accused of being boring. That is something at least. It really tries to be the most epic superhero movie of all time, and while it almost succeeds, it does so by sacrificing intimacy with the characters. Patrick Wilson spends most of his screen time yelling (because that is just so EPIC) but in terms of his character it is a fairly straightforward villain arc. Jason Momoa genuinely tries but I remain unconvinced of his talent. It might sound like I really didn't like the film, but that is not actually the case. For the most part, I had a blast with it. Really entertaining but also really dumb.

Blue Beetle is a completely standard origin story and a very basic superhero movie, and while that might sound like criticism, considering the context of the DCEU, it is actually praise. It didn't try to do anything other than be a bog standard superhero movie and it succeeded in its goal. I found it reasonably entertaining.

So, the last gasp of the DCEU was not actually all that bad. It was basically a buddy movie with the villain from the first movie, Orm, and that part was actually not all that bad. Don't get me wrong, it is by no means a great movie, so it lands somewhere in the middle of the whole DCEU.

I really wanted to like this movie! I did! But I found it to be an ugly, unappealing mess of a movie. There were numerous tones competing for dominance resulting in it being none of them. It wasn't funny enough to be a Marvel comedy. It wasn't dark or mean-spirited enough to be a true DCEU movie and despite having Michael Keaton back as Batman, something I was so looking forward to, it couldn't even do fanservice right. Not the worst movie in the DCEU, but it might be the most disappointing.

Some really good performances, especially from the Child actors, and some laugh out loud moments, but the story lacks cohesion and drive. The effects are lacking and the story is just not as interesting as the first time around. Ironically, even though this film is on the mediocre side, it is still easily in the better end of the DCEU.

Finally! Done with Snyder! The talented director (because despite my ravings about him below - I do think he is a very gifted film maker) brought us his new take on the Man of Steel, which despite what fanboys say, isn't really all that new or interesting. The NEW basically boils down to saying what Superman is NOT. This is NOT the Superman your dad grew up with. This is NOT the light hearted, likable version that you got from Christopher Reeve. This is something else. Well, what is it then? It is NOT what you expect. The worst offence of this movie is just how boring it is.

The debate rages as to whether the proposed Snyder-cut would be a better movie than the Frankenstein's monster we actually got. My estimation is probably not. This movie would probably have been every bit as wrong headed as his previous movies. I will give Snyder this though; he may have been wrong on just about everything but at least he was ambitious. This amalgamation of Snyder and Whedon's disparate styles fails a little less, but only because it appears to not be trying at all.

After an original movie that showed so much promise, WW1984 is a jumbled mess with a lot of ideas but no follow through. Gal Gadot was still good and Kristen Wigg was actually excellent but they were much better than the film deserved.

It might not be the worst movie of the DCEU but it may in fact be the most contemptable one. Similarly to Suicide Squad almost every single decision made by the film makers seems to have been the wrong one. Double down on the mopey Superman. Check! Make Lex Luther a wired, weird, hyperactive version of Mark Zuckerberg. Check! Use elements from the two most popular stories featuring the titular heroes that are actually mutually exclusive on a thematical level. Check! Holy s**t! The one bright spot in the movie is the Arkham inspired Batman fight at the warehouse.

If you thought Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was dumb and ill conceived, Suicide Squad looked at the debacle and said; “Hold my beer!” From start to finish this afront to senses constantly bombards you with terrible lines, awful ideas, horrible effects whose only saving grace is that they are so ineptly lit that you can barely see what is actually going on. Characters (If you can call them that) flail about with no apparent rhyme or reason behind their actions and serve no other purpose than to advance the painfully underdeveloped plot from one set piece to another. Horrible approximation of what a movie should be!