Much Ado About the DCEU: A House Divided Cannot Stand

Geeks are a defensive bunch. We’ve all got different reasons for that defensiveness. But since I’m the one writing this little ditty about the DCEU, I’m going to share my experience.

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I grew up with DC Comics. I spent my formative years with the 60’s Batman, Batman the Animated Series, The Justice League… you get the point. Whenever I could be, I was glued to the television with them. That, or I had my face buried deep in the comic of the week or my favorite graphic novel. So much of my time was spent doing these things, because DC Comics is the first franchise I fell in love with.

Does it seem like I’m trying to share my geek cred? Well, in a way, I am. I’m starting this off with the fact that I’ve spent my whole life gobbling up DC media because I need you, the reader, to at least have a vague understanding of the fact that the things I am about to say do not come from a place of hate. I don’t write the things I’m about to write with malice, or because I’m a ‘hater’ as the kids like to say. I write them because I know what DC can be. I’ve seen the hope that it can inspire, and I’ve been a part of the change it can bring.

All of that personal exposition aside, let’s take a look at the DCEU’s current numbers, because feelings are not facts.

Man of Steel
Cost: $225m, Gross: 668m, 2^nd Weekend Drop: -64.6%
Batman V. Superman
Cost: $410.6m, Gross: 855m, 2^nd Weekend Drop: -69.1%
*Suicide Squad:
Cost: $325m, Gross: 370.6m, 2^nd Weekend Drop: 67%

*Suicide Squad numbers are not final

Is it possible to be a box office hit and still be a flop? Industry experts say yes. It’s easy to look at Batman V Superman’s 69.1% drop and assume that another huge blockbuster opened the following week, but that’s the opposite of the truth. The film had virtually no competition its second week, fans just didn’t want to see it.

Huge gross numbers like that, accompanied by their huge drop-offs and dismal ratings mean a few things. The first, and arguably most important, is that the fandom is still there. DC fans are still waiting and hoping for the heroes they know. They’re just not getting them. The second, and most damning, is that the formula they’re using just isn’t working for the fans.

What is it that’s making people come rushing in and out of the movie theater? Upset fans blame the critics. There’s been a constant cry of ‘Critics hate DC!’ since Man of Steel, but that’s just not true at all. Let’s have a glimpse at those numbers from a range of live and cartoon DC films, spanning back to the 70’s.

The Dark Knight – 98%
The Dark Knight Rises – 87%
Superman ’78 – 93%
Superman II – 89%
Batman ’89 – 72%
Under The Red Hood – 100%
Batman Returns – 80%
Batman Year One – 88%
Dark Knight Returns Part 1 – 100%

Then you have the DCEU Numbers:

Man of Steel – 55%
Batman V Superman – 27%
Suicide Squad – 27%

*All scores from Rotten Tomatoes

Looks to me like critics love DC, they just don’t love what they’ve seen since the franchise started a (sloppy) attempt at creating an epic that could rival Marvel. There’s this weird misinformation going around that film critics aren’t fans. When you read that, doesn’t it sound ridiculous? Why would someone whose whole life revolves around these movies get into something that they don’t enjoy? Why would they hope that it’s bad? That’s like going into work every day, stopping at the door, and thinking “man, I hope today just sucks!”. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. Critics are fans, and no critic goes into a film hoping that it will be awful.

All those notions aside, critical opinion doesn’t matter on the whole for fan enjoyment. Those numbers aren’t there to tell you what to think about a movie. They’re there to tell you how the movie held up to critical standards. There are plenty of garbage movies out there that are a complete delight. Unfortunately, the DCEU movies don’t fall under that category for many.

With a look at the box office numbers and ratings, all of this comes down to one question: What is wrong with the DCEU? Well, as an alarmingly opinionated person, I have some thoughts on that!

Divided We Fall

Mind the gap. By gap, I mean the Grand Canyon sized chasm the DCEU has created among fans. It’s impossible to deny how polarized the fandom has become. On one half, there are those of us missing the core traits of the different characters, wondering why a Superman and a Batman film weren’t tonally different, and so on. On the other, there are those who are just fine with the direction the film franchise has gone, and trust Zack Snyder in all of his gritty glory.

This in and of itself should be fine, everyone has different opinions, we should be able to move on from this, right? Wrong.

I’ve been told that I am not a fan because I didn’t like Batman V Superman. Snyder himself said it about his naysayers, encouraging the Cheetoh covered fingers of angry DC fanboys to fly across their keyboards in a triumphant rage. “Not a fan” is the nicest thing those of us who dare speak against the Snyderverse have been called.

Are there people wrong in both camps? Sure. Every side of every fandom has a few nutters, but we all know where most of the attacks are coming from.

In addition to the wedge driven in by the film franchise, there’s also DC/WB’s decision to completely ignore its TV properties, which, unlike their films, are doing swimmingly. They made a conscious choice to move a different direction from Marvel, which is their call, but I can’t say that it was a good one. While they didn’t need to have the entire DCTV lineup be in the DCEU, the decision to remove characters from their (again, successful) TV series’ for the sake of the films was a mistake. Fans understand that the Harley (hinted at, but never seen for this very reason), Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and Waller on the show are not the same ones they’re seeing on the big screen. Don’t sacrifice your division that’s doing well for your division that’s failing.

This divisive line between the fandom has resulted in a lot of controversy, which has led to some awesome opening weekends for DC films, but has also ended in record drop-offs. This begs the question: How can this be fixed? Starting with a figurehead who knows how to bring fans together instead of driving a wedge between them is a great first step.

Thankfully, that is a step that’s already been taken by the big guns at DC. We have the tiniest sliver of hope from Geoff John’s promotion. It did a small amount towards filling in the chip that the DCEU has hacked into shoulders.

We’ll Fix It In Post

It would be remiss to ignore the hacksaw that was taken to both Batman V Superman, and Suicide Squad. The extended cut of Batman V Superman has a lot of information that the theatrical version did not. It’s impossible to look at Suicide Squad and not see 100 different holes. Lex Luthor can immediately manipulate Kryptonian technology that activates via DNA. Wonder Woman abandons man, but comes back because they had a picture. (Which wouldn’t matter because she both abandoned mankind and no one has any idea who she is.) There’s a lot of Swiss cheese up in this film franchise.

This one’s short, because it’s a problem that even the angriest fans acknowledge, and it’s easy to fix! Take some of the cooks out of the kitchen and let the thing be what it will be. Or, you know, take out one or two of the Harley butt shots and let a couple of scenes that actually make the movie better stick around.

God Help Anyone Who Messes With the Queen

Before we get rolling into this one, it’s worth mentioning that Man of Steel Lois Lane showed a lot of potential. She was a functional, useful character who wasn’t a bumbling idiot. Then Batman V Superman came strutting onto the dance floor, and it all went straight out the window. We go from the mostly capable, witty, reporter extraordinaire to a character who only exists for self-doubt and rescuing.

Then there was Suicide Squad. The last of my hope for the DCEU rested on the shoulders of this film. Like Batman V Superman it has divided the fans into two camps, with very few moderates sitting in the middle. It has also done a number on feminists.

Women find empowerment in different things. It’s the place of no one to tell another person what they should get their strength from. Harley’s lack of clothes isn’t my personal form of empowerment, but it’s also not my problem with the character. We’ve seen argument after argument about her booty shorts, and each one of them completely misses the point.

Harley being comfortable in her chosen attire is great. You know what it doesn’t make up for? The fact that every second the camera could be on her rear, it was. Or the fact that a disgustingly abusive relationship doubled down on the romanticism that typically accompanies it and flat out turned it into a love story. The problem wasn’t that they made her dream to be a mother, or that her abuser would change. Spoiler alert: MOST abuse victims think that of their abuser. It’s why they STAY with their abuser.

The problem is him rescuing her again at the end so he can abuse her more and his motive being portrayed as love. This is a dangerous perpetuation of a thought process that most abuse victims fall into and it’s disgusting. They had a chance to make Harley Quinn the survivor. Instead, they kept her the victim. No amount of bat swinging, butt kicking, comfortable in her own crazy moments can make up for that.

The comments on Enchantress are much quicker, because there isn’t much of a conversation here. She was useless without her brother, then her brother died and she saw no life without him because no you cannot be a person without a man, be it a lover or a relative. June Moone was nothing more than a terrified, weeping mess the entire film. C’mon.

Suicide Squad may have missed the target completely with Harley and Enchantress. It gains points on Amanda Waller. We hated her just like we were supposed to. She is one of the only women in the DCEU given autonomy.

How to fix such troubling blunders? Hire some women. Directors, writers, producers, etc. Wonder Woman has one at the helm, which gives me a modicum of hope, but the troubles listed above certainly give me pause.

It Means Hope

Characters evolve throughout the years. We live through different interpretations, styles, writers, and more, especially when said characters have been around for 75 years. In those different iterations though, core traits remain the same. Batman doesn’t kill, the ‘S’ means hope, and so on.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you Batman’s never killed or used a gun in a comic book. But I will say that a one-off comic book is much different from a featured film. Comic books build up to that moment, they don’t just hand you a murderous Batman who is suddenly totally cool with using the weapon that murdered his parents and assume that an offhanded comment about him “doing this for 20 years” somehow makes it justified. Deadshot, a serial killer, showed more of a moral compass than Batman has in this franchise.

Batman is a lot more trusting than he used to be. Traditionally, he keeps the rest of the Justice League (Superman aside) in the dark on his secret. Even when he does tell them, he’s hesitant. Not in the DCEU! The Flash knows, Aquaman seems to know, but most troublesome of all, he all but tells Amanda Waller. This is right after assuring her that she has his protection. Friendly reminder that this is a woman who just murdered a room of innocent people in cold blood. So, ethic-less but more trusting and protects murderers. Totally makes sense!

Did you know that Superman’s not a dark, emotional mess? Not if you’ve only seen the DCEU movies you don’t. That ‘S’ means hope, and yet there is not one breath of it. While I can begrudgingly accept the murdering of Zod as a springboard for Kal to never kill again, you will never convince me that there is a universe where Superman just allows his father to die a completely preventable death.

Superman is the light to Batman’s darkness, but here we find two very different characters portrayed in the same tone. He embodies the hope, kindness, reason, and trust of the relationship, and yet we see none of that.

This issue doesn’t just sit with the protagonists, but the villains as well. The Joker doesn’t love Harley. Lex Luther is billionaire genius, not some weird, manic, bipolar child-thing playing in daddy’s company (who didn’t love him enough and it’s VERY important you know that).

Taking liberties with characters in new franchises is expected and encouraged. But when you change the core traits that make the characters who they are, you may as well just not use the character.

Taking liberties with characters in new franchises is expected and encouraged. But when you change the core traits that make the characters who they are, you may as well just not use the character. Superman’s strength doesn’t come from his special abilities or physical power, it comes from his humanity, his kindness, and his hope. Batman is a symbol of fear, but the point is that he never becomes that which he swore to fight. He doesn’t kill, he doesn’t use guns, and he doesn’t shack up with murders. The DCEU presents us characters wearing these symbols that mean something. That meaning is nowhere to be seen in the franchise.

How do they fix this? Don’t have a great answer for this one, guys. Not in a way that makes sense. Perhaps they’ll continue down the road they have, where Batman suddenly becomes besties with Superman because his mother’s name was Martha and he died a completely avoidable death. Maybe the Supes that comes back will embody the hope he’s supposed to. Maybe he won’t. Like I said, I don’t have a great answer here. I don’t feel hope when I look at these characters, and I am not alone.

Where Do We Go From Here?

If you’re a fan of the direction these films have been going, keep going to the movies and having your fun. But for the rest of us, our options are a bit more limited.

What I say to you is this: Go see Wonder Woman. Even if you have no intention of giving the rest of the films your money. Don’t let them keep saying that female led superhero films can’t make money. Check out the DCTV lineup. Each of the shows have their flaws now and then. But the heart of what makes each of them great is very present.

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I also want to tell you not to give up hope. I’m not saying have hope in the DCEU, that ship has probably sailed. I’m saying don’t give up hope on the characters. No matter how much of a mess it’s been, or how far off the portrayal. No amount of Emo Supers or Killy-McMurder Bats can take away what those symbols mean to you. You never know, maybe Wonder Woman will be what saves it all. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman came in and fixed the mess man has made.

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