Ever since I started doing The Best, I’ve tried to keep it as positive as possible.  Too much negativity can have a surprisingly….negative impact on one’s health.  Now, the main reason why I started doing The Best was to highlight the best aspects of films and the film industry.  I didn’t want to focus on the bad stuff that’s come out of the industry.  It worked for a while, but sometimes you have to recognize the fact that life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.  Occasionally, you have to take in the bad with the good.  That’s reality.  As a result, I’m going to make a slight adjustment to The Best page.  It will no longer be just The Best.  It will be The Best and The Worst.  I would do separate pages, but these two concepts are basically two sides of the same coin.  Besides, I think it’s a healthy thing to talk about negative stuff every once in a while.  Since I’ve been on a comic book movie binge lately, I want to talk about the worst of the worst of these films.  Oh….boy, it’s gonna be a ride!

Fant4stic

It’s not very often that a movie fails so badly that it can tank a director’s career.  That’s exactly what Fant4stic did to Josh Trank’s career.  He hasn’t done a thing since this movie came out back in 2015.  This is the fourth attempt to bring the Fantastic Four characters to the big screen, and it failed spectacularly.  I had my issues with the last two Fantastic Four films starring Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd, but at least they were entertaining.  This one is just flat-out boring, which is one of the worst sins that a comic book movie can commit.  The writing was awful and the apparent studio interference made this film a chore to sit through.  Josh Trank’s response to the film’s final cut was….interesting to say the least.  He came out swinging against it.  It’s hard to know who to blame for the state of the movie.  They still couldn’t get Doctor Doom right.  This should have been a knockout punch for Fox at the time, but it ended up being one of the worst comic book movies ever made.  Of all the movies that I’m putting on this list, Fant4stic is the one that I hate the most.  The rest of the films on this list are pretty much guilty pleasures of mine, but they are still pretty bad.

Supergirl

I’ll be honest:  I actually kind of like this movie.  Is it good?  No.  But there is definitely some good stuff in here.  Helen Slater was fantastic as Supergirl and Peter O’Toole just hammed it up as Zaltar.  The acting wasn’t actually bad.  Some of the visual effects were pretty nifty as well.  Unfortunately, the bad stuff outweighs the good.  This is an overly campy film that spends too much time with Supergirl in disguise at a local school, even though she’s supposed to be in a hurry to save her people.  There’s a lot of logical inconsistencies peppered throughout the film.  How did the main villain even know how to send people to the Phantom Zone?  Why was she obsessed with brainwashing a local lumberjack?  This movie makes no sense!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Boy, they really screwed the pooch with this one.  As much as I love the X-Men films, this one is beyond redemption.  Not even Hugh Jackman’s performance could save this one.  This is what happens when you throw crap at a wall and hope something sticks.  Of all the X-Men characters to get an origin story, Wolverine really didn’t need one, especially since you already know how he ends up.  The story is all over the place, and the visual effects are god-awful.  I mean, look at Wolverine’s claws.  That is some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen.  Even the claws from the first movie back in 2000 were infinitely better than what we saw here.  The action was alright and so was the film’s score, but this one couldn’t be salvaged.  Oh, yeah: I can’t forget about what they did to Deadpool in this movie.  Let’s just say that Ryan Reynolds finally got to play the character as he was meant to be in 2016’s film and 2018’s sequel.

Green Lantern

Aaaand here’e another one that got needlessly butchered.  While I can’t say that this movie was the worst ever made, it was not planned out very well.  Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan?  Brilliant.  CG-animated super-suit?  Not so much.  The movie isn’t necessarily boring and it’s got some pretty interesting visuals.  Mark Strong as Sinestro was brilliant casting.  But he should have been the main villain, not Parallax.  In fact, it’s obvious that the film-makers didn’t pay attention the comics or they would have realized that Hal Jordan becomes Parallax at a certain.  Add on top of that, Parallax ended up being nothing more than a giant fart cloud.  This is another case of the film-makers blatantly ignoring the source material.

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

Superman has been a staple of comic book movies since his inception in 1938.  He’s literally been the face of DC Comics for 80 years.  When the 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve was released, it was a smash hit.  Superman: The Movie is one of the greatest comic book movies of all time.  Superman II was a good sequel, but not without its faults.  Superman III had lots of issues, but it was still a decent enough experience that it’s worth watching.  Superman IV: The Quest For Peace?  This movie is undiluted garbage.  The concept behind the film was pretty good, dealing with the threat of nuclear weapons.  It could have worked, had Warner Bros. not given the license to the Canon Film Group.  See, Canon was notorious for their low-budget schlock.  Apparently they took a good chunk of money that was to be spent on Masters of the Universe, but they spent it on this film, damaging both movies.  In fact, Superman IV was so bad that it basically helped shutter the Canon Film Group for good.  Bad visual effects, ham-fisted acting, and not even Reeve could save this film.  In fact, word got out that Mr. Reeve was extremely disappointed with the film.  As a result, Superman would not get another film for 20 years.  In case you haven’t noticed, I really hate this movie.

Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider was a movie that should’ve been really good.  The character is interesting as are his villains, but the folks behind this film clearly didn’t understand.  The casting of Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze was another strike against the film.  Now, I’m a huge fan of Nic Cage as an actor, but this film didn’t do him any favors.  Aside from some decent effects, the god-awful writing, characterization and story just stuck this film into a cannon and shot it directly into the ground.  The entire movie was miscast, and despite Cage claiming to be a huge fan of the comic, his performance indicates other-wise.  Now, the film would get a sequel/re-boot of sorts, but even that movie wasn’t any good.

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad is the poster child for marketing that promises too much and not delivering.  The trailers to this movie were fantastic, and the concept could have worked….if it weren’t for studio interference and David Ayer’s incompetence at bringing these these characters to the screen.  There was a lot of re-writing to make this film a lot less….bleak.  Warner Bros. didn’t want another Batman V. Superman so they tried to lighten it up.  Here’s what works: Margot Robbie, Will Smith, and Jai Courtney as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang respectively.  What doesn’t work: Jared Leto as the Joker….and everything else.  They really didn’t need to do the whole “save-the-world” gimmick here.  That’s not what these folks were brought together to do.  It ended up being more generic than it should have been.  It comes as no surprise that the next Suicide Squad film is going to ignore this one entirely.  With James Gunn at the helm, the next film has a much better chance of being good.

Batman And Robin

It goes well without saying that most people think that Batman And Robin is the worst comic book movie ever.  It’s really hard to disagree with that, even though I think that Superman IV is quite a bit worse.  That being said, there really is nothing that redeemable about this dumpster fire of a film.  Aside from the HORRIFIC miscasting, which includes Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, the film suffers from the fact that it was made only to sell toys.  There’s no other reason.  George Clooney has gone on record saying that his role in Batman And Robin was one of the worst decisions he’s made.  Joel Schumaker, the director has also gone on record apologizing for the film.  This movie did some serious damage.  Alicia Silverstone’s film career never recovered, and Chris O’Donnell has basically been relegated to doing TV shows.  He’s been successful there, but his movie career is pretty much shot.  Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney’s careers managed to survive.  In fact, they’re doing better than ever.  Yeah, this movie was a complete disaster.  Also: Bat-nipples?  REALLY?!  Although, if it wasn’t for Batman And Robin, we probably would never have gotten Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.  Silver lining, folks.  Silver lining.

You know what?  That was actually kind of fun doing that post.  I really enjoyed writing and it makes me feel a hell of a lot better now.  It’s pretty therapeutic.  So…I will most likely be doing more of The Worst….probably.  I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did writing it and…I’ll see you back here soon.  Same Bat-time, same Bat-Channel!

 

 

 

 

WARNING!!  THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!

When it comes to superheroes, everyone will ALWAYS refer to one of three characters: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  Why?  These characters are the trinity of superheroes because they were the first in the comics.  Even if nobody has read the comics, everybody knows who these characters are.  They’ve been in our collective consciousness and pop culture for nearly a century.  Superman first showed up in Action Comics #1 in 1938 while Batman would show up a year later in Detective Comics #27.  Wonder Woman would see her first appearance in All Star Comics #8 in 1941.  Everybody knows that Superman and Wonder Woman are superhuman and have extraordinary abilities, but what about Batman?  What separates Batman from nearly all other superheroes that have come and gone over the years is that he’s a regular human being.  Over the years, we’ve seen many incarnations of the character.  From Adam West’s campy TV show to Tim Burton’s dark revival of the character, Batman has been one of the most popular characters in the media for decades.  1989’s Batman was the first film to really approach the character as the dark figure he truly is, and it’s one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, director Joel Schumaker would inadvertently bring the character to a whole new low with Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.  The Dark Knight would not get another shot at the big screen until 2005’s Batman Begins.  These are the movies that I’m going to be looking at today, starting with…well…Batman Begins.

At this point in time, everybody should know Batman’s origin:  Bruce Wayne was a child born into a rich family when he witnessed the murder of his parents by a criminal.  When he grew up, he became the vigilante known as the Batman and would instill fear in the hearts of the criminals and the corrupt in the fictional city of Gotham.  While some adaptations of the character have glossed over what happened between the murder of Bruce’s parents and when he becomes the Caped Crusader.  Batman Begins takes a different approach by actually giving us a look at what happens and the decision that he makes to fight crime.  Not only does the film show he frustrated he becomes with the justice system, but it also explores his mentality in fighting crime to the point he’s willing to become a criminal.  That is, until he meets Ducard, who offers him a path to what he calls true justice: The League of Shadows, run by the mysterious Ra’s Al Ghul.  Bruce Wayne’s training as a ninja provides real insight into how Batman became such an effective fighter.  I really like how the film explores why Bruce chose bats as a symbol terrify Gotham’s criminals, and his logic in using that symbol.  Batman Begins also goes into detail in how he gets his suit, his gear and the cave.  I appreciate Christopher Nolan’s realistic approach to the material.  It’s obviously not too realistic, but it’s grounded enough in reality to make it a far more intense experience.  Batman’s final confrontation with Ra’s Al Ghul is one of the most thrilling sequences in the film.

While Batman Begins laid the foundation for the movies to come, it was the second film, The Dark Knight, which cemented the character and the story as one of the best ever told.  Every hero is only as good as their villain, and the Joker is one of the most infamous villains in Batman’s lineup.  In fact, the Joker is basically the polar opposite of what Batman stands for.  Batman stands for order and balance while the Joker represents anarchy and chaos.  He doesn’t seem like much of a threat at the very beginning of the film, but by the end of the second act he’s as much of a threat if not more so than Ra’s Al Ghul.  His methods and his reasoning are those of a complete psychopath who wants to watch the world burn.  The Joker’s appearance represents the extreme consequences of Batman’s actions and Batman has to deal with those repercussions even as they hit him on a very personal level.  He has to think about how far he would have to go to stop somebody like the Joker.  Joker is such a terrifying force of nature that the mob, the police, or even Batman himself don’t even know how to handle him, and the Joker knows it.  It would be all for nothing if Heath Ledger wasn’t up for it.  There’s a reason why he won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.  Would the film have been as strong if Heath Ledger hadn’t passed away?  Hard to say, and it’s academic at best, but there is no doubt that Heath’s performance as the Joker is the best rendition of the character so far.  The film also boasts the most powerful ending in the entire trilogy.  It’s an emotionally powerful moment that not only ends the film on a perfect note, but it set up for the next film.

Whenever you have a really strong second film in a trilogy, the third film is almost always going to have problems trying to reach that bar and The Dark Knight Rises is no different.  While I feel that Rises is definitely the weakest entry in The Dark Knight Trilogy, it is by no means a weak movie.  It’s still a very strong film, and that’s due to the strong writing of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.  The film takes place 8 years after the events of the second film with Bruce Wayne physically crippled and in seclusion.  Commissioner Gordon has doubts about keeping Harvey Dent’s murders secret while a mysterious new villain named Bane has commandeered the League of Shadows and prepares to finish what Ra’s Al Ghul started in the first film.  Bane is easily the most physically intimidating villain that Batman has ever come across and Tom Hardy just nails it.  Rises takes Bruce Wayne and brings him to his lowest point as Batman, because he’s physically not what he used to be, but he has to fight Bane to save Gotham.  Now, the film still has a pretty good story, but there’s a twist in the third act that brings it down a few notches.  Bane works as a main villain, but to have him suddenly turned into just another henchmen does a massive disservice to the character.  What does work is the addition of Selena Kyle, played to absolute perfection by Anne Hathaway.  She’s as lethal as she is beautiful and she’s very well-written.  While the third act of the film could have used a little more work, because it seemed like Nolan and Goyer wrote themselves into a corner, and that tends to happen at the end of a trilogy when you run out of ideas.  That being said, The Dark Knight Rises is still a fantastic ending to an incredible series of films that rival the likes of the original Star Wars Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings.

The Dark Knight Trilogy is among the finest films that DC and Warner Bros. has ever released.  It’s an extremely compelling series of films that takes a more realistic approach to an already dark and tragic character.  The action in the films is second to none, especially the second film.  There’s no real wire-work in the fight scenes and Batman is more of a bruiser in these films.  Say what you will about Batman’s voice in these movies, but Christian Bale’s performance is absolutely amazing.  Speaking of performances, there are three other actors that tie the trilogy together: Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Gary Oldman as James Gordon.  The acting is some of the best I’ve ever seen.  Christian Bale inhabits the character of Bruce Wayne like nobody else.  While there isn’t a bad Alfred in any of the movies, Michael Caine’s version of the character is easily my favorite because Mr. Caine really delivers on the father-figure that Alfred needed to be.  Gary Oldman plays a truly good character in these movies.  Gary Oldman has always been a chameleon.  He disappears into every role that he takes on.  Morgan Freeman is….Morgan Freeman.  He can do no wrong.  He played God for crying out loud, do I need to say more?  Even supporting actors like Aaron Eckhart are absolutely fantastic.

What makes The Dark Knight Trilogy so interesting is that it is so thematically rich.  The level of symbolism on display here is extraordinary.  Bruce Wayne brought up in the third film that not only was the mask important for protecting the people you care about, but also to show that anybody could be Batman.  That is and always has been the purpose of Batman.  There have been a lot of different characters that have worn the cowl over the years in the comics.  Even Superman himself wore the cowl when Bruce couldn’t.  You can’t tell me that you never wished to be able to dress up as someone like Batman and dish out punishment to the corrupt elements of society, especially when you see that the system doesn’t always work.  Harvey Dent said in the second film that the night is always darkest before the dawn.  Batman, to me, is a reminder that even in our darkest moments that there is always hope.  The reason for the existence of some of these characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman is to show that we can be better and that we can do better.  They were meant to inspire.  The Dark Knight Trilogy, in my opinion, is the ultimate expression of that.  Do these movie still hold up 7 years of the trilogy’s conclusion?  Very much so.  In fact, I would argue that these movies are relevant NOW more than ever.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been on a real DC movie kick.  I’m a huge fan of comic book movies in general, but over the past decade I’ve really tuned into the genre.  I absolutely love what Marvel has done with their Cinematic Universe and how it ties over 20 movies together.  But like many people, I started watching superhero movies with DC’s line-up because they were the first to be successful at it.  From Superman to Aquaman, DC’s live-action films have always had a particular look and feel that separates them from other films.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching a lot of DC’s movies.  I haven’t been watching just the live-action films, but DC’s animated stuff too, but I’ll save the animated films for another day.  For this post, I want to go over some of the best moments in DC’s live action films.  My requirements are fairly simple for this one:  Only one moment from each movie.  There are many moments from each movie that are amazing, but there is really only one that kind of defines that film in my eyes.  Sequels and reboots are also allowed.  So…let’s get this party started.

Superman: The Movie

There is no doubt in many people’s minds that Superman: The Movie is one of, if not, the greatest superhero film of all time.  It’s really hard to argue that point.  This film is damn near perfect in terms of casting, characterization, direction, music, and visual effects.  So, picking one great moment out of many was not necessarily easy, but not as hard as you would think.  This scene in which Superman reveals himself to rescue Lois Lane sets up the rest of the film for what we can expect.  This scene pretty much has it all.  It’s thrilling, scary, funny and a lot of fun.  It’s also done to John Williams’ iconic score.  This scene is worth the entry price alone.

Batman(1989)

Like Richard Donner’s Superman, Tim Burton’s Batman is an iconic piece of film-making.  Not just because Burton jettisoned the overly campy tones of previous incarnations of the character, but also in how he reintroduces Batman to the audience and takes a much darker approach to the material.  A superhero is only as good as his villain, and Batman has a lot of villains.  His most infamous villain is the Joker.  It’s important to not only introduce the main character, but you also have to introduce the villain, or in this case, a rebirth of sorts.  In the film, Jack Napier is a gangster working for Carl Grissom in Gotham City only to be dropped into a vat of chemicals and becomes the maniac that everybody knows and loves.  This scene is the first one in which the Joker appears in all his glory, killing Grissom and taking over the crime syndicate.  It’s wild.

Man of Steel

Re-introducing a character as popular as Superman was never going to be an easy task, but for director Zack Snyder, he succeeded.  Not only did he take a different approach to Kal-El that made the character more flawed, but also more relatable.  He makes mistakes and his actions have consequences, but he still ends up trying to bring hope to the people of Earth.  This sequences where Superman learns how to fly is going to go down as one of the most iconic sequences in DC’s movies.  It’s also the first scene in which Clark steps out in his iconic outfit for the first time.  It all happens while Jor-El is still speaking to his son with Hans Zimmer’s rousing music playing in the background.  While the overall film isn’t perfect, this scene is, because it shows that Superman isn’t perfect but strives to do better.

Wonder Woman

Setting Wonder Woman during World War I was a brilliant idea.  Not only does the film sidestep the errors that Batman V. Superman made, it also gives Gal Gadot’s character her first movie and it’s a hell of a starter.  This particular scene is extraordinary and will become one of the most well-known sequences in comic book movies for decades.  By all accounts, No Man’s Land was a terrifying place to be for soldiers on either side.  After seeing a good deal of suffering, Diana decides to take action and steps onto the field blocking bullets and paving the way for Trevor and his men as well as their battalion.  Not only is this her first appearance in the film with her full outfit, she does it with confidence and it’s a powerful sequence.

Aquaman

While a lot of the moments that I’ve shown so far have featured some pretty big action, sometimes it’s the smaller character moments that make the most impact.  Aquaman, while cheesy and a boatload of fun(pun intended), there are some moments that have some real emotional weight.  This little quiet moment between Arthur and Mera is fantastic.  Obviously, there’s definitely a connection between the characters, as the banter between the two over the course of the film bordered on antagonistic, but this boat sequence brings it down to a more personal level.  It’s a turning point for these characters.  Arthur finally admits that he’s not really good at being anything but a blunt instrument as he puts it, but Mera finally sees who he is and what he is capable of becoming.  You can have all the spectacle and big battle sequences in the world, but they don’t mean a thing if you can’t connect to the characters.  As goofy as Aquaman is at times, there is definitely a focus on the characters….mostly, and it does it well.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

If you haven’t seen this little sequence before, that’s okay.  It wasn’t in the theatrical release of Superman II when it was released.  In fact, a lot of what Richard Donner had filmed for Superman II was redone when he was fired by the Salkinds following the original film’s massive success.  Donner had about 70 percent of the film completed when he was fired.  All the footage that he had filmed wouldn’t be seen again until 2006 when Richard Donner was able to release a version of Superman II that was closer to his vision of what it should.  What we see in the 2006 release is almost a completely different movie, especially in how Lois Lane confirms that Clark Kent is Superman.  The theatrical release had Superman accidentally stumble into a fire in a hotel.  It was a pretty stupid sequence, but the original plan was what you see in this scene here.  This was actually footage from a test screening between Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve.  It’s flawed for sure as consistency between shots is all over the place.  One second, Reeve has longer hair and in the next, it’s a lot shorter, but the effect of the scene remains the same.  This is actually a very clever move on Lois’ part by shooting Clark.  She then tells him that it’s a blank, meaning that she outwitted Superman.  It’s one of the many changes that you will see in the Richard Donner cut of Superman II.

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice

As much as I enjoyed Batman V. Superman, I’ll be the first to admit that the film has a lot of problems.  While the Extended Cut is a much better film than the theatrical release, it still has a lot of problems.  Leaving Doomsday out of the equation would have been a much better option, as the main conflict was supposed to be between Superman and Batman.  That being said, this final battle with Doomsday is absolutely bonkers.  The biggest moment in the movie and it’s one that a lot of people have been wanting to see for decades is when Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman step into the same sequence together.  It would have been better had this team-up been in a better film, but even so, it’s really awesome to see the Superhero Trinity together for the first time in a live-action film.

Justice League

Like Batman V. Superman, Justice League has a lot of problems.  Some of those problems were a result of Zack Snyder being forced to leave the project, but there was also a lot of studio interference involved.  When Snyder left the project, Joss Whedon was brought on to lighten the film up with more humor and action.  It worked to a certain extent, as the film is a lot more fun than BvS was.  The chemistry between the heroes is fantastic and is easily the best part of the film.  This scene where Cyborg, Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman are on a transport heading into battle against Steppenwolf is one of the funniest scenes in the whole film.  Aquaman goes into this whole speech about going out with a bang until he decides that he doesn’t want to die.  Batman then points to Arthur’s leg, as Diana’s lasso is tied around it forcing him to tell the truth.  Moments like these make the movie worth watching.

The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy is one of the best movie trilogies ever released.  It’s the second film that really sells the whole thing.  It’s the darkest and most brutal of the three.  It pushes the PG-13 rating to its absolute limits.  While this is the second time that the Joker has appeared on this list, Heath Ledger’s take on the character is far more terrifying than Jack Nicholson’s character could ever hope to be.  You can’t even recognize Heath Ledger here.  He IS the Joker.  Every time he’s on screen, he steals the show.  This interrogation sequence illustrates the Joker’s brilliance and insanity all at the same time.  There’s no rhyme or reason to why he does the things he does.  He’s an anarchist/terrorist.  This scene is absolutely intense.  From what’s been revealed about the scene, Heath Ledger actually had Christian Bale punch him in the face.  THAT is serious dedication to the craft.

Those are just a handful of outstanding moments from DC’s live-action movies.  While Warner Bros. and DC have definitely stumbled a few times with their movies over the years, I think they got more right than they got wrong.  I honestly can’t wait to see what they’ve got coming on down the road.  Shazam! is set to be released in the next week or so, so I’m looking forward to that and the Wonder Woman sequel that’s coming next year.  If there are any moments that you liked from DC’s line-up, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Anybody who knows me will know that I’m a huge fan of comic book movies, be it Marvel or DC-based.  Superhero movies tend to be a lot of fun for me.  There have been a lot of really good comic book movies over the past 40+ years.  From the Marvel side, we got movies like X-Men, Blade, Iron Man, and The Avengers.  They’ve also gotten their fair share of bad movies like Elektra, Fantastic Four(all of them), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Like-wise, DC has seen their share of ups and downs with movies like Superman: The Movie, Tim Burton’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy.  Much like Marvel, DC has stumbled a bit with movies like Superman IV, Green Lantern, and Jonah Hex.  DC’s movies would be rejuvenated with Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman, but work on an expanded universe wouldn’t take place until well after Marvel’s MCU had been established.  The film that would kick off the Extended Universe would be Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, a modern reboot of Superman for a new generation.  While there were some people that felt that the film was a little too dark for the Last Son of Krypton, it still managed to be successful in terms of audience reception and box office numbers.  Personally, I loved the hell out of it.  The casting was fantastic with Henry Cavill taking on the role that made Christopher Reeve a household name, and Michael Shannon as General Zod.  I dug the approach that Zack Snyder took to realize a new version of the Man of Steel.  Yeah, it was darker than most people were expecting and the final battle’s conclusion definitely got people talking, but it was still good enough for DC and Warner Bros. to move forward with a follow-up film.

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice is WHERE the DCEU(DC Extended Universe) fell on its ass.  WHY it happened is a bit more complicated.  Instead of moving forward with another solo Superman film, which is what they should have done, DC and Warner Bros. decided to bring Batman and Superman together for the first time in a live-action film.  It wasn’t really a bad idea, as it was probably going to happen at some point.  What went wrong was that not enough time was spent writing a proper way to bring these two titans together.  What I feel happened was that DC took The Dark Knight Returns story-line and combined it with The Death of Superman.  You have two of the biggest story lines in DC comics and you try to mash them together in a 2 and a half hour film?  The theatrical release of Batman V. Superman was disastrous.  Warner Bros rushed the film out the doors before it was truly ready and left a lot of threads just flapping in the wind.  That’s why Zack Snyder was given the OK to release an extended version of the film which would fill in a lot of the gaps and plot holes that plagued the original release.  The Ultimate Edition of Batman V. Superman made it a much better movie, even if it didn’t fix all of the problems.  It was still a humorless affair that went to some really dark territory.  It was action-packed and had some pretty serious star power, and it also introduced Wonder Woman to the proceedings which was totally cool.  But there were a lot of missteps.  For one, the casting of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was ridiculed by audiences and critics world-wide.  There was also the whole battle with Doomsday in the third act which while cool to look at, was tacked on and didn’t need to be there.  I personally loved Batman V. Superman, the extended version anyway, but even I noticed that this was not the right direction for this series to go just yet.  We needed more time to really introduce the principle players into the Death of Superman story-line.  The fan reception to Batman V. Superman was BRUTAL.  While a Justice League film was a certainty at this point, Warner Bros. commissioned Zack Snyder and his writers to do a re-write of the upcoming Justice League to better suit audience expectations.

During the production of Batman V. Superman, Warner Bros announced a number of stand-alone films in the DCEU that featured Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Batman, and possibly another stand-alone Superman film.  Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot, was released in 2017 before Justice League.  The film was very well-received by both audiences and critics and ended up not only being very successful, but also the first live-action film adaptation of Wonder Woman.  While the film had its dark moments, it was much lighter film than Batman V. Superman.  Wonder Woman succeeded because it mostly ignored the events of the previous film and focused more on developing Princess Diana as a character.  In November, Justice League was finally released to audiences.  The reception was fairly positive as the film had a much lighter tone and had more jokes than Batman V. Superman, but there were definitely issues with the overall tone of the film.  Zack Snyder had to leave during the middle of production because of a family tragedy, so Warner Bros. brought in Joss Whedon to finish up and redo a good chunk of the movie, which explains a lot of the humor.  However, the conflicting tones in the film and a lackluster villain did more harm to the film than one might have expected.  The encounter with Steppenwolf was supposed to lead in to a major confrontation with one of DC’s biggest and most powerful villains: Darkseid.  Unfortunately, Justice League failed to perform to Warner’s expectations so any plans to continue this story-line were scrapped.

There was a huge mess going on at DC’s film division and Warner Bros. with certain execs being shuffled around in order to try and get DC’s Extended Universe back on track.  During this point, James Wan’s Aquaman was in development and with Jason Momoa returning in the role that he made famous in Justice League, it looked like things were starting to look up.  Guess what?  Aquaman was a smash hit.  While the film had some serious moments, it was a blast to watch.  Visually, it was spectacular and had some really strong casting with Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Defoe as Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm and Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus.  It was Jason Momoa as Arthury Curry, however, that brought it together.  This was HIS movie and people responded very well to it, as did critics.  Aquaman and Wonder Woman were the shots in the arm that DC and Warner Bros. needed, and with Shazam right around the corner, things are looking pretty good for DC and Warner Bros. and I’m genuinely excited for what’s coming.  When they decide to tackle the Justice League again, I think they’re going to be in a much better position to deliver a much stronger film.

So….why did the DCEU fail as it did?  Bad decision-making and bad timing.  Marvel’s MCU was well into Phase 3 with Avengers: Infinity War on the horizon.  DC and Warner Bros. wanted to try and compete with the MCU, forgetting that Marvel had a 10-year head-start.  There was absolutely no way that DC’s Extended Universe was going to be able to compete.  DC would have been wise to focus on their own thing and do the solo movies before doing Justice League.  Marvel had laid out the map for how to get it done right, but DC decided to do it backwards and look what happened.  Now, it looks like the right people are in place and with the stand-alone movies doing very well, it looks like the DCEU is making a comeback, albeit in a very different form.  Will we ever see villains like Darkseid show up on the silver screen?  It’s entirely possible, as is a sequel to Justice League, but right now DC is wisely focusing on stand-alone movies to put them in a much better position to be successful, should they do another ensemble film.

So, where does the DCEU go from here?  Well….let’s take a look at what’s confirmed to be coming and what’s also being planned.  Shazam! is literally right around the corner.  The new Joker film starring Joaquin Phoenix is due to be released this October.  The film is said to focus on who the character was and how he came to be the Clown Prince of Crime.  It sounds pretty interesting and I hope that Mr. Phoenix does the character justice.  Birds of Prey is set to include Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn as well as the characters of Black Canary and Huntress as they take on the infamous Black Mask.  Wonder Woman is getting a sequel releasing next year that takes place in 1984.  I’m looking forward to that as the first movie was fantastic.  These are the ones that are currently in production.  What’s being planned?  Aquaman 2 is a certainty considering how well the first movie was received.  There is a spin-off planned called The Trench which supposedly will deal with the creatures from the Kingdom of the Trench in Aquaman.  A DC horror movie?  Sounds great to me.  We’re getting a new Green Lantern film, which is needed because the Ryan Reynolds-led film was a disaster.  A new Supergirl film is also being planned.  I hope they take their time and get it right, because the 1984 film left much to be desired.  A new Suicide Squad is in the works and is being directed by Guardians of the Galaxy helmer James Gunn, so it should be a lot better than the first movie.  For those wondering if Darkseid will make in appearance, a new film called New Gods is in the planning stages which will focus on Darkseid as the main villain, so it seems that we will be seeing Darkseid at some point.  But that’s a ways off.  Henry Cavill is still attached to play Superman in whatever film they decide to bring him in on, but I have to say, Henry’s not getting any younger, so I would say give him at least Man of Steel 2 before he decides to move on.

It seems that Warner Bros. and DC have learned from their mistakes with Batman V. Superman and Justice League.  The future of DC movies looks pretty bright to me, and if they play their cards right, DC’s movies could really become something special.  I’m actually looking forward more to DC’s line-up than I am Marvel’s at this point.  These are just DC’s live-action films.  Their animated line-up is as strong is it ever was, but that’s going to be a topic for a different day.  So…yeah, DC and Warner Bros. hit some rough patches with Batman V. Superman and Justice League, but they are setting themselves up for a comeback that’s long overdue.