EDITORIAL: Top 10 Comic Book Movies

EDITORIAL: Top 10 Comic Book Movies

After taking a deep thought process with this, I've decided to make a Top 10 list of my favorite comic book films. Starting from 10 all the way up to 1. So, hit the jump to check out my take and be sure to leave your list down below..

Editorial Opinion
By D117 - Sep 18, 2014 03:09 PM EST
Filed Under: Comics

I've watched plenty of comic book movies, some amazing, ok, or just downright awful. But I believe it's the appropriate time to share my personal favorites. These are the ones that changed my perspective on the genre, and seeing it unfold for more years to come. So without further or do, let's get this started..  

Dredd

Remember the awful 1995 Judge Dredd film? I wish I didn't, if you've never had to suffer through it well you're in luck. Thankfully this 2012 reboot didn't slip through the cracks, with a great lead in Karl Urban, this is a simple yet kick ass film, and highly underrated. Along with Olivia Thirlby as his steady sidekick Anderson. Slick visuals, gritty cinematography two great leads and sweet action and slow-mo sequences put together a film that I was pleasantly surprised by. The chances are slim, but I'm hoping a sequel can come to fruition.

Superman: The Movie

This is the film that kicked off the comic book movie craze. What more can be said about this film? It's an instant classic, with a compelling performance from Christopher Reeve who truly is Superman. The catchy theme by John Williams never gets old, which even today still gives me goosebumps. Richard Donner put together a movie that paid off, being one of my all time favorites.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

After a few mishaps in this franchise with X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins Wolverine, things really didn't look good moving forward. Ultimately it made a turnaround with X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine. With Bryan Singer making a return, I was excited yet sketipcal to see how this film would end up. And fortunately enough, I was in awe at how incredible it was, being able to balance both the past and future timelines was simply alluring. With that said, I still think this is the best X-Men film yet. 

Iron Man

Wow, how far the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come. With Jon Favreau at the helm, I knew I was in for something fresh. Even more convincing was Robert Downey Jr. starring as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Another film I was surprised by, already familiar with the character comes together a very well directed film, with a solid cast, great story and overall fun time.


Batman


 

After the campy 1960's television series, Tim Burton found a way to bring in a darker more brooding Caped Crusader. Many fans didn't think Michael Keaton fit the bill being known as "Mr. Mom". But seeing him step into the cape and cowl, the doubt was long gone. I think he was, and still is a great Batman, along with Jack Nicholson punching in the star power as The Joker, made for a pure entertaining comic book film. Not to forget the amazing theme from Danny Elfman, which later was used in Batman: The Animated Series.

Spider-Man 2

I've always had a difficult time putting together which Spidey film was my favorite. After watching Spider-Man for the first time in the theater, I was blown away by how awesome it was. And with the sequel I didn't think it could top the original, and oh was I wrong. Spider-Man 2 had bigger action, along with a stellar performance from Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius/Dr. Octopus. With the return of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who was better than ever. Overall a great sequel, which proves that you can top the first with the key component being.. A strong script.


The Avengers

5 films in, and the wait was finally over. Joss Whedon did the difficult task of bringing together the greatest team ever Assembled. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Not only is this one of the best comic book films, it's one of the best films in recent memory. With an outstanding ensemble cast, clever humor, great story and impressive action brings a satisfying conclusion to Phase One. And I simply cannot wait for Avengers: Age of Ultron!

Guardians of the Galaxy

Being the most risky film arriving from Marvel Studios, presents a group of unknowns. James Gunn was able to give a group of C-List characters an even bigger prominence. The lead with Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star Lord is simply genius. Alongside Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket offer up a legit group of A-holes. With a spectacular soundtrack, and breathtaking visuals is one of Marvel's strongest additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

After Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers, I was looking forward to seeing Steve Rogers seeking further into the modern world.  Being estranged to today's technology and shady environments, it was very interesting to see how trust played a key factor into the plot. Chris Evans is simply fantastic as Steve Rogers/Captain America, this time having his acrobatic skill set on full display kicking all kinds of ass. Seeing Scarlett Johansson return as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow is great as well. The big what if, was how great of a villain could Winter Soldier be? And Sebastian Stan nailed it, few words of course but just the way he handled his mission, the dark demeanor behind it all worked very well. A great spy/conspiracy thriller, a completely different comic book film, and I couldn't help but sit in shock in how substantial it was. 
 

The Dark Knight Trilogy

It wasn't  possible for me to only pick one of these films, so I chose it as a whole. For me these truly changed the comic book movie genre, groundbreaking filmmaking from Christopher Nolan. Not only did Christian Bale bring back an intimidating Batman, but being able to take him seriously. Many will say The Dark Knight is the best of the bunch, but I enjoy all the films equally. Great villains in Ra's Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, Two-Face and Bane. And an all around great series of films, compelling stories and great music from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Although Zimmer worked on The Dark Knight Rises without Howard, regardless the musical pieces where still epic.  Overall a game changer, to me are my top comic book films of all time.

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GinjaNinja
GinjaNinja - 9/18/2014, 3:28 PM
not bad. I still go

1. Avengers (Made CBM's the thing they are)
2. TDK (Heath ledger)
3. GOTG (Beautiful)
4. Cap TWS (Such a great film)
5. DOFP (Saved a franchise)
6. Batman Begins
7. Iron Man
8. Spiderman 2
9. X2
10. Xmen First class

The thing about the old ones, they are fantastic... but just don't hold up. Don't stand the test of time. I can't watch superman the movie, or batman through and through anymore. Just because they are too old. Spiderman is kinda in that area too, not for being old. But campy and odd. idk just my opinion.
supermanlives
supermanlives - 9/18/2014, 3:48 PM
>Man of Steel isn't on this list


Kyos
Kyos - 9/18/2014, 4:00 PM
Not a fan of TDKR at all, but the soundtrack was pretty damn good!
gamecreatorjj
gamecreatorjj - 9/18/2014, 4:16 PM
Pretty good choices, If it were my list I'd take out Spiderman 2, Batman, and Iron Man and put in Hellboy, X2, and Incredible Hulk
Dingbat
Dingbat - 9/18/2014, 4:19 PM
@GinjaNinja

"Avengers (Made CBM's the thing they are)"

CBM's were around well before the Avengers, man.
ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 9/18/2014, 4:26 PM
Good list! I hate it when people list three of Nolan's Bat movies as one movie though, they really aren't one story and are all not the same quality. But hey everyone has different opinions. Mine are still
Honorable mention:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
X-Men (2000)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Hellboy (2004)

10. Dredd (2012)
9. The Dark Knight (2008)
8. Sin City (2005)
7. Watchmen Director's Cut
6. Iron Man (2008)
5. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
1. The Avengers (2012)

staypuffed
staypuffed - 9/18/2014, 5:01 PM
Nice work! Thumbs up from me.

My list:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
3. Batman Begins
4. Watchmen
5. Man of Steel
6. The Dark Knight Rises
7. The Amazing Spider-Man
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
10. X-Men: First Class

I'd also add Iron Man and the Avengers as honourable mentions.
RextheKing
RextheKing - 9/18/2014, 5:10 PM
Good list, but for me, I don't see what's so damn special about the TDK trilogy. I loved each movie, Batman Begins the most, but none of them makes it into my top 5, thanks to GOTG.

1. Cap2
2. GOTG
3. Avengers
4. Iron Man
5. Spidey2(Raimi)
6. Batman Begins
7. DOFP
8. X2
9. Watchmen
10. V for Vendetta

Honorable mentions: Spidey(Raimi), TDK/TDKR, X-Men, Sin City, Dredd, and Thor.
marvel72
marvel72 - 9/18/2014, 5:29 PM
Top Ten Comic Book Movies

10th Dredd
9th X-Men Days Of Future Past
8th Spider-Man 2
7th Guardians Of The Galaxy
6th The Dark Knight
5th Batman Begins
4th Watchmen Ultimate Cut
3rd Iron Man
2nd The Avengers
1st Captain America The Winter Soldier
D117
D117 - 9/18/2014, 6:24 PM
I would've added in Man of Steel, but I got a lot of shit for putting it in my other editorial. Didn't want to risk even more backlash smh lol.
tonytony
tonytony - 9/18/2014, 7:47 PM
nice list I would have the first 300 and man of steel in there too
ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 9/18/2014, 7:48 PM
@GliderMan
No... it really wasn't. The Dark Knight Rises was sloppy film making in general.
Does The Dark Knight Rises have a couple cool moments? Sure. But overall, it was just underwhelming. This review by Doug Walker sums up my thoughts on the film pretty well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Tqg7BFPF8
ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 9/18/2014, 8:00 PM
@GliderMan
That's your opinion, I am not trying to degrade or make fun of you because of a trivial thing like you enjoying a film. I personally didn't enjoy it, but that is just my own stupid opinion. I'm sorry if I offended you or anything like that.
gamecreatorjj
gamecreatorjj - 9/18/2014, 8:37 PM
@virile man

The whole prison thing is kind of weird, I don't think Bane is respected and adored int he prison, he rules with fear (makes sense, yeah?). So when Bane kills someone for telling his tale or whatever, people learn not to tell it. The doctor knows of Bane's wrath all too well because Bane hates him for irreversibly messing up his treatment. So Bane keeps that doctor down their as his punishment, the doctor has every reason to hate Bane and wish for Bruce's success, but at the same time, Bruce is a broken man and he has no faith in him at first. I don't know how Bruce convinces these guys that he is the one who can defeat their oppressor, but he does, which is why they all support him so much in hist attempts to escape the prison.

As for the jump, I think you missed the whole point. Bruce was not the only fit adult male in that prison, if anyone could make the jump, you'd expect it to be one of them, not a little girl... that's the point. She burned her bridges, she couldn't afford to mess up, which is why you have to dump the rope. You have no back up, no plan b so plan a has to succeed.

I'd also like to know which Bane v Batman fight you are referring to as "two drunk guys boxing it out" if it's the first fight, then you are dead wrong, that is easily the best comic book movie fight scene. If you mean the final one, it was mildly lack luster but still succeeded at everything it had to in showing that Batman and Bane had no reversed roles.

The whole getting back to Gotham bit is so exasperated, should it have been better explained? yes. Did it have to be explained for the plot? no. We see in the Dark Knight and Batman Begins that Bruce knows his way around the world, and get from one side of the world to the other with no money or identification. That was like a huge portion of Batman Begins that people tend to forget. As for getting into Gotham, it was obviously possible as the CIA got somebody in.

As for trusting Selena making him a shit detective, he was right wasnt he? She did end up doing the right thing, just because someone does something illogical to us does not mean it lacks in logic or deductive reasoning. It's harder to understand in film compared to comics because we don't have thought boxes to narrate to us what our hero is thinking, but Batman was right in the long run, so I call it a win.

If Batman had stayed in the Bat to aid the cops, what would he have done? It's easy to disarm a tank, but is he just going to fire rockets into the crowds of Bane's men and potential Gotham citizens? That's not Batman's style, besides he needed to find the trigger man and interrogations don't work too well when you are threatening a group of people with death when they have nothing to lose. The criminals did use the guns they were holding, this was explicitly shown when we see the front lines men have been gunned down.

Now correct me in my wrong, but I always assumed that the whole leg being shit thing was because of his fall after killing Dent, that went untreated for years. I can tell you right now, I have a knee problem just because I fell of my bike a while ago and never got it treated, so i can completely understand his leg being that messed up when he fell from a height that broke Maroni's legs and didn't have it taken care of.

I mean if you don't understand why Bane was torturing Gotham , then you didn't pay attention to the film, that's not their fault, that's yours. It was explicitly stated that he was doing exactly that, torturing gotham. For a multitude of reasons that were either deliberately stated or could be picked up with context clues. As Bane states, he is fulfilling Ra's Al Ghul's destiny. He is proving what the Joker hypothesized, that when he chips are down these people will eat each other. This proves that Gotham truly is lost and cannot be saved, which is Ra's' point in Batman Begins.He was also torturing Gotham as means of torturing Bruce, which was CLEARLY stated in the movie where Bane explains his plan. Bane letting these people leave was just another level of his idea of poisoning people with false hope, he knows no one can cross the ice and even if they could, they would probably be gunned down upon reaching the other side. The mere thought that they could get across though keeps the groveling to Bane's delight.

The fact that the clock was getting so close to detonation is what drove Bruce to ditching the rope and making his way out of the pit. It's a bit convenient, but he knew when it was going off, and the closer it got the more people began to do something about it.

This is so stupid to have to explain, but those weren't just polic barricades, they are panels built into the street that can rise up to block traffic. Usually cars and trucks, how would the police have known that they would come racing out of a stock exchange on motor cycles?

Batman may be widely considered to be a murderer by the masses, but that doesn't mean that everyone believes that. I would take it that a lot of kids and teens pass around urban legends and stories about how Batman was actually a hero, stories which could have been started by John Blake. I'm sure if he ever heard a kid at the boy's home bad mouthing Batman, he would attempt to put them in their place. Eventually stories like that get around, so yeah some people will hate the Batman, but not everyone believes he was a bad guy. Again this was established in the movie through John Blake and the kid.

The lack of nuclear fallout was dumb, it's one of those things that irritated me in the film, but thats nitpicking. As for how to turn the clean energy thing into a bomb, we don't really know how long it took because of all those cuts. He starts doing it, they cut, and then hes done. There is no expressed amount of time, but even if it was that short, this is a fictional device being modified by a fictional scientist, we don't know the logistics of either one of these factors and to explore them would have been tedious and irrelevant.

"Hey, are you Bruce Wayne?" "No" "Well you look alot like him." "Thanks, I get that alot." Not mention that it had been 8 years since he been constantly active, I'm sure most people just forgot who he was completely.

As for those last nitpicks, it was all there just to look cool, no real reasoning to it.

It's not a perfect movie, but it's still good. Too often people on this site use nitpicks as legitimate criticisms. That isn't to say nitpicks can't build up into a bigger problem.


ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 9/18/2014, 8:40 PM
The Dark Knight Rises flame war! Two years after the movie came out the battle rages on...
gamecreatorjj
gamecreatorjj - 9/18/2014, 9:03 PM
@ScottMontgomery

The fire rises. Some fights never end, Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, and Dark Knight Rises will always be points of contention. At least this year most everyone agreed with consensus about all the comic book movies.
DJThrawn
DJThrawn - 9/18/2014, 11:57 PM
Top 10 for me:
1. The Dark Knight
2. V for Vendetta
3. Iron Man
4. Man of Steel
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
6. Batman Begins
7. The Avengers
8. Superman 2
9. Spider-Man 2
10. Kick-Ass
I just watched CA:TWS yesterday and do not understand the love for the film. I never felt and real tension nor suspense and with it being Disney I knew no character I cared about would die. I was rather bored during the film. GOTG was a far superior and far more fun.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 9/19/2014, 5:28 AM
Such an amazing and agreeable list. You have good taste.
As for my list:

1. The Dark Knight Trilogy
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. The Avengers
4. Man of Steel
5. Captain America The Winter Soldier
6. X-men Days of Future Past
7. Spider-man 2
8. Iron Man
9. Captain America The First Avenger
10.Blade 2
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