All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.
Audience-Alienating Premise: While DC Comics is no stranger to Darker and Edgier adaptations of their characters, there's not much of a mass-market desire to see a Darker and Edgier take on the big screen. There's certainly an audience for the stories that the DCEU wants to tell but it's generally the niche market who consume DC's yearly animated movies and/or their Elseworld sub-line. A grimmer Superman and versions of Wonder Woman and Batman who got accusations of being Designated Heroes are not exactly things that win over the average moviegoer.
Base Breaker: A lot but Superman is by far the worst offender. Reactions range from finding the traditional Superman to be an out-of-date Standardized Leader and appreciating that the Adaptational Angst Upgrade offers something different, all the way to considering him to be a derailedscrappy.
The first few films were Darker and Edgier. Mixed reactions to that made their direct successors Lighter and Softer. Either that injected a bit more fun into the franchise and returned it to its lighthearted superhero roots or it was a cheap cop-out to emulate the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than have a unique style of storytelling.
Zack Snyder's direction. Either Snyder produced dark Cult Classics that did what other superhero films would never dare do or Snyder produced needlessly dark drek, full of unsubtle symbolism and an unrealistic lack of positivity. The two reactions to the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League exemplified this perfectly. Either Snyder had to be given back the reins to the DCEU or he had to be kept away from it at all costs.
The Chris Carter Effect: A common complaint that arose after Zack Snyder was forced to step down as the DCEU's creative head. While his time in charge was a Broken Base, there's no denying that he had a plan for where he wanted the films to go. Following his departure, all hints to Darkseid serving as the Bigger Bad stopped and the 'verse just became a series of loosely connected standalone films featuring B-level superheroes.
Critical Dissonance: Fan reception to the DCEU can be anything from hating it, viewing it as "So Bad It's Good" to sincere enjoyment with the general audience consensus being "So Okay It's Average". The reaction from the professional critics is by and large to rip the DCEU to shreds and burn the remains.
With the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Obviously. So much so that James Gunn went online and told the fans to cut it out. Though as the DCEU slowly became Deader Than Disco, this largely died down.
With the Arrowverse, largely over which adaptation is Truer to the Text and/or the better Spiritual Licensee. A good example was the Arrowverse fans arguing that Supergirl was a more faithful adaptation of Superman than Man of Steel was. Likewise, fans can go on for hours over which universe had the better version of a character.
Among its own films, what was the better take on Superman? Man of Steel, which offered what some argued is a new take on the character, or the Spiritual Licensee, Shazam, which was argued to be more faithful to the classic archetype of the character?
With Rotten Tomatoes. Given how the DCEU has very low scores on the site, many DCEU fans think that Disney, Marvel's parent company, is paying off Rotten Tomatoes to smear the DCEU.
The Firefly Effect: Following the announcement that James Gunn's tenure as head of the DC films would be a different continuity than the DCEU, interest in any films from Shazam! Fury of the Gods onwards sunk like a rock. When people know a reboot is coming, there's little incentive to keep wasting time on the old continuity that they know will never get a proper send-off.
Black Panther and Aquaman fans got along like a house on fire for both being the first films in the franchises to feature non-white leads. Some DCEU fans even raised money for improvised kids to go see Black Panther.
Captain Marvel and Shazam got along very well. Zachery Levi called out the trolls harassing Captain Marvel and that film's fans encouraged everyone to go see Shazam. Helps that Zachery Levi and Brie Larson liked the other's films.
Growing the Beard: Wonder Woman was a turning point for the franchise, both critically and commercially. Though it didn't really last much beyond Wonder Woman, the DCEU then alternatively shaving and regrowing the beard.
He Really Can Act: Whatever complaints people had about the scripts, they raised far less against the casting directors. Even if some characters were warped, the actors truly gave it their all. Henry Cavill as Superman was probably the standout. The character choices may be questionable but Cavill's performance is not.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks: In it earliest incarnation, the DCEU's arc was the Justice League coming together before confronting Darkseid. Which faced the double critique of this being both a very standard adaptation of DC media and derivative of the MCU having the Avengers came together and ending in a fight with Thanos.
Just Here for Godzilla: Most people's main reason to watch the DCEU was because they happened to like an actor and thought it would be fun to see them in a comic book movie.
Memetic Loser: Thanks to the universe's contentious reputation, some heroes and villains are regarded as such throughout the DC multiverse, most notably Superman.
Narm: The DCEU seemed to have been perpetually stuck in this. Unable to find a proper balance between seriousness and comedy, it either came across a fanfic's efforts to be unrealistically dark or it was cringe inducing in its failures to replicate the MCU's more naturalistic dialogue and comedy.
The overly bleak tone of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice left a very sour impression to comic book fans and moviegoers. Even years after the film's release, it's all too easy to find complaints about how it set the DCEU down an unrealistically dark path that ruined the franchise and turned away large chunks of the potential fanbase. The Hype Backlash of Superman and Batman finally sharing the big screen didn't help things.
Henry Cavill's digitally "removed" moustache in the 2017 theatrical edition of the Justice League movie. Sometimes you have a Special Effect Failure, other times you have theSpecial Effect Failure.
Old Media Playing Catch Up: To make the "They Copied It, So It Sucks" complaints regarding the similarities to the MCU even worse, the DCEU never emulated the contemporary MCU it ran alongside but Phase 1 of the MCU such as 2018's Aquaman being criticized as a rip-off of 2011's Thor.
Older Than They Think: A lot of what the DCEU got its heaviest criticisms for has been done in prior DC media with a lot less feathers ruffled. For example, despite all the fuss thrown up over Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel, Superman killed Zod back in Superman II (in a situation a lot less justified than in the DCEU). Though those earlier properties didn't take themselves too seriously, so that probably helped things.
Overshadowed by Controversy: The DCEU was known less for its films and more for the toxically divided fanbase it curtailed and some controversial behind the scenes choices. Be it the decision to go Darker and Edgier with Zack Snyder, only to then backpedal with Joss Whedon before backpedaling on the backpedaling with Zack Snyder's version of Justice League, the real life drama surrounding nearly half of the actors such as Amber Heard (Mera), Ezra Miller (Barry Allen), Jared Leto (Joker), Ben Affleck (Bruce Wayne), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) some rather divisive reimaginings of characters and all most reviewers can talk about is the stigma that surrounds the films and how it continues to divide fans.
Ron the Death Eater: As said on Man of Steel's YMMV page, Superman get this hard. While he's certainly a more reserved interpretation of the character, he's still a good person and is extraordinarily humble. His uncertainty to act is mostly down to his young age and lack of self-assurance that he won't accidentally kill someone. To hear the haters talk, however, you'd think he's some kind of sociopathic lunatic who is, at best, an All Powerful Bystander and a Designated Hero at worst.
The Scrappy: Jared Leto's Joker is considered the worst incarnation of the Clown Prince of Crime in DC media, given his gangster-like appearance and his rather unsettling laugh.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Throughout Zack Snyder's tenure as the DCEU's creative head, the build-up to Darkseid had a running thread that Superman might pull a Face Heel Turn. Even discounting how controversial this idea was, a major problem with its execution was that Snyder forgot to have Superman do anything that might hint towards becoming evil. He's certainly a more introverted take on Superman but all the times he was on-screen, he was shown to be the same All-Loving Hero who went out of his way to save whomever he could. And even in the Knightmare, Word of God was that Superman turned evil due to being corrupted by the Anti-Life Equation. So it was less that Superman was predisposed towards evil and more that Batman's paranoia pushed Superman to a place where Anti-Life could have affected him.
No matter how much hate a fan might have for Zack Snyder's directing style, personal attacks on him, following his daughter taking her own life, are simply not tolerated by the fanbase.
Henry Cavill as Superman. You can hate the questionable choices for Superman as a character. You cannot hate Henry Cavill giving it his all with the material he was given.
Uncertain Audience: A common critique of the DCEU is that it has no idea who it's for. While the MCU has entries of shifting tones, both the Infinity and Multiverse Sagas were ultimately meant to be for the whole family and in service of the larger stories. The DCEU by contrast can shift between an MCU-esque film meant for a mass market that doesn't seem to remember Darkseid or a niche film "for the fans" that openly foreshadows Darkseid.
WTH? Casting Agency: In terms of dub, Takehito Koyasu, of all people, providing the Japanese voice for Suicide Squad's Joker.
YMMV • 
Radar • 
Quotes • (
Funny • 
Heartwarming • 
Awesome) • 
Fridge • 
Characters • 
Fanfic Recs • 
Nightmare Fuel • 
Shout Out • 
Plot • 
Tear Jerker • 
Headscratchers • 
Trivia • WMG • 
Recap • 
Ho Yay • 
Image Links • 
Memes • 
Haiku • Laconic • 
Source • Setting