The DCEU Has Ended. So, How Was The Ten Year Ride?

It may have been a rather bumpy ride, but the DCEU had its fair share of greatness.

In perhaps what was one of the bumpiest rides of any Extended Universe, the DC Extended Universe has come to an end, following this week's release of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. That's not to say that DC movie projects are now dead. Oh no, as James Gunn and Peter Safran will be rebooting the DC Universe from scratch, starting with Superman: Legacy, which will be filming in March of next year, and is slated for release in 2025.

As connected universes go, I think we can all agree that the DCEU never managed to live up to the potential it had. The fifteen-film universe had a rollercoaster of content that felt so detached from each other, despite guest cameos starring here and there. Maybe the movies weren't actually so detached from one another in reality, but when the MCU was running alongside them, making a connected universe feel so easy and seamless, it's hard not to draw the connection. Then there was The Justice League, which, to put it short, was a huge disappointment on arrival. Years later, thanks to plenty of 'Release the Snyder Cut cries', audiences were treated to an improved four-hour-long re-release of the same movie. Sure, it was a better film, but it served to back up the idea that this connected universe was like a train hurtling down the tracks, with no clear destination in sight.

That's not to say that the entire venture was a trainwreck, not by a long shot. In fact, there were a good number of wins for both Warner Bros. and audiences alike during the DCEU's ten-year stint. Like most things, though, you have to take the good with the bad, and whilst the DCEU certainly had its misfires, it also had moments of greatness.

Opening doors to the DCEU saw Snyder's Man of Steel lead the charge, splitting opinions right from the off. Some enjoyed it, others were left disappointed, and some just felt it was just a middling affair. Me? I was in the earlier camp of the movie fans who enjoyed the feature. The action was pretty great, cutting the childhood segment up into key-moment flashbacks kept the pace moving and skirted around any origin story fatigue. Plus, Hans Zimmer dropped one of the best soundtracks of the past ten years to boot. It wasn't perfect, but it was a great time.

Oddly enough, it took three years before any new entrant dropped into the DCEU, with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and David Ayer's Suicide Squad both dropping in 2016. They were fine, but I think most of us expected Batman Vs Superman to be this momentous occasion instead; it felt like a rushed move to bring more DC characters in quickly for the extended universe to take off. I mean, they had one of the true killer (literally) Superman stories that fell flat with everything else detracting from it.

2017 rolled around, showcasing the best and worst of the DCEU. Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman dropped in June, and it was an absolute hit. Sure, it had the familiar superhero trope of a disappointingly flat villain, but it also shone thanks to Steve and Diana's chemistry, some great fights, stellar visuals and most importantly that fantastic No Man's Land sequence.

Then, November soon came by, dashing everyone's newly lifted hopes with the underwhelming Justice League. Months ago, the DCEU showcased what it could do on fine form, then it was almost back to business as usual with a tonally unsure superhero romp that failed to deliver any sort of excitement or fun.

Thankfully, the DCEU didn't hang its cape up and call it a day just yet, as the next few years rolled around delivering some superhero films focused on spectacle, fun or both, and they were mostly big wins. Aquaman dropped just before the year after to a huge result, banking over one billion dollars worldwide, thanks to Momoa's performance and the grandiose action.

The hits kept on rolling in as the child-turned-hero Shazam soon followed. Sure, it was a bit on the formulaic side, but it was a movie focused on fun, and it delivered.

2020 then saw the return of the classic DCEU highs and lows, as we were treated to the very confusingly titled 'Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn' (Really, that was the full title) before getting retitled to just Birds of Prey. Though the film underperformed at the Box Office, the film itself was a hell of a time with a strong story and ruthless action that was overseen by John Wick director Chad Stahelski's action company 87Eleven.

Then, in the same year, Wonder Woman came back around to drop the highly anticipated sequel, Wonder Woman 84. That was, to most people, a huge disappointment. Sure, when you love the original, it's hard to rein in your hopes for the sequel, but the film wasn't just disappointing as a sequel; it was just a dull and forgettable affair altogether. The 80s were a great choice visually, and Wiig did a good job as Cheetah, but the principal premise of the plot and Pascal's central villain, Maxwell Lord, just left a lot to be desired.

2021 then ushered in James Gunn's semi-sequel, semi-reboot of Suicide Squad with the creatively named... The Suicide Squad. The film was another moment of the DCEU at its best, delivering a twistedly funny tale of DC's antiheroes fighting a covert mission led awry. It was packed with so many laugh-out-loud moments, great action, but focused on bringing the more bizarre characters of DC's renegades to the forefront, with so many excellent characters getting their time to shine.

That's where the ship began to sink for the DCEU, as the remaining projects just fell to the wayside without being anything more than a mediocre time. That's not me dismissing the remaining titles, but it's more an acknowledgement that the rest never became anything more than an alright time. I enjoyed Black Adam for what it was, and Blue Beetle was another origin story that by this point has been done time and time again, but in much better ways. Thankfully, the character isn't dead as Gunn confirmed that Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes is the first DCU character, but it just won't be the first movie. Which I'm thankful for, as Blue Beetle is a great character, and although his film wasn't much, the character is great and has so much potential. Reyes deserves to stay.

Overall, the DCEU truly was a bumpy ride, but it's one I'm glad we got to experience. Sure, it had its fair share of misfires and false starts, but it also delivered some true gems along the way. It's a shame the ride ended with a fizzle rather than a bang, but it just means we're left with yet another round of hope that DC can bring its stars back to the limelight, with a better and clearly directed united universe for them to shine.