Ranking the Complete DCEU from Best to Worst

I really hope someone writes a book someday on the historic wet, steaming catastrophe that was Warner Bros. DCEU. I’ve never seen a studio so hell bent on sabotaging themselves before. They had a golden opportunity, holding possession of some of the biggest icons and money making characters in pop culture history. It should have and could have been an easy slam dunk during a climate where comic book movies were all the rage. Instead rather than let directors make movies they just destroyed any momentum the DCEU had at every turn.

With “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” arriving in theaters and signaling the very last movie in the Zack Snyder engineered DCEU, I ranked all of the movies in this universe from best to worst. Here’s hoping James Gunn brings these properties and beloved characters back to their former glory very soon.

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65 (2023)

It’s such a shame that audiences just didn’t take to “65” because I had a blast from the minute one. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ science fiction survival film is a mix of “Enemy Mine” and “Aliens” to where two people with vastly different circumstances have to rely on one another. Adam Driver is the driving force that really propels “65” in to admirable excitement and some genuinely interesting action set pieces. While I wouldn’t have minded more dinosaurs, “65” gets its point across by embracing its inherently pulpy science fiction roots through and through.

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Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

I can’t fault Zack Snyder for essentially giving us a sprawling remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” when he seeks to build a new “Star Wars” for the modern generation. “Star Wars” was, as many know, a quasi-remake of “Hidden Fortress.” Another by Kurosawa. It all comes full circle, as Snyder seeks to build a massive mythology in the vein of “Star Wars.” He really wants “Rebel Moon” to be “Star Wars”; at the end of “A Child of Fire”—well—he creates a movie that has been done before but to a much better effect (ahem–“Firefly”).

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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

2018’s “Aquaman” was such a fun, and out of left gate adaptation of an often lampooned character. It was fun but also took the material seriously. With “The Lost Kingdom,” opts for a just fine follow up that had all the seeds of an epic book end to the DCEU. Along with being a complete tonal mess from head to toe, “The Lost Kingdom” is a poorly conceived follow up that continues the tradition of DCEU heroes that do nothing but bellyache about being super powered Gods that can actually help people.

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Merry Little Batman (2023)

Now Streaming Exclusively on Amazon Prime.

Color me shocked when I found out that Warner were not only releasing a Batman animated movie this year, but a Christmas themed one at that. The way they’ve been run lately, it’s not entirely shocking that this one snuck under my radar, I guess. “Merry Little Batman” is unlike any Batman animated movie I’ve ever seen. The animation style is wild, somewhat in the vein of “Chowder,” and focuses on a completely separate non-canonical narrative.

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Silent Night (2023)

America has really done John Woo no favors in regards to his film legacy. And despite kind of hitting some gems in the 1990’s, director Woo has accomplished so much more in his heydays. “Silent Night” is proof positive that he needs a renaissance, as it’s about as basic and disappointing an action movie that you can get. I was cautiously optimistic about “Silent Night” as the premise seemed so interesting. An action movie with no dialogue based around a revenge plot akin “John Wick” seemed like a good time. Throwing in Joel Kinnaman was just the icing on the cake.

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