Happy New Year, everyone! We’ve left 2023 behind and moved right into 2024, and with that, we have made all kinds of promises to ourselves and others about how things will improve this time around. Naturally, the most important one of them all is the promise that the DCU will finally become great under the management of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Yes, in case you missed it, the final movie of the DCEU was released in December 2023, and with that, we can leave it all behind and look towards a brighter future. But before we do that, let’s take a final look at all 16 movies the DCEU brought us and determine which ones were better and which ones were worse. Here’s the final ranking of every DCEU movie now that it’s over.
16. The Flash (2023)
I don’t want to spend much time talking about it, because, quite frankly, even just thinking about it makes me angry. Truly some of the worst filmmaking of last year, and within superhero movies, period. There are obvious problems, like some astonishingly bad special effects and just a general over-reliance on them, that stand out even within the current state of superhero cinema. There’s the pretty tasteless big cameo after cameo set piece. The atrocious third act. But even beyond that, there’s just so much wrong with this movie on every possible level. A movie that is fundamentally anti-art.
15. Suicide Squad (2016)
David Ayer seems to insist that there’s some masterful director’s cut of this hidden somewhere, à la the (in)famous Snyder cut, but since we will never get to see any of that, this is what we’re left with, and what we’re left with is pretty awful. Talking trash about this movie almost feels bad. It’s been a punching bag in pop culture ever since it was released. The awful dialogue with lines like “We some kinda…Suicide Squad?” the absolute mess of a soundtrack, the brooding edgy teenage boy energy this whole thing gives off, Jared Leto’s Joker. You know the drill; this is not a good movie by any means.
14. Justice League (2017)
In an attempt to chase after the success of Marvel, WB decided to hire Joss Whedon to “fix” what Zack Snyder had attempted with his version of Justice League (2017), and in the process created this Frankenstein monstrosity of a movie. I mean, nothing here fits together, and the filmmaking is shoddy at best. It’s clear that the movie was super rushed and tried to retroactively force a completely different tone onto it. And in doing so, it contains all of the Joss Whedon-isms that marked so much of the MCU post-Avengers in all of the worst ways.
13. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
The first movie in this ranking that’s actually like a real movie, even if it’s a pretty bad one, You have to hand it to Zack Snyder; he tried something here, and I do think Batman v Superman (2016) has some interesting ideas. But interesting ideas don’t get you very far when the execution is this lacking. This is also where the fundamental misunderstanding of these characters Snyder seems to have is most apparent, with characterizations that are just bizarre. And on top of that, it’s way too preoccupied with setting up future events—an issue that will plague much of Snyder’s filmography going forward—rather than building a functional narrative within itself.
12. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
This movie tried to do something very different than the first Wonder Woman (2017) and mostly failed in the process. Pedro Pascal seems to be the only actor who knows the kind of movie he’s in and fully hams it up, while Gal Gadot can’t deliver the most basic of lines. I mean, seriously, some historically bad line deliveries are on display here. Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah is kind of fun, and Chris Pine is… there, I guess? But the plot of the movie is overly contrived, and the screenplay is severely lacking in basically every way. This was supposed to be a fun romp, but it did not manage to deliver on any of the fun.
11. Black Adam (2022)
For years and years, we had to hear Dwayne Johnson telling us that the hierarchy of power in the DC universe would change with the release of Black Adam (2022), and when it finally released after a seemingly endless development process, it did not have much of an impact. At every turn, Black Adam (2022) tried to tell us how bad, evil, and edgy its titular main character is, but in reality, he’s not much different than your average superhero main character. The Justice Society that was introduced here was mostly a letdown filled with uninteresting characters. And then there’s director Jaume Collet-Serra, who attempts to ape Zack Snyder’s style at every turn and fails miserably. I’m not a huge fan of Zack Snyder himself, but someone else trying to be Zack Snyder is much worse.
10. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
I mean, the screenplay here is just so weak. The villains are bland, despite having some fantastic actresses portraying them. The themes of family are so generic that even the movie constantly pokes fun at them with Fast & Furious references, along with a general over-reliance on references and jokes that simply don’t land most of the time. The completely inconsistent characterization between Shazam and Billy Batson. The product placement. The mythical creatures towards the end are pretty cool and, at times, still manage to be somewhat charming, but most of this doesn’t work.
9. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
This is the first movie in this ranking that I’d actually call pretty decent. Plenty of style, as Cathy Yan does her best to elevate this material. Margot Robbie is obviously fantastic in this role, and Ewan McGregor makes for a pretty great villain as well. Sadly, the screenplay just doesn’t hold up—as you might have noticed, a very common problem with these movies—in particular looking at some of the characters, which are just lacking. In particular, the characters of Cassandra Cain and Renee Montoya are just like, what are we even doing here?
8. Man of Steel (2013)
The biggest thing Man of Steel (2013) has going for it are its fight scenes. Zack Snyder directs them with so much energy and makes every punch hit with an impact that is felt sitting in front of the screen. Some of the best super-strength fist fights ever put to screen. Michael Shannon gives it his all, as he always does, and Henry Cavill is a pretty good Superman. The main thing holding this back, though, is the aforementioned misunderstanding of the character that director Zack Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer seem to have, making for a few questionable character moments.
7. Shazam! (2019)
Shazam! (2019) doesn’t do anything particularly special. It’s about a young kid getting special powers and coming to terms with the responsibilities that come with them. It’s about a young kid taking solace in his new-found family. It’s about a young kid being a young kid. It’s about a bunch of stuff that a lot of superhero movies are about, but done well. Add onto that some demon antagonists that look great and are a little more nasty than you’d expect from a family film, and you get a pretty decent film.
6. Blue Beetle (2023)
A lot of the things I just said about Shazam! (2019) also go for Blue Beetle (2023). It’s a very formulaic superhero film with a great young lead doing all the things superhero movies with a young lead do. The family aspect is even stronger here than in Shazam! in my opinion, with the whole cast of family members being worthwhile additions to the movie and a third act that celebrates them and gives them agency rather than the usual role of a victim that a family might otherwise play in a movie like this. As the first Latino-led superhero film, it also has a great sense of culture that delivers on the representation you might hope for in a movie like this.
5. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
I imagine this is much higher for me than it is on the list of most people, but screw it, it’s on my list, isn’t it? I think Aquaman and the Lost Kindom (2023) is a pretty fun movie once you approach it on its own terms. It’s not your classic action blockbuster; it’s much more of an adventure b-movie, but in the modern era and with the budget of a blockbuster. It’s got some fantastic creature, costume, and production design, and a tone that’s not afraid to get a little cheesy. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a type of movie I wish the superhero genre would embrace a lot more, to be honest.
4. Aquaman (2018)
As much as I appreciate its sequel, the first Aquaman (2018) is still the better movie in my mind. Like its sequel, it’s a beautifully silly movie. It’s not a movie that’s profound in any way or attempts to convey any bigger themes; it just wants to have as much fun as possible, and it delivers on that. In great part due to James Wan’s direction, the man simply knows how to make a movie. Like its sequel, this also has some fantastic art direction. But what makes this movie stand above its sequel is that it’s just a little more coherent as a movie, with similarly great set pieces but a screenplay that makes a little more sense.
3. Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman (2017) as a movie just kind of works. Wonder Woman herself is a badass, as is every Amazonian in this movie, with a fully realized Themyscira. But even when we leave the island and enter the real world, the movie stays strong. The story about Diana discovering the horrors of war but also the beauty within mankind is a perfect arc for Wonder Woman. Chris Pine and his gang of little misfits from war are also great, and they make a great foil for Diana herself. If only the third act wasn’t as bad, this would be a pretty outstanding film.
2. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Look, I’m not a fan of Zack Snyder, alright, but this is his best work by a long shot. This version of Justice League (2021) evokes a clear and consistent mood that most superhero movies fail to do. It’s got some breathtaking moments, and while there are several minutes of footage that could be cut for every great sequence, the highs here are just so damn high that it doesn’t really matter if the whole thing is too long and pretty self-indulgent, if we’re honest. We will never see the full vision of Snyder, and I’m not sure I care to see it anyway, but this is incredible. Also, unlike a lot of his other DC work, this movie actually has some great characterization of all the Justice League members and does a great job of pulling them together as a team.
1. The Suicide Squad (2021)
If you ask me, this is the best James Gunn movie. Better than any of his Guardians of the Galaxy films. He has so much fun with these weird d-list characters and goes so far with them. James Gunn has the ability to give these kinds of characters so much personality, and especially for a movie like this where anybody could die at any moment, that’s important. The Suicide Squad (2021) goes to some wild places and is unbelievably fun the whole way through, even when it gets a little darker. It is also a movie that simply features some fantastic filmmaking within it. There’s some really stylish stuff here, which is sadly a rarity for the superhero genre.
I admit it’s a little bit ironic that the best movie from the old DC Universe was made by the person in charge of the new DC Universe, but let’s hope that means this time around it will all work out a little better. We will get a first idea in 2025 with Superman: Legacy, and potentially many more movies after it. That is if the superhero movie even survives that long, it’s not looking too bright at the moment.
