After Shazam and Aquaman, a definitive ranking of DC Extended Universe films | Hollywood



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In the coming years, the extended universe of DC will be considered a failure – a noble failure, but nevertheless a failure. What began as an eager attempt to replicate the success of the Marvel Film Universe has turned into a spectacular train wreck, drawing spectators around him to look at him in all its tragic splendor. But times are changing.

No other cinematographic franchise of the present era – not even Universal's unique dark universe – has been scrutinized with so much pbadion and pbadionate hatred. It's almost as if some part of the fandom – and not necessarily the fandom Marvel; there are even detractors in the DC camp – he is ready for the DCEU to crush and burn. It's going very well, even without the will of every moment.

A few years ago, Warner Bros pretended that, even though DC's films had been critically defeated, they were judging success based on the movies – and the strong performance of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad at the box office proved that critics were disconnected from the mainstream

and that the release of Wonder Woman seemed to reaffirm this notion. The film became the first movie in the series to receive a new note on the critics' site, Rotten Tomatoes, and for a brief moment, everything was OK in the DC universe.

See also: After Shazam, the DCEU no longer needs Batman and Superman

But about the same time that Wonder Woman had a theatrical series that changed the game, news of an extremely troubled league of justice began to emerge. The Justice League went into production a few weeks after the release of BvS – far too late in the day for major changes to be made in the same dark tone that director Zack Snyder had planned for his response to Marvel's Avengers. When Snyder made an badembly cut – not a director's cut, but simply an "badembly" of usable footage – that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Warner Bros has set up a committee to oversee the film and make comments.

One of the members of this committee was Joss Whedon, director of Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, who had had his own very public fall. with Marvel Studios. In May 2017, Snyder resigned from the film – the reason given at the time was personal, but rumor had it since he'd been forced to leave – and Whedon was hired to complete the work on the film.

The Justice League is essentially a film that has been shot twice, inflating its budget as venom inflates Bane's muscles. The end result was a mixture of contradictory ideas and tones, a weak attempt to edit a team film, devoid of any personality. Say what you want about BvS, at least it looked like a Zack Snyder movie.

All this context was crucial to the story of Aquaman – the most titled movie of DC, and perhaps one of the last to remember the basic stars. , all of which have been thrown away by Snyder, who has been away for a long time. If things turn out well (and there's no reason to believe this will not happen), then director James Wan's Aquaman will be able to bridge the DCEU's lost past with its future. refreshing.

week with Shazam !, which is perhaps as far away as possible from Snyder's dark films.

I was recorded to say that I admired the DCEU's ambition more than the well-oiled machine of the MCU – while the Marvel Universe was born of a good idea that had built a platform for future experimentation, the DC The films took the risky approach right out of the gate. It did not work.

Here is a ranking of movies, from worst to best.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman is not really a movie of superheroes like it's a story about two boys from Mom who measure the length of their cloak, finding that they disagree and prick each other with threats of "Do you want to go first?" for two and a half hours. This obsession with moms is a recurring theme in the CESD and is the emotional heart of Aquaman (and if we believe the first information, even the next Joker movie by Joaquin Phoenix).

BvS is clearly a compromised vision – the ultimate "edition" released a few months later is an infinitely better movie, and if it was ranked in that list, it would end up in a much bigger position high.

Justice League

Justice League is the kind of movie that can be extremely silly at any time. with forced jokes that have the success rate of a drunken stormtrooper, a stupid and stupid plot that is often derisory compared to DC's original animated series, but which can also make positively thrill with pure joy the crowd who reigns in enthusiasm.

This continues the bizarre tendency of DC Extended Universe to produce films that are direct reactions to their immediate predecessors. And for all his faults – a sad show in three acts that looks like a PlayStation 2 video game from the mid-2000s, Danny Elfman's musical score instantly forgotten (and shamelessly repressed), one of the main villains the most unimaginable (and cheap) In recent memory, and more than an hour devoted to the constitution of a legend – The Justice League is not as terrible as She could have been so easily.

The Suicide Squad

scene. A scene transformed Suicide Squad. It was not necessarily the best scene – in fact, in any other film, it would hardly deserve a second look. But for Suicide Squad, it was a boon. He came to the heart of the film – after about an hour of discordant, clumsy and clumsy narrations – and before another hour of identical time. Not only was it the first time our characters looked like real humans, but in addition, briefly and despite everything we had seen until now, Suicide Squad had a heart.

He sent our characters, all dressed in their ridiculous costumes, soaked in water and blood, to a bar. No explosions, no fights, no Joker – just the quietest member of the team, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), who tells a story. It is the scene that seals the sentimental relationship between these characters and prevents it from becoming the second biggest disappointment of the year.

That made me go back to the days when I discovered Batman and his twisted world – the world Bruce Timm and Paul Dini created in Batman: The Animated Series. Suicide Squad, it's exactly that: a long and real version of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series in which Batman and Joker are the secondary characters.

Aquaman

It's long, it's long cluttered, it's messy. It ends with a CGI slugfest that feels comfortable in a series that includes clbadic CGI slugfests between Superman and Zod, Superman and Doomsday, Wonder Woman and Ares, and a group of thoughts and a dancing witch.

James Wan's Aquaman actively moves away from heavy metal to retake the character Snyder originally imagined. And with more time, Jason Momoa takes Arthur Curry in surprising new directions. Of course, it's great to watch on the big screen – Atlantis is beautiful, as are the creatures and the loving world built by Wan – but it's with sincerity that the film deals with its characters that is its most endearing quality.

Man of Steel

Without a doubt, my only favorite moment among all DCEU films is Man of Steel. In fact, there are several. Snyder is clearly someone who understands superhero iconography better than anyone else – this trailer alone was a work of art; the one in which a child puts his hands on his hips and the whole world suddenly realizes what they're looking at.

But for a brief second in Man of Steel, Snyder accomplished – in my opinion – what he wanted to do for all that. while, a deconstruction of myths, a foundation of the gods. Alone and misunderstood, Clark Kent goes from town to town, holding odd jobs, convinced that his father – Pa Kent – was right; to reveal his powers to this cruel world would only create problems. And so, it drifts between dive bars and oil rigs, without being sure of itself.

We see him walking on a highway, his back turned to us, the evening sky slowly welcoming the darkness. Clark turns around, sees a truck coming in and reaches out, hoping that a stranger will show kindness. The truck does not stop. And Clark continues to go wherever the road will take him.

I think very often at this moment. It's Superman. So vulnerable, so alone. Nobody to help him. And yet, he spends his life helping others. This moment perfectly reflects the imperfect shine of Snyder's DCEU.

Shazam!

Shazam! is an entirely different experience – both in tone and in scope – from previous entries in DCEU, and this includes the highly regarded Wonder Woman and the great success of Aquaman. At the risk of angering fans on both sides, DCEU what Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming were to the world of cinematic wonder – lighter, less angry, and absolutely delightful.

unlikely direction of Swedish filmmaker David F Sandberg, Shazam! is as magical as its title indicates; sincere, full of humor and weighing nothing on the pride of Batman v Superman and Man of Steel.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is the kind of movie that makes you forgive things for which she's just cheated on the strength of everything that worked well. And he had a lot of good things. It was the first DC Extended Universe movie worthy of his iconic character and he did what Batman and Superman could not do: he gave us hope that it would happen.

He is still paralyzed by the influence of Zack Snyder in his CGI final movie – a boring trend that James Wan chose to honor at Aquaman – but it's more than just a big movie. Wonder Woman is perhaps the defining superhero film of the post-Trump era – Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy in a post-11/11 world.

This is a serious film, one that often feel too pure for this horrible world. And that no one's earthly sequence is above the stage with Master's "do not blink" scene among the greatest of the decade.

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First published:
April 06, 2019 09:12 AM IST

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