There are no bad DCEU or MCU movies......in my opinion
I'm a fan of both the DC Extended Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If you've read any of my most recent blog posts or follow me on Twitter, that might be hard to believe. I've been admittedly pro-DC since my site and my presence on social media has grown, but aside from the fact that I favor DC over Marvel, there's a pretty good reason for that:
DC has been getting slammed since BvS came out in March. Marvel hasn't been. In fact if anything, Marvel praise and laudation has gotten annoyingly louder since the DCEU started to expand, which I have to admit has started to ruin my perception of the MCU, fair or not.
It's not that I don't like those movies all of sudden, it's that I don't like the idea that they are "perfect" and vastly superior to DCEU movies. As someone that has seen all 16 combined MCU and DCEU movies to this point, that's just an insane proposition to me but people are entitled to their opinion on it......unless their opinion is to go on social media and tell people that like the DCEU better than the MCU that they are wrong and the world knows that they are wrong and they need to come clean, admit the DCEU's faults and face the "fact" that it's inferior to Marvel Studios' body of work since 2008.
It's also unacceptable and arguably worse if you are a movie critic or blogger doing the same thing, as many have been doing all year. After all, it's one thing to simply offer your opinion on something and another thing entirely to demand people accept it as fact. If it was a fact it wouldn't be called an opinion.
Nevertheless, this debate has raged on for months and has featured Marvel fans bashing DC movies for being too dark and serious, butchering their interpretations of their own characters and not making as much money as Marvel Studios movies have, and DC fans bashing Marvel Studios movies for being too kid-friendly, inappropriately humorous during tense moments and having a weak lineup of villains.
Now to be fair, anyone can make a reasonable argument for all of those points. The first three DCEU movies have been darker in tone, their interpretations of classic characters like Superman and The Joker have not been the classic interpretations and they have only made 22 percent of the total gross of all MCU movies to this point(which isn't a fair number at all since its 13 movies to 3). In addition, MCU movies are designed for family-friendly Disney audiences, do feature a lot of jokes during battle scenes that can seem out of place and outside of Loki, don't have a long list of memorable villains.
The thing is, none of that makes these movies bad. In fact, I don't consider any of them bad at all from either franchise. At this point, both DC and Marvel are batting 1.000 with their shared universes in my opinion, and it really doesn't matter how many critics or fans on either side disagree with me.
There's a few reasons why I say this. First of all, there isn't a single DCEU or MCU movie that I legitimately don't like. Seriously, I can go down the list of what is considered the worst of them and I don't dislike or hate them one bit. Man of Steel is the best Superman movie ever made to me because of how it finally made Superman a relatable, "human" character, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is one of the best comic book movies ever made in my opinion because it's an epic, grandiose tale of heroes coming to grips with how the world has manipulated and shaped their positions in the world, and Suicide Squad is a solid movie because it helps build and further establish the world of the DCEU by fleshing out more of its characters and setting to setup the rest of the world's rules.
Ok, now I'll defend the "bad" Marvel movies. Iron Man 2 is clunky with a weak villain in Whiplash and an annoying one in Justin Hammer, but just like Suicide Squad does for the DCEU, it builds the world of the MCU further by introducing new characters and setting. It introduced Black Widow and gave us our first look at John Slattery's Howard Stark, as well as giving us the first official look at War Machine as played by Don Cheadle. The same goes for Iron Man 3 which actually has a solid plot centered around Tony's post-traumatic stress disorder and dives into a government conspiracy concerning a scorned colleague looking to make a huge move and score some revenge in the process. I'll admit, I have no connection to The Mandarin as a fan of the comics because I admittedly haven't read much Marvel at all, so that twist didn't bother me one bit. In fact when it happened, I thought it was clever, not insulting. I also love the Iron Legion battle of suits at the end of the movie.
I like both Thor movies, but I like The Dark World better than the first one because there's no egregious Dutch Tilt camera angles, Thor is his own stoic self from start to finish, the Asgard scenes are great and Loki is the best villain the MCU has. I also want a Mark Ruffalo Hulk solo movie as much as the next fan, but it's not like the Edward Norton one was garbage at all. Solid plot, great references to the comic and the TV show and solid VFX for Hulk. Yes they got a lot better at it, but it was a great first attempt (Hulk by Ang Lee wasn't MCU). As for Avengers: Age of Ultron, it's the first time watching an MCU movie that you might be completely and utterly lost if you haven't seen all the ones prior to it, and Ultron has one too many jovial lines that don't work, but it's still entertaining outside of the 20 minutes in the middle at Hawkeye's ranch that just drag the movie to a crawl. Besides, just like Suicide Squad and Iron Man 2, it's a critical world building movie especially since it's the catalyst event for the entire plot of Captain America: Civil War......which is why that movie is really just an Avengers movie, but that's another discussion.
Alright, so I've defended all of those movies on both sides of this argument, but really there's a whole other list of movies that I could use to defend them all: Daredevil, Elektra, Superman III, Superman IV, The Phantom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hulk (2003), Batman Forever, Batman and Robin and Catwoman.
That was a list of comic book movies that I consider to be categorically worse than any and all of the DCEU and MCU movies made to this point, which is why when people make statements about how bad the current DC and Marvel shared universe movies are, I'm pretty much beside myself about it. I've seen worse. Much, MUCH worse, and it's all on that list. I don't care how bad you thought Doomsday looked in BvS, or how ridiculous it was to turn The Mandarin into a bait and switch punchline, none of it compares to "Nip and Tuck" Doctor Doom, "That 70's Show" Venom, nipples and codpiece and The Bat Credit Card.
Yet ultimately, that's all just my opinion isn't it? Someone out there likes those movies and even likes the Marvel and DC movies I defended. That same person could also hate The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War and The Dark Knight, largely considered to be THE definitive superhero masterpiece of our time (great movie, but I disagree). Are they wrong for that? Am I "right" for the movies that I like and don't like?
No, of course there is no right and wrong here and everyone is allowed to disagree with everyone else here, which is the biggest point in this whole debate between the DCEU and the MCU. You're allowed to have whatever opinion you want at the end of the day, no matter what close-minded, shortsighted person wants to tell you that you are wrong and they are right for whatever is believed by either of you, which is why I have no trouble stating my preferences here even though I enjoy both franchises a lot. You're allowed to disagree with me or agree with me too, so long as you understand that neither one of us are right or wrong.
So when people say that they like BvS or Age of Ultron and get told the following: "It's fine that you like it, but you at least admit its flaws right?" That's a load of crap. No movie is perfect and the reason is because good and bad with movies is completely subjective and up to interpretation, not factual analysis. What a critic says and what your friends or other audience members on social media say is not fact when it comes to their thoughts on a movie. What someone considers a flaw, other can consider a strength and vice versa. There are no rules to tell them they are right or wrong about that and anyone has those rules is not someone to listen to because they have their head buried where the sun don't shine, and you don't want any part of that for sure.