The DC Extended Universe

[Chronicler]

The "darkness" of the DC movies are not the main problem.

Correct, it's the insertion of darkness in the wrong areas that has become a problem.

Superman should be more light-hearted, Wonder Woman should be more spectacle-filled, and Batman is where the dark shows.

Also, the writing and acting being awful is another problem with these movies. Not a fan of Jesse Eisenburg and Henry Cavill's performances in particular.

[prentice1215]

insertion of darkness

writing

The insertion of darkness in the wrong areas is because of the poor writing. It's cause and effect. The poor writing is the cause of the majority of problems for the DCEU (that name even is poorly written. DC Cinematic Universe flows off the tongue a lot easier). Jesse Eisenburg and Henry Cavill's performances were to serve the terrible script given to them, and even if they had given Oscar worthy performances, it wouldn't have saved BvS. Man of Steel was a meh movie because of the script. BvS and Suicide Squad were terrible movies because of the script. DC needs to focus on giving us good stories, be they light or dark, that serve the characters and entertain audiences.

One of the major reasons Suicide Squad failed is that it tried to be a fun story with dark elements, but had a bad script. You can have a movie that has dark moments that is at the end of the day more of a fun movie (Guardians of the Galaxy is known as a fun, light movie, but has some really dark stuff in it), but you need a good script. I'd argue that SS is just stupidly silly more than it is dark. The script couldn't find the proper balance, and that was where it failed.

DC needs to write better movies and not rush them out the door to compete with MARVEL, and until they do that I don't think we'll see anything good from them anytime soon (with the exception of more LEGO movies ).

[Chronicler]

DC needs to write better movies and not rush them out the door to compete with MARVEL,

Exactly. This is what I've wanted since the beginning.

[Political_Slime]

I'm surprised by how many of you want the remaining films to fail. So most of the movies in the DCEU haven't been great so far. Why does that matter moving forward? WW is looking like it is going to be a great movie, a movie I am personally interested in. If at least some of the movies going forward are good, then I think it's worth it. And if they're not, then the answer is simple: don't watch them. Don't pay money to see them in theaters. When I heard that BvS and SS were bad, I never bothered to watch them. When you pay too see a movie, you are providing the studio with what they want. If you ignore the movie, then don't. Then maybe DC will realize that their writing needs improvement.

I'm not in favor of killing the DCEU entirely, because this could be our only shot to see DC heroes up on the silver screen for quite some time. Imagine a Blue Beetle movie, or a Plastic Man one, or any other character. That's all possible with the DCEU. And the beauty of having a cinematic universe is that, while these movies are all connected, it's not necessary to watch them all in order. You can watch Doctor Strange first and get it entirely. You can watch TLBM and still understand everything. The same will apply to the DCEU. Just because some movies might suck isn't enough of a reason to kill it off, because IMO it still has a ton of potential.

[OraNui]

You make a good point here, the main reason a lot of us are saying this is because we haven't had a really good movie in this franchise, and they just keep making them. But now that a movie actually seems to be getting good reviews, that makes me a bit more optimistic, and more willing reason to justify the existence of the DCEU.

I'd argue that SS is just stupidly silly more than it is dark. The script couldn't find the proper balance, and that was where it failed.

Completely agree here. It seems that the people working on this stuff don't know what kind of tone to go for from the beginning and then they want to change things last second. Batman V Superman could have had some darker elements and I'd be fine with it, but when the majority of the movie is using dark camera lighting and characters acting deperessed for no reason, that's when I have problems. Overused example aside, The Dark Knight Trilogy is clearly quite dark, but it makes sense because of the subject matter dealt with in the films, you don't see those movies using silly dark camera lightings and character motivations that are too vague and just used to make it seem edgy. Suicide Squad on the other hand should have been more dark, I would definitely like humor, but not the way it was handled. The movie was trying to both be funny but still somewhat dark, it don't work out because they tried too hard to make it seem more "fun" compared to BvS so it could appeal to mass audiences, at the same time they wanted to still have the darker elements to appeal the more hardcore fans, but really, they just made it seem like it was trying too hard to be hip and edgy.

[Fenrr]

Well Snyder(and his wife) just stepped down from the Justice League movie, because his daughter committed suicide. Joss Whedon is taking over.

[Invader_Rose]

Yeah I just heard about that.

Ouch.

[OraNui]

I do feel bad for the guy, this must be pretty tough. We've made fun of Zack a lot on here (seriously, who hasn't mocked him on this website?), but he must be in a lot of pain right now.

[Xephix]

Well now Joss Whedon is now director. I feel like a jerk for saying that.

[OraNui]

Just came back from watching Wonder Woman, and I can now happily say, that the DCEU has its first awesome movie. This movie had an actual plot, actual character development, humor, and it didn't have the need to set up other movies like BvS and SS. It actually felt complete, and didn't have half the movie cut out or any of that. I do still have a few issues, but they're not deal breakers, and really, there is no perfect movie, and I really think you guys should give this one a chance, I don't see a few small issues being a reason to avoid a movie. If you hated the other DCEU films like I did, please give it a chance.

Having Diana be a more naive type character worked surprisingly well, both in terms of humor and character development. I liked how Steve wasn't just a dumb side character and he actually contributed a lot, I quite liked him, and I'm sad he died. I'm also glad they didn't try to overdue and try too hard to make us feel bad. Acton no was really good and Gal Hadot nailed her role, Chris Pine is great too, and so are the side characters. Action sequences were really great, there were a couple moments that I feel used slow motion a little too much though. The villains of course weren't the best, I was hoping for a little more, but it wasn't awful.

All in all this is a great movie anyone can watch. I'm not sure what the future of the DCEU entails, but Wonder Woman might have actually saved it.

Solid 8.5/10 from a DCEU hater.

[Invader_Rose]

I'm going to go against everything I believe in and see Wonder Woman.

[Omega_Tahu]

Wonderwoman was pretty good. The only bad thing imo was that some of the scenes felt a bit forced.

[OraNui]

I'd like to know how the DCEU will go forward now that they have a pretty well received film. I'm still not excited for Justice League since Snyder still directed it. I hope this is a sign they now know what works and what doesn't, not certain though, this might be a one time thing, or at least only Wonder Woman films will be any good. It might be the director Patty Jenkins actually gets it, and the others are just kind of bad at their job. Wonder Woman definitely showed the guys working at the DCEU what's good, now, time will tell whether or not they will look to it for inspiration.

[Likus]

So, just saw Wonder Woman. It was very, very good. Competent plot, great character moments. I do have some small problems with this film, however. The Ares reveal was the worst part for me. So stupid when the rest of the film was so well thought out. He was only there for the big, dumb battle at the end. There wasn't really any point in the whole "giving Ludendorff superpowers" subplot but whatever. The villains were generic and forgettable, but the heroes are so well done they make this movie. Definitely worth buying once it comes out on DVD.

[Invader_Rose]

This is long overdue but I saw Wonder Woman a few weeks ago and man, that was incredible. Although I'm still skeptical about Justice League, I'm hoping that Joss Whedon can salvage it.