The DCEU Discussion – Part I: An Overview

The DC Extended Universe. Or the DC Extended Cinematic Universe...

Well... So much to say and so little at the same time. Who I am kidding, I have a lot to say and I'll say it here.

-Pic: From Tumblr.com artist unknown

Okay. So I guess at this point it’s no secret that I have been a comics fan since 1991 and while I’ve read a lot on both sides of the fence, I fell into Marvel comics more strongly than DC. In my writings and rantings, I’ve tended to rave about the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and to condemn the DC Extended Universe films. To me, they have – on the whole – not been as good as the Marvel films. I truly wish they were both as good as each other, as I feel the comic companies that spawned them are. The DC films tend to be plagued with poor CGI, poor stories, and poor character arcs. They are frequently dark to the point of being joyless. And that being said, there's some great stuff in there too. Some great actors, some great scenes, and a couple of gr... er... good movies. :)

There’s something I find it hard to define in there – exactly why are they not as good?

-Pic: From Den of Geek.com © DC Comics.

I think it comes down to DC rushing it. Marvel built their brand with time and patience. By the time it was working and was popular, DC jumped on and they were way behind. They rushed in and did not seem to plan out their shared universe as meticulously as Marvel had. They didn’t earn it over time, gradually building it up as they went. With Man of Steel under their belt, DC jumped straight in and threw Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman into a movie together, along with a cameo for Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash.

Comparatively, Marvel made Iron Man and had a brief Avengers teaser in a post-credits tag to the movie – where Director Nick Fury of SHIELD tells Tony Stark about the existence of other superheroes and introduces him to “the Avengers Initiative”. The next movie, The Incredible Hulk, is littered with easter eggs, including references to Stark Industries from the Iron Man movie. It has a brief cameo at the end, with Tony Stark seemingly recruiting General Ross for the Avengers Initiative… but he’s really after the Hulk. Then came Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and then, finally, The Avengers movie bringing them all together. While each film had a different genre and director, one person produced it all – Kevin Feige. He obviously had a whole team of producers and creators working with him, but having this one hand at the helm linked all the stories together. They were part of an organic whole and the team took their time seeding the links for The Avengers. Each movie had little elements and characters connecting it to the next movie, but they didn’t rush into it. The five build-up films were released between 2008 and 2011 and the Avengers capped it off in 2012.

In contrast, Man of Steel came out in 2013, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out in 2016, with nothing in between. That was where they introduced the heroes that would become the Justice League – all in the second film; a film that was also packed with so much nonsense and half-realised story-arcs that the whole thing seems incredibly rushed. Next came Suicide Squad (2016), still heavily tied to the other films, but with very little by way of a coherent story. After that, the Wonder Woman and the Justice League films both came out in 2017 and Aquaman came out in 2018. Also in the mix was Shazam (2019), which had loose ties to the other films. After Justice League, they made a decision as a company to stop with the heavy-handed universe-building and just tried to make some better movies. The links were a bit more subtle and the movies were more stand-alone-y. Probably a good call.

-Pic: From Inverse.com

The other thing I didn’t appreciate during these movies were the significant deviations from the core characteristics of the main protagonists – Superman and Batman. I’ll go into them in the following reviews, but in short – they lost something when they tried to remake the core aspects of what people had expected their heroes to be. Superman is usually the pure-hearted All-American hero. He has arguably one of the better moral compasses in DC’s canon. In the Man of Steel film, he wasn’t taught the same morality by his adopted father, Jonathan Kent. Batman normally has two rules – no guns and no killing. In BvS he is in a dark place, with reasons only alluded to, and he breaks both of these rules. He is supposed to be one of the greatest minds of his generation and the world’s greatest detective, and yet he can’t think of any way to gauge the threat of Superman and decided instead to kill him before he becomes a true threat.

What. The. Hell???

-Pic: From Cinemablend.com - Yep, Batman... that was how I felt too...

Had they tried to do more with less, maybe they could've brought us along for the ride and told a more coherent story that didn't try to be too many things all at once.

Anyway… I have decided to watch each of the DCEU films in order and revisit my thoughts. I want to fairly write down what I love, what I hated, and what I think went wrong. We’ll start with Man of Steel.

- Pic: from Pinterest.com by dragonartebr.official

Join me for The DCEU Discussion - Part II: Lex Luthor

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NOTE: The pictures used here have been sourced from different internet sites, always linked to under the picture. In the case of comic panels, the original issue numbers and creators are listed, as well as the company that owns them. All rights remain with the original creators and have been used here for entertainment and educational purposes only.