Aquaman (2018) is currently in its third week in movie theaters around the globe, earning $31 million this week in the US alone, and making over $1 billion dollars! That’s a lot of dollars! Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 64%, with an Audience Score of 80%. So the real question, is the DC Universe films getting better and better? I believe it is. DC movies in the past received mixed reviews from both critics and the audience. We will discuss each superhero in the DC franchise, how well each hero have done in the box office and if the future is looking bright for the DC Universe.

Wonder Woman (2017), starring the beautiful Gal Gadot was the first DC film to not only surprise the critics but also surprise the long-awaited fans who waited for a phenomenal DC film since The Dark Knight series. Wonder Woman scored a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% with an audience score of 88% and earned a remarkable $821.8 million. Some critics even called it, “DC Extended Universe’s best film.” From the exciting action scenes to the great chemistry onset, to the prefect musical scores to Patty Jenkins being the first female director to direct a film with a budget over $150 million, it is safe to say that Wonder Woman was going to do well. Wonder Woman was also the first woman led Superhero movie to do well in the box office. If you love action, superheroes and a great cast, I definitely recommend you seeing Wonder Woman if you haven’t yet.

And now we move onto the world’s greatest detective, Batman. Batman is DC’s top rated superhero. Why? Is it because he does not have superpowers? Is it because at daytime he is a billion dollar playboy and fights criminals at night? One thing is certain, Director Christopher Nolan surely has brought the Dark Knight into the scary, dark, crime-fighting detective from the comics.

Batman Begins (2005) was the first Batman film to break a lot of barriers, not only in film history but a big breakthrough for the DC Extended Universe. The film earned a score of 84% from Rotten Tomatoes and a remarkable 90% from the critics. Coming from movie flops Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997), the next film had to impress and it did. Christopher Nolan stuns critics and audiences again, with The Dark Knight (2008) becoming the highest rated DC film by both the critics and audience. The film earned a phenomenal 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and also a 94% score from the audience. The film also made a record-breaking $1.005 billion, making it DC’s highest earned film at the time and one of my favorite movies of all time. Comparing to its predecessor, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) earned an excellent score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 90% audience score, even with some critics calling it Nolan’s worst film in the trilogy. Fans were so upset with Rotten Tomatoes score, that the website had to disable its audience review section. With all the backlash from the critics, the final film of Nolan’s trilogy still earned a surpassing $1.085 billion, topping The Dark Knight (2008) and leaving fans with a possible spin-off film in the future and adding Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) to the film to help take-down Bane.

What about the Last Son of Krypton? Man of Steel (2013) starring the handsome Henry Cavill received mixed reviews from the critics. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a low score of 56% from the critics, but the film had a 75% audience score. Henry Cavill brought light to Superman since the movie flop Superman Returns (2006). Man of Steel (2013) did decent in the box office, raking in $668 million. The film, unfortunately, didn’t break high expectations from the studio, but overall it was a great film that introduced the son of Krypton to us. We got to see the story of Clark Kent and how he stayed hidden on Earth from his youth age till his present age when the all mighty Zod tracks and finds Kal-El.

And then we have Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Oh boy, where do we start… The film received poor reviews from the critics, a whole 27% and a 63% audience score. The film built up for the Justice League (2017) which included: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg. Back to Batman v. Superman, the film was about Batman (Ben Affleck) who feared Superman as a threat to Earth. The two then battle it out. Overall, in my opinion, the film did great in explaining how the two came together and to fight a common enemy to build up for the Justice League movie.

In my opinion, the DC Universe has been successful. I do believe that Marvel will always have an edge, due to the fact that they make a movie for each of their superheroes for the audience to get to know them and we learn about their powers, their life and how they will come together and fight as a team. I do believe the Justice League movie did a great job in showing how well they can fight together, but I feel that DC should make a movie of each of their superheroes so that we as an audience can learn about their story and get to know them and feel a connection with the hero or heroine on screen. I think director Zac Snyder rushed into the Justice League movie. At the time, we only learned about Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

So what do you think? Do you agree that DC is getting better as time goes on or have they always been great? Do you think that DC films should build in their heroes and learn about their story before they team up together? Or do you think it is a separate thing and it does not matter? Which DC character do you want to see on the big screen?

Sources

Photo Credits: Batman Photo 1: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_begins

Batman Photo 2: https://www.charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Batman.The-Dark-Knight

Photo 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/movies/the-dark-knight-rises-with-christian-bale.html