New top list of SuperHero movies?

1. The Dark Knight - This is pretty much not arguable.

2. Hulk (Ang Lee) - It is a fantastic picture; totally captures the fun spirit of the original comics without getting all cloying and maudlin with the "serious" stuff, like the turgid, nauseating Spider-Man 2. Get over the fucking mutant poodles, people.

3. Superman 1 & 2 - As far as I'm concerned, they're two halves of the same movie. Gene Hackman is a riot, Christopher Reeve's Kent is a joy to watch, the special effects are still pretty decent today, and the score is awesome.

4. Batman (1966) - I love the 60s Batman stuff. That show was way more violent than most of what was out there for kids programming when I was little, so I never got the joke. To me, it was just a badass Batman show with all kinds of fisticuffs that looked just like the comics and toys I had. The casting was just so perfect, it was like I was literally watching the comics on screen. Of course, now it's just hilarious. I love how Batman & Robin realize they totally fucked up at the end, and just decide to take off.

5. The Rocketeer - Rocket packs? Awesome. Nazis, gangsters, zeppelins, and a big huge bad guy that kills people by literally folding them in half? That sounds good too. Jennifer Connelly as a 40s pinup girl? SOLD. Seriously, this is probably still my favorite straightforward, nothin' fancy, fun superhero action picture. Everything about it hits the exact notes I want from this kind of film.

Honorable Mention: Roger Corman's Fantastic Four. What it lacks in high budget special effects, decent writing, and competent acting, it makes up for with being hilariously awful. It's a hell of a lot more entertaining a lot of the more recent superhero flicks.

Let's not forget the worst superhero movie of all, which are two, tied for last:

The Phantom (Alec Baldwin) and The Phantom (Billy Zane)

And JJ nailed it. Xmen 2 and The Incredibles for the win. I'd add XMen First Class, which was really great but I'm a sucker for alt-history...so I'm biased.

I liked both The Shadow and The Phantom. Neither were great shakes, but both were nice n' pretty to look at, but not in the totally phony I-might-as-well-be-playing-video-games way the newer movies are.

X-Men First Class and The Incredibles: Also awesome stuff.

I have a soft spot for The Rocketeer too, mjl. I love old time radio dramas and this feels just like one of those. And Jennifer Connelly--holy mackeral.

Ang Lee's The Hulk is a funny story for me--I remember thinking, right as he was captured towards the end, "This was a freakin' good movie, I enjoyed this." And then...Nick Nolte and the 15 minutes of...whatever that followed. It wasn't the mutant poodles, it was the over-the-top Nolte-ism and the VERY poorly shot final battle that killed it for me.

I'll still watch and enjoy it for what it is, but if they'd cut to credits not long after "You weren't hard to find," it would have been a much, much better movie. "BUT WHAT ABOUT HIS DAD?!?" Save that shit for the sequel. Or at least, find a coherent end battle that doesn't involve Nolte hamming it up beyond belief beforehand.

"No Heroics" is my favourite, though it's a comedy series rather than a movie. I really like the chunky strong chick.

What, no love for Mystery Men?!?

JonJacob wrote: 3/ At this point it doesn't even matter since those two are so far ahead of anything else. The Nolan films would be good if they didn't fuck up Batman so badly. There's one scene where theres a group of bad dudes down on the dock that just start disappearing into the darkness as Batman takes them out one at a time. That scene is perfection and it's in the first film. It's as good as Batman has ever been done. So as much as I enjoy those two films they also piss me off. They don't feel like Super Hero films as Jeff rightly points out. They film like 70's cop films or gangster films or something along those lines.

I have a problem with people bemoaning Batman falling shy as a superhero. This guy didn’t gain his powers from some bug bite, falling into a vat of waste or find that his suntan could stop bullets. He’s an anti-hero, a vigilante with a just cause and desire to prevent his tragic fate from falling on another innocent.

He succeeds with physical fitness, martial arts, study and an unrelenting drive to do any/everything he has to in order to protect who he perceives to be innocent. He’s trained & studied the world over, and when it came time to focus, contemplated the FBI, but decided there were too many rules stopping him from doing what he must. The vigilante was born & the bat as a symbol followed shortly after. He is, in essence, a 70’s detective right up there with Shaft, Jimmy Doyle, Dirty Harry & Coogan, with a dash of Serpico.

Batman is a fantasy detective in tights, not some lucky twit raised with the “with great power comes great responsibility” moral code instilled from the start. He made himself what he is through hard work and determination, the true American hero. Hell, I’ll trade you a Captain Canada, Mr Johnny Canuck, Rocket Robin Hood, Spawn & the Blue Scorpion for him. Just keep your filthy paws off of Canadianna, Infama, Sinnamon, Mr Canoehead & Benton Fraser.

Guess which "superhero" movies round out my faves.

‘Nuff said’

Fallen wrote:
I have a problem with people bemoaning Batman falling shy as a superhero. This guy didn’t gain his powers from some bug bite, falling into a vat of waste or find that his suntan could stop bullets. He’s an anti-hero, a vigilante with a just cause and desire to prevent his tragic fate from falling on another innocent.

He succeeds with physical fitness, martial arts, study and an unrelenting drive to do any/everything he has to in order to protect who he perceives to be innocent.

Flipside:

He's a rich mama's boy who had all the time and money in the universe to train, to become "the bat" and does it solely for revenge. He didn't give a fuck about Gotham, he only wanted to avenge mommy and daddy. And he trained, learned martial arts, and all that jazz because of his mommy and daddy's money.

He's not a superhero. He's what happens when Bill Gates' son gets pissed that his mom and dad got killed by a mugger.

Now, if you take all that shit you wrote and apply it to an "everyman", then let's talk Punisher, who is what the Batman wishes his pussy ass could be. No batmobile, no batsignal, no government condoning what he does, and no squeamish "prison is where this supervillain belongs" bullshit so that they can break out again and again.

Punisher fucking murders bad guys. And he doesn't need supercars, superplanes, or a batarang. Give him a sharp pencil and a dark room, and he gets the job done better than Bitchman...ahem...Batman ever could.



If they ever make a bad ass Punisher movie, one starring someone like Tom Hardy or some big ass gorilladude...that's going to be the winner. Fuck Dolph Lundgren, and Fuck Thomas "My last name is a girl's name" Jane.*

*Pete "My last name is a girl's name" Ruth

Fallen wrote: I have a problem with people bemoaning Batman falling shy as a superhero.

You clearly misunderstand me. I love Batman and in fact he is my favorite superhero by far. I just think Nolan and Bale do not understand or have respect for him as a comic book character. 1st, the voice is too much, I understand it has to be different but it doesn't sound scary it sounds overly forced and ridiculous. I know too many people who laugh the first time they hear Batman talk. 2nd, I hate the suit in the movies, it's completely restrictive and looks like armour. He still can't turn his head properly.

My favorite interpretation of Batman starts with Neil Adams comics when they gave him martial arts and what not, and carries forward to Grant Morrison's most recent work... and don't tell me Batman isn't a Superhero or doesn't have powers. Are you kidding? Look at what he accomplishes. It's entirely unrealistic, the fact that he doesn't have a discernable mutation is a gimmick, everyone knows he's beat Superman more then once... how is that possible for an ordinary human? Batman is the smartest and most useful character in the whole Justice league... on a regular basis.

So I agree that Batman rocks but he is so much more then just a cop and Nolan is clearly embarrassed at what makes Batman - Batman. He's embarrassed about the Giant penny and model T-Rex in the Batcave, he's embarrassed at Robin, he's embarrassed at the over the top comic bookness of the whole thing. He wants to make the Godfather but he wants to do it with a comic book character and I find it a little incongruous with the source material.

I still lump both his movies into one spot in number 3 though, they are good movies, I just think he fucked up Batman except for that one scene in the first one on the docks where for a brief moment he gets it.

Fallen wrote: Batman is a fantasy detective in tights, not some lucky twit raised with the “with great power comes great responsibility” moral code instilled from the start. He made himself what he is through hard work and determination,

... and a nice fat inheritance from his parents.

I don't think anyone has a problem with Batman as a superhero, I just don't find his movies that engaging as superhero movies. Like you said, he's more gritty detective. I like my superhero movies more colorful and fantastic.