Supergirl's writing was a train wreck. So many baffling things I have to assume studio meddling. The movie otherwise was fine. Actress, fine. Direction, production, special effects, fine.

This is a distressingly common trend in big budget movies in the last ~10 years or so. Casting directors seem to be doing great; it's been decades since we saw someone straight-up poorly cast, like Clooney as Batman or Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom.

Special effects are a somewhat mixed bag, but that's more an issue of SFX houses not being given the time and opportunity to do the best work that they can. When they're given time and used properly, it's entirely appropriate to say that special effects and CGI are better than ever before.

But writing for some unfathomable reason seems to have taken a turn specifically for the worse. I've heard that writers are being given less time to adjust scripts during filming, and that certainly fits with a pattern I've observed where there seem to be a lot of movies where the script feels like a first or second but by no means a final draft, as if one more final tweak could have taken something from passable to excellent.

Wherever the exact cause, "I liked everything about this movie except for all the things that happened" is a real fucking bummer of an experience, because you can so easily see how the movie could have been great, but just... wasn't.

Mamoa as lobo though...... No notes

From the moment he was announced as Aquaman I thought “nah, that braddah is Lobo.” Turns out it’s Momoa’s favorite comic book character and man he’s so perfect. I NEED to see him interact with Jon Stewart.

The comic it was based upon had the same issues.

I don't think this is just a result of Supergirl. I think that film is (more or less) exactly what the director (Craig Gillespie) wanted. It just think something went wrong, Gunn tried to help, but it was too little too late. The film gets a lot right, but it misses in some big moments (as you've pointed out), and ultimately a just fine but not great film.

I think this is a result of pacing and releases. The merger was expensive and Skydance needs money. Putting out one blockbuster a year, and in the case of Supergirl a blockbuster that severely underperformed, isn't going to work for the studio.

The question is, how much rushed crap are we going to get going forward? Hopefully little to none, but I suspect we'll get some rough films. (But maybe some great ones?)