I still haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet. With a toddler and a big house move ahead of me, I doubt I’ll actually get the chance to see this movie at the cinema, which is a shame considering how much everyone seems to love it. Anyway, I thought we could use this as a starting point to talk about comic book movies and whatnot. Which ones were good? Which ones were a little bit rubbish?
For example: for the longest time I thought Spiderman 2 was awesome. Like I thought it was up there with the best superhero movies ever. I rewatched it when it was on TV a while back and boy oh boy has that movie aged terribly.
I wonder how some of these other movies will age? I haven’t watch X-Men 2 in a while. I loved that movie — is it still good? I hope so.
How about The Avengers? I thought that movie was about as good as a superhero movie could ever be, but I suspect it might age terribly.
Also: I thought the last Superman movie was pretty good. Not perfect, but good.
COME AT ME!
Comments
41 responses to “Off Topic: Favourite Superhero Movies”
Loved Guardians. But to me it felt more like a Sci-Fi than a Superhero film.
I would also say if it was classified as a superhero film its my favorite at the moment. But i also quite enjoyed the first Blade movie.
Yeah but I don’t think it was meant to be a superhero film. Comics ≠ Always Superheroes.
Yeah, I can understand calling it a superhero movie but I wouldn’t describe it as a superhero movie. Overall I was pretty impressed. They really tapped into that comedy side that made such a ridiculous sci-fi concept work with a wide audience without alienating fans.
I think going back to Iron Man these Marvel movies have done a pretty good job of that. Balancing not taking themselves too seriously without mocking fans. Being accessible without sacraficing the depth or warping the source material.
Not sure if I’d call it my favourite since I’m so close to just seeing it but it’s definitely a great example of a comic book movie. Also they deserve a ton of credit for recognising that Vin Diesel was perfect for Groot. Say what you will about the guy but he nailed every single “I am Groot”.
Batman: The Movie and X-Men are still my favourites. Also Daredevil – Director’s Cut is surprisingly great. Darkman and the Blade Trilogy are neat too. Other than that, can’t say I get excited by them anymore. You’ve either got edgy a la The Dark Knight, or over the top like everything else.
I’m still waiting for Cyberpunk to make it’s big comeback. Now that’s a genre near and dear to my heart! 🙂
Captain America was pretty rad. Still need to see the second.
Also, Iron Man.
I just saw the second one and I think you’ll love it.
I’m not a Cap fan. Saw the first movie and thought it was solid. The sequel however is one of the best super hero movies I’ve ever seen.
Batman Begins, just a brilliant movie.
Another vote for Batman Begins here.
Watchmen – great superhero flick that stayed amazingly true to the graphic novel. Great Bob Dylan soundtrack too.
Loved the first Iron Man movie too. The others not so much
Completely agree with @julesliam about Guardians Of The Galaxy, really didn’t feel like a superhero movie, was still pretty great though.
To be honest, I’ve enjoyed every superhero movie I’ve ever seen including the 1966 Batman movie (it’s just so campy), except Iron Man 3, as an action movie it would’ve been good, but as an Iron Man movie, it was an abomination.
The Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy (especially the first 2… the 3rd one is a bit like Godfather part 3 – good in its own right but not up to the standard of the first 2).
The Avengers… most of the Marvel movies I found to be OK without being great, but The Avengers is definitely greater than the sum of its individual superheroes. Just top drawer entertainment, and the reason the big Hollywood studio system still has some excuse to exist – to produce big budget entertainment like this.
Like @waldofoo above, I also love Watchmen, especially the Ultimate Cut version… runs about 4 hours, but worth every minute of it. Could use a bit more giant squid monster thing at the end, but other than that it’s a better adaptation of the book than I would have thought possible.
Three are up there with my “favorites list” – Watchmen, Kick Ass, and Sin City. Whilst Sin City may not technically be a “superhero” movie, Marv is in it – and he’s something of a super-human, even if he is a super-bastard.
Absolutely love Kick-Ass, still have to get around to watching Kick-Ass 2.
… Unfortunately it’s not great. Just read the graphic novels.
Just saw Guardians last night. Fantastic movie. A piece of me sees it as a modern Star Wars (lol@prequels), although not quite as wide in scope and a lighter tone.
As far as favourite superhero movies, I’d probably give it to Cap 2. I’m always more interested in lesser powered guys excelling in places saturated with over-powered guys.
Watchmen should get a mention as well. The only people that seem to absolutely loathe it are the comic book fans.
I got the comic after seeing Watchmen, and I still think the movie is great.
Read the comic book for Watchmen before seeing the movie. Kinda prefer the book’s ending over the movie’s, but it was a damned fine movie. Love Snyder’s movies.
I kind of see most comic book movies as a shameless attempt to print cash, particularly the Marvel films pushed out with regularity by Disney. This is also why I fear for the Star Wars franchise. It’s about making back their investment.
Random thoughts:
Black Widow: Give Scarlett Johansson her own movie already!
Captain America I: The origin story was a great nerd fantasy… then the second half was pure crap.
Sam Raimi Spiderman: awesome. I teared up during the train scene of 2 when Spidey gets unmasked and everyone on the train realises he’s just a young adult, the same age as their sons, brothers etc.
Kick-Ass: Obviously I was better than II.
Bring back the Rocketeer!
I’m a Batman fan, so the first 2 Michael Keaton Batman films were pretty nice. I did used to like the Val Kilmer one but on a recent rewatch it is pretty bad. The George Clooney one doesn’t exist in my universe.
The Nolan Trilogy was also pretty fine, Batman Begins might be my favourite one. I am looking forward to seeing Bats back in the Batman vs Superman film, even though Man of Steel didn’t do much for me, from rumours it seems they’re taking batman in a new direction.
But I haven’t really gotten into the Marvel films, there’s too many to follow and it just seems like oversaturation with all the Avenger related films, then there’s remakes and reboots of Spiderman, Xmen etc. I did like the first 3 Spiderman films and do not understand why they rebooted it (which I haven’t seen) rather than make sequels (even if they changed actors). I did like the Avengers but felt like I was missing out because I hadn’t seen the 500 films that preceded it. I get the same feeling with Agents of Shield too.
They re-booted it because Sony have to do something with the characters every “X” number of years or else the rights return to Marvel.
It was purely a business decision.
Yeah I know that, but why rehash the origin story and villains that were already done in the previous 10 years when they could have just built on what was already there? Spiderman had buckets of villains they could have continued the story with, and if they wanted to erase Spiderman 3 from existence they could have just pulled an Xmen and used time travel to overwrite it.
Couldn’t tell you. If I could erase past mistakes I would, too.
I liked The Spirit, and Green Hornet. The Iron Man movies (except 2) are fun as well. Guardians of the Galaxy has also just hit my favourites list too. Oh, and Hellboy is good for a veg too.
Mystery Men, obviously
It seems marvel/disney can do no wrong at the moment. Even their misses have been above average. DC seems more of a mixed bag with them trying to shoehorn all their characters into the one tent. Superman doesn’t do dark and gritty well for example.
My votes go to Avengers.
Honourable mentions go to Dark Knight (even if its run time was a little long but I believe this was done to give Heath Ledger all his scenes on account of his death), Guardians of the Galaxy definitely is up there, we can split hairs about whether it is super hero or sci-fi but they are super heroes of space, not earth, meaning the setting had to be different but it is still a hero movie in my book. Superman 1, spiderman 2 (even though I never liked Toby Maguire) and Captain America 2
The Dark Knight trilogy still stands head and shoulders above other superhero movies as far as I’m concerned, even if we have had some great ones since. One of the first superhero movies to be true to the mythos and character, and did something different at the time (thought it’s since been copied to death).
Marvel’s last two, Captain America 2 and Guardians, were both exceptional. Iron Man 1 also holds up really well and is one of their best.
I also thought Man Of Steel was fantastic. Come at me haters.
“I also thought Man Of Steel was fantastic. Come at me haters.”
Pfft, that’s not gonna bring out the haters. But this will; not only did i really like the Spiderman reboot (and the sequel), i actually PREFFERED them to the Toby trilogy.
Haters out there?
COME GET SOME.
Watchmen hands down.
Watchmen was pretty good.
And how about a little love for Hellboy?
Man, I forgot about Hellboy.
I thought Hellboy 2 was even better. Only downside is that the end seemed to be setting up another sequel that it looks like will probably never happen.
I think the best Marvel movies are X-Men: Days of Future Past (9-9.5), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (8.5-9), The Avengers(8.5-9).
People are going nuts over Guardians of the Galaxy, but it’s really not a great movie… it’s pretty shallow(7?). The Spider-Man movies are also way off(they’ve gotten a few things right and a lot of things wrong). The Iron Man movies have mostly been okay… although they dropped the Mandarin potential. Thor… they also butchered that a lot although they’re not really bad… it’s not Star Wars… it’s like making Hercules an alien with gadgets. I’m afraid they’re going to do the same with Dr Strange.
They need to remake Spawn.
The Crow is my fave…if that’s even classed as a superhero film?
Big +1 for a Spawn remake. Keep Michael Jai White just needs a darker script.
Loved guardians. was pretty damn cool. but the whole time i was watching it i was asking myself “right, star lord is cool, now i wonder if DC have seen this and we may get a one off Adam Strange movie?”
Also, and i know ill get torn apart for this, but i’ve never liked the christopher reeves Superman movies. They were as slow as anything and didnt really lead to good finishes.
I’m gonna shout out a little love to two fantastic superhero movies i don’t think have been mentioned yet; Unbreakable, and Chronicle. It’s was interesting to see superhero movies that didn’t involve brightly coloured spandex or happy endings.
I loved Guardians, although I can see how it’s not a typical “superhero” movie. I rank Marvel Studios’ movies in tiers at the moment, with Tier 1 being Iron Man, Cap 2, The Avengers and now, Guardians. Tier 2 would include The Incredible Hulk, Thor 2 and Thor. 3 would be Iron Man 3 and Cap 1, and 4 is Iron Man 2.
Outside of them, The Dark Knight is great because of Ledger, and the other 2 are solid. I really like both the Amazing Spidermans and think Andrew Garfield is a better Spiderman than Toby Maguire.
The Rocketeer has actually aged pretty well. I watched it a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed young Jennifer Connelly. Yowzah.
X-men and X-men 2 were great, as was First Class and Days of Future Past. Keen to see where they take that series now.
Watched ‘Super’ the other night. It was hilarious. Brilliant.
Funnily enough, written and directed by the same guy who did Guardians of the Galaxy.
Well worth a watch.
Clicked on the article specifically to see if anyone had mentioned Super yet, it really is an underappreciated gem of a movie. You gotta love a hero whose superpower smacking people in the face with a wrench.
Shut up, crime!
You’re all wrong, the greatest superhero movie of all time is Batman (1966).
Bale is fail, West is best.