Skylar Savarin

James Wan’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is the 15th and final installment of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), and it’s safe to say that the franchise has ended in the same way that it started back in 2013: with a whimper.

The film isn’t particularly bad. Wan’s directing is as stylish as ever, and I enjoyed both the cosmic horror elements and the chemistry between returning actors Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson. However, the film feels like a passionless mess, which can probably be attributed to its numerous production and post-production issues.

While the DCEU has been a mess since 2016, the past two years have brought the superhero franchise to an unceremonious end … and an uncertain future.

In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav opted for a reboot of the DCEU due to the critical and financial disappointment of recent films. After some controversial decisions, including the cancellation of the finished film “Batgirl” and the “rehiring” and “refiring” of Henry Cavill as Superman, DC Studios announced it would be led by producer Peter Safran and filmmaker James Gunn, who would reboot the franchise into the DC Universe—and I’ve been excited ever since.

Gunn’s work with superhero movies has ranged from great to excellent, from his “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy to “The Suicide Squad” and its Max spinoff series “Peacemaker.” While the director has a dark sense of humor and affinity for the weirdest characters in both DC and Marvel Comics, he somehow manages to make human and emotional stories … even when the villain is a giant, world-conquering starfish. At the end of the day, Gunn is a filmmaker who truly understands the characters he works with, which is a stark contrast to the DCEU.

While I’m not here to trash the franchise completely, I think it’s safe to say that it didn’t exactly start with the best foundation, thanks to filmmaker Zack Snyder. He seems like a very earnest guy who wants to make really cool movies, and he succeeds at making fun sequences. Even when I don’t like his movies, I can at least think of some memorable sequences like the opening scene of “300” and Superman’s first flight sequence in “Man of Steel.” However, his work with DC superheroes has shown a frustrating lack of understanding of the characters that he chooses to work with.

His depiction of Batman is one that still frustrates me to this day. In 2016, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” was released in theaters, introducing the world to Ben Affleck’s unique take on the character. And by that, I mean that this version murders people with guns. While Snyder’s take is far from the only filmmaker who has had Batman kill people, as many on-screen interpretations have done so, it’s more offensive when this character is also shooting people. A big part of the caped crusader is his refusal to take lives due to him not wanting anybody else to feel what he felt when his parents were shot to death. So, having him murder people demonstrates a key misunderstanding of what Batman stands for, and it shows that Snyder is just trying to be edgy. Then again, we probably should have seen this coming from the guy who said that, in his movie, Batman could get raped in prison (yes, this is real).

Since “Dawn of Justice” was a critical and commercial failure, Warner Bros. went to extreme lengths to wrench the franchise out of Snyder’s hands, resulting in the box-office flop “Justice League.” Thankfully, DC then pivoted to standalone films. While the rest of the films are still pretty hit or miss, “Aquaman” and “Shazam!” were decently entertaining movies, and “The Suicide Squad” was my favorite movie in the entire franchise. However, this didn’t even end up lasting, as “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” were both flops, which can probably be attributed to their excessive reshoots, controversies with actors and awful visual effects.

All in all, the DCEU was a dumpster fire of a franchise. While there were some good moments sprinkled throughout, I’m hoping and praying for the DCU to be more successful. The adult animated series “Creature Commandos” will premiere on Max in 2024, and the franchise will officially start with the 2025 film “Superman: Legacy,” both written by Gunn and the latter directed by him as well.