I’m doing a column on what was the best superhero movie ever made (not counting the serials from the 40s and 50s.)
Any thoughts?
PAD
I’m doing a column on what was the best superhero movie ever made (not counting the serials from the 40s and 50s.)
Any thoughts?
PAD
• 
Well if this has proven anything, it is that, to paraphrase, another person’s meat is another’s poison.
Here is my list of favorite “superhero” movies :
1. Superman I
2. Superman II
3. The animated Superman shorts by
Dave and Max Fleischer
4. Batman : Mask of the Phantasm
5. Daredevil
6. Spiderman
7. X-men
8. Batman (1989)
9. The Shadow
10. The Mask
I was a little nervous posting, but I can see my opinion is pretty well supported.
Superman: The Movie. Maybe because it was the first superhero movie I ever say, so it’s nostaligic… but even today I still consider it the best ever superhero film to date.
My other option would be DareDevil. I think they got it right. Though in some ways it was not as faithful to the comic as it could have been, it did what it had to do to become a theatrical release worthy of the spirit of the comic.
The roles were beautifully cast, and though I had doubts, Ben Affleck works wonderfully as the title character.
I’m afraid Siderman didn’t quite get there for me.
A good film which I really enjoyed, but I don’t know, it’s missing something. Others have mentioned it above, but personally I can’t put my finger on it.
My favorite..
1. Superman I (sure there were bad parts, but at least this wasn’t the sequel where he had repairGreatWall-vision.. and he did travel thru time in the comics)
2. Mystery Men (I loved this and really enjoyed the Shovelers fight scene at the end)
3. Batman – Mask of the Phantasm (I remember seeing this in the theaters and wondering why the live action movies just can’t get it right)
4. Blade (didn’t care for the sequel)
5. X-Men (incredible cannot wait until X2)
Spiderman was good for being an origin movie. But it didn’t excite me enough.
Buckeroo Banzai gets at least a nod. I enjoyed it and would have watched a sequel.
The Shadow and the Phantom were both good movies.
Just a nitpick: Superman didn’t reverse the spin of the Earth (that wouldn’t make things happen backward, the earth is not a film strip). It is Superman’s point of view (as a kid I had it worked out that if you cross over the international dateline so many times you’d go back in time. I was pretty excited when they came out with the Concorde…).
They had the option of doing the old fly-through-concentric-circles-in-rainbow-hues but that would have totally bewildered the audience who never read the Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes books.
Sadly, this was apparently confusing, too. Point taken about the deus ex machina aspect, but that’s really over thinking it. Yes it created problems for future movies, but they didn’t know there would be future movies.
Superman 1, hands down.
It wasn’t simply a great superhero flick, it was great moviemaking.
Spiderman follows a close second.
Okay, first off, lemme tell you all that I certainly enjoyed Superman 1 and 2.
And then, I also enjoyed the Mask with Jim Carrey. Those, to say the least, are my favorite ones by far.
And then, even the Spider-Man movie was maginificient. Not 100% perfect, but it was still quite excellent, and I liked both Maguire and Dunst’s roles very much.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to disagree almost completely on the X-Men movie. Here’s why:
-It trivialized the Holocaust by writing Magneto as using his magnetic superpowers within the concentration camp. If this were real life, he would surely have been able to smash the nazi dicatatorship in almost all of Europe within a short amount of time. Bad calculations in scriptwriting, to say the least. I assume that they did that as a way of sidestepping the comic book’s background involving Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? Trust me, they could’ve written it far less awkwardly than it was there.
-There didn’t seem to be much of a menace in public to any of the mutants in the movie, and any that did take place, if at all, was quickly forgotten.
-The part with Wolverine and Rogue did touch me at first, but then it lost steam and credibility, mainly because that too was otherwise quickly forgotten.
-The way that Magneto was depicted here in fact, as being even more deadly or willing to use deadly force than his comic book counterpart was also actually rather disturbing, and I ended up wondering if they went at least partially overboard in writing him.
-The sequel setup was insulting. To put it this way, it’s not the sequel I consider the most important thing to deal with, it’s making the film and its messages convincing first. And this film in my opinion didn’t do that.
I don’t want to argue with anyone who liked the movie, but upon seeing that it committed some very awkward mistakes akin to what J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. committed when putting together Amazing Spider-Man #36 a year and a half ago, even running the risk of insulting the victims of these crimes against humanity, I was really devastated. I’m not bothered by the leather costumes, nor am I bothered that Janssen’s age makes her a questionable casting choice, I’m just bothered that this movie, contrary to what some people said back in 2000, was not written as well as it could’ve been and that the writing was slapdash at best.
When David Ansen reviewed the movie for Newsweek back then, he said that by all rights it should’ve ben a disaster. It is. Maybe such critics felt that it would be in bad form to pan it for the fact that it really is a dud in spite of everything, and that it’d be going against the establishment, but the truth is that this is a very badly thought out movie that ends up disappointing for real reasons and not for the fact that the characters wear leather costumes. Whatever anyone’s opinions, anyone reading this may want to consider the points I’ve given here.
I vote for Unbreakable. I thought it did an incredible job of showing how a regular Joe would handle a “power” like invincibility. I love the twist ending too.
See, I get wrapped around the axle on the whole “does-it-have-to-be-from-an-ACTUAL-comic” thing. I thought The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was a GREAT comic book movie, for example — like an 18th century Avengers. And where do you classify a movie like The Shadow?
But if we’re talking ACTUAL comics, then I go with:
Spider-Man
Ghost World
Heavy Metal
1. donnie darko (did anyone else see this movie!a reluctant superhero with serious emotional problems yet is still able to save the world by sacrificing his life!)
2.Unbreakable
3.Dark City (the dude could move stuff with his mind)
4.Matrix (Neo was a superhero)
5.Darkman (a bit melodramatic but very good)
Xmen was good, but not enough story, and it was more Wolverine than xmen and I’m biased because I like cyclops and they made him dìçk. They even call him that in the movie. One of joss whedon’s only lines that survived both other writers and bad acting.
Quote from Avi: It trivialized the Holocaust by writing Magneto as using his magnetic superpowers within the concentration camp. If this were real life, he would surely have been able to smash the nazi dicatatorship in almost all of Europe within a short amount of time. Bad calculations in scriptwriting, to say the least. I assume that they did that as a way of sidestepping the comic book’s background involving Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? Trust me, they could’ve written it far less awkwardly than it was there.
That is an idiotic criticism – that only works if kid magneto knew what his powers were doing – I got the sense that kid magneto did it by reflex and had no idea what was going on.
Superman wasn’t my generation. I’ve seen it, I loved it, but it still doesn’t say “best” to me.
For me it will always be X-MEN. It was a dámņ good movie and for my money, the best transfer from comics to film.
BATMAN was also something I’d give the nod to, I just hated the fat Commissioner Gordon.
And Spider-man was horrible.
Not sure about the best EVER superhero film, but I have to say – after seeing a press preview of X2 – that Bryan Singer absolutely nails the heart of God Loves, Man Kills in a way that I didn’t expect even the man behind The Usual Suspects to do. He’s made a commercial action movie with a deep and emotional storyline.
Very impressed (and I see about 100 movies a year!)
John
Have to disagree with the critique of X-Men. It could have been better, but the points made against it were in many way strengths. I got that Magneto’s early display of powers was hooked to the emotional wrenching of seeing his parent’s dragged away. Imagine having the power, but not knowing how to access it. His unwillingness to see it happen again makes sense now that he does have control. Of course he would be lethal to those he sees as nazis.
Superman is the film that failed miserably (mostly due to budget, I assume). Had they carried on the thoughtful (but albeit slow) Smallville tone into the rest of it, you’d have a good film, but as it was it was embarrassing. From thoughtful to silly is not good filmmaking.
Avi Green writes: “It trivialized the Holocaust by writing Magneto as using his magnetic superpowers within the concentration camp. If this were real life, he would surely have been able to smash the nazi dicatatorship in almost all of Europe within a short amount of time. Bad calculations in scriptwriting, to say the least. I assume that they did that as a way of sidestepping the comic book’s background involving Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? Trust me, they could’ve written it far less awkwardly than it was there.”
I wouldn’t guess that the X-Men scriptwriter(s) wrote that scene specifically to circumvent the Magneto’s comic-book origins with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Rather, I’d guess that the scene was written as it was in order to efficiently convey some history and characterization to Magneto’s character. The filmmakers want viewers to understand that at least some of Magneto’s motivations arise from his experiences in a concentration camp, so they depict the concentration camp. So that viewers can identify this character later (and understand why we’re focusing on him in that scene) they show him using some magnetic powers. The filmmakers are reasonably vague as to how powerful Magneto is at that point (bending a metal gate a little is a bit more than Uri Geller can do, but it might not be enough to escape scott free and destroy the Axis) or indeed, how aware of his powers he is at that point.
Of course, if one doesn’t like the scene, then one doesn’t like the scene. And if one thinks unrealistic depictions of Holocaust settings in fiction trivialize the historical reality of the Holocaust, that’s understandable too.
But I can also understand why that scene is there and why it’s structured like it is.
By RabidWolfe:
That is an idiotic criticism – that only works if kid magneto knew what his powers were doing – I got the sense that kid magneto did it by reflex and had no idea what was going on.
I’m sorry, but while it did seem that way, it still – or can – come across as being in very questionable taste, since he could’ve figured out more about his powers soon afterwards, and like I said…
In fact, supposing he were chased across the country by nazi troops and then had to take steps to stop them? Many of the victims and refugees who were persecuted at the time could not have defended themselves from the enemy forces who were pursuing them the way that he could. There were some cases in which some refugees were able to ambush a nazi troop and take their weapons, but in Magneto’s case, he could disarm them while concealing himself from view and defeat them much more easliy and quickly than any refugee could in real life.
SO you see, that the movie version of Magneto was not only shown using his powers within the concentration camp, but never even tried to go on the warpath and destroy the nazi tyranny after losing his parents there is one of the film’s biggest mistakes in blending fact with fiction. And to say the least, there are some cases in which the two lines cannot intersect.
Whatever, it should be noted again that the movie dealt so little with the Holocaust later on that, as even Rolling Stone said, people could rightfully argue that the movie trivializes the subject as a result.
There were a few good lines such as where Mystique told Sen. Kelly that people like him made her scared to go to school when she was young, but other than that, as even The Nation said, it’s almost like a hollow void.
I want you to know that I’m not happy about having to say all this. I’m not even remotely happy. But I feel that the movie was very badly miscalculated, and I’m sad to say that I’ve decided to skip the sequel this summer.
Claremont had Magneto using his powers in the concentration camp as well. They prevented him from being killed when he and his family were shot in front of an open grave. It was either X-Men 199 or one of the Classic X-Men back up stories with John Bolton that goes into it.
As for movies, THE SPECIALS, starring Rob Lowe and Thomas Hayden Church is a must see.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0181836
Avi, you’re very young aren’t you….? >sigh<
Pardon me while I leap to conclusions here but with the name Avi Green, I’m going to assume you take the Holocause very personally and that’s certainly understandable but bear in mind this was a movie and only a movie. Magneto couldn’t have stopped the Nazis and if he had, that would have trivialized the subject matter.
If we just look at the film from a story point of view, there’s no reason to believe Magneto even knew what he was doing since it was raining and he was hysterical, even less reason to think he was causing this effect and absolutely no reason to jump into a costume and start fighting the Axis Menace. That’s why I guess you’re young. Take a look at “Unbreakable”, a movie a lot of others here loved (I despised just about every dull, ponderous minute of it, BTW) because it made one point very well. If you lived in the real world, even if you absolutely knew you had super powers it would be quite a leap to becoming the Incredible Weasel-Man.
From a more thematic point of view, Singer is making the point by jumping to it in the next scene that the effort to get mutants to register is the first step down the slippery slope to what happened in Germany in the 30’s.
But there’s a moment in the movie that does bug me every time I watch it, that I find disturbing in new and different ways as I get older. Superman’s first night in Metropolis. He comes across a girl whose cat is caught in a tree, retrieves the cat, gives it to the girl, and flies away. The girl runs inside and we hear her tell her mother than a man flew down from the sky and saved her cat. And we hear the mother scold her for telling stories. And we hear her slap the girl.
Wow! I can’t believe I read this, because that scene has always bothered me, and I’ve never encountered anyone else who had a problem with it. Frankly, more than even the slap itself, I always had a big problem with the amount of anger in the mother’s voice during the reading of the line right before it: “Haven’t I told you to stop telling lies?” It always seemed like it was just…too…much. I know what you mean by worrying that you may be reading too much into it, but it always did bother me as well–I always wanted a scene later in the movie where the news Superman’s existence is known more widely, and the little girl gets an apology from her embarrassed mother…
And for the record, I think Superman is the best superhero movie ever made.
Best super-hero film: Barb Wire. But only for the first five minutes…
Second best: Steel. You will believe a man can… swing a hammer… and ride a motorcycle…
Third: Well, how come no one’s voted for “The Avengers” (Fienes and Thuman as the Vision and the Scarlet Witch – classic!), “The Thing” (Remember the line “It’s *&%$-ing clobberin’ time”?) or “The Peacemaker.” (He loves peace so much he’ll kill for it – and he’ll always a place in the current administration because of it.”) Does no one remember “The Karate Kid”? He was just a poor kid from the 30th Century until he met the owner of Al’s Diner!
On a less sarcastic note, I may actually cast my vote with the original Hulk made for TV movie. They definitely made more with less. The Hulk doesn’t have to be tossing tanks like they were shot puts to be scary. There was plenty of reason to be terrified by the Hulk they showed and they also did a great job of showing how it was just as scary for Dr. Banner. (Younger people may not remember this but Bill Bixby had a long career as a “nice guy” in shows like “My Favorite Martian.” He was Eddie’s father for Pete’s sake! So seeing him transform into this huge overmuscled raging green monster was quite a shock.) The ending with that piano bit and Dr. Banner taking one of his first anonymous trips to somewhere, anywhere, else, really defined the character as a tragic hero.
“The Crow” had a similar zeitgeist. I think it would have been a great moody film anyway but there was no avoiding the fact that Brandon Lee had died making the film. Seeing him struggle free from the grave gave me chills that were unmistakably real even though we all wish the circumstances hadn’t been what they were to cause them. It made this story of someone reaching out from beyond the grave for one more mission more poignant than it ever should have been.
My last point: I think PAD knows how fruitless this question is. I think he knows that it’s like the clasic “Who’s stronger, the Hulk or Thor?” it’s a question that will just make fans argue passionately in circles. I can’t help thinking this is some kind of social experiment.
And now that I’ve fired my homemade cannon-shot of primitive diamonds at the early version of the Sleestak, I just want to look up at him and say, “Is this… what you wanted… to make us… fight each other… like animals… for your… amusement!”
I feel like an idiot for not thinking of Unbreakable. That was a dámņ fine superhero movie.
My favorite moment in Mask of The Phantasm was when Bruce dons the cowl for the first time, turns, and we see the fear in Alfred’s face as he sees The Batman for the first time. This to me made the whole movie worthwhile.
Re: Spider-Man: Macguire’s voice was a bit grating. It’s a petty criticism, but whenever I re-read the comics, I always hear the voice of the actor from the ’60s cartoon, who really summed up the witty, soul-searching Spidey, who sounded like he was having the time of his life swinging through the city in a hot costume, and fighting fantastic foes.
Steve Chung
Coming back in and reading over the “Avi Green Debate” concerning X1 and Mags use of powers, etc, I just had to say something. Even if no one is even still reading all this. Anyway, I saw it simply as young Eric using his powers out of fear and high anxiety. This didn’t mean they werefully manifested or even developed. I believe it’s stated the powers come out at during heaightened stress (could be wrong and don’t have time to sit and watch the movie just for that right now). He did what he did, got konked on the noggin and that is all we know. He was not in the concentration camp long enough to do much else given the time frame. Was not trivializing the holocaust in any way. After all, X-Men is not a holocaust movie! It is the story of mutants. But to justify Magneto (in his mind) and explain his strong feelings, they rightly kept it in. After all, had they not wanted to keep that aspect, they could have hired a much younger actor. In the comics, Mags was a young adult during most of that oginially but the comics started in the 60’s so that was possible. The movie had to explain a time difference of at least 6 decades. And I saw some of those “reviews” that commented on it and thought they were equally stupid for even thinking it. That’s like saying Armageddon trivialized safe sex by not showing Ben put on a condom before sex. When it’s not the point of the story… it is NOT the point of the story. And mutants are shown as being victims but more of it is described and spoken than shown because they had an hour and 40 to tell the MAIN story! As for Jean’s age… I had issues with it but only because I saw it as unnecessary. I just figured the producers worried non fans would not get into the idea of an old guy hitting on a young girl… and it sets up their first meeting. I mean, the comics have Xavier having a thing for Jean! I liked X1 and am REALLY looking forward to X2. It’s not my choice for best superhero movie (I still prefer Robocop) but it deserves to be on anyone’s list.
That is all I have to say on the matter. For now.
I gotta give it to Spider-Man. Why? Because Spider-Man doesn’t have a wince moment. All other superhero movies have a wince moment, a joke that just doesn’t fit, a telling detail that ages poorly, or just a lame performance. X-Men’s “You know what happens when lightning hits a toad?” is a good example. Superman’s encounter with a pimp in his first movie is another. And, of course, there’s dámņ near all of Batman and Robin.
I admit, the Macy Gray bit in Spider-Man comes close. Reeeeeeal close. But a second after seeing it, you’ve forgotten it.
I’m going to have to vote Unbreakable. It was such a realistic, human approach to super heroes. In that, I can’t imagine a super hero movie touching me more.
Unless I finally get the Authority movie I want. And that’s a maybe.
Best movie based upon a superhero comic book would have to be Superman I & II and Spider-man. These both made me feel for the characters and made me smile when they came to save the day (all movies have flaws, so that’s a given).
Best super-hero movie not based upon a comic book: The Matrix, Black Mask (with Jet Li — bad dubbing lent to the campiness but it’s so outrageous and violently fun with nods to the comic books that inspired it that it’s a joy to watch), and the original Sam Hamm scripted pilot TV move The Mantis; the tv show was crap, since Fox changed the great urban cast, but the original movie was the best tv had to offer at the time. Darkman.
and lastly — AKIRA.
Jeff
What about the animated Batman? It seems someone needs to mention Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
Best Superhero Movie Ever:
“Peter David Kicks The Easter Bunny’s Úš”
#1: The Matrix- Since it was pitched to Warners via a comic the Brothers had published (specifically to get the film made), it should count.
#2: Superman II- In my opinion, better than the first Superman movie, and, when I see Zod and Supes duke it out, my heart races just a little faster, even today.
#3: The Rocketeer- OK, so, in the comic, the Rocketeer was a pompus jáçkášš, and Disney made him a hero kids could look up to. Don’t care; kick-ášš flick, awesome action, and the movie that got me into chewing gum.
#4: The Mask of Zorro- Felt like reading a Don McGregor Zorro comic, and a hëll of a lot of fun to watch. Also inspired the name of my dog (Tornado).
#5: Spider-Man- With the exception of the Goblin’s ugly costume, one of the truest adapatations to date.
#6: X-Men- Got the characters right, and kinda stayed true to the old costumes (take a look- they may all be in black leather, but the designs and highlight colors on each of the suits looks like the comic versions!), and a good story.
#7: The Shadow- Having read the old Shadow pulps, I don’t know where people got the idea that he had no powers; the ability to cloud men’s minds has always been there.
#8: The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster- 2 of the TV Episodes put to tape, one after the other, both featuring Mark Hammil as The Trickster. I’ve had to buy 6 copies, as I keep wearing them down (if only they’d be released on DVD!)
#9: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm- The only time I felt they did the Caped Crusader any justice. I know this won’t be popular, but I felt the first 2 Tim Burton movies were too ‘Frank Miller’… whose times with Batman have always felt like a waste to me.
Finally, rounding out my Top 10…
#10: The Mummy- Yeah, I know, it wasn’t a comic book movie, but take away the Brandon Frasier humor element, make him more stern, and you’ve got a Doc Savage adventure (Frasier even looked the part of the 1920’s Doc!)
Also, the movie I would personally pay cash money to never see on a list of good comic movies- Daredevil. Too much story, too little time, too many friggen’ insider comic referances (every time I had to look at Father Everett or saw Matt save Stan Lee or hear Joe Quesada’s name, I wanted to puke. It pulled me out of that world and threw me, violently, back into the real one. Please, people, enough with the Fanboy referances. They suck.), a lame lead actor, Michael Clark Duncan’s phoned-in performance as Kingpin… ugh. The only things that made that movie worth the $10 admission was the X2 Preview, the Hulk Preview, and Bullseye. What schlock.
Them’s be my 2 cents.
-eD!
The Crow,
Superman 1 & 2,
Half of Batman Returns (Not the Devito half),
The Rocketeer,
X-Men,
And I have to add one no one has mentioned. Judge Dredd. While they missed some I thought they got in the spirit very well.
I thought Supeman I & II were the best superhero team ever. But I agree that Margot Kidder was the worst casting choice for Lois Lane.
The best superhero team movie has to be the X-Men.
And I’m glad someone finally mentioned Judge Dread. I thought they got the 2000 AD world of the future just right.
SPB
Come on- Judge Dread was nothing like the comics. First of all- the helmet came off. that right there ruined it for me- but besides that- I wouldn’t call it a super-hero movie- just an action movie.
One I would rate high on my list- probley #2 behind the first superman movie for all time best super-hero movie. Was Meteor Man with Robert Townshed. It was a good movie with Townshed playing a hero really well. Lots of great supporting actors in it too.
“If we’re adding non-super-hero comic book movies to the list (Which it seems we are), howabout Josie & The Pussycats?”
it stunk and wasn’t faithful according the this josie and the pusycats fan.
“Spider-Man – Second best Hero fight, the buts include some dodgy CGI, that power ranger outfit and I hate the concept of the only superhero and the only supervillian happen to be so closely related!”
power ranger costume? closely related? what spiderman film did you see? spidey and green goblin aren’t related.
“And thankfully Frank Miller and the producers didn’t go with Lewis as Robobabe in the sequel.”
actress couldn’t pull it off and i don’t think it would have really fit into the movie world In my opinion
“It trivialized the Holocaust by writing Magneto as using his magnetic superpowers within the concentration camp. If this were real life, he would surely have been able to smash the nazi dicatatorship in almost all of Europe within a short amount of time. Bad calculations in scriptwriting, to say the least. I assume that they did that as a way of sidestepping the comic book’s background involving Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? Trust me, they could’ve written it far less awkwardly than it was there.”
marvel comics put mags in the holcaust before the movie and they did it before offically revealing he was the father. (it was hinted at before then but not outright stated). I believe they even retcon him into a child during the Holocaust before the movie.
“I liked X1 and am REALLY looking forward to X2. It’s not my choice for best superhero movie (I still prefer Robocop) but it deserves to be on anyone’s list.”
no it doesn’t. it only gets on people’s list if it earns the slot and to me at least it failed miserably
“What about the animated Batman? It seems someone needs to mention Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.”
mask of the phantasm has been mentioned previously by myself and others. return of the joker really wasn’t that great a movie.
regarding some other movies the hulk tv movie was good but I think it suffers form being outside the marve u too much
Iron giant was a great movie just not sure how cimic booky it is
TMNT might be good choice but I just don’t have the frame of reference to really judge it.
Woody Allen’s ZELIG.
It’s about a Leonard Zelig, nicknamed The Human Chameleon. Like the X-Men’s Rogue, Zelig physically takes on the characteristics of other people. When he’s around Chinese people, for instance, he turns Chinese and can even speak the language. And like the Hulk, Leonard’s changes are triggered by his emotions–in his case, a desperate need for acceptance.
He even performs acts of great heroism. He rescues his girlfriend and her sister from Nazis by taking on the sister’s skill at aviation and piloting a plane from Germany to the United States–upside down, yet. Even Captain America hasn’t done that one.
David Seidman
I think I’m the only comic fan who dislikes the Superman movies. They were full of cheesy cliches, and bad dialogue.
I think X-Men and Rocketeer were excellent superhero movies. Cool powers, witty jokes, good characters.
“power ranger costume? closely related? what spiderman film did you see? spidey and green goblin aren’t related. “
The Green Goblin just happened to be the Dad of his best mate who he was rooming with!?
By related I did not mean by blood but by association.
If that mask did not look like something out of a Power Ranger movie then you have obviously never seen a Power Ranger movie.
SUPERMAN is not only my favorite superhero movie, but my favorite movie…period! I’ve seen it so many times since 1978 that I can recite every line of dialogue from memory. Unfortunately this can become annoying and/or perplexing to those who aren’t quite as witty and sophisticated as myself. 😉
Believe it or not — I actually saw THE PHANTOM eight times in the theater! I don’t know anyone else (except my dear mum) who liked the movie as much. I can’t explain it, for some reason I just dug it.
Mike
If anyone’s still reading, my fave comic book movie adaptions are …
1) Batman
2) Blade
3) Bulletproof Monk
4) Spider-man
5) Judge Dredd
My favourite comic book “inspired” movies would include Unbreakable and The Matrix. Obviously.
And for completeness, I really do not like …
Superman 3 or 4, Batman Forever or Batman & Robin, Daredevil (too dark, and frankly pretty boring), or X-Men.
For my money, the two best are Superman (that seems to be the majority of eveyone elses, as well) and The Crow. For the former, Reeve perfectly personified both Clark Kent and his alter ego, and for the latter, it captured the feel and grit of the comic perfectly.
Superman: The Movie is, to me, still the best.
Runners up:
Batman
Spider-Man
The tv pilot Hulk movie, well done for it’s time as a tv movie
If my gut is right, X2
Superman II
The Rocketeer
The Crow
Conan the Barbarian
The more I think about Daredevil the less I like it. And I wasn’t thrilled in the theater.
The Green Goblin just happened to be the Dad of his best mate who he was rooming with!?
That’s not a decision of the filmmakers. (Making them roommates was, but the Goblin’s identity was firmly established in the comics.) Furthermore, it gave a thematic resonance to the film (Peter loses his father figure, then has to fight his friend’s father) that would be missing if the Goblin had been just some guy.
Okay now, first off, I’m want to make one thing clear: I’m 28 years old, which is hardly at all young. But whatever my age, I’m going to have to point out that I am very truly disappointed in the poster named Pack for making such an insulting implication when I on the other hand did not attempt anything of that sort in your direction, and I’m going to have to ask for an apology. In fact, by insulting someone that way simply because you don’t like what he thinks you could be undermining your own side of the argument.
Now I want to bring up a similar situation: Supposing this were set during the Rape of Nanking in 1937? How do you think any Chinese citizen who’d been through the horrors of that notorious period would feel if they saw this, when they themsleves were largely helpless by contrast with no authentic superpowers to help them stop their Japanese enemies? And then, how do you think any Jewish citizen who’d been through the horrors of the Holocaust would feel when they too were largely helpless with no superpowers to help them either?
What’s more, let’s be clear: of course anyone would act on reflex(or instinct) of fear, if they had such powers as he’s got in such a situation. But that’s not what was bothering me here, what is bothering me here is that the scene is using science-fiction powers, and considering just how much force could be meted out with them, even if he only uses it on a small scale, it’s still trivializing the matter because upon figuring out more about them, he could’ve gone on the warpath later and disarmed and smashed more than plenty of nazi soldiers and tanks.
In reply to Mr. Watson, your argument is fair, and I won’t say that your points aren’t worthwhile, but while it may not be a holocaust movie, it’s NOT simply a movie about mutants either. It’s a movie whose purpose is to make a statement about racial tolerance even for today’s world, and sadly, it was too superficially written.
As for what you’ve said about the movie having on 100 minutes of length, well I’m going to have to point out that that’s like justifying the movie’s superficiality, when it could’ve been meatier. I would also like to note that I once read a few years ago, that the movie apparently was tampered with by the studio, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were. OK, so maybe the filmmakers aren’t altogether to blame, but even so, it just goes to show how Hollywood is and can be a very two-faced industry.
I want you to know that even I find Rolling Stone and The Nation both equally terrible and worthless magazines, and I certainly won’t buy them nowadays, but these reviews in example were rare gems from those two bummers.
One more thing, I want you to know that I was taught to speak my mind and not be afraid to tell what you really think. Even the late Pauline Kael of the New Yorker was that sort of a person, who was outspoken and had the guts to tell what she thought of this or that movie, and I’m from that school of thought too.
I would have to vote for Superman.I ask you this: Is there ANY film that can top the opening sequence through the opening credits? Now, I was only seven when I saw that for the first time, but it was in a theater, and no opening sequence in any film I’ve seen since has come close. Yes, the rest of the film does have some flaws, but overall it has this epic feel that I just don’t get from the other superhero films. So it gets my vote over both the first Batman and Spider-Man.
One more point: I’m from a crowd that doesn’t like political correctness, described in Orwell’s 1984 as Newspeak. And somehow, this movie seems to be a victim of it too.
Now since I haven’t read the UXM issue mentioned(199?), I can’t really offer any judgement just now, but I want to say that if Magneto’s powers were used then, I assume that it was without realizing it then. If, on the other hand, they had him tearing up the place this way or that, on a big or a small scale, then they would sadly have committed a serious error in combining reality with fantasy. And as for the movie, the point I’m trying to make here, is that if he figured out later on that he was superpowered, why didn’t he tear up Europe using his powers as a weapon? It was still 1944 in the movie, before the war was over, he could’ve done that.
But in any event, what appalls me is that the movie only seemed to present its parts in a superficial manner, taking away a lot of the impact it could’ve had. It’s been at least 2 years since I saw it, and I’ll have to note that I can’t recall if Magneto was struck on the head, I think it zipped(sigh)to the scene with Sen. Kelly afterwards. And if there’s anything else that appalls me, it’s that the movie seemed to be more interested in Wolverine than in any of the other characters. I didn’t like how it made Storm look like a wimp when dealing with say, the Toad, and if you ask me, it could’ve been longer, if that’s what was needed to get its points across.
When it comes to Superman, the scene that I realy enjoyed there was where Supes took Lois Lane on a flight in the sky, a very memorable and wonderful scene. That was probably the best scene in the movie.
Return of the Joker not a great movie? I’m stunned. The animation was amazing and Hamill gave his best performance yet as the Joker. I thought it was the perfect “end” for Batman Beyond as Terry truly came into his own.
Avi, I’m sorry, but the flying-with-Lois scene in Superman was one of the worst parts of the film. It may have been better without Lois’ horrible voice-over/poem, but still was very bad.
If a separate matter, most posters here seem to have gotten off the topic Peter originally broached: What is the best SUPERHERO movie ever made? He did not ask what was the best comic book movie, or best comic book adaptation, or similar side-track.
“That’s not a decision of the filmmakers. (Making them roommates was, but the Goblin’s identity was firmly established in the comics.) Furthermore, it gave a thematic resonance to the film (Peter loses his father figure, then has to fight his friend’s father) that would be missing if the Goblin had been just some guy.”
I am aware of the fact that the comics also have Peter and Norman closely associated but the main difference is that in comics Spidey has been well established with a lot of other villians and the existance of superheroes is well established but in this movie to any non comic person it seems that the only 2 superpowered beings in the whole world are so closely associated. It is just one of the things that kind of jarred to me.
“Avi, I’m sorry, but the flying-with-Lois scene in Superman was one of the worst parts of the film. It may have been better without Lois’ horrible voice-over/poem, but still was very bad.”
I agree I always groan at this part.
Batman. All other opinions are worthless and must cease.
Thank you.
Batman (1989)doesn’t hold up all that well — if it ever did originally. Batman Returns is a little better but more as a Tim Burton movie rather than a Batman film.