I just saw the Dark Knight. I thought it was pretty great, especially Heath’s performance and the new Joker character in general. It got me wondering about its place among the top comic book movies. So I made a list. The great thing about “best of” lists is that almost no one ever agrees with them. I’m sure mine will be no different.
I agree with the overwhelming majority of your list, except for one entry: Tank Girl. Yes, it had rappers dressed as furry guerrilllas and the dialogue was awful. The plot was also nowhere to be found.
Still, Lori Petty attacked her role with charisma and gusto. She deserves better than to be ranked below Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher. So Tank Girl at #53, and that’s all I have to say.
Well, my “worst” list would have to include Reb Brown’s two Captain America TV movies.
The 1990 version of Captain America makes most people’s hate lists, but I actually enjoyed it. I have not yet seen the 1944 matinee serial.
When I am in the mood for lighthearted, campy fun, I can enjoy the theatrical version of the Adam West Batman. Usually, however, I put it on the “worst” list.
I didn’t love X2. I thought it rehashed the first film without adding much new except for one scene. The opening White House sequence with Nightcrawler was top to bottom cinematic awesomeness. The rest of the movie paled by comparison. Plus they pretty much reused the original plot: the bad guys have a machine powered by one special mutant and the good guys have to stop it and save the mutant. Come to think of it the third film used that premise too, except it was a drug instead of a machine.
(No matter what I list I’m probably going to catch hell because of the Watchmen thread. Oh well.)
Best:
Batman Begins
Spider-Man
Punisher (2004)
X-Men
Spider-Man 3
Sin City
Worst:
Spider-Man 2
X2
X3
Superman Returns
All Batmans prior to Batman Begins
Fantastic Four
(there are lots that probably belong on this list but I’m leaving them off in the spirit of honesty because they look so bad I haven’t seen them.)
I’m not counting ones that are too far away from the super-hero genre like Ghost World, A History of Violence, etc.
They were not guerrilllas, they were kangaroos. Plus, the soundtrack kicks more ass than you want to think of. The dance number alone kicks it up higher. Wonderful B movie.
Dr. Strange (70s) and Spidey (70s) should be on the list.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the best Batman movies ever. Are you disallowing animated movies? I don’t see the Invincibles, either.
Bulletproof Monk is missing…
A History of Violence, too. And Josie and the Pussycats. Sorry, man, but it’s a comic book.
And the blatantly missing Wanted. That’s in theaters right now!
I hope you’re joking. This reminds me of when I was sitting in a waiting room with my grandma a few years back. She asked if I had anything to read so I handed her a copy of A Contract with God that I had with me. She read it for a few minutes and then put it down and said “I don’t get it.”
Ditto for “Maus.” Comics are a medium like any other. You can use them for just about anything. In fact one of my favorite comics growing up was “The Illustrated Bible.”
I guess they shoulda started calling them graphic novels back in 1939, then, instead of letting me think I was going to get as many chuckles out of one of those as from a copy of Richie Rich.
I prefer comic because it’s a word that has evolved naturally, while graphic novel* is a term that has been spread through marketing. The teeming masses would much prefer to talk about, or be caught reading, a “graphic novel” than a “comic.” Comics are for kids!
*Graphic novels do exist, but the vast majority of books that are now referred to as graphic novels are not. They’re typically comics that have been repackaged as trade paperbacks and marketed as graphic novels. Two of the most popular “graphic novels” - Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns - are not graphic novels at all.
Sin City has to be my number one. It’s one of my favourite movies on its own merits (it wins points on pure emotional manipulation alone), and it’s an extremely faithful adaptation.
V for Vendetta is less faithful - much less - but another top movie.
Batman Begins is certainly on there, as the Batman movie I didn’t know I was waiting for.
I love all three X-Men films, the third especially. I’m not getting the dislike for it; I really should rewatch it to get it fresh in my mind and then start a thread about it.
Haven’t seen Dark Knight, have a feeling it will be on there when I do.
On the bottom ten: Well, obvious stinkers like Barb Wire and Judge Dredd. I would also have to place the first Superman movie here. I loved it as a kid, rewatched it as an adult and was shocked to find that it sucked.
Is David Copperfield a novel? The Hound of the Baskervilles? Heart of Darkness? Starship Troopers? Bonfire of the Vanities? I don’t see why being serialized prior to full-length publication disqualifies a graphic novel from being called such, given the ample precedent among “real” novels.
I do wonder why the OP included a few comic strip movies like Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon.