The Downfall of Warner Brother's DC Extended Universe

Good morning, evening, and afternoon. I am Reveream, critical commentator of pop culture content

What is my personal  greatest movie experience ever? I can easily say that it is when I saw The Dark Knight in 2008. I was 16 years old at the time, and I was already a fan of DC superhero cartoons Justice League Unlimited and Teens Titans, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Because of this, I was determined to see The Dark Knight no matter what. On the film’s opening day, I took the bus down to my local mall, with only enough cash for the movie ticket and the bus ride back. When, I got to the mall, the movie was sold out, so I had to wait in the arcade for an hour and a half for the next showing. The wait was well worth it though, because watching The Dark Knight in a crowded theater was a transcendent experience. Cheering with the packed audience every time Batman, The Joker, or Gordon did something badass was an experience that I will always treasure.

But in summer 2008,  I also went to the theater to see another superhero film, with a character not nearly as famous as Batman. This film was of course Iron Man, the first installment of what would soon become the highest grossing film franchise in history, Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU, spearheaded by genius producer Kevin Feige, was the highest cinematic endeavour since Star Wars. With multiple films over an entire universe, the franchise's appeal was near universal and it's box office gross was astronomical.

After the success of the MCU, multiple studios tried and failed to replicate its success by attempting to turn their intellectual properties into cinematic universes. While the most infamous of these attempts is probably Universal's Dark Universe, the most successful has been Warmer Brothers DCEU, based on the classic superheroes of DC comics. Warmer Brothers hired acclaimed director Zach Snyder, known for his remake of Dawn of The Dead and adaptations of 300 and Watchmen, to helm the first project, a reboot of Superman, the world's original and most iconic superhero. Everything seemed ready for DC to create a cinematic universe that could rival or even surpass the MCU. What could go wrong?

Apparently, everything. Man Of Steel was only moderately recieved, and it's sequel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, was outright panned by critics. The spin off film Suicide Squad was also panned, and the franchise's most successful film, Wonder Woman, is an okay film at best. And then came Justice League, what was supposed to be the highest grossing film of the series. It instead flopped harder than any film before it and was lambasted by critics. Virtually all of the DCEU films have had notoriously troubled productions, and unlike the MCU and Kevin Feige, the DCEU doesn't seem to have a competent producer spearheading the franchise. Now, with Aquaman and Shazam seeming to be the DCEU's last hope, one must wonder, what the fuck happened to the DCEU?

Zach Snyder: Good Director, Wrong Choice

After the massive success of Avengers in 2012, Warner Brothers desired to create their own cinematic universe based on the DC heroes whose licenses they owned. Their first project was a reboot of the iconic Superman, and they desired for it to be as big as The Dark Knight. For this project, they hired Zach Snyder, who seemed like a good choice due to his past successful comic book adaptations and their dark tones, which were similar to The Dark Knight. This choice will prove to have been a shortsighted and costly mistake. The dark tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as well as Zach Snyder’s filmography did not seem fitting for Superman, a hero well known for his optimistic idealism. Even worse was the fact that this was to be the establishing film of the DCEU, meaning that it would set the tone for all films after it. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe uses a variety of directors for each of it’s film, it has maintained a consistent tone, the sardonic yet serious tone set up in the franchise’s first film, 2008’s Iron Man. Additionally, while Zach Snyder has had hits like 300 and Watchmen, he has also had blunders, most infamously his shallow and nonsensical faux-feminist action film Sucker Punch, causing some to wonder if he could handle such an iconic character as Superman. While some believed that the Nolan-esque tone that Warner Brothers and Zach Snyder intended to Man of Steel seemed unwise for a superhero and franchise with such colorful characters as The Flash and Green Lantern, others, such as myself, were more than willing to give Zach Snyder’s dark vision a chance, willing to see what interesting concepts and themes such a vision could hold. All that mattered was the execution….

Man Of Steel: Bad Superman Movie, Great Alien Invasion Movie

Man of Steel was released to theaters with wide audience ambivalence. While some praised it’s incredibly choreographed fight scenes and realistic take on an alien invasion, others were outraged at the film, for it’s weak characterization, seemingly gratuitous collateral damage, which many compared to 9/11 footage, as well as it’s portrayal of a Superman who was willing to kill.

I personally was ambivalent with the film. The film’s prologue on Krypton was an absolute spectacle to behold, but it was the film’s terrible first act which was undoubtedly the worst part of the film. In a muddled series of present scenes and flashbacks, we see that Clark is a brooding loner. The unnecessary melodrama given to Clark Kent’s story earn the ire of myself and many others. Perhaps the most infamous part of Clark’s backstory is the seemingly insane Pa Kent, played by Kevin Costner. He spends his scenes alternating between telling Clark that he’s destined for greatness and telling Clark that he should hide his identity even at the risk of letting children die. Then of course Pa Kent dies in the most ridiculous manner possible, rescuing a dog from a tornado, getting trapped, and then refusing to let Clark rescue him, sacrificing himself, so that Clark can keep his identity a secret, which I guess means he really doesn’t want Clark to become Superman

Even beyond Pa Kent, Clark’s characterization is terrible, most notably a scene where he confronts a drunk trucker who is harassing a waitress in a diner. Whereas the iconic Superman who see the good in everyone, would have tried to talk to the trucker and perhaps even get the trucker a cup of coffee, the Superman of this film seems like a petulant bully, getting angry when the trucker, who can do no harm to him whatsoever, tries and fails to push him. The waitress has to stop Clark from killing him and Clark leaves. But ah ha, it turns out that Superman impaled the drunk guy’s truck on an electric pole, without a doubt destroying the man’s livelihood. Sweet justice, right?  

Lois Lane and the Daily Planet staff, as well as all of the military members are enjoyable supporting characters for the most part, although there are scenes where Lois is definitely crowbarred in, most notably Zod demanding her as a prisoner, just so she could escape via a cameo hologram of Jor El. Also, her kiss with Superman amid the rubble of Metropolis felt incredibly tone deaf, and made Superman seem less empathetic to audiences.  For the most part though, she was enjoyable. Christopher Meloni, Harry Lennix, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Kelly do fine jobs in their roles.

The film truly picks up when Zod shows up. Zod is easily the best part of the film. He has a very sympathetic motivation, viewing himself as the last thing that can save his species from destruction, and having absolutely no regard for the insignificant humans he will terraform over. He is a nearly Lovecraftian villain with how nihilistic he is towards humanity, and combined with his Kryptonian powers and superior alien technology, it truly makes him one of the most frightening alien invaders to ever grace the cinema screen.

The fight sequences were fantastic.  Zach Snyder’s fluid yet kinetic direction combined with the massive scale of the fights made them some of the greatest in the history of the superhero film genre. While many have complained about the amount of collateral damage Superman inadvertently causes throughout the film, I was not mindful of it, as I was used to seeing Superman and his allies cause collateral damage repeatedly in the DC Animated Universe’s Justice League. I was also not mindful of Superman killing Zod as many others were, as according to my logic, Superman’s no-kill rule only applies to humans and especially not to beings as powerful as himself, a fact he proudly announced to Darkseid in his famous World of Cardboard speech in the Justice League Unlimited finale before launching him into a skyscraper, as well as made clear in Superman II, when he mercilessly killed a depowered version of General Zod by throwing him down a pit.

However, while I was not mindful of the collateral damage Superman caused, I find it impossible to argue that the film doesn’t use blatant 9/11 imagery. This is undoubtedly most apparent in the destruction of the Daily Planet building. Zod’s World Ship causes a fighter jet to be flung into the side of the Daily Planet. The staff are then evacuated onto the street by police officers, before they are forced to run as the building collapses into a huge dust cloud. This sequence of events can only be described as a miniature 9/11, and it is hard to argue that the similarity to 9/11 footage is coincidental.

Altogether, I found the film to be full of flaws but also full of potential, and I hoped that perhaps with a more competent writer, Zach Snyder could create a good Superman sequel that would better express his themes.

Batman Vs Superman: Ripoff Civil War

Initially, Zach Snyder was planning on making Man of Steel 2, but after the massive critical backlash towards the first film, Warner Brothers halted the project. They demanded that Zach Snyder put Batman in the next film, hoping to attract the massive audiences of Nolan’s films. Ben Affleck, who is reportedly a huge Batman fan, was signed on to play Batman, and Jesse Eisenberg was signed on to play Lex Luthor, with Chris Terrio, writer of the Academy Award winning Argo, signed on as writer. Some fans were worried about whether Ben Affleck could fill such an iconic role, and others worried that Snyder’s dark filmmaking style would once again lead to a subpar film.  When the first trailer was released, it was received with mostly positive response, with many fans getting hype. But things seemed off when the second trailer was released, spoiling the fact that Doomsday was in the film, making some people wonder why Warner Brothers was so desperate to market the film as to spoil it’s ending.

When the final product was released, audiences were absolutely baffled. The film was an incomprehensibly edited mess, with scenes having virtually no continuity between them. Not only that, but the scenes themselves were clearly cut down for time, leading to even more confusion as to what the actual plot is.   

The film begins with a flashback showing the murder of Martha and Thomas Wayne, an origin story that some found to be unnecessarily repetitive given the recent Nolan trilogy.

From here, it cuts to Bruce Wayne in Metropolis during the events of Man of Steel, and it is here that the film’s haphazard writing and production immediately becomes apparent. The scene starts with Bruce Wayne speeding towards a Wayne Enterprises building, where for some reason, there are staff holding a board meeting despite the obvious alien invasion going on outside. Even more baffling, they do not start evacuating the building until Bruce Wayne calls them and specifically tells them to do so. The building collapses due to the Zod vs Superman fight, resulting in a Wayne employee’s legs being mutilated in the rubble. Bruce Wayne looks up into the sky at anger towards Superman, who he clearly views as an existential threat. This sequence of events, showing the casualties of Superman’s collateral damage, was undoubtedly a result of audience backlash towards the destruction of the first film.

From here the film devolves into an editing nightmare. We cut to Africa, where Lois Lane is attempting to interview an arms trafficking warlord.  She is then joined by a CIA agent named Jimmy Olsen. In the Superman mythos, Jimmy Olsen is one of the most iconic characters, a young and idealistic reporter who idolizes Superman. However, in the film, he appears for a brief cameo, before he is quickly executed by the warlord in a shocking scene that many fans found to be an insult to the famous character. Superman arrives, murders the warlord and his henchmen, and rescues Lois.

From here, we cut to what is supposed to be the inciting incident, in which an African woman is giving a press conference interview, claiming that when Superman rescued Lois, he inadvertently caused a shockwave which killed her son, a sub plot which seemingly makes no sense, as we never see the son killed, and the woman is later murdered by Luthor's henchman. Although it is explained in the extended version that Luthor hired her to lie about the incident, the lack of that information in the theatrical version made for a perplexing and seemingly inconsequential subplot. We are then treated to a confusing montage in which we see government officials talking about the need for Superman to submit to humanity’s legal systems as well as well known journalists and scientists, such as Wolf Blitzer and Niel DeGrasse Tyson, discussing the existential implications of Superman’s existence on Earth. This is intercut with scenes of Superman rescuing people all over the world from fires, floods, and space shuttle crashes, and receiving seemingly religious praise from the many grateful survivors.

After this we are introduced to Batman, in an incarnation that some found enjoyable but many found far too bleek and out of character. This version of Batman seems to have absolutely no problem murdering people, with entire swaths of henchmen dying from the collateral damage of Batman’s rampage. Additionally, he is shown to brand criminals with Bat symbols that are meant to get them targeted for death in prison. Although Ben Affleck's acting and the brutally efficient fight choreography was well received by some audiences, many fans were bothered by this murderous version of Batman . However, some proponents of the new Batman pointed out that audiences had already seen a murderous Batman before in Michael Keaton's 1989 version. More importantly, they point out that Ben Affleck's version was supposed to be older and more traumatized, as wee see a graffiti scrawled Robin costume that is clearly meant to imply that this version of Batman had a Robin sidekick Jason Todd, who was driven insane or murdered by the Joker, a reference to the famous plot arc. 

The problem with that is that by doing this, Zach Snyder put himself in a hypocritical position, as he seemed to want to tell his own unique origin story of the DC Universe that was different from other incarnations and could be judged on it’s own merit, like the Nolan Batman Trilogy, but also wanted audiences to use their knowledge of other incarnations, such as the Jason Todd comic book arc, to understand the rushed characterization in this film. It also seemed massively disingenuous to many fans, who felt that Snyder was trying to both insult the fans of the source material for his dark creative vision, with changes to the mythos such as Jimmy Olsen’s death and Batman’s murderous streak, and appease the fans to make the film more marketable, with easter eggs such as the Robin suit.

After meeting Batman, we are introduced to Lex Luthor, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, whose portrayal of Luthor has been met with widespread criticism. Rather than being the stern and calculating criminal mastermind audiences were used to in comic books and the DC Animated Universe, Eisenberg’s version of Luthor was manic and insecure. Many found this version of Luthor to be unbearably annoying, with his over the top behavior being compared as a poor imitation of Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Now I was personally willing to give Eisenberg’s incarnation a chance. While I did love the incarnation voiced by Clancy Brown in the DC Animated Universe, I did not mind an alternate interpretation of the character.  In my opinion, the main trait of Lex Luthor should be a seemingly invincible ruthless intellect that can match Superman’s seemingly invincible strength, which is why Lex Luthor has famously had many incarnations from insane mad scientists to shrewd businessmen and politicians. Also, before Man of Steel or the DC Animated Universe, my first experience with Superman was watching the 40’s Max Fleschier cartoons on the Boomerang channel, in particular the original 1941 cartoon in which the insane unnamed Mad Scientist attempts to use a death ray to threaten Metropolis. I initially found Eisenberg’s portrayal of Luthor as similar to to the Mad Scientist, and as such I found some enjoyment in it.

However, Eisenberg’s Luthor ended up being embarrassingly terrible. While he does have one excellent scene in the film, the scene on the rooftop with Superman, everything else he does in the film is idiotic, confusing, and sometimes downright disgusting. We first see Lex inviting both Clark and Bruce to his house party, where he is trying to convince a congresswoman to give him access to Zod’s ship and corpse. She does not trust his motivations and refuses his request, stating that he is “trying to sell her piss in a jar and calling it granny’s peach tea”. We then find out that he has been harvesting kryptonite that was terraformed into the bottom of the Ocean from Zod’s World Ship.

He then approaches the Wayne employee from the beginning of the film whose legs were severed. He gives the man an electric wheelchair in exchange for testifying against Superman in the US Capitol with the congresswoman who denied Luthor’s request. The man challenges Superman to show up on live television, and Clark is guilted to attend. As the congresswoman prepares to interview Superman, she notices something. There is a jar on the side of the table. With the label Granny’s Peach Tea. And it’s yellow. Umm…..What? Yea, that’s right Batman Vs Superman has a suspenseful scene centered around a large jar of urine. Seriously! Anyways, the wheelchair turns out to be a bomb, and the Capitol blows up, despite the fact that Superman had the senses and speed to hear the bomb and/or rescue the people. For reasons not explained to the audience, the Capitol bombing results in Luthor being given access to the Kryptonian wreckage, while the Capitol bombing and any other consequences of it are not mentioned for the rest of the film. Batman steals his kryptonite, causing Luthor to kidnap Lois Lane and Martha Kent, holding them hostage to coerce Superman into fighting the kryptonite-armed Batman, hoping Batman will kill him. While Batman and Superman fight, Luthor creates Doomsday, unleashing it right as Superman comes to apprehend him. After the climatic doomsday fight, Luthor is imprisoned, but he has one last scene, possibly the worst scene in the entire film. Batman comes to Luthors cell to ask about Batman’s premonitions, threatening to kill Luthor but relenting at the last moment. Luthor responds with the film’s most embarrassing moment, where he says that the bells of the future are ringing and then he starts repeating Ding! Ding! Ding!, a moment that is meant to be ominous but is instead unintentionally hilarious.

While Luthor had potential as a villain, it was squandered with confusing writing and over the top characterization. Because of the films incoherent structure, the exact extent of Luthor’s intellect is highly debateable. The film makes it unclear whether or not he anticipated Batman’s theft of the kryptonite, or whether he anticipated the creation of Doomsday when he started examining Zod’s ship. This is only made worse by Luthor’s embarrassing behavior, such as attempting to coerce a senator by putting a jolly rancher in the senator’s mouth, as well as the aforementioned jar of urine and the Dings! Due to this bad writing, what could have been an intriguing alternative version of Superman’s greatest foe was instead a cinematic laughingstock.

Lois Lane’s presence in the film was also highly criticized. A large portion of the first and second act of the film is centered around Lois investigating a bullet from the African warlord that seems to be connected to Lex Luthor. Despite the unnecessarily long amount of time centered on this subplot, it ultimately leads to nothing, as Lois is eventually just kidnapped by Luthor in order to threaten Superman. Afterwards, she is given Batman’s kryptonite spear, which she throws away when Batman and Superman are done fighting, only to struggle to retrieve it moments later when it is needed to fight Doomsday. This unnecessarily long amount of screentime centered on Lois doing seemingly inconsequential tasks annoyed many fans, even those like myself who liked her presence in Man of Steel

Batman Vs Superman is also hindered massively by terrible attempts at worldbuilding which muddle the film’s narrative and waste valuable screentime that could be used for plot or character development, as well as contain esoteric references which confused rather than excited fans. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, worldbuilding events are either pivotal plot points of the individual films themselves or post credits sequences after the films are finished. However in Batman Vs Superman, the worldbuilding sequences have nothing to do with the plot, and occur right in the middle of the film’s narrative, completely halting the movie’s momentum and eroding audience investment.

There are 2 notable worldbuilding scenes in Batman Vs Superman: Batman’s dream sequence and subsequent Flash cameo, and Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman watching the stolen metahuman files. Both of these sequences are heavily flawed for numerous reasons.

The Batman dream sequence occurs seemingly out of nowhere. In the dream sequence, Superman has taken over Earth, and Batman is killed in an attempted rebellion. During this scene, Batman acts jarringly out of character, operating in broad daylight, using a gun, and wearing a trenchcoat, a reference to the comic book Knightfall. The scene also includes Darkseid’s Omega symbol and Parademons, the minion of Darkseid, fighting on behalf of the evil Superman . Additionally, after Batman wakes up, The Flash, whose character has never yet been seen before in this franchise, appears and tells Batman not to trust Superman. While this sequence of events seemed to allude to a future Justice League film in which Darkseid mind controls Superman and conquers Earth, it had nothing to do with the narrative of Batman Vs Superman, and as such was seen as a confusing waste of screentime.

The second worldbuilding sequence is when Wonder Woman watches video fills showing future Justice League members. While scene showing the future Justice League could have been an intriguing one, the setup for the scene makes it entirely unnecessary to Batman Vs Superman’s narrative. The primary problem with the sequence is that Wonder Woman is the one watching the videos instead of Batman. Earlier in the film, Batman steals metahuman video files from Lex Luthor, and we see him briefly watch the videos offscreen. He then emails the videos back to Wonder Woman, and it is from her perspective that we the audience watch them. The issue with this is the reveal of information to the characters. If we watched the videos with Batman, then we would be learning about Wonder Woman right alongside him, and because Wonder Woman is involved in the climax of this film, it would make Batman learning about her a plot relevant scene for this film. However, because Wonder Woman is the one watching the video, the scene is entirely unnecessary. She already watched the videos before Bruce, and she already knows that she’s Wonder Woman. As such, her watching the videos doesn’t lead to her finding any information relevant to the plot of Batman Vs Superman, meaning that this scene is entirely unnecessary to this film. This scene does nothing whatsoever to progress the plot, and exists only to set up the future Justice League films.

With Batman Vs Superman, I was just as ambivalent as I was with Man of Steel. While I felt that Man of Steel had a far better narrative structure, I felt that Batman Vs Superman had far more interesting themes. I enjoyed the philosophical conflict of Superman, a God forced to obey the laws of man, as shown by his congressional hearing, versus Batman, a man given the legal carte blanche of God, as shown by Perry White and other’s dismissal of Batman’s vigilantism. I also enjoyed the actual battle of itself, with it going exactly how I expected, with Superman having a clear physical advantage, but Batman using ruthless tactics, advanced technology, and kryptonite to bring Superman to his knees. I also was interested by the motivation of Lex Luthor, a misotheist who believes that because of the lack of divine intervention during his childhood abuse, God must either be evil or nonexistent, and is thus determined to ruin Superman’s image as a divine role model. I also enjoyed the final battle with Doomsday, although I was bothered by the illogical contrivance of Doomsday’s existence. Lastly, I was not bothered by the infamous Martha scene, as the way I saw it, Superman's mention of the name did not change Batman's outlook, but rather just make him pause long enough for Lois Lane to come in and explain the situation, which is probably the most useful thing she did in the film. All in all, I felt that, like Man Of Steel, Batman Vs Superman had interesting themes, but needed a competent screenwriter to harness those themes into a proper narrative.

Suicide Squad: Ripoff Guardians of The Galaxy

Suicide Squad is the worst DC film since Catwoman. Whereas I could at least respect Man of Steel and Batman Vs Superman for at least having an artistic vision, Suicide Squad was very clearly just a rip off of the widely popular Guardians of the Galaxy, with both films about groups of rebellious anti-heroes who listen to retro music. However, whereas Guardians of the Galaxy was a highly entertaining and well written spectacle, Suicide Squad was a confusing mess. The film’s problems can be traced back to it’s infamously troubled production, where the script was reportedly written in 5 weeks and there had to be constant reshoots, with a company that makes movie trailers being used to edit the film.

Suicide Squad is terrible at it’s most conceptual levels. The main premise of the film, using superhuman criminals as an expendable task force to stop Kryptonian level threats, confused audiences considering those recruited for the team. Not only were none the team members nearly as powerful as Superman, but most of them seemed barely qualified as soldiers. Some members, like Deadshot, seemed replaceable with a standard special ops soldier, whereas other members, like Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang, seemed entirely useless and lacking any practical skill. Meanwhile, the only two superhuman members of the team, Killer Croc and El Diablo were not nearly powerful enough to contend with a Superman type crisis.

The film was plagued with poor characterization, with all of the characters, including the villain of the film, Enchantress, having one-dimensional character traits and very little discernable motivation. While Deadshot and El Diablo both have tragic backstories regarding their families, everybody else’s motivation seems to just be pure capriciousness. Amanda Waller, the head of the program, seems to be devious and manipulative for no reason, killing her own team seemingly just to shock the audience. The villain, Enchantress, seems to have vague and confusing motivations, and her desire to conquer the world with a sky portal, and an easily-killable army of mutant henchmen, was noted to be unoriginal and derivative of many recent summer blockbusters. The character of Rick Flagg is meant to have a character conflict, as he is in love with the archaeologist the Enchantress is possessing, but if he kills Enchantress, he kills the archaeologist as well. However at the end of the film, he manages to kill the Enchantress without killing the archaeologist, rendering that entire character conflict pointless and confusing.

The film’s cinematography and editing were also terrible. The Suicide Squad are all introduced with brief title cards explaining both basic and irrelevant facts about them, the scenes are incomprehensible due to their short length and puzzling narrative construction, and the lighting is awful, making some of the fight scenes rather unaesthetic. The dialogue is infamously bad, with the character of Katana being introduced in a one-sentence line of exposition, and Deadshot actually namedropping the title of the film in a hamfisted way.

Perhaps the worst thing about the film was The Joker, played by Jared Leto. Leto has been reportedly wanting to play the Joker for years, even being the second choice for The Dark Knight after Heath Ledger. When he got the opportunity to play the Joker in Suicide Squad, fans were excited to see what he would bring to the role. Things seemed odd when there were reports on set of Jared Leto’s extreme method acting. While Heath Ledger was also famously known for method acting in preparation of the Joker, Jared Leto’s actions seemed less like professionalism and more like immaturity, most notably sending the fellow castmates used condoms as a prank. Then photos came out of Jared Leto’s joker, and fans were even more unsettled, as Leto’s Joker was covered in tattoos and jewelry that seemed uncharacteristic of the famously nihilism-loving supervillain. This was then coupled by a promotional music video for the film, Purple Lamborghini, performed rapper Rick Ross and DJ Skrillex, in which the Joker was portrayed not as an insane anarchist but rather a luxurious crime boss, which further confused fans and brought doubt as to whether Leto and the filmmakers understood the character of the Joker.

When the films were released, audiences were met with massive disappointment. Not only was the Joker’s screentime and impact on the plot near non-existent, but his characterization was found to be laughable . His insanity, rather than being expressed through his goals or plans, was expressed spastic editing, tattoos, and over the top dialogue. Many people despised this version of the Joker, and he was named by many as the worst live action adaptation of the character.

While Suicide Squad was lambasted by critics, it still managed to pull in a moderately profitable box office, and so Warner Brothers continued on with the next film in the franchise.

Wonder Woman: Ripoff Captain America and Thor

Wonder Woman was the best reviewed and highest grossing DCEU film, but given it’s track record, that’s not exactly a big accomplishment. The film is centered on the origin story of Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, as she navigates through World War I trying to hunt down The God of War, whom she believes is insitigating the international conflict. While some fans were excited for the film, as a live action film adaptation for Wonder Woman has been anticipated by for decades, others were skeptical, noting that the film’s premise of focusing on the Greek myth-inspired Amazonians seemed similar to Norse mythology-based Thor, and that Wonder Woman’s WWI setting seemed similar to Captain America: The First Avenger, which was set in WWII. Either way, fans lined up for Wonder Woman to see if could redeem a franchise of critical flops.

Wonder Woman was received with relatively lukewarm praise. While it was praised for being the most narratively consistent and best written of the DCEU films, it still received criticism for what some felt was a bland plot.  Perhaps the biggest complaint about the film is the climatic battle and it’s lack of moral complexity. Throughout the film, Wonder Woman and Steven Trevor, played by Chris Pine, debate about whether war is the result of the main villain or simply humanity’s own instinctive nature. While this debate had potential to lead to a great thematic impact, it is instead ignored at the end, when it is revealed that Ares is in fact responsible for the war and after he is defeated, the war ends. This lack of moral complexity upset many viewers, who saw the film’s moral debate as a wasted opportunity.

Despite these complaints, Wonder Woman was still seen as the gold standard of the DCEU, and it seemed that audiences would look forward to seeing her again in Justice League

Justice League:  Ripoff Avengers

Justice League is undoubtedly one of the most infamous superhero films in history. The stories of it’s troubled production are numerous, dating all the way back to Man of Steel. Zach Snyder initially wanted to do Man of Steel 2. When he was forced to switch to Batman vs Superman, he devised a new strategy, to create a 2 part Justice League release. After the failure of Batman Vs Superman, Justice League was ordered to go from a 2 part to one, meaning the entire story would have to be rewritten. Audiences were already skeptical of the prospect of a Justice League film so soon into the franchise's lifespan, as Superman and Wonder Woman were the only ones with solo films, and that there needed to be more origin story films to establish audience connection with the characters before creating an ensemble film, which is the strategy that Marvel Studios used to build up to the Avengers. Also, audiences noted that several key Justice League members, most noticeably Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter, were absent from the League, with Green Lantern's absence from the main cast, and reduction to a small flashback cameo, being attributed to the studio's fear of bringing back negative memories of the infamous 2012 Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern film. 

After the tragic death of Zach Synder’s daughter, he stepped down from the project, and Warner Brothers hired acclaimed director Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers, to finish the film. However Whedon’s reshoots caused problems. Firstly, his light hearted and sardonic tone of writing completely contrasted with Zach Synders dark and grim story telling. Secondly, Henry Cavill was finished shooting Justice League and began work on Mission Impossible Fallout, growing a moustache for the role. When Warner Brothers called him back for Whedon’s reshoots, Paramount refused to let him shave his moustache, leading to Warner Brothers reportedly spending millions to digitally remove the moustache with CGI.

Perhaps the most damaging thing to happen to Justice League however came from the executives of Warner Brothers. The Studio’s CEO, Kevin Tsuchihara, was stepping down from the role later that year, and desired to leave with the largest paycheck possible. Rather than delaying Justice League’s release date for reshoots, he demanded that it be released on schedule so that he could profit off of the film’s box office before his retirement. This decision of corporate greed cost the film heavily, as it’poor CGI, which was evident in the first scene of the film, was heavily derided and mocked by critics.

The flaws of Justice League were apparent form the very beginning of the film. The opening scene is a reviewer asking Superman what he likes about Earth, as children play in the background. The scene was clearly written by Joss Whedon to establish Superman’s tone as a light-hearted hero in contrast to the bleakness of Snyder’s vision. Not only was the scene seemingly inconsequential to the film, but the bad CGI used to cover up Cavill’s moustache was noticeably inadequate. This scene set the tone for what be a confusingly underwritten and unfinished movie.

The next scene of the film shows Batman on the rooftops of Gotham chasing a criminal. As he catches the criminal, he dangles him over a rooftop to scare him. All of a sudden, an insectoid creature appears, which Batman subdues. Batman notes that the creatures are attracted by fear, and the robber notes that their appearance must be caused by the death of Superman. Not only are the visual effects for this scene once again noticeably unfinished, but it, along with the opening credits scene, in which people around the world are seemingly depressed and irritable because of Superman’s death, establishes one of the main problems with this film, which is the noticeable thematic shift towards an optimistic, inspiring vision, which goes entirely against the themes that Snyder established.

In Man of Steel and Batman Vs Supeman, Snyder’s primary theme seems to be of a realistic look at how the world would react to an invincible extraterrestrial deciding to inhabit it. In both films, humanity’s reaction towards Superman is one of ambivalence, with some people loving and even worshiping him, and others terrified that he is an existential threat, with Superman’s death seeming to prove his loyalty to humanity. However, humanity’s reaction to his death in Justice League is one of extreme despair, as though the world viewed him as the ultimate symbol of hope that is known in the mythos. Not only does this retcon Snyder’s vision, but it also is an illogical reaction. In reality, Superman’s death would inspire even more worship in him, with people viewing him as a Christ-like martyr that literally stopped Doomsday. His sacrifice for humanity wouldn’t depress people but rather galvanize untold levels of hope throughout the world, and probably motivate new religions that would  overtake all of the current Abrahamic and Dharmic religions. A good comparison to such a situation would be the Dark Knight Rises and Harvey Dent’s sacrifice, or at least the lie about his sacrifice, and how it inspired the Dent Act, which cleaned the streets of Gotham. So the notion that Superman’s death would cause mass depression is ridiculous, and only served to highlight the films obvious attempts to rectify what they thought were the issues with Snyder’s films

We are then introduced to Steppenwolf, whom many have called one of the worst villains in the history of superhero films. While in the original version of Snyder’s story, Steppenwolf was the henchman of the main villain Darkseid, the studio’s demand to reduce the films from two to one meant that Steppenwolf would have to be the main villain of the film.  He was a being made entirely out of CGI and because of the rewritten story, his motivations were incredibly vague. Not only that, but his goals seemed incredibly derivative of several recent blockbusters, including The Avengers, which also featured a supervillain attempting to seize a world-ending cube, as well as Man of Steel and Guardians of The Galaxy 2, which both featured supervillains attempting to terraform the Earth. Perhaps worst of all is the fact that he was clearly weaker than Superman. In Man of Steel, we saw Superman fight somebody just as powerful as him, and in Batman vs Superman, we saw him fight a being even more powerful than him. So in Justice League, so when Justice League showed Steppenwolf as a clearly inferior foe, audiences were left bored with him,  leading to an insufferably predictable plot, as audiences were left waiting for Superman to inevitably be resurrected so he could defeat easily defeat the villain.

We then meet the Justice League, all of whom are underwhelming. Batman is clearly aging and seems more reliant on his overt wealth than his covert skills. The Flash is the terribly unfunny comedic relief, whose jokes about brunch seemed random and derivative of the MCU’s humour, and whose recruitment by Batman felt derivative of Peter Parker’s recruitment by Tony Stark in Spiderman: Homecoming. Aquaman seemed overly hypermasculine, chugging beers and saying phrases such as “Boo Yah” and “My Man”, which appeared to be an unnecessary attempt to subvert the image of Aquaman from the 70’s Super Friends cartoon show.  Cyborg is emotionless, which while supposed to be due to his robotic brain, seemed to be more because of bad acting. Wonder Woman is the most competent member of team thus far, but her powers seem to render the other team members obsolete.

The film also suffers from a major lack of tension due to the fact that none of the main or supporting characters are killed. In The Avengers, Phil Coulson’s apparent death adds emotional stakes to the film. Justice League has no such death, most notably apparent with the survival of Dr. Stone, Cyborg’s father, played by Joe Morton. Professor Stone is kidnapped by Steppenwolf in an attempt to locate the 3^rd Mother Box after he steals the first 2 from the Amazonians and Atlanteans, but Professor Stone refuses to talk. The Justice League then come in an rescue him. I felt that Professor Stone’s death would have given some emotional weight to the film and to Cyborg, who as stated is noticeably emotionless throughout the film. Instead however, he is rescued and never seen again for the film’s remainder. The closest the film has to stakes is an obtuse subplot about an Eastern European family trapped in the area Steppenwolf has invaded, whose only purpose in the film is to be predictably saved by Flash at the end.

The Justice League then decide to use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman.  This sequence makes little sense more numerous reasons. Cyborg appears with the Mother Box with no explanation of where he got it or how he knew where it was hidden. He then just exposits that the Mother Box can possibly be used to resurrect Superman, a fact that should have been set up earlier in the film. The Flash and cyborg then go to a cemetery where Superman is buried, which makes little sense considering that such a famous person would probably be preserved in a place more secure than an average cemetery not to mention that Superman’s invincible extraterrestrial specimen would probably be experimented on in government lab rather than buried anywhere. Through a contrived sequence aboard Zod’s old ship, the team resurrect Superman, but there is a problem. Superman is for some reason feral and malicious, leading to him fighting and easily overpowering the Justice League. The only reason this sequence exists is because it is a rewritten version of Zach Snyder’s original plot in which Darkseid resurrects Superman to be his evil mind-controlled minion, which is what Bruce Wayne’s dream sequence and the Flash’s cameo in Batman vs Superman was supposed to foreshadow. However, because the studio demanded the story that the story be rewritten, the Darkseid-controlled Superman plot was dropped, making the dream sequence and Flash cameo portion of Batman Vs Superman completely nonsensical, and audiences were left with this brief Superman fight. The film does not make it clear why Superman has become so aggressive, and he is only calmed down when Alfred drives in with Lois Lane, whom he flies away with to Smallville. While the team are distracted fighting Superman, Steppenwolf teleports in and takes the 3^rd Mother Box. While some audience members found the Superman vs Justice League to be the best part of the film, others found the entire sequence contrived.

However, not only was the Superman resurrection fight poorly structured, but it also highlighted the other major problem with the film, which is that Superman’s presence in the film rendered the other members of the Justice League irrelevant, as he is far more powerful than all of them combined. This was made abundantly clear in the underwhelming and anticlimactic finale, in which the Justice League fight to stop Steppenwolf from connecting the 3 Moher Boxes to terraform the Earth. Superman not only incapacitates Steppenwolf, but also manages to assist Cyborg in disabling the Mother boxes, and rescue a building full of civilians, while the Flash is only able to save a single family. Steppenwolf is defeated in a ridiculous manner, when his insectoids swarm and attack him because they are attracted to fear and Steppenwolf  is scared of the Justice League, which makes no sense because they haven’t swarmed the Flash, who admits he’s afraid many times throughout the film. The films ends predictably, with the heroes saving the day and vowing to protect Earth from any more threats.

While some audience members enjoyed the more idealistic version of Superman compared to Snyder’s previous version, this mere fact was not enough to redeem the film. Justice League was released to a disastrous critical reception and box office performance. Despite Warner Brothers desire for Justice League to be the highest grossing DCEU film, with an ensemble cast of the franchise’s most popular heroes. Instead it was a box office flop and the lowest grossing film of the series yet, causing audiences to wonder if the DCEU was beyond salvage.

Aquaman and Shazam: Can they save the franchise?

While Justice League, flopped Warner Brothers is still moving forward with more DCEU films. Aquaman was already finished filming and in post-production by the time of Justice League’s release, and Wonder Woman, being the highest grossing and best-reviewed DCEU film, seems to have an assured sequel. But audiences are skeptical. So far Warner Brothers has released the trailers for 2 new DCEU films, Aquaman and Shazam, both of which look to be taking a more light hearted tone than Snyder’s films. As for whether or not they can redeem the franchise, we will have to wait and see.

DC On Television: Should DC Consolidate It’s Properties?

While the DCEU has suffered in cinemas, the television versions of DC’s heroes have had a different fate. In 2002 the CW released it’s teenage Superman origin story series, Smallville. The show went on for 10 seasons, and 2 years after it’s finale, the CW aired it’s next superhero origin show, Arrow, in 2012. Arrow was widely lauded as the best superhero show of it’s time, with its great dramatic characterization and impressive fight choreography. Arrow’s success led to 3 spin off shows, the Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow, with all 4 properties making up the CW’s Arrowverse. Alongside the Arrowverse, the CW also airs the television adaptation of DC Superhero Black Lightning. On Fox, the Batman origin story series Gotham is finishing up it’s final season next year, and on the Syfy Channel, the Jor-El origin story series Krypton will be entering it’s second season next year. With so many different properties across so many continuities, so fans have wondered if DC should start to consolidate all of it’s properties.

Marvel has been very famously trying to consolidate all of it’s characters under the MCU umbrella, with many speculating that Disney’s purchase of Fox will allow Marvel to incorporate the X Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU. Also, with the exception of the X Men shows The Gifted and Legion, all of Marvel’s television shows, such as Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. and it’s Netflix shows are part of the MCU franchise. Some have wondered if the DCEU should take this approach, creating a single shared film and television universe that would be more profitable and accessible to audiences than multiple continuities and versions of the same character.

 It may be a perfect time to reboot DC in the live action medium as well. Arrow and The Flash, like Smallville before it, have been noted to have taken creative slumps in their later years, turning into sappy teenage soap operas, and Gotham is about to end after 5 great and wild seasons. While shows like Supergirl , Black Lightning, and Krypton are moderately popular, it could be beneficial to cancel the entire CW slate and start fresh with a television and film continuity that can attract all fans of the franchise rather than small sub sections.

What do you think? Is the DCEU finished? Can Aquaman, Shazam, or Wonder Woman II save it? Should DC consolidate all of it’s live action properties into one single franchise? You judge, you decide, like comment and subscribe.