Best Comic Book Movies IMO
Yes this is in order.
List items
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If you want to know how to do a solo superhero film, which one to look up to for the answer, Spider-Man 2 is the clear answer. It literally had everything I wanted in a comic-book movie, it had a likable protagonist who was written with a lot of human touch, a healthy mix between tension and comedy, a villian who is fully developed, threantening, and sympathetic, action scenes that are thrilling but not over-indulgent or long, a well-written romance, a beautiful score that manages to capture the theme of the hero perfectly and a story that complements the theme of the hero "with great power comes great responsibility". I honestly cannot think of any major flaws in the film. The only thing that depresses me is that with the talk of Avengers and The Dark Knight and the new Spidey reboots, this film kinda gets forgotten.
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I don't know how exactly my Dad felt after watching the original Star Wars in theaters, despite what he says, it's hard for me to put myself in his shoes then. However, watching the Avengers in the theaters was probably the closest I ever came that experience. It pretty much delivered on everything that I asked for, my favorite scene being the one where the Avengers are in the same frame for the first time with Alan Silverstri's theme roaring in the background. The script was sharp and really brought out the individuality of each character, something that is not easy to do in team films (X-Men for example). I think that people underrate some of the character development in the film, especially from Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. The only minor gripe that I have with the film was Loki as the main villain, he wasn't terrible, but I think that a film of this scale needed to have a villain that could singularly threaten the Avengers, and he wasn't it.
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While I don't think the Dark Knight deserves to be no.4 on the IMDB top movies list, there's no denying that it is one of the best CBM's of all time. What's even more impressive is that this film had a huge amount of hype leading up to it and ended up being worth the hype and then some. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is really what great acting is all about, becoming someone completely unrecognizable from who you really are, I still watch it to this day still not believing that the Joker was actually Heath Ledger. I think an underrated aspect of the film was Aaron Eckart's journey from white-knight Harvey Dent to Two-Face, it made sense in the context of the film and Aaron really got the shaft though with regards to recognition, everyone remembers Heath Ledger, but not many people credited Aaron's performance which is a shame. There are some nitpicks with the film, Maggie Gyllenhaal brought the mood down in every scene she was in, at times Christian Bale overdid the Batman voice and came across as unintentionally hilarious (the final scene with Joker) and Hans Zimmer's score.... not the score this film needed or deserved.
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I hesitated putting this film this high, this early in its life cycle because I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but I can't really help it. This is the best CBM since the Avengers, it had a perfect mix of substance, comedy and action that really hadn't been seen from the MCU solo film since the very first Iron Man film. What's even more impressive is that out of all of the comic book films to come out, it is probably the most relevant to today's times and the questions that this film raises about safety/security to Steve Rogers is the same that we are going through right now, this really helps give Captain America that human touch that some might have felt was missing in the previous two MCU films he was in. The action scenes along with their choreography were the best of any CBM I've seen, I like the idea of a character who has knowledge of Martial Arts....actually use Martial Arts. The supporting characters, Black Widow, Falcon were great, Robert Redford was Robert Redford, and that never hurts. The only gripe I have with the film is that I really thought the Winter Soldier was underutilized, especially considering he's in the title of the movie. It might rise a few spots eventually, but as I said I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment.
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It's amazing what one movie can do to a character, or more specially, what one performance can do to a character. RDJ's portrayal of Tony Stark was so fun to watch that his quirks were written into Marvel Canon and Iron-Man went from a B-lister to arguably the face of Marvel in only 5 years. His awesome performance aside, Iron Man had a lot of substance in it, which is surprising considering how empty the sequels ended up being. The journey Tony Stark takes from being kidnapped to his end battle with Iron Monger is the classic case of someone in power who is spoiled in superficiality then transforming that power into helping make the world a better place. The score by Ramin Djiwadi was solid, didn't blow me away but it did what it was supposed to do. The only negatives of the film are Gywneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts...zzzzzzzzz and for whatever reason, I found the final confrontation between Iron Man and Iron Monger a little disappointing.
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Not gonna lie, there is a lot of nostalgia for this pick as it was the first superhero movie I saw in theaters, when it came out on DVD, I must have watched it once or twice a month all up to a year. Watching it now, I still think it is a great movie, yeah there are some rather silly moments, Tobey McGuire cry face is hilarious but I still think this is one of the best origin-story films out there. Kind of like in Spider-Man 2, it almost had everything I want in a solo movie. Even though Tobey has his limitations as an actor, I still think that he nails the sense of wonder and likability that comes with both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. William Defoe as Green Goblin, not exactly the biggest stretch of his career but I really thought he fit it perfectly. Once again the score by Danny Elfman is perfect, I really wish more composers would score films to help tell the story instead of just being loud (cough Hans Zimmer). The negatives of this film is that it has Macy Gray, who I don't know how or why she became famous, that Norman Osborn jump-scare...I still hate it (you know which scene I'm talking about) and James Franco was sleepwalking as Harry Osborn. One more thing I loved....Bonesaw....that is all.
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When I first saw this, I had no idea what I just watched, it was a Batman film but the Schumaker and Burton Batman's that I grew up watching. It wasn't until a few years later that I finally realized how good of a film it is. This film did a relatively good job of telling the origin story of Batman, the flashbacks actually helped tell the narrative as each flashback revealed a characteristic that Bruce Wayne would end up taken in as Batman. Christian Bale was fantastic as Bruce Wayne in this film as he was perfectly able to capture the duality of his character. Cillian Murphy was perfect as Scarecrow, Liam Nessen.....eh on Ra's, I mean he really didn't add anything. Two additional things I will give credit to this film for, one the film really did a good job in pulling off its main tone of fear, two, this was the only Nolan Batman film where he actually tried to create a Gotham, not just copy and paste Chicago and New York and call it Gotham City (I'm sorry Chris, it's hard for me to be immersed in Gotham when I know that I'm looking at Manhattan). The only negatives were that I thought Scarecrow was underutilized, the action scenes were cut a little too tight so I didn't know what was going on and you know how I feel about Hans Zimmer.
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Take notes George Lucas, THIS IS WHAT A PREQUEL IS SUPPOSED TO DO! This film is mostly about the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr and both James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender hit it out of the park regarding their roles. It is actually a little amusing to see Charles Xavier to use his powers, not for good but to pick up women. X-Men: First Class tonally is a lot different than the other X-Men films, it has more of a Connery-Bond type of feel to them and it works. The script is tight and works well, definitely the best written of the X-Men films. The CGI and visual effects of this film are very well done and aren't overbearing. Glaring weakness, January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones,January Jones, could that possibly be the most boring portrayal of a femme fatale in history, stop casting her in movies people.
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The classic superhero film, I find interesting that many people dismiss the Donner films as cheesy yet somehow love the original Star Wars film which also had cheesy elements. The fact of the matter remains that this film and Christopher Reeve gave us the best superhero portrayal of all time. It nails almost every part of his character and manages to give Superman humanity, something that a certain other Superman-based film didn't do. The John Williams score of Superman is classic without a doubt, I still get goosebumps when Superman first reveals himself to the world and the iconic theme slowly starts to build, once again the score does what a score is supposed to do. Margot Kidder was great as Lois Lane, Marlon Brando killed it as Jor-El, Hackman was alright as Lex. The negatives of this film are that the special effects are a little out of date and Luthor's girlfriend (forgot her name) is an idiot. Even though it's been decades since it's release, I still view this as the best Superman film of all time.
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I still love Danny Elfman's Batman theme, it really does capture all of the emotion that is involved with the Dark Knight, vengeance, darkness, paranoia and exhilaration. Even though this is a Tim Burton film, this is probably the least Tim Burtony film that Tim Burton has made. I can see why some Batman fans are upset with this film, from having Batman kill frequently, to the retconning of his parents death, connecting it to the Joker, but I didn't think that those were THAT bad, it wasn't like Spider-Man 3. Overall I still have a lot of fun watching the film, I still think Keaton's Batman is the best (but not his Bruce Wayne) and I really dug the style Tim Burton created for Gotham city. The movie had a human touch to it that we no longer will see in DC properties for quite some time and I give this film a lot of credit towards that. Jack Nicholson was essentially playing himself, but I thought he was fine for the Joker. The only negatives of this film are Kim Bassinger being the poster-child of bland love interests that would dominate CBM's to this day. I will go as far as to say this film is a little underrated.
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