Ranking All DC Cinematic Universe Films - Part 1

Ranking All DC Cinematic Universe Films - Part 1

The DC Cinematic universe was kicked off in 2013 with the Man of Steel, to date there have been seven films released, here is my ranking from the worst to the very best -

_#

Suicide Squad

After watching Batman Vs Superman I didn’t think I could watch a worse superhero movie (or villainous one in this instance). The film boasts some good actors but this isn’t a prerequisite for a good film, this is a shining light of this.

No depth to any of the characters, weak motivations, a plot that had way too many holes, a comical ending and a terrible joker put this film firmly at the bottom of the pile.

_#

One of its biggest problem for me wasn't even under its control, this was the release date. The film was the third film in the DC universe to be released, you have Superman and then a weak introduction to Batman and then you have Deadshot, Killer Croc and Boomerang man??

That was a huge problem, the film has no place in this universe as currently constructed. When you then add the weak plot and a host of characters that no one knows (or cares about) it was destined to fail.

Batman Vs Superman

There was no way this could flop, could it? You have the two most recognisable, most loved superheroes on screen together, it can’t get any better. After watching the first few trailers which basically gave away the whole film I had some concerns. What creatives ways would they get this film to work? Surely it wasn’t going to be Batman Vs Superman literally? How would they introduce Wonder Woman without diluting the film?

_#

To do this they completely went against both characters….character. You had a Batman who was a hot-headed that didn’t do any detective work at all and was blinded by his hatred. In the end, he decides that Superman was his friend and that now he need to assemble a team. What!? Then you have a murderous superman who is arrogant, cocky and stupid. Just give Wonder Woman the spear, or anybody come on!

To top it off they made The Ridder into Lex Luther, had dreams within dreams that have no relevance to the audience and reduced what could have been a trilogy's worth of film in The death of Superman turned into a twenty-minute short. Criminal, just criminal.

This film should have been the introduction to Batman, a complete batman film. The opening scene in this film was by far the best with Bruce seeing the destruction that the "aliens" were causing to his city. However, this should have been the final scene in a Batman film, not the opening!

Justice League

Justice League had no excuse for being as bad as it was, it had the perfect blueprint to what success looked like as Marvel did it years ago. Marvel released the avenger in 2012 and one of the reasons it was such a great hit and arguably Marvels greatest ever movie was because of proper character development.

_#

You had five movies building up to the Avengers with each on establishing a key character, each one had multiple crossovers setting it up nicely for the avengers assemble moment.
By the time we get to the avengers we know each character in detail, their story up to this point, there struggles and their motivations.

This level of content allows for greater meaning which translates into greater emotion when watching a film, without this no matter how much action a film has it will struggle to have a lasting impression.

Justice League was the fourth film released in the DC extended universe, unfortunately, the films prior to this provided very little foundation for it. BvS was a disaster as discussed earlier, suicide squad has no business being released before this film and only had the effect of confusing audiences and Wonder Woman was released too late. The only one that made sense was Man of Steel.

The film suffered because of this, too many new characters were introduced in too much of a short time, as a result, the plot suffered. This was something that it predecessors also had issues with and when you have a weak plot and poor character development the results are never going to be positive. Justice League should have been something special but i left the cinema feeling empty after watching this.

Aquaman

I have a more detail review of Aquaman coming soon so won't go into too much detail but overall Aquaman was ok. After watching previous DC films and feeling disappointed the bar was lower on this one and for a change, it managed to beat it.

_#

Jason Mamoa as Aquaman is a great fit for me, i think his look and how he played the character was good, his look isn't like in the comics but i liked how he tried to put his mark on the role. The visual effects were also spectacular, that final battle scene is what and how a comic book battle should be.

Black Manta if you want to class him as the main antagonist was weak in terms of development and motivation for his actions.
One of the main sequences were he finds the hollow earth, the big reveal of his mother and the fight between him and the monster for the trident were also all poorly thought through. The way he was able to defeat the mother and claim the trident was laughable and a wasted opportunity in my opinion. As origins go i was happy to give this one a pass and it makes its way into the middle of the rankings.

It's a shame that this film didn't come out before justice league as it would have helped in building up his character and adding more depth to the film structure.

Part 2 coming soon.

Hey Steemians! If you enjoyed this article, please comment and let me know your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!