In this marvelous age of super hero movies being cranked out by Hollywood almost as quickly as one can say “up, up and away,” there have been many success stories and quite a few flops. The most recent offering of comic book glory comes to us from DC and I have to say, yet again, I was disappointed by their product. After releasing Batman V. Superman earlier this year, which disappointed, the bar was relatively low and still they missed the mark with this film as. Frankly DC has not released a superb or even solid super hero movie since “The Dark Knight.”

I would say, in my opinion, that each offering since “The Dark Knight” has been worse than the previous movie. “The Dark Knight Rises” was a disappointment when compared to both of its predecessors and felt as though it fell into the same trap as “Spiderman 3” and “X-Men the Last Stand” of trying to do too much within the final chapter. “Man of Steel” while full of promise, just did not live up to expectations. It could have been the lack of linear flow in the storytelling or the ridiculous fact that Superman let’s his adoptive father die instead of saving him, or Lois Lane determining that he is Superman before he even commits to the identity, parts of the story that greatly differ from any story of this iconic character’s past.

There is a difference between changing the source material and stepping away from it, which I feel they did with this film. Then they had us wait three years before finally releasing Batman V Superman, a film that had been rumored since at least 2007, where they introduced the most ridiculous version of Lex Luthor ever witnessed. While I have great respect for Jesse Eisenberg and what he has accomplished in his acting career, much like Jared Leto, who I admittedly have not seen many performances from, his portrayal of this iconic character felt more like he studied up on a different DC character.

Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Lex Luthor was reminiscent of The Riddler or a more stable Joker than that of his intended character. While he was methodical he was also maniacal and somewhat unhinged, which are not traits that Lex Luthor displays, at least not to his enemies. Leto’s portrayal of the Joker was reminiscent, in my opinion, of the character known as the Black Mask, a sadistic crime boss who runs his organization with cruelty, never hesitant to set an example with brutality on his underlings. Perhaps the worst part of his portrayal of the Joker was his laugh. Every actor to play the Joker has a signature laugh and Leto’s was by far the worse. I can’t even describe the laugh; it was just terrible.

There is a silver lining to the DC film crisis and that begins with Ben Affleck as Batman. Affleck I can say is an actor whom I did not have great respect for, “Gigli” and “Jersey Girl” are to blame for that, but this is not his first dip in the super hero pool, having played Daredevil in a 2003 film adaption of the Marvel character.

While that movie was not well received it had little to do with his portrayal of the Man Without Fear. It had more to do with the story and his supporting cast. Hearing that he would be cast as Batman admittedly caused some skepticism due to the bomb that was “Daredevil” however I was swiftly reminded that the film did not tank because of his performance and as good as his performance as Daredevil was, he is even better playing the Dark Knight, which gives hope for both planned Justice League movies and the next solo Batman film.

Another great casting selection from this year was Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, who’s solo film is scheduled for next year and looks truly promising from the trailer released. While I did hear certain criticism of her selection to play the Amazon Princess, I have to say I paid little attention as the criticism questioned her bust size, which is an utterly ridiculous complaint. Her presence on screen was more than adequate in a limited role, which begs the question for the Justice League films, how will all of the heroes and villain or villains fit on the screen? In Batman V Superman there does not seem to be enough screen time for each character and yet in the next film they intend to showcase six heroes which is concerning. There have been numerous complaints about Superman’s screen time and Wonder Woman did not get much more screen time so watching them fit them all on screen shall be interesting to say the least.

Hopefully they follow the formula used in Suicide Squad for the appearances as each villain not named Slipknot got a fair amount of time to shine and the casting for the major characters cannot be called into question too much with this film, aside from Joker obviously. Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Jay Hernandez played their parts very well, with Jay Hernandez being the best portrayal. A character that I am not all that familiar with Diablo was a huge part of this movie and any success it had. Personally aside from Killer Croc, who actually was upsetting to see, I feel like the lesser villains carried this movie even Katana played by Karen Fukuhara was better than the major players.

While I refuse to ever speak ill of Will Smith he just was not Dead Shot in my opinion. Dead Shot is not the kind of mercenary to play games, nor does he supply much comedy. Will Smith is definitely good in this film, but it may have been out of his depth as an actor.

Harley Quinn played by the lovely Margot Robbie is the better casting of the major characters. She played her role and played the character well. Occasionally more unhinged than expected she fit the bill well.

Despite its flaws I still think that Warner Brothers and DC have a chance to build a great film universe based on the comics, but I think they need to pull a few pages from Marvel’s playbook as well as attempt to stay true to the source material. There is nothing wrong with venturing away in certain regards, but stick to the stories as they were told.

These characters have existed for almost 80 years and with so much history there really is no need to create all new backstory and employ stories that make sense. A supernatural being like Enchantress is not a villain for a pyrokinetic, a crocodile monster, a samurai with a soul absorbing sword, a man with lethal boomerangs, and a couple of average joes with a propensity for acts of violence. Even if they do not wish to follow Marvel they should look at their animated projects as those films have been well received among their fans.