It’s taken nearly a decade for the DC Extended Universe to get going as a legitimate film franchise, with plenty of misfires preceding this turn toward quality material. The issue with the lack of appeal in the series had to do with several lame attempts at pushing an idea, which resulted in scenes that became either unintentionally or simply lacking in logic.
With the passage of time passing over the release of these movies, these scenes have started to stand out even further. Out of the moments that missed the marks, there are contenders that were easily the cheesiest among the bunch for various reasons.
Flash And Superman’s Race
Fan service just for the heck of it is never a good idea, and the race between Flash and Superman was simply an undeserved bit of this aspect. It was even lamer since there wasn’t a resolution to the race, instead simply showing the two guys leaping toward the screen and then out of view.
Stuff like this should be reserved for one-shot videos that accompany DVD releases, and it looked horribly out of place in a movie that had only minutes prior teased the world ending. Plus, there’s the fact that Superman wasn’t even running, so he was basically cheating anyway.
Slipknot’s Death
The only thing going for Suicide Squad was the awesome title card, apart from which most things were failed attempts at being edgy. Slipknot’s role was to establish how anyone could die, but the entire thing ended up as a joke.
He tried to run away by climbing out of there, only for Rick Flag to blow his head off. The purpose was to show how dire the stakes were, yet it was laughably bad since the audience had no connection with Slipknot anyway, so it seemed like the punchline to a skit that was unintentionally funny.
Joker Rescuing Harley Quinn
This scene came across as too much of a nod toward the Bonnie & Clyde references of Harley Quinn and Joker’s dynamic. The DCEU Joker is easily among the worst in live-action, and him hamming up the screen with his excessive attempts to be imposing doesn’t work.
The point that makes this scene so cheesy is how Harley was openly walking toward the helicopter, with Rick Flag having a clear shot of her but acting as if that wasn’t an option. There was too much chaos going here, yet it never felt as if Harley was in any real danger that warranted Joker to be so over-the-top about it.
Steppenwolf Retrieving The Atlantean Mother Box
The Mother boxes story wasn’t something fans had in their wish lists to be seen for the Justice League, but it could’ve worked had it seemed like a serious storyline. Unfortunately, Steppenwolf’s assaults on these Mother boxes turned out to be so easy that the other characters looked like a joke.
The Atlanteans suffered in particular, as the scene underwater was like an adaptation of a computer game. The fight was too suffocating to watch, what with so much silence and lack of effort from the Atlanteans. More than anything, their attacks were so weak that it seems lame how Steppenwolf didn’t think to do this for centuries before it was that easy to get the Mother box.
Diana And Steve’s First Meeting
Steve and Diana’s pairing is the couple fans are behind the most, although their first official meeting was more like a rom-com meet-cute than necessary. Here, Steve was having a bit too much fun in the bath when Diana came to talk to him, which then became a scene where the jokes became double entendres about his anatomy.
While it was funny for the most part, it lingered more than it should have over the comedy, to the point where it seemed like an obvious attempt to emulate the cheesy jokes from the Guardians of the Galaxy films.
Prelude To Fight With Superman
After the Justice League was able to resurrect Superman, the latter entered a confused state where he attacked the group. The fight itself was okay, but the prelude to it had an uneven balance between jokes and the intended sense of tension.
The lamest thing about the scene has to be Cyborg’s attack on Superman, which presented a defense system he couldn’t control as the reason why he shot at him. Adding to the cheesiness was the dialogue, with tired tropes like characters yelling “no!” and standing transfixed when they could have easily stopped Cyborg ruining the experience.
Joker’s Interrogation Of Griggs
The Joker was already chewing the scenery in excess by this point, and pairing him with one of the most hated supporting DCEU characters was a wrong move. What’s more, the scene didn’t really have much to do with anything other than present an uncomfortable moment.
Joker reached out his hand to Griggs for no reason, which he kissed — again for no reason. Joker then started bouncing around on Griggs’ lap and then asked him to be his friend, all of which was unneeded and highlighted how cheesy this Joker’s attempt at being a crime lord was.
Lex Luthor Explaining His Pursuit Of Kryptonite
The DCEU’s Lex Luthor is the only one who can contend with this universe’s hamminess and he proved just as much in his scene with Senator Finch. It’s hard to understand his point of asking her to authorize his attempt to get Kryptonite imported, not when Lex keeps bobbing up and down like a child.
The attempt at making him seem unhinged and ludicrous was too much on the nose here, which was made lamer when Lex kept pitching his voice so high frequently. There’s also the shot of him playing basketball, a way of establishing him as boyish despite Lex clearly being in his thirties.
Batman Asking Aquaman If He Can Talk To Fish
Those that argue that Robert Pattinson can easily trump Ben Affleck’s Batman can point to how lame this scene was in their argument. Here, Batman attempted to ask Aquaman to “put out some feelers” to beings underwater, before babbling on about like a wimp under Aquaman’s intense stare.
Eventually, he gave up and simply asked Aquaman if he could talk to fish or not, which made for an extremely awkward moment. This would have suited a character like The Flash, but on Batman, the line had the effect of making him seem clueless and killed his intimidating aura. The joke itself was too childish to begin with.
Joker Taking Out Monster T
Easily the most pointless scene in all of the DCEU, it showed a mobster known as Monster T approaching Joker, but inadvertently insulting Harley Quinn by objectifying her. The lame aspect comes from the fact that Joker had her dancing in some strange cage anyway, so there was no logic behind this exchange.
It became excessively cheesy when Joker went off the rails, calling Monster T a “handsome Hunka Hunka!” and then asking if he “don’t want no beef,” before shooting him dead. This, despite it being previously established that Joker had needed Monster T for a criminal venture, meaning he just killed someone he himself had summoned.
