The DC Extended Universe is nearing its end as filmmaker James Gunn takes over DC, and it’s time to look back on the series that started with 2013’s Man of Steel.
The post-Christopher Nolan Batman movies have had their high ups and low downs.
There were great moments like the arrival of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and terrible ones like the mangled version of Justice League that fans got in 2017.
Ahead of this weekend’s The Flash, let’s take a look back at most all the DCEU movies that have come out within the past decade (with the exception of March’s Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, which we turned off after less than 10 minutes because life is simply too short).
12. Justice League (2017)
A Frankenstein’s monster of a movie, Joss Whedon’s attempt at reshaping Zack Snyder’s Justice League was an exercise in tedium.
The film abandoned the gravitas that Snyder brought to the series in exchange for a watered-down version of what Whedon did in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with The Avengers.
This is the worst film of the DCEU because it’s barely a film at all.
11. Black Adam
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s ill-fated attempt at bringing Black Adam to the big screen failed to really justify its existence.
The film just couldn’t really do much to keep your attention past its paper-thin plot, and Johnson’s clunky performance as Black Adam doesn’t help anything.
It’s a shame this film seems to already just be a relic of the past, as it doesn’t look like Johnson will be reprising the role anytime soon.
10. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Snyder’s weakest DCEU film was by far Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, an overwrought attempt to shoehorn Ben Affleck’s Batman into the Superman story Snyder started with Man of Steel.
The film just never ties together its grim tone with its convoluted plot, a lot of the sweeping emotion of Man of Steel replaced with a grittier underbelly that never does anyone any favors.
Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor keeps things interesting when he’s on screen, but the entire project just feels like a chore when you watch it.
9. Suicide Squad
The fantastic trailer for 2016’s Suicide Squad never paid off, as the film wound up one of the true failures of of the DCEU.
The film’s reputation is worse than its actual quality, but it’s still not good enough to hold a candle to what James Gunn did with the characters in 2021.
At the least, we’ll probably never have to see Jared Leto’s cringey take on the Joker anytime soon?
8. Shazam!
It was a ton of fun to catch Zachary Levi’s irreverent take on Shazam, imagined here as a teenager who gets zapped into a superhero by a wizard’s spell.
The film has more in common with movies like Big and 13 Going on 30 than it does some of the other films on this list, which is a good thing.
The film’s sequel bombing at the box office doesn’t bode well for the future of the character, but the original did plenty to justify giving this character another spin.
7. Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey gave Margot Robbie a proper vessel for her hilarious take on Harley Quinn, and the film was a joyous romp through the seedier corners of the DCEU.
The film struggled to maintain relevance as it came out just a month before the COVID-19 pandemic started. However, it’s worth revisiting as a woman-driven tale of antiheroes with plenty of personality and style to spare.
6. Wonder Woman 1984
While the sequel to Wonder Woman wound up being one of the most divisive films on this list, it was a fun throwback to some of the sillier DC films of the 90s and still had much more going for it than a lot of titles on this list.
Pedro Pascal was a great villain, one that embodied the unfiltered greed of the 80s. This one came out during the pandemic’s first year, but it’s worth another look if you had mixed feelings about it when you saw it at home.
5. Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman stands as one of the most important superhero films of the 2010s, a rollicking adventure that launched Gal Gadot to superstardom.
While the film owed a lot to the globetrotting spectacles that inspired it, filmmaker Patty Jenkins still gave the project a needed gravity to really underscore why it was such a historic moment in the genre.
Gadot was also the perfect person for the job.
4. The Suicide Squad
Gunn’s first partnership with DC was the Suicide Squad movie that folks hoped they’d get with the 2016 film.
While this one isn’t quite as strong as Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies with Marvel, it’s still pretty great as a darker journey into Gunn’s love of the ragtag families that come from unwitting mashups.
King Shark nearly steals the show, and he’s one of the best characters Gunn has ever brought to life.
3. Man of Steel
Man of Steel was Snyder’s triumphant debut with Superman, and it’s still a thrilling example of why Clark Kent can be an engaging lead for one of these movies despite the speculation for the opposite.
Henry Cavill was a great Supes, even if it’s not likely he’ll ever be back as the role is recast in Gunn’s 2025 imagining. Michael Shannon’s General Zod also might be the DCEU’s best villain.
2. Zack Snyder's Justice League
After a lengthy internet campaign, DCEU fans got their wish to see Snyder’s original vision for Justice League. It’s unbelievably better than the 2017, and Snyder’s best movie since 2009’s Watchmen.
Even as an HBO Max exclusive, the film was a bombastic epic and the kind of startling vision that can only come from a visionary filmmaker like Snyder.
Bumps and all, this film is a very special second chance that rarely happens in the movie world.
1. Aquaman
Leave it to genre master James Wan to deliver the endearingly hokey, eye-popping delight that was 2018’s Aquaman.
While it wasn’t a given that Jason Momoa’s take on the sea’s mightiest hero would go as well as it did, Wan really leaned on his horror roots to deliver something that was tremendously entertaining and full of thrill.
Momoa is just delightful in the movie, and the film’s visual style is the most interesting in a DCEU film by a mile. It’s one of the best superhero films of the 2010s, and its sequel has a lot to live up to this winter.
