Will You Miss The DCEU?

[Amadeus Arkham]

This week marks the end of the old DCEU that we know and love(or hate) that started with Man Of Steel with the release of Aquaman 2. Man Of Steel kicked the universe off on a somewhat divisive note with criticisms levied against ranging from its questionable depiction of Jonathan Kent to its disturbing portrayal of collateral damage in its third act. Nevertheless MOS was a success, albeit not exactly the success they were looking for, but instead of green-lighting a sequel to MOS, they decided to use the movie to kickstart a new cinematic universe and instead opted to have the first ever Superman and Batman face-off film Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice which faced even more backlash for its tone and its portrayal of the titular characters.

BvS was a turning point that had major ripple effects on the Suicide Squad and JL, which both suffered from studio meddling. SS was critically panned but was a financial success, meanwhile JL was a unmitigated disaster, losing millions of dollars. Ten years before it would’ve been unthinkable that a major superhero film that had Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman would not only bomb, but make less than a movie about a talking raccoon. You’d think it’d be a easy slam-dunk billion dollar movie, but we live in a crazy world.

Conventional wisdom would’ve had WB reboot the whole universe after a massive JL movie event movie you’re betting flopped, but oddly enough they elected to do a soft reboot of sorts. Likely because of WW’s massive success showed their was still some gas left in the tank, as well as Aquaman being in production.
And for awhile it seemed the soft reboot approach worked with Aquaman being an unequivocal success story and Shazam being a modest hit but DC still wasn’t a successful as they could’ve been. With Marvel able to make billion dollar movies out of lesser known characters like Black Panther and Captain Marvel, while DC couldn’t with Superman.

Fast-forward to 2023 where James Gunn early in the year announced the new slate of movies of the DCU reboot, and where DC-on-film arguably had its worst year ever with failures of Shazam 2 and The Flash, and underperformance of Blue Beetle, the inevitable failure of Aquaman 2 it seems the steam has finally run out so I just have to ask will you miss the DCEU?

[skyvolt2000]

Can't really miss what I didn't watch outside of Blue Beetle.

[Zee_Fan]

Not going to miss it. I really wish they'd wait 5-10 years before trying to reboot it. Impatience is partially what sunk things the first time around.

[Holt]

No. The movies I really enjoyed (The Suicide Squad, Shazam, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman and Blue Beetle) can be counted on one hand. Bring on the reboot.

[Robotman]

I’ll miss aspects of it but overall it damaged the DC brand worse than almost anything in the company’s history. DC became synonymous with failure and a crappy product as they had way more misses than hits while their competition was conquering the world of pop culture.

For me, it wasn’t all bad or all good. There were movies I loved, some particular scenes in the movies I enjoyed, some I was indifferent to, and some I hated. But overall I’m glad it’s ending.

Can't really miss what I didn't watch outside of Blue Beetle.

Well Blue Beetle doesn’t technically count since Gunn is taking it with him and said it’s actually a part of his DCU.

[Frontier]

I'll miss the idea of it and some of what they were able to deliver but it's never what I wanted it to be.

[Sutekh]

I'll miss the idea of it and some of what they were able to deliver but it's never what I wanted it to be.

Yeah. I'll miss some of the actors. Gal was an uplifting and inspiring Wonder Woman and Henry was a giant square-jawed hunk of beef Superman and Jason was ridiculously cooler than Aquaman has any business being and Margot is unreasonably good at playing a character that I did not like until she brought Harley to life for me.

The dude who played Lex, not so much, but I've seen him in other stuff, and he's not normally that annoying, so I blame most of that on the direction.

The movies though. Way too much poorly lit giant CGI nonsense in the back half, IMO. Gunn may have gone to that well with the Starro fight in Suicide Squad, but at least it wasn't in the dark, at night, in the rain, to hide the (not nearly as cheap as they should have been, considering how ass they looked) 'special' effects!

When the build up is promising, but the climax is disappointing guys, you're doing it wrong.

[Styles]

MOS was the 1st Superman that I've seen and I really liked it. Too bad we never got a MOS2. I’ll also miss Affleck’s Batman. I was really looking forward to his Batman movie with him fighting Deathstroke.

Some of the DCEU was good but most was really mediocre to trash. It’s time to move on from it..

[Primal Slayer]

Lol. No.

It was a hot mess.

I'll miss Henry Cavill, Gal, Amber version of the characters and that's about all.

[DrNewGod]

It was hit and miss to me. LOTS of great opportunities wasted. Most of all, it never seemed to find a voice and purpose of its own beyond competing with the MCU.

[superduperman]

Not really. Superman kills his first time out. Batman is old enough to retire? The Flash actor is a legal trainwreck. Their WW was the only good thing about it. And her second movie was a disaster. Margot Robbie as Harley was hot but I'm not a Harley fan to begin with. Momoa was good but I'm not a big Aquaman fan either. He may be the last one to turn the lights out on this universe. I think they could have salvaged it they just...didn't.

[Agent Z]

Honestly asking, did you really expect any answer other than "no" for this question?

[Cap808]

The one thing I will miss is Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Even with the "all he does is talk to the fish", jokes, he made Aquaman a legitimate badass.

[Vordan]

No. It’s a mercy killing, should’ve pulled the plug after JL but the sink cost fallacy (and WW & Aquaman’s surprise success kept it going) pushed this zombie franchise forward.

[Kaijudo]

I hope there are one or two more carryovers from it beyond what has been announced already, as far as actors playing characters, moving over to the new James Gunn universe, but overall let the damn thing burn to the ground.