Ten Best Comic Book Movies of All Time

This is from the website i09, and there is a bit of language for those who are sensitive to that sort of thing: http://io9.com/5908428/10-best-comic-book-movies-of-all-time

What do y'all think of this list? There are some I don't think I would care about, but is this really representative of the best?

Strangers and Aliens had a similar podcast not too long ago - http://strangersandaliens.com/2012/04/episode-13-marvel-movies-vs-dc-movies/ . Also, I was thinking Top 5 had a similar topic on a podcast not too long ago, but the closest I found was Top 5 Villains.

Anyway, personally I wasn't that impressed with Hellboy, haven't seen Persepolis, and may not have seen Akira (I'm not much into anime). I would have hard time arguing against Avengers and the Dark Knight for the top two spots. Avengers was a LOT of fun for me and my family. And Dark Knight has been my favorite comic book movie pretty much since it came out.

I would include Captain America in my top ten. I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim, but I'm not sure it'd be in my top ten. I think I agree that Spider-man 2 would beat out Spider-man 1 for me. Superman deserves to be there.

So, yeah...there's a collection of my random thoughts.

Hellboy 2 was far better than Hellboy, to me. It'd probably be in my top ten. Our podcast was just Marvel and DC movies, but expanding it into anime based on manga and things like Peresoplis really widens the field.

Still, the first Superman movie is in my top ten. I'd almost put that movie AND Superman II together as one entry. Almost.

Captain America is absolutely in my top ten. Iron Man would be in there in my top ten, too.

And X-Men: First Class, which I thought was simply fantastic.

Batman '89 and Batman '66 (is that the year the movie came out) are both favorite comic book movies. Cheating a bit, partly because I haven't seen 1/3 of what I'm about to say, but Nolan's Batman trilogy gets a single slot in my top ten superhero movies.

Of course, Avengers is in there.

And finally, Howard the Duck. Just kidding. (Although, if that movie was just slightly different, maybe in tone, maybe in costuming, I don't know -- it might get in the top ten for camp value, but it doesn't even get that. It's not even a guilty pleasure.)

No, finally, X2 and Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 would be on my list depending on the day. Both those movies rotate in and out of my tenth spot.

Hmm, in order then . . .

10. X2, Spider-Man, or Spider-Man 2 rotating depending on my mood.
9. Batman '66
8. Iron Man
7. Batman '89
6. Hellboy 2
5. X-Men: First Class
4. Captain America
3. Nolan Batman trilogy
2. Avengers (but depending on how good Dark Knight Rises is, Avengers might get knocked down a notch or two)
1. Superman 1 and 2

And then, guilty pleasures:
Ghost Rider
Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing Returns

~ Ben

Green Lantern!!!

Just kidding. I don't poo poo it like most others seem to, but I'm objective enough to know it shouldn't be on a top 10 list.

Here are my 10, though not necessarily in order of preference:

Superman
Iron Man
The Avengers
Dark Knight
X-Men 2
Spider-man 2
Kick-Ass (Love it so much I avoid watching it so it won't become old to me.)
Watchmen (Poorly mis-marketed, brilliantly executed)
300 (The most revolutionary action visuals since The Matrix)

and of course...

The Matrix Trilogy (Yeah, not based on a comic, but based on the genre as a whole. One of the best Superhero flicks, despite the fact that it isn't technically even about superheroes.)

Re: The Matrix trilogy -- I agree, The Matrix is a superhero film at its heart, and it made my friends and me excited about the prospects of a Superman movie. But the final two films in the trilogy really soured me, and used up all the love I had for the first one. Recently I went back and watched the trilogy again and found myself really enjoying the first one, but the final two just don't sit well with me.

I've not seen Watchmen or Kick-Ass. The thing that will most likely keep Watchmen out of my top ten, even if it is a brilliant movie, may seem like a paradox -- if they did it well, and made a superb translation of the graphic novel to film, I'm not going to like it. And if they did a terrible job, I won't like it. The reason is content -- that graphic novel is a masterpiece of comic book storytelling, but the story itself is so nihilistic. Every time I read it (I've read it about a dozen times over the years) I find myself needed to "cleanse the pallet". It just leaves such a dark impression. I had actually planned not to view it, but I found it for sale cheaper than a rental and bought it for the time I was in the right mood.

Kick-Ass is on Netflix. So I may give it a look-see.

Re: Watchmen. I agree with both Paeter and Ben. It was brilliantly executed, but was very nihilistic. Technically it was dark, but in general felt like a very hopeless movie, which I think, is antithetical to the overall superhero vibe.

Although the title does reflect the old Latin proverb "quis custodiet custodes?" ("who watches the watchers?").

Note: I have only seen the film and not read the graphic novel, so take my comments in that light.

cleireac wrote:Re: Watchmen. I agree with both Paeter and Ben. It was brilliantly executed, but was very nihilistic. Technically it was dark, but in general felt like a very hopeless movie, which I think, is antithetical to the overall superhero vibe.

Yeah, and this is where I think it was mismarketed to folks like yourself who never read the comic and didn't know what they were in for. It was marketed as an action-packed, dark superhero movie. Though the action beats were cool, they were few and far between. And Watchmen (both comic and film) is a deconstruction of the superhero genre, not actually a superhero story itself.

And sick man that I am, the darkness and despair were much of what made it wonderful to me. (Although it does end with a note of potential hope regarding the fate of Rorschach's journal.)

I didn't go into Watchmen completely naive, but wasn't 100% aware of how hopeless the story would go. I agree that there is a glimmer of hope in the discovery of the journal, but for now its just that, a glimmer.

Having said that, I was very impressed with the technical excellence of the film overall. I think Zack Snyder may be one of the better directors who 'gets' the comic book aesthetic. I'm not as certain about his storytelling skills, but he's got the look down pat.

does anyone know if/when the sequels to sin city and kick ass are going get made/released? I've been hearing rumors about them for a while now and I thought kick ass 2 was suppose to be filmed last summer while Nikita was on break

Rickster wrote:does anyone know if/when the sequels to sin city and kick ass are going get made/released? I've been hearing rumors about them for a while now and I thought kick ass 2 was suppose to be filmed last summer while Nikita was on break

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is officially "in production." 

Sin City 2: http://screenrant.com/sin-city-2-dame-kill-for-kofi-164586/



Kick-Ass: Balls to the Wall could begin production this summer.

Kick-Ass 2: http://screenrant.com/kick-ass-2-matthew-vaughn-cast-director-sandy-170368/

Here is my top ten comic book movies in a semi-random order (it would take a lot of thinking to get a solid 1-10 list on this for me):

Nolan's Batman Trilogy (unless the third one is terrible, then just the first two)

The Spiderman Trilogy (favorite superhero of all time, I hope the new one will be just as good)

The Avengers (amazing effects, great character interactions, love it)

Iron Man (best Avengers tie-in movie)

Captain America: The First Avenger (second best Avengers tie-in movie)

The Incredible Hulk (I love the Hulk)

Cowboys & Aliens (I bought the graphic novel, but haven't read it yet)

Batman: Under the Red Hood (amazing story and action, one of my favorite animated movies ever)

Men in Black (Will Smith and Tommie Lee Jones are awesome, this movie is a lot of fun)

X-Men: Origins Wolverine (very underrated IMO)




The Amazing Spider-Man (hopefully)

DNArington wrote:

Batman: Under the Red Hood (amazing story and action, one of my favorite animated movies ever)

X-Men: Origins Wolverine (very underrated IMO)

Wait, we're counting animated movies? Crap, I'm gonna have to go back and think through my list again...

And I'm totally with you on the Wolverine flick. I don't understand why so many were so hard on it. I thought it was great!

My problem with the Wolverine movie? It was a GREAT movie--if you stopped it after the opening credits.

THAT was the movie I wanted. They teased me with it, then pulled the rug out from under me. "Okay, now that we've shown you the movie we COULD have done, an epic 'eternal warrior' adventure through the wars of history, we're going to give you the REAL movie: a half-hearted superhero movie with lots and lots of characters you sort of recognize from the comic books, and put them in a story that ALMOST follows continuity with our previous movies -- almost -- and that has head scratching plot holes."

Now, if they had just gone straight into the superhero movie, instead of teasing me with the awesome movie that they didn't make, I may have been a little more forgiving to the inconsistencies in the plot and characterization. But they instead said, "You think you're marrying Rachel, but we're giving you Leah instead...and you have to wait seven years to marry Rachel."

Well, maybe not seven years until the next Wolverine. But close!

I think with Wolverine, part of it might have been my mindset going in, but at the same time my instincts register something off in a subtle way.

What I saw in the movie was less of a problem with logic and plot holes, which I would have difficulty spotting out, anyway. One issue I had with the movie was emotional connection. The movie goes to great effort to make sure it's dark, and Wolverine has lots of opportunity to suffer. Yet, I felt like each new tragedy that piled on diminished the effect. By the time Wolverine meets the kindly old couple after the Weapon X project, I was undecided about feeling despair over what I perceived to be a cynical attitude toward endless tragedy or laugh my face off at what seemed at points to be a pantomime of tragedy. The whole sequence between Wolverine and that old couple was nakedly, laughably transparent to me, to the point where I literally wondered if the movie was actually being purposefully satirical about a "dark" character dealing with endless tragedy after tragedy. By the end of that sequence, I was only ever going to feel one of two things, especially given the context of the the events of the movie up to then. I was either going to feel like the movie had reached the point of being offensively emotionally manipulative; or I was going to feel the coldest level of derision. It felt rote, ridiculous and empty.

Compare that to say, the horror of The Dark Knight. There's a centerpiece moment of tragedy in that movie, and the build up to it is a terrible promise of deep misery, and the ache of it lingers after and carries the horror of contemplating what the Joker might do next.

The other thing about the Wolverine movie, it is consumed with the need to be overwhelmingly "awesome" for a character that is considered "awesome." But the movie is workman like quality to it's approach to get the job done, so it felt a bit heartless. To me, anyway. Paradoxically, I also felt like the movie was trying to hard to be awesome. That may not make sense, but it makes sense to me, especially when I'm watching it.

Finally, the movie's story is a checklist of extensive backstory. The thing is, I don't think it works as well when it's seen laid out in a linear fashion. A lot of effort seems to go into justifying why Wolverine moves to the next set piece, the next item that needs to be checked off. Why does he take the next step? Well we're provided with logical reasons, and maybe even an "emotional" extra incentive, but Wolverine works well when he isn't logical and reasonable, and emotion notwithstanding there is joy in the moments when he's insanely unpredictable.

I'm not saying that the movie is bad, and I'm not necessarily right on all the points I mention above. My gut feeling is that the movie doesn't hang together quite as well as it might have done. Perhaps the only thing that went "wrong" was that it simply didn't connect with me, personally. If it connected with other people, then I'm glad. A lot of people did worked hard to make it come alive.

DNArington wrote:
Men in Black (Will Smith and Tommie Lee Jones are awesome, this movie is a lot of fun)



The Amazing Spider-Man (hopefully)

Sorry Men in Black, you get bumped off the list to make room for The Amazing Spider-Man! The Amazing Spider-Man, welcome aboard!