Rank Your Favorite Superhero Movies!

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, Special is amazing. I'm glad I remembered it to put on my list.

[Lord Pyre]

Have you seen Super? It's really good too, some great acting. The ending was so intense I'm not sure I'll really watch it again (Plus some brutal violence throughout), but it was really well done.

Defendor starring Woody Harrelson is awesome as well.

[chas]

Jeez. Right now it would take a couple of hours just to review my own collection catalog lists, because I'm sooo into it! There is so much out at this point, that to begin to deal with it, I'd have to break it into at least five categories, if this is helpful:

1. Live action before 2000 (an arbitrary year).

2. Live Action after 2000.

3. Animation before 2000.

4. Animation after 2000.

5. Movie serials and TV series.

Categories #3 and #4 would include Japanese anime, of course, if we stretched the concept of superhero...

Best of Category 2: First Thoughts

X-Men
X-Men First Class
Superman II: Richard Donner Reedited Special Edition
Avengers
Captain America

The old saying that Marvel comics have better characters but DC better movies, especially animated ones, can now be reversed for live action. Marvel is finally getting it together. All things come to those who wait...

Worst of Category 2: Anything that reboots an origin story for the 2nd or more times...

[quozl]

I'll check back in a couple of hours, chas! Sounds like you'll have some viewing recommendations for us.

[Arch-vile]

Bats, you've never seen X-men: First Class? I'm using your list so I won't forget anything, since I figured you have seen (close to) it all.

[Arch-vile]

Okay, I'll give this a shot. Hopefully I remember everything I've watched! I really didn't think X-men 3 was that bad after watching it again. It would have been a great movie if they didn't kill off Cyclops and Prof X for no reason. Batman & Robin remains terrible, though. "Don't forget the Bat-Credit Card!"

1) Batman Begins
2) The Dark Knight
3) Avengers
4) The Dark Knight Rises
5) Watchmen
6) Spider-Man 2
7) The Incredibles (animated)
8) Iron Man
9) X2: X-men United
10) X-men
11) Iron Man 3
12) Unbreakable
13) Batman
14) Spider-Man
15) Blade
16) Hellboy
17) X-men: First Class
18) X-men 3: The Last Stand
19) Iron Man 2
20) The Amazing Spider-Man
21) Thor
22) Captain America: The First Avenger
23) X-men Origins: Wolverine
24) Spider-Man 3
25) Fantastic 4
26) Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
27) Batman Returns
28) The Incredible Hulk
29) Green Lantern
30) Hulk
31) Superman Returns
32) Daredevil
33) Batman Forever
34) Batman and Robin

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

I really didn't think X-men 3 was that bad after watching it again. It would have been a great movie if they didn't kill off Cyclops and Prof X for no reason.

Ugh, there were reasons for their deaths, and very good ones. Professor X's death was incredibly poetic. Cyclops basically had it coming after all this time, he wasn't going to have a happy ending.

X3 is still my favorite Xmen film.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

Bats, you've never seen X-men: First Class? I'm using your list so I won't forget anything, since I figured you have seen (close to) it all.

It's not on Redbox and I don't have anywhere else to rent it! I missed it in the theaters. I might buy it eventually, but I didn't want to pay newly released DVD prices for something I haven't seen.

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Ugh, there were reasons for their deaths, and very good ones. Professor X's death was incredibly poetic. Cyclops basically had it coming after all this time, he wasn't going to have a happy ending.

X3 is still my favorite Xmen film.

X3 had the Spider-man three problem - they tried to tell too many stories in one movie and most of them got the short-shrift as a result. Venom makes Spidey 3 worse, though.

[elvenwizard9]

1. The Dark Knight

Very serious, dark, excellent script, excellent plot, excellent... Everything. Not much else to say. Very stunning.

X-Men: First Class

I love the plot, and it seems to be the most characterizing for Charles and Magneto... As well as a few others. I loved the whole cold war theme, too.

3. The Dark Knight Rises

What can I say? I love Nolan's new series. I've only seen a couple of the old Batman movies. Bruce's character development peaked here... And catwoman... *whistles*

4. Iron Man

Robert Downy Junior... Is... Great. Iron Man is the movie I saw when I was young(er) that really made me start to like Superheroes (though I'm not much of a comic fan).

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

I didn't know much about Cap. until I saw this movie, but it did fascinate me... I'm not so sure why.

I'm chopping off these other five. Sorry.

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

X3 had the Spider-man three problem - they tried to tell too many stories in one movie and most of them got the short-shrift as a result. Venom makes Spidey 3 worse, though.

Can't buy that, yeah it had a lot going on, but that wasn't even Spidey 3's problem. That was just a really crappily done film (Though leaving out Venom really would have helped).

X3 had two stories going. The cure, and the Phoenix. The bad guys wanted to stop the cure, and knew Phoenix could help them. Good guys want to stop the bad guys from hurting people, and to help Phoenix. It's all intertwined pretty well.

The character deaths were ballsy, not expected, but made total sense when you thought about it. Why are they complained about here, when in Dark Knight it happened and it's considered one of the best superhero films? (Not comparing the two, mind you, just that part of it)

[chas]

Rather than rehash stuff you already know about, here's a bunch of weird/cult stuff you probably can't find and possibly won't like, in no particular order. Welcome to the world of the midnight fanboy. But you just may be nutty enough to dig them...for whatever they are. For me, some of the most enjoyable stuff out there is not always the most successful, but the most daring and wackiest. Only some of these hold up. But their creators were having a good time!

Chas


I. ANIMATION:

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (1986 TV series; 65 episodes and extras). Primitive, but ground breaking in many atmospheric ways. Just too early for the big animation boom. Very popular in Europe. A plus of you're a Jerry Orbach fan.

Legion of Super Heroes (2006 TV Series; First Season. Second Season not released, Third Season not yet made). Faithful to the comics, and well done.

Gen 13 An unreleased experimental film of the indy comic. Sadly, my bootleg convention copy has almost completely melted down.

Fire and Ice (1983; Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta) One of the first experiments in modern adult sword and sorcery animation.

Cool World (1992; byRalph Bakshi with Brad Pitt, Gabrielle Byrne, Kim Basinger) A totally unsuccessful (?) mix of animation and live action. Once its in your brain, it may never come out. What is reality, and whose are you in? Go along for the ride.

The Marvel Super Heroes Guide to New York (TV documentary, Travel Channel) I'm from NYC, so what can I say? Fuggeddabboudditt! Greats of the comic industry talk about their experiences creating comics in The Big Apple. My copy doesn't play quite all the way through. Got it at a comic book store.

Titan AE (2000, nice rock music too) More movie star voices, as the US learns to do quality animation. Outer Space adventure. After Earth, come to Planet Bob.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) Normal movie critics said: "As good as any live action movie out now." You don't hear that every day.

Popeye Color Specials: Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Classic 1930s--1940s Fleischer Studios at their best.

Armitage III: Poly Matrix (1994?) and Armitage III: Duel Matrix (The Sequel) (Adult Japanese animation, with minor U.S/ film actor voices). Go to Mars with a scarred police detective, where someone is killing androids.

Ghost In The Shell (1995 film; not for children) GITS2: Innocence (film). GITS Stand Alone Complex (TV Season 1) 2nd GIG (TV Season 2). A cyborg commando and her squad helps the Japanese government not melt down in the near future. See my modified supers custom of Fallen Templar's Major Motoko Kusenagi. A landmark Japanese animation in so many ways. Don't forget to get back in your body before you exit.


II. LIVE ACTION

Birds of Prey (TV series, 2002; 13 episodes) The run up to Smallville, by the same people. It's not quite Batman; its not quite right. Best episode: Lori Loughlin as the original Black Canary.

Aquaman (TV Pilot) Just after Smallville. It could have been a great TV series...

Popeye (1980; Robin Williams, Shelly Duval) See the real world slightly off kilter, sort of like...a comic book.

Buckeroo Banzai (The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension). (1984; Peter Weller, John Lithgow). Suck it in, Monkey Boy!

The Shadow (1994; Alec Baldwin) Excellent 1930s pulp atmosphere with a very talented all star cast, from Tim Curry to Jonathan Winters. The sun is shining. But the ice is slippery.

The Spirit (1980s TV pilot; Sam Jones) He dies. He rises. He fights crime. Another interesting might have been, somewhat in the zany spirit of the original comic by Will Eisner.

Streets of Fire (1984; Michael Parre, Diane Lane) Motorpunk in the near semi apocalyptic future. Oddly enough, based loosely on the Japanese anime Bubblegum Crisis. Go figure.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004; Jude Law, Gywnneth Paltrow) The first pioneering CGS garage movie. Whoa! Science Fiction adventure in an alternate 1930s world. See a zeppelin airship dock at the Empire State building, and you know right away that something funny is going on! Because this fancifully proposed docking maneuver was never used...in our reality. Not really superhero, but important for the technical development of the genre.

* And now, for something completely different--possibly the worst science fiction movie with big stars ever made (and there are a lot of contenders, so see if you agree with me)...Solar Crisis starring Charleton Heston, and Jack Palance. Made by Japan, but I don't know why. See it with friends and popcorn, and groan your way through. If you're lucky, you'll get hit by a giant automated truck, and be put out of your misery. No superheroes.*

[Lord Pyre]

Titan AE was awesome. Don't remember it much, but I know I loved it.