21 DC Movies, Ranked From Worst To Best
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21. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Metacritic's data definitively shows DC Comics movies are more miss than hit, but they're not all bad. Here's the rundown, from the most critically reviled big-screen DC adventures to the most celebrated, starting with Superman IV. (PS: You're in for a surprise at No. 1.)
Metacritic score: 22
Christopher Reeve was stranded in this "dull, shoddy film" that marked his final appearance as the Man of Steel.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
20. Catwoman (2004)
Metacritic score: 27
Oscar-winner Halle Berry starred in this notorious reinvention of the Catwoman character that was declawed by "cartoonish effects and overacting."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
19. Batman & Robin (1997)
Metacritic score: 28
The second and final Joel Schumacher-directed Caped Crusader movie had its "ice" kicked for boasting "quips, not characters."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
18. Jonah Hex (2010)
Metacritic score: 33
Josh Brolin couldn't fire up audiences or critics with this "lamentably uninteresting adaptation of the DC Comic about a war-weary Confederate soldier."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
17. Green Lantern (2011)
Metacritic score: 39
Nothing about this flop worked; critics even denounced future marrieds Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively for showing "minus-zero chemistry."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
16. Suicide Squad (2016)
Metacritic score: 40
What's crazier than Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)? While critics bemoaned Suicide Squad's "muddled characters and uneven storytelling," audiences helped it to a nearly $750 million worldwide gross.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
15. Superman III (1983)
Metacritic score:42
About the best that can be said of this substandard "disappointment," which inexplicably teamed Richard Pryor with Christopher Reeve, is that it wasn't as bad as Superman IV.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
14. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Metacritic score: 44
DC's first all-star team-up movie, starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, was hammered as "incoherently structured," "overstuffed," "incoherent" and "joyless." But other than that...
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
13. Constantine (2005)
Metacritic score: 50
In this adaptation of the Hellblazer horror series, Tilda Swinton's angelic Gabriel was brought back to Earth by a "confusing narrative muddle."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
12. Batman Forever (1995)
Metacritic score: 51
It was fun to look at the cartoony likes of Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey), but in the end the Joel Schumacher film was the "empty-calorie equivalent of a Happy Meal."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
10. Watchmen (2009)
Metacritic score:56
A lavish, faithful adaptation of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons series that was "ultimately undone by its own reverence," Watchmen reigns, so to speak, as the best-reviewed DC movie of the Zack Snyder era.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
9. Batman Returns (1992)
Metacritic score: 68
See, critics do like (some) DC Comics movies! Danny DeVito's Penguin was among the "many jolts of pleasure" in Tim Burton's second and final Caped Crusader movie as director.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
8. Batman (1989)
Metacritic score: 69
Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger helped elevate the comic-book movie in this Tim Burton game-changer filled with "unpredictable spins" and "images [that] sing."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
7. Batman Begins (2005)
Metacritic score: 70
In his first outing as the legendary comic hero, Christian Bale loomed over a "great," "grimly gothic vision" rendered by director Christopher Nolan.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
6. Superman Returns (2006)
Metacritic score: 72
Kevin Spacey donned Lex Luthor's bald wig, a la Gene Hackman, in this "superb," "generally thrilling entertainment" that honored Richard Donner's Superman.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
5. Wonder Woman (2017)
Metacritic Score: 76
GameSpot's own Edmond Tran, in his review, hailed this story of a 5,000-year-old Amazon princess turned World War I fighter for doing something most recent DC films have not: "Crafting a character that is easy to care about, telling an origin story that establishes believable and relatable motivations, and putting that character through situations that make us genuinely sympathize with her, in addition to being completely in awe of her at her most powerful."
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
4. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Metacritic score:78
As the brutal Bane, Tom Hardy was a "hell of a villain" in the "unfriendly masterpiece" that was the final film of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
2. Superman (1978)
Metacritic score: 86
Released in the dark ages of the comic-book movie, director Richard Donner's serious (but not-too serious) take on the last son of Krypton charmed critics, who found it a "pure delight."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)
1. Superman II (1981)
Metacritic score:87
It's true love: Critics have never liked a DC movie as much as when Superman (Christopher Reeve) and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) heated up the Fortress of Solitude in this "big, generous, beautifully crafted piece of entertainment."
(Image credit: Warner Home Video)