Devin Baker gives us his worst to best ranking of DCEU films.
Whether you’re a fan of the DCEU films or not, most can agree that this shared universe has been anything but perfect.
From continuity issues, to whole new cuts, to poor box office turnouts, negative ratings, and etc.
Warner Brothers has had a hard time getting its shared universe’s films off the ground and running.
However there are plenty (I myself included) that have enjoyed a number of these films, and with Wonder Woman 1984 having just released, we thought there would be no better time to take a look at all the movies of the DCEU and give a definitive ranking on them.
9. Suicide Squad (2016)
Oh the potential. That’s what this film was oozing with but unfortunately never really ever lived up to.
Packed with a very talented cast full of Hollywood A-listers, the film never fully used any of them to their max potential mainly because the film had very little direction to begin with.
The movie was very much about expanding the universe, offering cameos of the Batman and Flash and offering audiences their first look at the clown prince of crime in Joker and his sidekick/love Harley Quinn.
However the cheesy one liners, and the Joker chasing down his love side story just didn’t strike home, and the lack of a real captivating villain put this film at the very bottom of the rankings.
There’s still a chance that this film’s true potential may be realized with the possibility of an “Ayer cut” in the future.
8. Justice League (2017)
Very rarely do films do so poorly that the general consensus is that the original version of the film must be miles and miles better, but such has been the case when it comes to Justice League.
From start to finish you can see that this was not the original film or direction that Zack Snyder wanted to go with the film, from an oddly cheesy Batman all the way up to the horrible CGI botch of a Superman that was…let’s not even get into it.
The film was just bad, and as much as a DCEU films fan that I am, I don’t think that the film has any rewatchability and one would be hard pressed to find much if anything that the movie has to offer to viewers.
It felt like a very rushed attempt by replacement director Joss Whedon and producer Geoff Johns to try and cook up in Snyder’s absence and it shows, alot.
7. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
When this film was announced just 4 years ago the hype for the DCEU was at an all time high.
A new Batman in Ben Affleck paired with the new Superman in Henry Cavill, the skies never looked clearer for DC. Things did not play out as hoped for however as critics and fans alike were not very receptive to Affleck’s take on the Caped Crusader or Jesse Eisenberg’s depiction of classic Superman villain Lex Luthor.
The film worked well as a means to expand the universe and add a host of new characters, but it lacked a meaningful plot.
Batman’s distaste for Superman seemed a little overboard, and Lex Luthor seemed more like third fiddle and less like the master chess player the film was trying to portray him as.
On top of that, the film did itself zero favors in throwing Doomsday in at the last act of the film and killing off their titular character in only his second film in the universe.
Overall, a lot of potential that was one again squandered.
6.Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
In a year full of delays, pushbacks, and all around movie chaos and uncertainty in general, DC and company decided to release their first true sequel in Wonder Woman 1984.
Unfortunately it did not live up to the high expectations set by its predecessor and is currently the cause of a ton of divisive criticism by movie critics around the world.
Gal Gadot is amazing as always, and Pedro Pascal puts on a noteworthy performance as well, but the movie just felt flat and had very little direction, a common theme amongst DC films.
They don’t seem to be building towards anything, and this film felt no different, on top of this the majority of the action scenes were dull and Kristen Wig was barely seen as Cheetah.
A real bummer because the character was very promising but pushed to the back burner for most of the film, while Steve and Diana chased down Pascal across the globe.
A real let down for what was once hyped up to be the film of the year.
5. Man of Steel (2013)
After the conclusion of the highly successful and critically acclaimed Nolan Bat trilogy, DC decided to take a page out of Marvel’s book and build a shared universe for their comic properties to exist on the big screen.
Director Zack Snyder headed this new initiative (after the failure of Green Lantern) and decided that taking on the man of steel would be the best way to go about it.
Depending on who you ask, the first film in the universe was very good or very bad. I believe it lies somewhere in the middle of all that.
The film provided us the first take on Superman that wasn’t a version of or related to in general, Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve’s Superman, but instead went for a more coming of age and reluctant savior story for the last son of Krypton.
The cast selected for the film couldn’t have been better, with Henry Cavill and Michael Shannon both delivering excellent performances, however the killing off of General Zod did not sit well with audiences and went against the very thing that Superman represents.
With too much focus on fighting and explosions, the movie missed a real chance to deliver its best version of Superman and that is where it stumbles the most.
4. Aquaman (2018)
After the major box office bust that was Justice League, DC films as a whole were in a pretty rough spot.
Fans and critics were calling for a reboot or a halt of the franchise in general, and considering how poor the movie was in a lot of areas, these calls to action did not seem too far fetched.
Then came Aquaman, which seemed to call fans down if only for a bit.
The underwater adventure boasted some very impressive visual effects and provided quite the thrill, telling a tale similar to that of Thor’s and seemingly trying to distance itself from the Justice League fiasco.
The fairly predictable and cliche plot is easy to track from the very beginning and the motive of the villains in the film fall on the side of cliche as well, but the thrill that the movie offers viewers is enough to propel it past some of the less fortunate and less fun films of the DCEU.
3. Birds of Prey (2020)
After swinging and missing with Suicide Squad, DC decided that they still wanted Harley Quinn to be a prominent face in their continuity and decided to give her essentially her own film, one that doesn’t involve her main squeeze Joker or her archenemy Batman.
The results are mixed depending on who you ask, but I personally enjoyed the first two acts of the film and felt the third was fairly flat.
Margot Robbie does a better job as Harley Quinn then when she debuted as the character in Suicide Squad and Ewan Mcgregor does an excellent job as Black Mask, which is why it was quite the bummer to see him die in the last act, but considering the consistent theme of the universe not having any sort of continuity or direction it really didn’t come as quite the surprise.
Despite having a rather loose and silly plot, the film still provided viewers a good ride as well as some quality humour along the way.
2. Shazam! (2019)
I’ll be the very first to say that I wasn’t sure how DC was going to make a Shazam movie let alone one worth watching, and man did I have to eat my words.
Shazam was an excellent mix of storytelling and superhero cinematics, a great balance that seems to be ever so elusive to the majority of the films DC has released.
The film really dives into the continuity that sort of exists in the shared universe, with direct mentions to other heroes and even a slightly controversial (but very nice) cameo scene.
The duo of Zachari Levi and Asher Angel was perfect and captured all of what Shazam as a character is about, and allowed the movie to explore themes that related to adulthood and coming of age.
To see Billy take this journey to find his mother and for him to find himself along the way is what makes the film worth watching.
When you combine such strong story elements with the superhero elements of the film, then one can see why it is one of the better superhero films in general.
1. Wonder Woman (2017)
Gal Gadot stole the show as Wonder Woman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and carried that momentum into an impressive solo debut film.
Set in WWII way before any events seen in the DCEU movies, this film allowed Patty Jenkins to tell the story of Diana Prince in its own sort of setting and element.
Wonder Woman marked the first superhero movie to be led by a woman in over a decade at its release, and did not disappoint as it blended great messages of equality and what it means to be a hero regardless of gender into a movie about a woman saving the world from a destructive Greek god.
Wonder Woman is the shining light of the DCEU films and is its most well received movie to date, and immediately spawned excitement for what became the DCEU’s first sequel and what looks to eventually become its first trilogy.
What are your favourite DCEU movies?
DCEU films ranked by Devin Baker.
