Critics have some issues with the DC Extended Universe: from pacing, to the direction, to the script. It may be a fifty-fifty shot whether a DC fan will take issue with each release. Most critics and fans alike can agree on the casting decisions within the DCEU. Even though this franchise is still relatively new, audiences have been both delighted and annoyed with the casting decisions.
Rival Marvel Studios definitely did build a franchise around some very strong performances. (We can all just agree that Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark, right?) Critic and fan complaints aside, DC also brings some equally strong casting. (We can all just agree that Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman, right?) While they both had ups and downs in terms of casting, the movie experiences leave us wanting more.
That’s not to say that Marvel or DC hasn’t had made some weak casting decisions in the past. While there have only been four movies in the DCEU, enough characters have been introduced to certainly make an impression on the masses.
For better or for worse, here are 10 Amazing Performances In The DCEU (And 10 That Need A Reset).
RESET: Amy Adams (Lois Lane)
Like many of the actors on this list, Amy Adams has phenomenal talent. Leaving that aside, it’s been said that actors are only as good as the script they’re given. In comics and other media, Lois Lane is one of the most interesting and dynamic characters of Superman’s supporting cast. She’s inquisitive, challenging, tough, and kind. In many ways, Lois is Clark’s perfect match. They hold each other up and make each other better.
Unfortunately, the DCEU Lois doesn’t really get to have those moments. Adams tries to give her a personality, to bring some of the zest from comics, which never quite translates because no one is letting her be Lois Lane. She’s the audience surrogate, the briefly seen girlfriend. No one really lets Adams shine as Lane, which is a shame.
AMAZING: Ezra Miller (Barry Allen)
Technically, Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen is more of a midpoint between the Barry Allen of comics and the Barry Allen of CW’s The Flash. Like the comics, he’s a socially awkward scientist who has a strong sense of right and wrong. Like the TV show, Miller’s Allen has a hefty amount of witty banter and displays a sheer joy about being a hero.
Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen comes across as a lot of fun to watch on screen.
Miller presents Barry Allen as someone to root for: a 20-something who is just as lost as the rest of us. Barry’s journey from tentative to heroic feels natural partly due to Miller’s performance. Hopefully, this will continue on in Flashpoint.
RESET: Cara Delevingne (June Moone/The Enchantress)
The story of June Moone tries to add a sort of horror element to the mishmash of 2016’s Suicide Squad. If the movie knew what is was, then maybe the Enchantress could have been tweaked to fit into it better.
As it stands, Delevingne’s Moone/Enchantress feels out of place in the film as a whole.
Maybe she’s supposed to be a mirror to Waller - someone who will do anything to achieve her goals, who refuses to be chained. Instead, Moone becomes the prize to be won for Rick Flagg - he loves her, so saving her pushes his character along with Task Force X. Meanwhile, the Enchantress wants world domination.
Most villains do, but at least they try to have a bit more personality outside of the goal. Delevingne tries too hard to be creepy for the character, rather giving the Enchantress some life. It just adds the character to the disappointing villain pile.
AMAZING: Henry Cavill (Superman)
Cavill doesn’t really get enough credit for his portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent. Part of the reason for this is because of how Superman is portrayed in two of the three DCEU films. Rather than show the humanity of the character, the focus is on how he is essentially a God amongst men. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just different.
Cavill does play it well.
Just as Cavill does play those little moments of humanity well, Clark tries to be romantic with Lois. He considers how his mother will handle his passing away. We see the genuine surprise and grief when Jonathan is swept away by the tornado. Those little moments of emotion show how great a Superman Cavill can be, when he has room to be Superman. Hopefully in future films, he’ll get the chance.
RESET: Michael Shannon (General Zod)
In most media depictions, General Zod comes across as a composed and dignified man in his madness. He’s cold and calculating with a single-minded purpose in obtaining his goals. It makes him a great foe to the very emotional and human Clark Kent. Michael Shannon’s crazed Zod is definitely a departure, although not a very good one. Much like most of the actors on the list, it’s a shame because Michael Shannon is otherwise a good actor. His Zod, however, misfires big time.
With a bug-eyed intensity, Shannon chews on the scenery.
Zod ridicules like the worst sort of bad guy who deserve a punch in the stomach*. Maybe the creators wanted the audience to hate him so much that it was a relief when he was done away with. Either way, an entire movie with Zod as the bad guy wasn’t quite what we were expecting.
AMAZING: Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn)
Harley Quinn is one of the most fascinating and popular characters in DC Comics. She walks the line between insanity and vulnerability, anti-hero and villain. She loves the worst possible man for her. Her story tries to be a comedy when it’s actually a tragedy, which Robbie somehow embodies effortlessly.
In Suicide Squad, Robbie’s Harley Quinn cracks jokes and shows genuine emotional connection with her teammates. Robbie brings in all that contradictory vulnerability to the role. Even though her relationship with the Joker is definitely abusive, Robbie tries to show how someone could fall for him. This balancing act could have fallen apart with a different actress in the role. Robbie, however, definitely shows why she’s one of the biggest talents to watch for at the moment.
RESET: Ciarán Hinds (Steppenwolf)
Justice League was supposed to be a huge epic, as it introduced the New Gods into the DCEU. Steppenwolf, much like Loki in The Avengers, represents just a small taste of the true power of Darkseid and Apokolips. Even non-fans of the DCEU felt the disappointment over Steppenwolf’s casting. The film unleashed a new kind of horrible into the world with the character’s mostly CGI design.
Ciarán Hinds did not really add much to the villain.
A villain in a team-up feature needs to hold their own against the team of characters. Loki works well in The Avengers because Tom Hiddleston brought sheer personality to the role. Hinds failed to bring that to - Steppenwolf was generic, with muddled motivations. In the end, both the acting and the terrible CGI truly hurt the character.
AMAZING: Viola Davis (Amanda Waller)
Amanda Waller is a true tour de force in DC Comics. Not truly a villain, not truly a hero, Waller operates in shades of grey. A true politician, she always tries to make a situation work for her own ends. While she doesn’t like heroes that she can’t control, part of her understands the necessity of them. Of course, she’ll always try to control them. Viola Davis brings her immeasurable talent to the part of Waller - she assesses, calculates, and more tellingly, kills those in her employ without blinking or breaking a sweat.
Davis’ Waller brings more moral ambiguity to the DCEU. More importantly, Waller represents the sort of person that can be just as bad as the people in Suicide Squad. She just channels it into something productive for society. With Davis’ gravitas and thousand-yard stare, the audiences know this is a character that will do anything to succeed. That is chilling.
RESET: David Thewlis (Ares)
Most superhero movies have a villain problem. They can’t quite establish a good and compelling villain as well as they try to develop a memorable multi-franchise hero. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman was one of those films. David Thewlis’ Ares fails in the villain department. Thewlis does try his best by making Ares different from his disguise as Sir Patrick Morgan, but when the reveal happens, it’s underwhelming.
Thewlis just goes into generic bad guy mode.
It’s a shame because for the first two thirds of the movie, it is really well put together. Yet when that final third hits and Thewlis goes generic bad guy, it kind of halts. It doesn’t have that one last push to make the film that little bit better.
AMAZING: Jason Momoa (Aquaman)
For decades, Aquaman became the butt of every joke for comic fans. How could a character that spoke to fish be badass? Recently, both comics creators and media made the attempt to pull Aquaman from the joke pile, which mostly worked. Still, to most of the public, Aquaman remained a joke character. Needless to say, the announcement that Jason Momoa will play the character immediately added some serious cred.
Then audiences got Momoa’s portrayal of the character - let’s just say, no one will be making any jokes at Aquaman’s expense. Hard-drinking yet caring, Momoa’s Arthur Curry feels like an outsider. He belongs neither in the sea nor on land. Audiences can understand his reluctance to help the two worlds that rejected him. When he steps up, though, Momoa’s Curry brings all the Parademons to task. That’s pretty cool.
RESET: Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent)
Jonathan Kent is supposed to be a gentle, loving, salt of the earth sort of man. Or at least, he is in the comics. Kevin Costner speaks in a sort of monotone way throughout Man of Steel. Aren’t Kryptonians the ones who are supposed to have trouble expressing emotions? Rather than really get down to the nitty-gritty emotionally with his son, Costner’s Kent just shuts down. He doesn’t give enough to the audience to even guess at his emotions under his toneless words.
Needless to say when Clark does inevitably blow up at him, there’s no shock to it, because Costner’s Kent hasn’t shown any emotion toward his son. Then there’s the scene he passes away in - where, with that same blank stare, he shakes his head so the tornado can sweep him away. If a theater laughs at that scene, you’ve done something wrong.
AMAZING: Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth)
Just as there have been many incarnations of Batman, there have been a lot of versions of his faithful butler/pseudo-parent/confidante Alfred Pennyworth. With Jeremy Irons, however, a new sort of Alfred has been born. A snarky tech guru, Alfred is unafraid to really get his hands dirty in the Batman business.
He often tries to be a voice of sanity and reason when Bruce is all too willing to go off the deep end.
Part of what makes Irons’ Alfred work so well is how he treated it like a new role. Rather than looking at the past depictions of the character, the actor treated it like something never seen before. It allowed him to inject some new life into Alfred, finding a balance between the past and relaunching the character for a new era.
RESET: Danny Huston (General Erich Ludendorff)
In superhero movies, you’re always going to get actors who will chew the scenery. If the actor is having fun, especially in a villain role, then usually the audience is having fun as well. Of course, they need to read the tone of the movie. Wonder Woman is the best entry of the DCEU, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues with it.
Danny Huston’s General Erich Ludendorff is one of them. While most of the actors are grounded in some sort of reality, Ludendorff is cartoonish in his plotting and desire to extend the war. He’s trying so hard to convince audiences that he’s Ares, that he goes way over the top. It’s hard to try to buy into the argument when the character is just so campy in his “evil.”
AMAZING: Chris Pine (Steve Trevor)
A chief complaint in most superhero films usually centers around the romance. Most people say that they feel shoehorned in, only there because that’s how the genre works. With Wonder Woman, however, the romance between Steve Trevor and Diana feels natural. A part of it comes from the chemistry between Gadot and Pine. The larger part rises from Steve Trevor acting as his own person with his own wants and needs.
Chris Pine does an excellent job of showing just why Diana would be so enchanted with Steve.
He has American bravado mixed with a fearful man who is terrified of passing away. The final scene he is in shows his terror. He doesn’t want to end it this way, but he will so others can live. With Pine’s deft touch, it makes Steve both a noble and human character, showing why we should root for him.
RESET: Robin Atkin Downes (Doomsday)
Downes didn’t really have a lot to work with in regards to Doomsday. In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Doomsday represents the big unifying threat to force these two warring heroes into fighting alongside each other. In the comics, Doomsday is the absolute worst threat that Superman has ever faced.
This plot alone would have made it a great movie - Doomsday dispatches Superman. It’s a big deal. In the mess of Batman v Superman, however, he’s an afterthought to the rest of the proceedings. Robin Atkin Downes can’t do anything because the script doesn’t really give him much to do. Ultimately, without having earned any sort of emotion from the audience, it all just kind of feels useless. It’s a shame because Downes himself is an excellent actor, when he’s actually given a meaningful role.
AMAZING: Jay Hernandez (El Diablo)
Suicide Squad may have transported us all back to our emo days, but it did produce some really amazing performances. Jay Hernandez rarely gets enough credit for his role as Chato Santana a.k.a. El Diablo. Hernandez exudes the guilt and sorrow that Santana feels over his family’s death.
The character’s tragedy is one of the grounding features of the film.
It feels like he’s drawing roots from the mythological tragedies where his hubris destroyed everything around him in the worst way. Through it all, Hernandez balances between the present pacifist and the past brutal criminal boss, with the loving father and husband. It’s in his effortlessness that the audience is drawn into his tragedy. People love a tragedy, but they also root for someone admitting they did wrong. In* Hernandez’s performance, the audience is cheering when Santana is able to save the day.
RESET: Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor)
It was a bold choice to make the normally Machiavellian villain Lex Luthor into one of those guys from HBO’s Silicone Valley. Let’s be real for a minute, Jesse Eisenberg’s take on the classic villain draws exactly those comparisons. That’s not to say that a reinterpretation for a classic character is a bad thing. Usually when a character gets a reinterpretation, it still makes sense to past versions of the character.
Einsenberg’s performance and interpretation doesn’t feel like a Luthor origin story.
The core of the character should remain the same. When Luthor goes big, he goes theatrical. He plots and schemes, he plans three moves ahead. The performance comes across more like the Joker’s, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to improve in the long run.
AMAZING: Ben Affleck (Batman)
Everyone had jokes when Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in the DCEU. Affleck then proceeded to be really good in the role. While a lot of die-hard fans cringed at the character using guns, many praised how Affleck brought Bruce Wayne’s intensity and planning acumen to life. While Bruce actively searched for a way to take out Superman, Affleck grounds the performance enough where the audience could understand why. It goes hand in hand with the decision to crank up the Superman is Jesus metaphor in these films.
While some may not like how it plays out in the DCEU, the reactions of Affleck’s Bruce make some sort of sense. His Batman plans for every eventuality, even deciding to do some crazy things. Ultimately, they work out in the favor of the League even though he does maintain some emotional distance. When Affleck leaves the role, fans will be sad to see him go.
RESET: Jared Leto (The Joker)
Where do we start? First off, there’s the much-panned look of the character. He looks like the kid who tries so hard to be edgy, but ends up being an actuary in adult life. His attempts at method acting include sending used prophylactics, bullets, a pig, and more to various castmates. That doesn’t make the best work environment, and makes fans just as uncomfortable as the actors on the receiving end.
Leto’s performance just comes across a bit uninspired in the film.
Finally, there’s the actual Joker. He doesn’t have the creepiness of Heath Ledger’s Joker or the bombast of Mark Hamill’s classic take. It just comes across a bit lame, even with all the previously cut footage added back into Suicide Squad.
AMAZING: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
Gal Gadot probably saved the DCEU for most fans. Wonder Woman should have nabbed an Oscar nomination. It was Gadot’s performance as Diana of Themyscira that gave the DCEU solid ground to stand on. Caring yet fierce, compassionate, kind, and stubborn, Gadot effortlessly embodies these traits of the classic character. Even when Diana distances herself from humanity, she still feels involved with it. Diana still cares* even though humanity has disappointed her time and time again.
Through it all, Gadot portrays the immortal Diana in the constantly changing world with wisdom and weariness, with naiveté and joy. It’s a refreshing and joyous thing to watch. This is one performance that no one should touch because it’s pretty perfect as it is. Now can 2019 get here so we can have Wonder Woman 2?
What was your favorite performance in the DCEU so far? Let us know in the comments!
