The DC Extended Universe, shortened to DCEU, is a movie universe based around DC characters that was created to rival the MCU. At this moment in time, there are five movies that have been released (with more planned on the way. There's Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and Justice League. The sixth installment, Aquaman, is set to be released on December 21st of 2018. When it comes out, I'll do a review of it. Personally speaking, I enjoyed these movies. Yes, they're flawed and poorly timed out, but I can't help but enjoy them on the whole. Even Suicide Squad. Sue me. However, I do see that they aren't the best interpretations of the characters. In fact, objectively, a few of them are outright bad. Most people have said the problems with the DCEU before, but I'd like to give my own take on all of the movies individually and express what about them works, and what about does not work. Keep in mind, these are just my opinions. It's fine if you disagree with me.
#1: Man of Steel
It makes sense to start off a cinematic universe based on DC characters with a Superman movie. And, for the most part, Man of Steel delivers on that. If you know me in real life, you'll know that I don't particularly like Superman as a character. I think he's way too overpowered, which in turn almost always takes away the suspense from his fight scenes. That being said, Henry Cavill is a great Superman. His suit looks awesome, he delivers his lines with heart and emotion, and he pulls off an American accent rather decently. Michael Shannon was just as over the top as you'd expect him to be as General Zod, and it worked rather well in his favor. The action is great, the dialogue is decent, it's nicely paced, the visuals are great. It isn't perfect, though. I feel like the destruction of Metropolis in the final battle, while ultimately needed for the future of the story, was a bit much. It could've been avoided easily. Clark's Dad saying he "maybe" should've let the kids on that bus drown was understandable to a point, but really felt like the line was only there to stir controversy. I also could've done without all the "Superman is Jesus" lines. Yes, Superman has always had Christ imagery, but it is really heavy-handed in this movie. Practically every other line is talking about how important Clark is, it becomes annoying after a while. And the product placements in the final battle were just awful. To be positive again, though: Amy Adams is very good as Lois Lane, the projection of Jor-El that we see in various scenes after Krypton explodes was a nice addition, Diane Lane was great as Martha Kent, the cinematography was nice (when it wasn't zooming in on things for no reason). And I'm also gonna say that I didn't hate Clark breaking Zod's neck. He didn't want to, but he was forced to. I like that idea, I just wish it had been visualized better. Addition points to it cause it leads to Henry Cavill's best-acted scene. As the first chapter in a cinematic universe, Man of Steel was pretty good. I still think it holds up today. 7/10.
#2: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Following the Superman solo movie, the only logical second step would be introducing Batman...By having him spend the entire movie trying to kill Superman. Batman v Superman was a mixed bag for most people, that was mostly filled with bad things. I enjoyed it, personally, despite the many flaws it contains. The matchup we've been waiting to see brought to live-action, and, when it finally happens on-screen, it's friggin' incredible! It was so awesome to see Batman break a sink over Superman's head, or swing him around a colosseum and smash him into random pillars, or block a punch from the Man of Steel after the first Kryptonite blast. The fight scenes were stellar. I also think Ben Affleck is a great Batman, as well as a decent Bruce Wayne. That's not a combo we've got since Michael Keaton back in the 80's and 90's. Batman's suits look cool, especially the armor he wears when he fights Superman. Why on Earth he takes the armor off before the Doomsday fight is beyond me. The first few minutes of this movie take place during the finale of Man of Steel, showing Bruce running into the destruction to rescue civilians rather than away from it. The dialogue is also very well-written. My favorite lines are "Tell me, do you bleed? You will!", "If Man won't kill God, the Devil will do it.", and "I've killed things from other worlds before.". There were a lot of great lines, as well as a lot of pretentious lines (mostly from Lex), but, when they work, they really work. Jeremy Irons is great, Laurence Fishburne is great, Amy Adams is still great. But I do have some gripes: Most notably, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor!? Why him? Not to discredit him as an actor, he's great in the Now You See Me movies and The Social Network, but I don't look at Jesse Eisenberg and see Lex Luthor. I look at him and see Michael Cera! I'll give him credit for doing an admittedly good job with the material this movie gave him, but this was a severe miscasting. Superman got killed off way too early in this universe, the trailer revealing Doomsday was a big mistake, Lex's plan is wonky and mostly impossible to follow (especially since most of this stuff happens off-screen), and the fact that the studio butchered Snyder's version of this movie by making their own cut is inexcusable. The Ultimate Edition is the only way to watch this movie. I actually didn't mind the Martha scene, though. It becomes a lot more powerful the more you think about it. Their mothers having the same is just one of the layers. 6.5/10.
#3: Suicide Squad
Here's the movie that mostly everyone hated. Me, personally? I thought it was okay. It was decent. Will Smith is great in it, Margot Robbie is great in it, the soundtrack is very good (although poorly paced out), most of the visuals still hold up, and I even kinda liked Jared Leto's Joker. Yes, the voice sounds way too similar to Heath Ledger's Joker, but I still admire the creativity that went into bringing this version of the character to life. Jared is clearly putting his soul into his performance, the costume is pretty cool (if you can look past those teeth), and I genuinely get a kick out of his laugh. He's legitimately creepy at times, and he gets some good lines as well. He's one of the only characters that gets a couple good lines. The rest of the dialogue is hokey, exposition-reliant, and just outright badly-written. I would say that's a bad thing, and it is, but it does lead to a lot of comedy in this movie. Rick Flag explaining Katana's entire backstory in two sentences will always be funny, as will the incredibly forced title drop. Credit to Will Smith for saying that line and keeping a straight face, I wouldn't have been able to do it. The visual effects are a mixed bag for me. The sky portal looks good, Killer Croc's makeup looks good (good enough to earn the film an Oscar), the design of the Enchantress looks pretty cool. My favorite bit of CGI happens when June Moon first transforms into the Enchantress. It looks awesome. But most of the effects don't hold up. Those weird rock creatures that the Squad has to fight for most of the movie, that blue glow that the Enchantress radiates, the Titan that Diablo turns into at the end. All of them look very fake could potentially pull you out of the immersion. It happened to me. Also, since when could Diablo go Super Saiyan like that? It's never even hinted at before it happens. Diablo ends up dying in that scene, so I guess we'll never know. The amount of people that survive helicopter crashes in this movie is unbelievable. Joker survives one, Amanda Waller and her people survive one, the entire Suicide Squad (including the guard that were with them) survive one. Not a single person dies via helicopter crash in this movie. The only named characters that die (that we're supposed to care about) are Diablo and Slipknot. Nobody else bites the dust. I mean, The Enchantress does (cause she has to), but the person's body she inhabits lives. Suicide Squad is easily the worst DCEU movie, but I do have a soft spot for it. It's bad, but it's fun. That being said, 5/10. No question.
#4: Wonder Woman
This is the movie that is near-universally referred to as the best installment in the DCEU. I can see why people say that, cause Wonder Woman rocked! Gal Gadot is great, her theme music is insanely good, the action scenes were awesome, Chris Pine turned in a really good performance as Steve Trevor. Patty Jenkins served as the director for this one, and she does an incredible job of helping bring the story to life. She's said to be returning to direct the sequel, which gives me a lot of hope for it. This movie is awesome! The scriptwriting is great, every actor does a great job, it has a perfect balance of heart and humor, it's a great movie. My favorite scene is when Wonder Woman marches down No Man's Land. The mere idea of that scene is Oscar-worthy, but then we get to see the way it was executed. The slow-motion, the power WW exudes when she deflects the first bullet, the US soldiers following behind her. It was flawlessly put together. I could watch that scene all day and get chills from it every time. Another thing I admire about this movie is the fact that it doesn't objectify Wonder Woman. It's no secret that Gal Gadot is a beautiful woman, but this movie focuses less on her looks and more on her acting. Yes, a couple characters make passing jokes about her beauty, but the scenes aren't filmed in a way that sexualizes her character. If anybody else had directed this movie, it wouldn't be like that. It's hugely respectable that this movie didn't go for that route. It lets us become more invested in Gal's acting, which is very good in this movie. She embodies Wonder Woman perfectly. When Steve dies, instead of going full ham and saying "NO!" loudly, she chooses to portray the torment by outright screaming in pain from the loss of her love. It's handled marvelously, and is a true testament to Gal's acting abilities. It would've been seen as narmy if most other people did it, but Gal makes it work. The first time I saw it, the twist about who Ares is legitametly caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it to be Professor Lupin, so good job hiding it. Wonder Woman was a great movie from beginning to end. I'm very excited for the sequel, with is set to be released on my birthday in 2020. 8/10.
#5: Justice League
Really? A Justice League movie already? Superman gets a solo movie, Batman gets half of one, Wonder Woman gets a solo movie, and the other three get one scene in Dawn of Justice. Yep, it's time for a Justice League movie. We know enough about these characters to warrant one. What we get is decent, but the journey that lead to this movie was so rushed and forced that it's almost impossible to become invested in the characters. Why should I care abour Cyborg? He was in one scene before this movie happened! Also, why was it Cyborg and not Martain Manhunter? It would've been the same thing, but I would've enjoyed it a bit more because it featured an actual Justice League member. Cyborg is better in the Teen Titans. Maybe Cyborg was in the Justice League in some of the comics, I don't know, but it still bugged me. It'd be different if Cyborg was interesting in this movie, but he wasn't. This entire movie feels like two seperate movies are fighting each other in order to see which one gets more screentime. It has Joss Whedon's comedy and Zack Snyder's drama. It works in The Avengers because it's Whedon doing both, but it feels out of place in this movie because it wasn't originally Joss Whedon's vision. It was Zack Snyder's. When he had to step down after his daughter took her own life, Whedon stepped in and completely redid everything Snyder had done. In my opinion, that hurt the movie more than it helped it. Sadly, though, even if it didn't have twop stylistic directors fighting over which version of the story deserves to be told, it would still be a mess of a movie. Superman comes back to life (cause he has to) and singlehandedly defeats Steppenwolf in the third act. Yes, it was cool to see Henry Cavill's Superman doing the shirt rip, but Supes swoops in and saves the entire day. See what I mean about him being overpowered? Some of the effects kinda suck, too. Steppenwolf looks like he's the Mayor of the Uncanny Valley, the Parademons have cool designs but they don't really look like they're actually there, and, yeah, Superman's upper lip was a huge problem. But the movie isn't all bad. Ezra Miller is great as The Flash, Jason Mamoa actually made Aquaman cool, J.K. Simmons was awesome as Commissioner Gordon. My only acting complaint would have to be Ray Fisher as Cyborg. His suit looked bad, he didn't sound interested in what he was saying, he was all-around just not very interesting. This wasn't the epic Justice League movie we had all wanted, but I'm still glad I saw it. 6/10.
And there you have it. My thoughts on every currently released movie in the DCEU except for Aquaman cause I haven't seen it yet. Based on the ratings I have them, I would rank them as such: Wonder Woman at first, Man of Steel at second, Dawn of Justice at third, Justice League at fourth, and Suicide Squad at fifth. Before I end this blog and start getting ready for a special end of the year list that I'm starting tomorrow, I have one question to ask: Why did people suddenly start hating Zack Snyder after Man of Steel dropped? It got to the point that people sent him death wishes even after his daughter died. No one seemed to hate him when 300 was released or when Watchmen was released. Was it Sucker Punch? Was it 300: Rise of an Empire? I'd genuinely like to know, cause I don't get it. I think Snyder is a good filmmaker. Change my mind. Also, please get Kevin Smith to do a Batman movie. It doesn't have to be in this universe, I'd just like to see that happen.
