Some of the most iconic, influential, and overall greatest movies of all time can be sourced back to the multitude of amazing characters and stories of DC Comics. However, for every amazing story adapted from these timeless characters, such asThe Dark Knight,Superman, orV for Vendetta, there are also a multitude of movies that fail to meet the mark and accomplish the complete opposite. Especially for a brand that has been releasing film adaptations for the better part of a century, not every film was bound to be a success in the eyes of fans.
As the go-to platform for modern-day movie fans, Letterboxd and its community provide a perfect insight into the thought process and consensus from modern film fans surrounding the quality of films. Through the site’s weighted average ratings, it’s possible to see exactly which DC movies modern film fans consider to be the most lackluster and absolute worst that the brand has ever had its name attached to. Whether they failed to deliver a satisfying original character or story or were simply disappointing compared to previous cinematic offerings, there are several reasons behind a DC movie’s poor reception.
10’Wonder Woman 1984' (2020)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 2.1/5
The sequel to the original smash hit film from 2017,Wonder Woman 1984continues the story of Diana Prince as she gets wrapped up in a global battle against Maxwell Lord (played byPedro Pascal). Lord is armed with a mysterious magical crystal that allows him to grant wishes, which soon escalates into a massive global panic in which everyone’s wishes create more chaos in everyday life. It soon becomes up to Diana to put a stop to Lord’s madness, even if it means giving up on her own highly desired wish.
Especially compared to the more grounded and philosophical story in the originalWonder Womanfilm,fans simply couldn’t connect with the sequel’s more comedic and non-serious tone. The film also featured several questionable and strange decisions surrounding the plot and characters, from the mismatched focus on multiple villains tothe terrifying implications surrounding the return of Steve Trevor. While far from being the worst film in the DC Extended Universe in the eyes of Letterboxd, the film was still a far cry from its groundbreaking predecessor.
Wonder Woman 1984
Watch on Prime Video
9’Supergirl' (1984)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 2.0/5
A spinoff of the classic run ofChristopher ReeveSupermanfilms,Supergirlfollows the story of Superman’s cousin, Kara, who comes to Earth after losing a powerful orb to retrieve it. While on Earth, Kara faces off with an evil wicked witch to take back the orb, taking after her cousin and becoming another protector of Earth and its people.
WhileSupergirlattempts to recapture the same magic and energy of the original Superman movies,it fails to do much that the original films didn’t accomplish in more effective ways.Supergirlfails to give its main character the respect and authority that theSupermanfilms have Clark Kent, as they are more focused on Supergirl’s status and beauty as opposed to her heroic feats and strengths. Hopefully, the character will finally get their due justice on the big screen withthe upcomingSupergirl: Woman of Tomorrowmovie.
Watch on Max
The initial cinematic outing of DC’s premiere team of misfits and villains,Suicide Squadsees a team of incarcerated supervillains who are forced to work for the United States government. With each member of the team having detonatable chips implanted inside them, they are tasked with high-risk black ops missions in exchange for decreased prison sentences and threatened with death if they don’t cooperate. Their mission to take down The Enchantress could only be accomplished by a team of cutthroat and violent villains, making them perfect for the job.
While DC would eventually show the promise and potential of the property withJames Gunn’s take on the characters in 2021,the originalSuicide Squadwas a jumbled messcaused by corporate interference. Through its messy production and last-second changes in reaction to the negative reception ofBatman v Supermanand the positive reception ofGuardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad lost its voice, becoming a final product that ended up pleasing nobody.
Suicide Squad
7’Justice League' (2017)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.9/5
The first big team-up and culmination film in the DC Extended Universe,Justice Leaguesees Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince assembling a team of metahumans to face off against a catastrophic new threat, Steppenwolf. However, the team is facing a difficult uphill task, as they are still grappling with the loss of Superman, as well as learning how to work together as a team. With Steppenwolf on the hunt for three mother boxes across Earth, it becomes a race against the clock to stop him before it’s too late.
As was the case with many other films in the DC Extended Universe,Justice Leaguefaced several problems behind the scenes that caused it to redirect and change constantly while under production. The final film ended up being a cobbled-together mess of reshoots, rewrites, anda newer light-hearted tone that went completely against the previous films in the series. However,Justice Leagueended up getting a rare second chance asZack Snyderwas able to return and create his original vision of the film 4 years later withZack Snyder’s Justice League, a major improvement over the original film.
Justice League
6’Batman and Robin' (1997)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.8/5
One of the most hated and infamous major superhero movies to ever be released,Batman and Robinsees the dynamic duo joined by new recruit Batgirl as they face off against a trio of new foes. The powerful team-up of Mr. Freeze (played byArnold Schwarzenegger), Poison Ivy (played byUma Thurman), and Bane (played by Jeep Swenson) prove to be a perilous and powerful threat. It becomes difficult for the team to take on the villains all at once, as Freeze begins his plan to put the entire city on ice while Poison Ivy begins to sew a divide between Batman and Robin.
More than simply being a disappointing sequel,Batman and Robinhas attained legendary status over the years asthe premiere example of a monumental failure of a superhero movie. The film went for a much more campy and comedic tone during an era when superhero movies were just beginning to be much darker and more serious in tone,creating a tonal mishmash that audiences didn’t respond to. While the film has its rare defenders who look back on the film with fondness, it was a film whose failures and divide caused a massive redirection in how Batman would be treated going forward.
Batman and Robin
Batman and Robin try to keep their relationship together even as they must stop Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from freezing Gotham City.
5’Jonah Hex' (2010)
A standalone film based on one of the smaller characters in the DC universe,Jonah Hexis a superhero western that follows the titular Jonah Hex as he is appointed by President Ulysses Grant to track down terrorist Quentin Turnbull. On top of being able to secure his freedom by accomplishing the task, Jonah can get a nice helping of revenge by taking down Turnbull, as he was the man who slayed his wife and child.
The downside that came from superhero movies taking a more gritty and serious turn in the 2010s is that not every film would be able to successfully adapt to the trend, withJonah Hexbeing one of the worst examples.The film is about as generic and formulaic as an action movie can get, with uninteresting characters on top of a bland and colorless set to create a highly unmemorable and boring viewing experience. The only legacy that the film has achieved is being considered one of theworst comic book movies of the 2010s.
The live-action adaptation of the DC hero of the same name, Jonah Hex stars Josh Brolin as the eponymous anti-hero. A superhero Western, Jonah Hex follows the titular bounty hunter as he pursues his family’s killer (John Malkovich). Hex is joined by Lilah Black (Megan Fox), his gun-toting sidekick, as he fights across the Old West on the hunt for revenge.
4’Superman IV: The Quest for Peace' (1987)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.7/5
Christopher Reeve’s final portrayal of the iconic man of steel,Superman IV: The Quest for Peacesees Superman leading a crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons during a hostile global arms race. However, the situation becomes that much more difficult following Lex Luthor’s creation of the terrifying Nuclear Man, created from a stand of Superman’s hair made to destroy Superman once and for all. The struggle between Superman and Nuclear Man soon goes beyond a standard villain affair and spans across all of Earth and space.
While the previous ReeveSupermanfilms did a great job at adapting and translating the classic themes and stories of Superman to the big screen,The Quest for Peaceis a strange and confusing combination of various storylines. While the concept of Superman’s DNA being used to create a new villain is reminiscent of a villain like Doomsday, Nuclear Man, an original villain made for the film, is an embarrassing and underwhelming villain with little interesting or engaging about him.The film also features massively lackluster visuals compared to the previous films, makingThe Quest for Peacefeel more like a cheap knockoff than an actual sequel.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
3’Steel' (1997)
StarringShaquille O’Nealin the leading role,Steelfollows the story of John Henry Irons, who dawns the superhero persona of Steel to take justice into his own hands when an array of superweapons floods the streets. Wearing technologically advanced body armor and wielding a powerful electrohammer, Steel begins to wage war against the criminals in his neighborhood in able to win the fights that the police are unable to do.
Steelharkens back to a different era of filmmaking, in which it was considered viable to sell an entire movie based off of the leading star power of someone who wasn’t even an actor, in this case, Shaquille O’Neal. While Steel as a character had his own quirks and individualities in the comics,the film adaptation does very little to make him appear as anything more than just a cheap Batman wannabe. The film holds very little continued legacy and impact outside of being considered one ofthe worst comics-to-screen superhero adaptations of all time.
2’Green Lantern' (2011)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.5/5
A superhero film so notoriously bad thatit’s become a running joke for the film’s lead star,Green Lanternhas become the pinnacle of underwhelming and generic superhero movies of the 2010s. The film follows Hal Jordan as he is recruited to join a powerful force of intergalactic warriors known as the Green Lantern Corps, being the first human from Earth to join their forces. Gaining a new set of powers from his Green Lantern ring, he is tasked with taking down a powerful new enemy called Parallax who threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe and destroy Earth.
Green Lanternfeatures all the trademark features of a lackluster superhero movie in the early 2010s, featuring lazy writing, poor translation of iconic characters, and painfully below-average CGI. Especially for a character with such a rich and powerful history as the Green Lantern, the film is a disservice to the character as a whole, stripping him down to only his most generic and bare-bones elements. Hopefully, Green Lantern will finally get a great adaptation to call his own inthe upcomingLanternsseries for Max.
Green Lantern
Reckless test pilot Hal Jordan is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers that inducts him into an intergalactic police force, the Green Lantern Corps.
1’Catwoman' (2004)
Average Letterboxd Rating: 1.4/5
The absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to DC’s expansive filmography isCatwoman, which takes the beloved and iconic antihero and strips her of any positives she once had. The film follows mild-mannered graphic artist Patience Phillips who, after investigating a lead in her parent company, ends up losing her life and washes up on a desolate island. She is soon resurrected and given the superpowers and prowess of a cat and uses her new abilities to begin taking down the company that took her life in the first place.
The many baffling and confusing decisions surroundingCatwomantransform what should be a simple and unassuming adaptation of an iconic character intoa hilarious so-bad-it’s-good action movie. The movie’s awkward and nonsensical plot combined with its incredibly dated visual effects and mind-numbing editing decisions make it an unintentional laugh riot from start to finish. The best thing to come out of the movie, ironically, has nothing to do with the movie itself, but insteadthe strange positive effect that the film had on its lead actress,Halle Berry.
Catwoman follows Patience Phillips, a graphic artist who uncovers a corporate conspiracy and gains cat-like abilities after a mysterious resurrection. Using her newfound powers, she becomes a vigilante, while a determined detective, Tom Lone, investigates her dual identity, leading to a complex pursuit.
NEXT:The 10 Worst Marvel Movies of All Time, According to Letterboxd
