Hey, everyone. Due to the high number of entertaining films that have been based on comics in recent years, I decided to write a piece looking at the best ones over a long period of time and talk about why they were so entertaining. We live in a time when more Hollywood studios recognize the value in not only buying the rights to these characters names but also putting into the scripts whatever elements made fans of said characters in the first place. There are a lot of them (good and bad and REALLY fragging bad), so in an attempt to restrain myself a bit, I decided to limit to 30 movies spread over two lists.
Now, a few criteria went into these lists. First off, I made two lists because I didn’t want one movie and its sequels to dominate all positions. It’d be a boring piece to write that way. I wanted to celebrate high quality works from different sections of comic based lore. So I made the preliminary list of 15 slots for the sequels and films that were decent or pretty good so as not to overshadow everything on the main list, which I use to spread the love around to as many different films as I could possibly do in another 15 slots.
Another criteria here is that the films in question were based on pre-existing comics. So although there were some really good ones based on super powered people like say, The Incredibles or Chronicle, they weren’t eligible for this piece. I mixed in ones based on a specific graphic novel with ones simply based on existing characters with long histories. Either way, there’s some adaptation used for screen time here, though admittedly with the long history characters, there’s some amalgamation of their stories. Sometimes, it’s just the execution that accounts for the quality of the final product.
I also chose to focus on domestic live-action movies based on comics here. For one thing, the challenges of translating an art based medium to a live practical medium are inherently different than ones for making an art based medium like comics into animation. Also, if I tried to account for every good animated work or every good live work that might be found in international films from Hong Kong, Japan or other places, I’d never have time to get up from this computer
Just to let you know, by the way, there’s a couple I haven’t seen yet such as Ghost World, American Splendor, and Kick Ass. I haven’t had time leading up to the deadline for this article, but I reserve the right to do so and revisit this piece at a future date. Hence, part of the reason the title has ‘For Now’ at the end. Another reason for that though is the number of potentially good films coming out in the next year or two as Marvel will begin working on their ‘Phase Two’ movies, Sony will shoot the sequel to The Amazing Spider Man, and Warner will be pushing Man of Steel heavily en route to their eventual Justice League movie.
Oh, and one last thing… there’s only 30 slots here and so, I tried to come up with some good ones, while others, I just simply couldn’t make room for. If I didn’t do so for your favorite movie to discuss, it’s not because I was trying to insult your tastes, hurt your feelings or shoot your dog. I might have liked it, just not enough to put it here. Or, I might’ve given in to peer pressure, watched said movie, and figured out I really hated everything that was on the screen (fragging Scott Pilgrim) and so chose not to list it. Crap happens. If there’s a problem, feel free to tell me I’m wrong and why you think so, in as eloquent a manner you might choose. I’ll be sitting right here on the other end…. Not giving a damn as usual and smiling broadly (unless it’s a truly compelling argument). That’s what creating list articles are for. Debating, and celebrating. It’s a celebration, bitches! Enjoy yourself!
Now that said, movies are as follows….
Preliminary list
15. Constantine (So Keanu Reeves doesn’t have blonde hair. Still doesn’t detract from the film which caught the essence of this character’s struggles to help people’s struggles while dancing the fine line between heaven and hell. Loosely adapted from my favorite Hellblazer storyline “Dangerous Habits’ by Garth Innis, this movie honestly turned out better than I expected it to be, and Rachel Weisz is always a nice sight, not to mention a very good actress.)
Constantine
14. Speed Racer (captures the energy of the cartoon and manga perfectly, and also has appearances by Peter Fernandez (voice of Speed) and Corinne Orr (Trixie). This one got an unfair bum rap from critics for being too fantastic and cartoon-like from what I could tell which is sad because it was fun to experience kid friendly energy mixed with high quality visuals and retro style.
Speed Racer
13. Batman (1966) (Yes, I’m putting the wacky adventures of The Dynamic Duo starring Adam West and Burt Ward on this list. It’s just too much fun seeing Batman & Robin taking on The Joker (Caesar Romero), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) who romances Bruce Wayne as Miss Kitka of the Soviet newspapers. If you can’t have a good time laughing at the graphic punch words (BAM!), the Bat-Shark Repellent, or the dolphin who sacrificed itself to save Batman and Robin from a torpedo, you’re just not human.
Batman (1966)
12. The Rocketeer (Joe Johnston’s first foray into period movies about superheroes, a powerful back pack and Howard Hughes. Good times. R.I.P, Dave Stevens)
The Rocketeer
11. The Crow (To be honest, there were some better movies than this one, but the tragedy of the loss of Brandon Lee’s potential as a leading action star compelled me to at least place this film on the list. That’s not to say there aren’t good aspects to Alex Proyas’s adaptation of James O’barr’s emotional story of vengeance. The sight of a painted up undead man walking through gunshots and knife throwings while telling nasty jokes is rather appealing. Just wish the script followed the comic more without the necessary Hollywood contrivances. It’s an entertaining film though and I still play the soundtrack from time to time.)
The Crow
10. Smallville: Absolute Justice (Ok, not a theatrical one, but this was advertised at ‘the Smallville movie’ when broadcast, and may be the closest we’ll get to a Justice Society movie, with heroes like Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter all appearing to give Kal-El some help against a government conspiracy led by Amanda Waller of Checkmate. Add in cameos by the rest of the JSA and some excellent art direction touches by Alex Ross and you have pure DC fanboy goodness here.)
Smallville
9. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army – Guillermo Del Toro’s second outing with Mike Mignola’s demonic looking hero was much more lively than his first. Ron Perlman was still simultaneously forceful and laid-back, but it was Abe Sapien as played by Doug Jones who became something of a scene stealer with his own subplot taking stage. Add a goofy singing sequence and some awesome backgrounds & monsters for the characters to interact and you have a pretty nice piece of filmmaking.
Hellboy 2
8. Blade II (Honestly, better than the first one. Pretty interesting creatures Blade has to fight this time out and the ending fight is pure awesomeness. More proof that Guillermo Del Toro is a heck of a horror & fantasy filmmaker. PS: Damn, I can’t wait for Pacific Rim!!!! …. Ok, back to the article.)
Blade II
7. X-Men: First Class (could honestly be interchangeable with X2 on the main list. Excellent performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, who’ve reinvented Professor X and Magneto on screen for a new generation. The eyecatches of the 60s were also great touches. Director Matthew Vaughn proved to be a great successor to Bryan Singer.)
X-Men: First Class
6. The Incredible Hulk (Of all the live incarnations of the character, this one got the most right about him. Also, there’s none of that horrid cutaway editing that plagued the Ang Lee version, and he doesn’t fight a puff of smoke at the end in this movie.)
Incredible Hulk
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (Great work done by Joe Johnston here. He captured the nostalgia of period propaganda while fleshing out Steve Rogers as a character (and in turn made everyone forget Chris Evans had anything to do with those awful Fantastic Four films). The only flaw in this movie is that so much of Cap’s fight against The Red Skull’s invasion is too passive and we don’t get enough active participation from Cap’s perspective on WW2.
Captain America: The First Avenger
4. Thor (Director Kenneth Brannagh did something I wasn’t certain could be done: he translated Thor to live action in a convincing manner. It did help that Chris Hemsworth had a great accent and that he and Tom Hiddleston as Loki played so well off each other. Out of all the Marvel movies, this is the one where the acting was the strongest element as opposed to the screenplay which was decent but average.)
Thor
3. Spider Man (Sam Raimi’s innovation of the fast-moving first-person Raimi-cam technique came into play a bit and it was genuinely fun to see the web-slinger on the big screen. The Green Goblin was revamped greatly but Willem Dafoe puts in an insanely good performance as Norman Osborn, with Tobey McGuire goofily playing the nerd turned hero. Really good effort all around.
Spider-Man
2. Superman II (Clark and Lois’s relationship deepened as three criminals broke out of the Phantom Zone to give Superman the fight of his life. Even with the liberties taken about the Kryptonians’ powers, this was a great installment.)
1. Iron Man (The first part of the great Marvel / Paramount experiment to see if using movies to build a lead in for The Avengers could actually work. Between the efforts of actor Robert Downey Jr. as uber-smart billionaire Tony Stark and the commitment to quality given by director and fan Jon Favreau, the fans and average filmgoers were given hope that a good movie based on a comic book property could actually be done well while remaining largely faithful to its source material.
Iron Man
The Main List
*cues drum roll*
15. Men In Black – This independent comic by Lowell Cunningham from the early 90s wound up being a fun off-beat romp and a huge success for stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. Guided by director Barry Levinson, audiences got a peek into the organization who makes certain aliens can have peaceful (and sometimes famous) coexistence with unsuspecting humanity, and kick butt when necessary. Also, I’m slightly breaking a rule doing this but the third film was also a good installment.
Men In Black
14. The Mask – From the Dark Horse comic by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke, we were treated to rubber faced comic actor Jim Carey in one of his better performances as meek Stanley Ipkiss, who finds an ancient mask which drives its wearer to near insanity while giving him incredible powers. Although quite different than the comic (in which Stanley becomes insanely evil and dies), this movie was funny, entertaining and solid as a whole, and as an added benefit introduced the world to the lovely Cameron Diaz as a leading lady.
The Mask
13. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye – Robert Rodriguez did a good job adapting Frank Miller’s black & white crime noir comic for the big screen (even leaving the Director’s guild to bring in Miller as a co-director) while retaining the art style that made the comic so striking. In the spirit of similar novels by Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler, the comics themselves were interconnecting stories developing this harsh crime-ridden world that various tough-guy protagonists fight their way through. The theatrical film took three of the better stories and edited them together (with one written just for the movie) but cut out some elements from their original comics for time constraints and story cohesiveness and the results were decent. On the special edition DVD and blu ray releases though, a second DVD was produced which told each story as a stand-alone movie. The best of these was the one based on Miller’s first series (now entitled The Hard Goodbye due to this movie’s release). It focused on a huge brutal guy named Marv who simply doesn’t know any way to live other than the hard way. When he experiences a loss and a frame up, he kills his way to the truth. Rodriguesz’s crazy direction and emphasis on brutality are perfect for this adaptation (especially if you’ve seen From Dusk Til Dawn or Grindhouse: Planet Terror), but what makes this movie memorable is the pitch perfect performance of Mickey Rourke as Marv himself. This truly grounds the crazy shooting style of the movie and gives us an ass-kicking but lovable loser to root for til the very end.
12. 300 – After proving his ability to entertain audiences with his remake of Dawn of the Dead, director Zack Snyder showed he was adept at using crazy camera techniques and intense shading filters to create another awesome adaptation of a Frank Miller comic. The battles of King Leonidas and his 300 men against larger-than-life legions in the name of Sparta were visceral, hard hitting and very much in tune with the source material, all the while making actor Gerard Butler a household name for a time. Great execution here led Snyder to his eventual other comic-based project…
300
11. Dredd 3D – Maybe the previous Stallone film killed the public’s interest in this movie (or maybe the name or promotion, I don’t know.) but this was a very good adaptation of the Judge Dredd character and his world of Mega-City One. Judge Anderson was also handled well as our introductory character and for once, as a female NOT just put in to be a love interest for the lead. Great innovative camera techniques used here and the 3D was very effective to fit the screenplay. It deserved better at the box office so we could get stories like The Cursed Earth Saga or The Dark Judges. Alas….
Dredd 3D
10. V For Vendetta – Alan Moore’s complex story about a single man’s quest to tear down a fascistic government through both action and ideology was one that didn’t seem like a story meant for film. However, screenwriters Andy and Lana Waichoski managed to interpret Moore’s ideas pretty well for movie length, while keeping the intentions being set forth relatively intact. Much of the time we’re given the story from the perspective of Evey (Natalie Portman) who finds herself transformed by V’s plans, while we see some good direction of V’s actions as narrated and performed by Hugo Weaving. Director James McTeigue deserves some serious kudos for bringing this difficult character to celluloid life.
V For Vendetta
9. Blade – This was the first good movie based on a Marvel comic after many dismal, poorly directed and under-funded adaptations in previous decades. This one had a legit martial artist and charismatic badass in Wesley Snipes who could handle the Hong Kong fantasy styles infused into the Blade character’s battle against vampires who didn’t sparkle. This in turn led more production companies to see what could happen when you actually put viable resources and appropriate talents behind a comic based story as the explosion of decent works over the last 15 years like X-Men and Spider-Man can be traced to this film.
Blade
8. X2: X-Men United – Bryan Singer’s second entry into the Marvel mutantverse took what came before in the previous X-Men film and built up both characters and the ante. The script had a perfect setup utilizing the characters toward an ending no one saw coming, but had long time X-Men fans seriously anticipating the third chapter. There’s Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) trying to regain his memory because of a guy named Stryker (Bryan Cox) who uses a White House attack by the teleporter Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) as a pretext to invade the school of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and destroy all mutants. Stryker’s plan involves Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen) who wants to prevent this and may or may not have an agenda all his own. There’s also the development of the kids at the school like Colossus who become better over time with their powers and likely will develop into full X Men. It’s great to see Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Jansen) kick butt more proactively than in the first film, and Mystique (Rebecca Romjin) was sexy and fun. Overall, there were good uses of powers by original X-Men like Cyclops as well as the emerging students such as Pyro and Iceman, whose rivalry develops big time. In the end though, seeing McKellen, Stewart and Cox give weight to their characters anchors a very solid film so that the action around them becomes more compelling.
X2: X-men United
7. A History of Violence – Although rather different than its source material, this movie is no less impactful due to hard hitting yet naturalistic style of director David Cronenberg. It begins with Viggo Mortensen being a regular guy named Tom running his diner with his wife Maria Bello. After stopping robbers at his restaurant someone comes along and indicates Tom has always been good at killing. As things become clearer and characters such as Carl (Ed Harris) and later, a crime boss named Richie (William Hurt) start to appear, it becomes clear there’s no easy solution that can result in a happy life afterward. There are violent scenes but they’re shot realistically so that the acts aren’t glorified. Can a man go from one extreme of life to the other successfully? This movie examines the nature of violence and how infectious it can be similarly to Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Getaway.’ Also the story ends in the correct spot to make one contemplate the future of these characters.
A History Of Violence
6. Road To Perdition – Director Sam Mendes created excellent tension and action in this dramatic adaptation of Max Allen Collins prohibition-era revenge comic. Done similarly to the manga Lone Wolf & Cub we see an assassin known as “The Angel of Death” Michael O’Sullivan (Tom Hanks) who must get the only kind of justice he can against his crime boss Mr. Rooney (Paul Newman) whose son Connor (Daniel Craig) tries to murder the entire O’Sullivan family because Michael’s son witnessed Connor committing violent act. Michael must protect his only remaining son and fight off whatever loyalty he might’ve had to the elder Rooney and his organization, who hire an oddball hitman (Jude Law) to take out Michael. Excellent performances all around, but this should be no surprise if you’ve seen American Beauty or Skyfall (for which Mendes and Craig teamed up again.)
Road To Perdition
5. Watchmen: Director’s Cut – Zack Snyder’s other really good comic book to movie effort, though initially the theatrical cut wasn’t quite as good. As a fan of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s deconstruction of super heroes on an alternate Earth set in the 1980s, it was great seeing this movie adapted for the big screen. However for many years since the comic’s release, it was speculated and often concluded the only way to bring this story to any motion medium would be either as a mini-series capturing every single nuance, or…. well, not at all. Many concluded it simply wasn’t a good idea to try. The resulting film (and the double studio lawsuit it had to go through) kept most of the essence of the story intact, with a few changes to make the climax more presentable and the story flow better for the screen. The director’s curt though, added some scenes back in that weren’t in the theatrical cut and upon second viewing, the movie became easier to watch and accept. The small additions made things flow better. Even still, there was already an excellently constructed opening sequence and generally good performances from actors who weren’t entirely A-List. Jackie Earle Hayley for example portrayed perfect creepiness as the sociopathic vigilante Rorshach, and made folks want to see him on screen again long after his teen acting days in the Bad News Bears movies. Jeffrey Dean Morgan showed serious sadism as The Comedian, while Billy Cruddup remained perfectly stoic as the god-like being Doctor Manhattan. Actually, just about everyone performed their characters well here, which made the visual effects and art design that much more effective. If the theatrical version is your only experience, it’s definitely worthwhile to look at the director’s cut with fresher eyes. You might just be surprised.
Watchmen
4. Spider-Man 2 – In Sam Raimi’s second installment about the Wall-Crawler, we see peter parker still having a difficult life in New York. He’s great at being spider man but he still has troubles just living a life, staying in school and maintaining a secret identity. Mary Jane is getting tired of Peter always being distracted, while Harry Osborn is obsessed with finding and getting revenge on Spider Man for killing is father. We get introduced to Doctor Octopus (brilliantly played by Alfred Molina) being driven insane by his own metal arms which’ve gotten life of their own. The story amps up the best parts of what made the first one good be, but in doctor octopus we get a better and more focused villain (even though Willem Dafoe made a memorable Green Goblin). Peter proves to be his own worst enemy in this movie, which adds to the conflicts Spidey must eventually overcome. J.K. Simmons continues to be a scene stealer in this movie much like the first one when emulating J. Jonah Jameson perfectly from the comics. Meanwhile, Tobey McGuire remains excellently semi-dorky, yet self-reliant and more confident, much like the character is in the comic. This one of those few times a second movie surpasses the first in its series.
Spider-Man 2
3. Batman: The Dark Knight Trilogy – For some time, filmmakers had tried to emulate the grim elements which became more prevalent in the Batman mythos since Frank Miller’s comic series “The Dark Knight Returns” was published in the mid-80s. However without the focus on other elements such as characterization or story cohesiveness, these films only worked up to a point until Christopher Nolan began his trilogy with “Batman Begins,” giving an attention to detail and psychology that had never been written before in a superhero film. Also, the supporting players such as Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred the butler (Michael Caine), and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) were fleshed out more than ever on film to compliment the struggles of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) becoming a vigilante who remains haunted by the murder of his parents after many years. This resulted in a powerful story when the events of “The Dark Knight” were unleashed on film goers and devastated the characters of this series. While it wasn’t a perfect film the third installment “The Dark Knight Rises” did serve as a decent resolution to events set forth in “Batman Begins” which is why I’ve placed the trilogy on this list in whole. All the while, Batman’s enemies such as The Joker (Heath Ledger), Bane (Tom Hardy) and Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) were largely well-written, excellently portrayed and utilized decently in the storylines, which concluded in an interesting place when all was said and done.
Batman Dark Knight Trilogy
2. Marvel’s The Avengers – The culmination of a grand experiment known as ‘Phase One’ by Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment / Disney. Starting with Iron Man, each individual character was built-up in separate (high quality) movies so they can come together when something overwhelming threatens humanity. The previous films were each pretty good in their own right, but were no guarantee that the assembling of several high profile characters (and their respective actors) would result in one of the best damn collaborations anyone’s ever seen. Writer director Joss Whedon (along with writer Zak Penn) made a definitive statement that comic books can be the inspiration for excellent characterizations and conflict resolutions while giving folks funny dialog to remember at key points throughout. It’s a very big blueprint for Hollywood on how cooperation and listening to comic geek interest can result in profitable fun. People have been reading these characters in comics for decades and they may just have a decent idea on what they want to see on a big screen. (Probably never win any Oscars for anything outside of special effects unfortunately, but that’s another discussion in itself)….
The Avengers
1. Superman: The Movie – There are some who say the exploits and ideals of the Man of Steel are outdated because Superman is a noble, honorable character who has tremendous powers, and that it’s impossible to write a compelling story for him either in comics or for the big screen, even though he’s been around for decades and achieved iconic status. Whenever I look at this movie that was the first truly great film focusing on a comic book hero, I see wonderful acting all around from newcomer Christopher Reeve as well as veterans Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and Glen Ford. I also see a script that places challenges an honorable hero would have to face which could cost him greatly despite his immense powers. Add to this the beginnings of a pretty decent romance with Lois Lane and you have an action drama with heart that remains eminently watchable after 30 years. The tag line for this movie was ‘you will believe a man can fly.’ It’s not just the effects though but the presence and emotion brought by these actors that makes that tag credible. Someone told me once that I needed to grow up for placing this movie so high and I just couldn’t help but think, ”Dude, I’m writing about comic book movies…”
Superman :The Movie
So yeah, that’s my list of the best ones out there. Applause, love letters, hate mail, criticisms? Send ‘em on. I love all of it.
PS: Special thanks to Britany Kurz, and Jyn & Stefanie Donham for keeping my mush-brain focused while I was writing this piece.