The DCEU Is Officially Dead! Here Are Its 5 Dumbest Moments

The DCEU will go down as one of the greatest cinematic wastes of time in film history. What a nothing burger this turned out to be. Say what you will on Marvel, but they had their ducks in a row for a long time. DC never did. It was as helter-skelter as it got. This weekend, with the release of "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," marks the official end to the DC extended universe before James Gunn comes in and inevitably tries to reboot it. I know that these films have their defenders. If you enjoy them, good for you. But whether you like them or not, it's undeniable that there were many roadblocks, and I'm going to point out five that come to mind right away. 

5- Firing Zack Snyder and bringing in Joss Whedon to fix "Justice League"

Studio interference is a huge part of our first two entries on the list. I don't like Zack Snyder's DC movies. I find them inconsistent and bloated, but they are his. It might not have been the vision I agreed with, but it was his vision. The idea that they were going to bring in any other Director, let alone somebody as controversial and over the hill as Joss Whedon, to fix the Justice League movie was always a silly notion. I don't even hate this movie because I was so out on the DCEU after "Batman v Superman," but I can acknowledge that it's not the movie that the fans of that series wanted. The fact that it was released at all speaks to the inconsistency that plagued the DCEU throughout its existence.

4- Letting The Rock think he knows anything about superhero movies

I like The Rock. He's a charismatic, charming movie star. You give him the right role, and he can have much fun. Maybe people will disagree with me on this, but I don't think he knows that much about what makes a good movie. I think he is a charming entity, but the fact that they gave him so much creative control in the "Black Adam" movie still baffles me. Overhype killed many projects in the DCEU. The Rock was attached to this movie as early as 2009, and the fact that he hyped this thing up like it would change the direction of superhero movies forever was such a big mistake. 

3- Making Batman a murderous asshole who uses guns and kills people

I feel bad for Ben Affleck. It was well documented that the guy was going through some personal struggles when he played Batman, but it rarely showed. He gave a fine performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. In another universe, many people could've looked at him as the definitive live-action version of the character. Ultimately, he was too good for the material. He did all he could to save it, but that version was not Batman. I understand what Snyder was going for. He was trying to write a Batman that had lost his way. But I'm sorry, when you're dealing with a character whose number one rule is that he doesn't kill people, to have him using guns and killing people throughout the entirety of a 2 1/2-hour film feels like a betrayal of the character. Marvel wasn't perfect, but the one thing they succeeded at was making all of their characters likable. You rooted for them. It was hard to root for or be invested in this version of Batman because he felt so unlike the character that we'd come to know and love in many different interpretations.

2- Reshooting a heavy majority of Suicide Squad following the negative reception to “Batman v Superman”

This universe just never knew what it wanted to be. They would pivot at the drop of a hat. The trailers for "Suicide Squad" looked amazing. David Ayer was coming off of his tremendously successful and critically acclaimed film, "Fury," and the cast was stacked. This is one of the most anticipated movies of 2016, and it did do well at the box office, but it was panned across the board. It was ultimately revealed that the movie was chopped up to shit following the negative reception to "Batman v Superman." Would David Ayer's version have been great? No, but similar to Zack Snyder's Justice League, at least it would've been consistent, and I'm confident it would've been way better than what we got. "Suicide Squad" isn't without its good performances, but it's one of the messiest blockbusters ever made.

1- Everything involved with the making of “The Flash”

I hate this movie so much. I hate not just the film; I hate everything it represents. This was DC's Hail Mary Pass. I didn't like the movie when I saw it, but the number of people who were insistent that this was masterful made it all the worse. You even got Tom Cruise to lie and say he liked this movie. James Gunn was going on podcasts saying that it was one of the greatest movies ever made. Just knowing that was a thing makes me wanna type "fuck you" into my keyboard until my metacarpals crumble. I think "The Flash" movie is awful, but I can't wait for the day we get a documentary about making this thing. There better be entire sections about the fact that they

-Hired a criminal to play Barry Allen

-Put together the worst CG ever for a big-budget film

-Resurrected dead actors for the lamest set of cameos in what I consider to be the worst scene ever in a comic book movie

-Brought back Michael Keaton, who, despite being one of the film's lone bright spots, felt like such a nonevent within the context of the movie

-Gave us 2 Barry Allen's because one wasn't annoying enough 

Again, this movie has its defenders. I cannot explain why. It represents everything wrong with modern cinema. It is a vapid, soulless, lifeless, manipulative product trying to cash in on people's nostalgia. The road through the DCEU was always a bumpy one, but this was a train wreck. Unlike some train wrecks, I didn't want to look at this one.