36% Of People Agree This DCEU Movie Had The Worst Ending
The year was 2013, and the shared universe craze was slowly beginning to take over the Hollywood scene. With only a handful of installments under its belt, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was poised to lead the charge, but its most viable rival in the superhero genre was about to make its presence felt in a big way. Director Zack Snyder unveiled his attempt at a Superman reboot, titled "Man of Steel," that year, thus kicking off the DCEU and opening the floodgates for a string of films set in the same continuity to make their way to the big screen.
Compared to the MCU, the DCEU has had a rough go in a variety of areas that have led to it falling far behind its competitor. Some movies have received critical acclaim and made serious bank at the box office, while others have floundered and sank into the ocean of cinematic obscurity. Even still, each flick brought something to the table that justified its presence in the wider franchise, whether that be iconic characters, famous locations, or throwaway lines that hint toward the series' future. However, not all of them wound up sending audiences home happy.
Here is the DCEU entry that 36% of people agree has the weakest ending.
The ending of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice didn't resonate with many moviegoers
To determine which DCEU movie has the worst ending of them all, Looper recently ran a poll on the topic that gauged the opinions of 537 individuals in the United States. 2017's "Wonder Woman" came in dead last with 9.68%, followed by the aforementioned "Man of Steel" at 9.87%, and both "Aquaman" and the Snyder Cut of "Justice League" secured 10.80% each. Making a significant jump, "Wonder Woman 1984" landed a staggering 22.35%, and "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" snagged the remaining 36.50%.
To call "Batman v. Superman" divisive would be an understatement, and its closing moments go a long way in upholding that sentiment. During his clash with the monstrous Doomsday, Superman (Henry Cavill) is killed by the same kryptonite spear he uses to defeat the hulking beast. Funerals for the hero and his civilian alter-ego, Clark Kent, are both held, and Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) discuss forming a team of metahumans to defend Earth in his honor: the Justice League. Mere seconds before the credits roll though, the dirt resting on Clark's coffin rises, indicating that there's still life in him after all.
In the grand scheme of Zack Snyder's cinematic DC vision, the film and its ending work just fine, but they don't exist in a vacuum. 1993's DC comics storyline "The Death of Superman" was a monumental moment in the industry, paying off decades of storytelling and character development that made it feel like a significant event. All of that build-up wasn't present in the DCEU yet, which only covered a total of two movies in 2016 when "Batman v. Superman" released. As a result, Superman's death and inevitable resurrection felt painfully rushed, seeing as he'd hardly blossomed into the hero we all hoped he would become when the franchise began.