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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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit Rhapsody (1946)

2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.  

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez

One of the many reasons why I was a small kid that loved classical music was that I pretty much cut my teeth on the Looney Tunes shorts. I spent so much of my time watching the animated shorts that were not only comical and fun, but also embraced the idea of classical music. “Rhapsody Rabbit” further serves to convey the beautiful marriage between classical music and the Looney Tunes shorts. The animation studio has always used music as a wonderful means of filling in what the writers or animators couldn’t. Classical music, folk music, and pop music were used to convey all kinds of emotions and conflict, and with “Rhapsody Rabbit,” it’s merely an amazing example of how the music compliments the animation and vice versa.

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The Boys in the Boat (2023)

There’s a moment before the big race in the finale of “The Boys in the Boat” where the American team are waiting to enter and they come across Jessie Owens. Owens, being the only black character who appears a total of twenty seconds, confirms that he hopes he is “the fastest man alive” when they ask him. “You gonna race for Germany and give Hitler what for?” they ask salivating, “No, I’m gonna do it for America.” They all give each other bewildered looks (Him America not like Our America? Nuh uh!) pretty much perpetuating the sheer tone deafness of George Clooney’s latest film.

His movie almost always finds an interesting angle and point to go in and then veers off the track colliding in to sheer nothingness.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Big Snooze (1946)

2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.  

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

The Big Snooze (1946)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Bob Clampett
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Rod Scribner

Bob Clampett really did have a way of leaning in to the bizarre. He had a penchant for injecting surreal and out there comedy that not even Tex Avery was capable of accomplishing. That’s both a good thing and hindrance as I personally was never a big fan of Clampett’s habit for the weird. I always hated the “Yoyo DoDo” character as well as his first appearance in 1938’s “Porky in Wackyland.” And I was very annoyed when they made him something of a big part of “Tiny Toon Adventures.” I’m not against the animators venturing out of the norm and breaking the monotony, but Clampett always went too far in the other direction for my tastes.

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