LogFAQs > #986233219

Welcome all, to the next entry in the long running Board 8 film ranking series! It is my first time hosting one of these and Im excited to see how things go! This time, were going to delve into a part of the world of cinema that is perhaps a bit less prestigious than some weve covered in the past but no less interesting: The DC Extended Universe, or DCEU for short.

The DCEU was Warner Bros attempt to compete with Disney and Marvel by launching a competing shared universe of films based on its own DC Comics universe, somewhat bootstrapping it onto what had been conceived as a standalone Superman film to do so. At the start, lifted by general excitement around superheroes and pre-existing love of the characters, it launched to enormous financial success despite mixed critical and audience reception.

Eventually though, that excitement evaporated, and led to a rapid-fire series of financial duds that may have by itself brought the age of superhero box office dominance to an end. This year, the DCEU was replaced by James Gunn & Peter Safrans new DC shared universe, the DCU, meaning that this is the rare cinematic shared universe which is complete in its entirety. Despite its eventual fall, the DCEU still represents a selection of highly interesting, and occasionally great, superhero films that were (in theory) more driven by directors than a central producer running the whole show. This universe does not feel like the same safe film over and over again, but a true assortment of different takes on what superhero films can be. With that in mind, this is sure to be an interesting set of films to discuss.

So, lets see the sixteen films we will be watching:

Man of Steel (2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Suicide Squad (2016)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Justice League (Whedon cut) (2017)
Aquaman (2018)
Shazam! (2019)
Birds of Prey (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Black Adam (2022)
Shazam!: Fury of the Gods (2023)
The Flash (2023)
Blue Beetle (2023)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

To participate, just watch the films and rank them from best to worst, then send that ranking (ideally as a Google Doc or Sheet) to [email protected] or by Discord DM @ad_listri. Writeups are optional but highly encouraged. As this is a significantly shorter list than previous, Ill set a somewhat nearer due date and say that lists are due November 1st. Should you need an extension, please let me know. I hope youll take part!

A quick note on Batman v Superman - there are two versions of the film, the theatrical cut and the Ultimate cut, feel free to watch either or both as you prefer, just rank it as a single film. It would be helpful, but not essential, to mention which you watched in your writeup though.