While some DC films, like Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy or Zack Snyder's Watchmen, are extremely successful, others are total failures. And that's the case with these films we're going to talk about today. Here are 8 failed DC Comics feature films that would largely deserve a reboot or a remake.
8) Blue Beetle
It’s one of the latest additions to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Released in 2023, and produced by Angel Manuel Soto, Blue Beetle is a film that is of no practical use. A sacrificed film, Blue Beetle clearly has no future in James Gunn's DC Universe (DCU). At the same time, it may not be so bad since Blue Beetle is a film that is ten years behind its time. A fairly boring origin story, it is a teenage movie that tries to surf on the latest Spider-Man trilogy. Unfortunately, it's a heavy proposition, dripping with special effects that aren't always successful, and with good feelings that are cheesy. We're bored stiff in front of this entertainment that seems to come out of the early 2000s. And frankly, we would have preferred to see Batgirl than Blue Beetle…
7) Green Lantern
Back in 2011. At that time, Ryan Reynolds was not yet the face of Deadpool. But the actor was already a fan of comics. He had already appeared in Blade: Trinity (2004), and tried, with Green Lantern, to launch a new franchise. The Canadian actor thus becomes the face of Hal Jordan. Unfortunately, directed by Martin Campbell, Green Lantern is a total failure. A visually hideous work, which never manages to magnify the limitless powers of its hero. Green Lanterncould/should have been a playful work, but it is a cold, disembodied, boring and totally soulless film. A wobbly film, which will have at least allowed Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively to meet and experience great love.
6) Jonah Hex
And yes, Jonah Hex is adapted from DC comics. Directed by Jimmy Hayward in 2011, Jonah Hex is a Z series that is brainless and totally stupid. Very very stupid, the feature film follows the adventures of Jonah Hex, a bounty hunter hired by the American government to stop a terrorist who seeks to unleash hell on Earth. Led by Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, Michael Shannon, Michael Fassbender and John Malkovich, Jonah Hexis a stupid Z series, which assumes itself, but which never flies very far. A second-rate, mediocre film. Here, no punchline that tears, by mindless action scenes, no gratuitous slow motions, Jonah Hex never tries anything, and only exists thanks to its four-star cast.
5) The Flash
Released in 2023, The Flash is also one of the last films in the DCEU. Directed by Andy Muschietti, The Flashis a sick movie. A work that has encountered many production problems, many reshoots, changes of script and obviously the eccentricities of its main actor: Ezra Miller. Even if the film offers some flashes of brilliance and some surprises, it is a lazy work, which uses the multiverse haphazardly. The Flash suffers from the comparison with works like the animated Spider-Man , Everything Everywere all at once or even Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Some special effects are shoddy, the story is threadbare, and the feature film never manages to be an epic proposition. The Flash is an opportunistic film, which clumsily plays with the nostalgia of its audience, and never respects its ancestors or its source material. A film that is sometimes even shameful, when it resurrects Christopher Reeve, for a sequence that is as corny as possible…
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In 2004, Warner wanted to offer a 100% female film by adapting the adventures of Catwoman.On paper, the idea is good. But the execution is completely off the mark. Entrusted to the French Pitof, Catwoman is a nauseating turkey. A film very much anchored in its time, Catwoman is in the continuity of films like Daredevil and Elektra.Sick productions, with insipid dialogues, shoddy special effects, uninteresting choreography, stupid scenarios. Z superhero movies that never manage to be epic, mature, dark or violent. Catwomanis perhaps one of the worst representatives of this era. A work (if we can call it a work) carried by laughable dialogues, bad direction of actors, special effects straight out of the PS2, or even a Pitof suffering from Parkinson's. Even the soundtrack has a smack of the early 2000s, and that's not good news.
3) Supergirl
After the success of the first three Superman,Warner wants to develop, in parallel, a film on Supergirl. Entrusted to Jeannot Szwarc, Supergirl comes out in 1984, just after Superman III. Helen Slater is chosen to play Kal-El's cousin, while the rest of the cast includes Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Peter O’Toole. An impressive cast. Unfortunately, the film does not live up to expectations. Supergirl suffers from the comparison with the first Superman movies, which were rather successful. Too bad, it could have changed the game, and proven to Hollywood, decades in advance, that blockbusters led by women can be box office hits.
2) Swamp Thing
It is an extremely little-known film. However, in 1982, the filmmaker Wes Craven (Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street) embarked on an adaptation of Swamp Thing, the swamp monster of the DC universe. Translated by The Swamp Thing in the French version, it is indeed a direct adaptation of the DC character. We find the same characters as in the comics, and the story follows the misadventure of Dr. Alec Holland, transformed into a half-man, half-plant creature. The film even gave birth to a sequel in 1989: The Return of the Swamp Thing, directed by Jim Wynorski. Fortunately, since then, James Wanproposed a reboot in the form of a television series, but again, the project was stopped after only one season…
1) Steel
Even more unknown than the previous films mentioned, Steel,released in 1997, is also a forgotten adaptation of a DC character. The story follows John Henry Irons, aka Steel, a superhero who made his first appearance in DC comics in 1993. Steel is a brilliant inventor and engineer who decides to become a superhero by building a high-tech metal armor after Superman's death in the comics. The feature film has the particularity of featuring basketball player Shaquille O'Neal in the lead role. Directed by Kenneth Johnson, to whom we owe episodes of the series The Incredible Hulk, Steel is a broke, totally failed work, which falls in the right line of films like Spawn or the Captain America of 1990. A potential turkey then!