With The Dark Knight breaking every box office record and a plethora of comic book movie coming out in the next few years. I wonder…. which comic book movie is the best and worst of them all right now?
Now I haven’t seen all of them. So word of mouth will play some part into my selections, but I have seen most of them. The selection will only come from english live-action movie, so no Oldboy or Akira for example.
Let’s start with the obvious, the worst movies. This list isn’t as easy as you may think. They’re are a lot of bad comic book movies out there.
Worst Comic Book Movie (10 is the worst)
- Supergirl (1984)
- Judge Dredd (1995)
- Batman & Robin (1997)
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
- Catwoman (2004)
- Steel (1997)
- Punisher (1989)
- Son of the Mask (2005)
- Fantastic Four (1994) (never official released)
- Captain America (1991)
other notable bad comic book movies are (in no particular order)
Elektra, Pathfinder, Virus, Alien vs Predator, The Crow: City of Angels, Monkeybone, Tale From the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, Ghost Rider, Superman III, Howard the Duck, Spawn, Barbwire, TMNT 2 – The Secret of the Ooze, Garfield, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Popeye’s, The Phantom, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, Denice the Menace, Richie Rich, and The Shadow.
The Best Comic Book Movie of All-Time (20 is the best)
- Superman Return (2006)
- Batman Return (1992)
- X-men (2000)
- Hellboy (2004)
- Men In Black (1997)
- The Crow (1994)
- X2: X-men United (2003)
- V for Vendetta (2005)
- Spider-man (2002)
- Superman (1978)
- American Splendor (2003)
- Road to Perdition (2001)
- Batman Begins (2005)
- Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)
- Ghost World (2001)
- Sin City (2005)
- A History of Violence (2005)
- Spider-man 2 (2004)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Iron Man (2008)
other notable good comic book movies are (in no particular order)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 300, The Incredible Hulk, Hulk, The Rocketeer, Dick Tracy, Swamp Thing, Barbarella, Adams Family Values, Batman, The Mask, Blade, and Flash Gordon.
As always, you may or may not agree with my selections. There are a lot more comic book movies that I didn’t even mention that you might think should be on the list or at least get a notable mention, and by all mean, please do. This is just my opinion acquired by my personal experience as a filmmaker, film critic, and film enthusiast.
For now, I will be looking forward to the comic book movies coming out in the near future. My two most anticipated movies as of now are The Spirit and Watchmen.
To those mad that I didn’t include foreign, animated , or manga comic, here are the best ones
Metropolis, Lone Wolf & Cub, Oldboy, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Akira, Batman: Mask of Phantasm, Ichi The Killer, Heavy Metal, The Princess Blade, Uzumaki, Azumi, TMNT, and Appleseed.
July 23, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Whoa, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was terrible. It doesn’t deserve be anywhere near the list of good movies. Also, I don’t think I’d have Superman Returns on the list of good. Mediocre yes, good probably not. Watchmen is going to amazing, if Zack Snyder does as well with Alan Moore as he did with Frank Miller.
July 24, 2008 at 12:29 am
1) i think my problem with this list, mainly the “Best” one, is that it does not take into account the difference between adult graphic novels and traditional comic books. there is a distinct line between movies like “A History of Violence” and “Ghost World” and movies like “X-Men” and “Iron Man.” a lack of superhero fiction would make the two camps difficult to compare, as “Sin City” is not as entrenched in origins and super powers as is “Batman Returns.” just because they’re told in pictures doesn’t make them the same in content. a novel isn’t a newspaper.
2) what makes a movie fit on the “Best” and “Worst” list to you? to most people, including fans, of utmost importance is faithfulness to source material. this is followed by capturing the spirit of the comic or graphic novel. then, we have questions of the actors portraying, the story, etc. the problem, then, is that you have crap like “Batman & Robin,” which failed in almost every case mentioned above, including betraying the campiness Schumacher was trying to inject into the series; and you got “Judge Dredd” which managed to stay faithful to the spirit of the material enough to be a cult hit to some and a misunderstood and maligned movie by most others.
3) given all of that above, “League” wasn’t THAT faithful and turned out to be the refried beans twin to “Van Helsing.” “Hellboy” is a much more focused and better paced movie than its sequel and should be higher on the list, definitely above “Hellboy II.” and it’s robbery that “300″ isn’t in the Top 5, it’s not only one of the most faithful adaptations ever made of a graphic novel but it’s one of the best CGI movies that’s come out, compared to all that Marvel and DC have put out. and, again, you run into problems having “A History of Violence” next to “Spider-Man 2″ when you got “Batman” and “Blade,” two of the most successful comic entries since comic book movies were being put to celluloid, on the wait list. and “X-2″ not being higher, given all the graphic novel movies ahead of it, is kinda sketchy too.
July 24, 2008 at 3:33 am
1) I’ve heard all the arguments about LXG, but I really liked that movie.
2)I’ve definitely considered taking out graphic novels from the list, but at the end isn’t a comic book generation/series/season the same as a novel?
3)I totally agree that faithfulness should have a greater impact on where a movie lands on the list, but that shouldn’t precede quality of movie. Judge Dredd Sucked.
4)i knew i was going to get a lot of gripes about X2. The movie is good and the best X-men movie. But I still think the movies before it are better. And the fact that there are a lot of graphic novels in front of it is just a coincident. i.e. i really liked 300.
July 24, 2008 at 3:37 am
5) if not Superman Return, then which movie would you get to replace it?
July 24, 2008 at 4:04 am
300 because it’s not actually on the list of top 20
July 24, 2008 at 6:36 am
Hellboy is dependably fun; for sure that director has an amazing imagination, reminds me of his work in Pan’s Labyrinth
July 24, 2008 at 5:34 pm
You’ve gotten enough shit about LXG so I won’t pile on (though it SUUUUUUUCKED)
Spawn is not that bad. I always enjoyed it and the cape effects were astonishing at the time and still hold up and John Leguizamo gave a pretty good performance. (by the way, Spawn 21% on rotten tomatoes, 16% for LXG
I commend you for not sticking to traditional superhero type comics, including things like History of Violence and American Splendor. Those were not only good adaptions but good movies (which deserve a place on the list over LXG)
My top 3 would be 1. Dark Knight 2. Spider-man 2 3. Ang Lee’s Hulk