It’s been seven years since Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel kicked off the DC Extended Universe. It’s taken a while to get off the ground, but with The Batman, Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squad, sequels to Aquaman and Shazam!, the fabled “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, and a Flash movie all on the way, the franchise could finally take flight in the next couple of years — if movie theaters can ever permanently reopen, that is.
So far, the DCEU has offered up eight films, and only half of them have been focused on one hero. What are the highs and lows of these solo superhero movies?
Man Of Steel’s Best: Superman’s First Flight
Shortly after donning his Superman costume for the first time, Clark Kent begins testing out his powers under the Earth’s yellow sun. He finds he can leap in huge bounds and eventually discovers that he can actually fly.
Zack Snyder’s pseudo-realistic take on the Superman myth is a mixed bag in Man of Steel, but the flight scenes deliver on Richard Donner’s promise that “you’ll believe a man can fly.”
Man Of Steel’s Worst: Superman Kills General Zod
Easily the most divisive moment in Man of Steel is when Superman snaps General Zod’s neck. Granted, he does so to save a family, but it goes against the defining principles of the character. In Supes’ laundry list of superpowers, there were several other abilities he could’ve used to incapacitate Zod that wouldn’t have involved murder.
It might be realistic that an inexperienced Superman would make the naïve decision to kill without considering the consequences, but fans of the last son of Krypton demand a more ingenuous portrayal of the iconic character.
Wonder Woman’s Best: No Man’s Land
Studio executives apparently wanted to cut the No Man’s Land sequence from Wonder Woman, but Patty Jenkins fought to keep the scene and managed to shoot it. And it’s a good thing, too, because it quickly became the movie’s defining set piece.
When Diana finds the soldiers taking heavy fire in the trenches, she inspires them by marching out into No Man’s Land, deflecting the bullets with her bracelets, and charging at the enemy.
Wonder Woman’s Worst: The Final Battle
Ares made for a compelling villain in Wonder Woman, with the God of War’s ideologies naturally conflicting with Diana’s “the only thing that can save the world is love” moxie, but in the third act, their battle devolves into yet another superhero smash-‘em-up.
The climax of the movie kind of negates its whole message. A big final battle might be on the comic book blockbuster checklist, but it shouldn’t be forced in if it doesn’t fit the plot.
Aquaman’s Best: The Final Battle
While the final battle of Wonder Woman was a disappointing slog that undermined the rest of the movie, the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink final battle of Aquaman was a rollicking cinematic ride that felt like a suitable culmination of the all-out spectacle that preceded it.
James Wan staged a Lord of the Rings-sized battle underwater as Arthur and his marine creature armies face off against Orm and his own armies of marine life.
Aquaman’s Worst: The Sicily Ambush
The main villain of Aquaman is Orm. He’s Arthur’s half-brother, so they have a personal connection, and he’s threatening war against the surface world, which is high-stakes enough not to necessitate a secondary villain. But that didn’t stop DC from cramming in a secondary villain anyway. Black Manta is introduced in the opening action sequence as he and his dad kill a bunch of innocent people and then Arthur doesn’t take the time to save his dad — which is fair enough, right?
This leads Black Manta to suit up and ambush Arthur and Mera in Sicily. This ambush scene stops the movie dead, does nothing to develop the plot, and the villain is incapacitated easily. His whole arc in this movie seems to exist only to set up his starring role in the sequel. It’s tacked-on and forced.
Shazam!’s Best: Assembling The Shazam Family
While the first and second acts of Shazam! are all about Billy Batson’s journey to accept his new foster family as his “real” family and come to terms with his new double life as a superhero, the third act introduced fans to the entire Shazam Family in time for the sequel, Fury of the Gods.
As Billy is struggling to fight Dr. Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins alone, the powers of Shazam are transferred to all his brothers and sisters and they turn into adult superheroes, too.
Shazam!’s Worst: Superman’s Non-Cameo
When Warner Bros. asked Henry Cavill to make a cameo appearance as Superman in Shazam!, at the end of the movie as he joins Billy and Freddy in the school cafeteria, he reportedly wanted a pay raise and creative control of the franchise, which the studio obviously couldn’t exchange for a mere cameo.
As a result, Superman’s body appears in the movie, but his head is cut out of the frame. Zachary Levi’s stunt double Ryan Hadley put on the costume and stood in for Cavill.
