Rank the Superhero movies!

[Trekker4747]

Guess I should answer my own post.

The Superman Movies:
Superman: The Movie - A+
- Pretty much defined the "superhero movie" for a whole generation. A well made, nice, movie with a couple silly contrivances but plays well in "three acts" (Krypton, Smallville, Metropolis) and does a good origin story for the World's Greatest Superhero. My biggest quibble? The cop-out ending with the time-travel and, well, this:
LINK

Superman 2: A-
- A decent follow up, but you can tell the "changes" the oh-so-funny director Richard Lester made. The nonsense with Zod's cronies and Somewherehicksville. But the battle between Zod and Superman is great, great stuff. The dexm with Superman's memory-wipe kiss? Not so much.

Superman 2: Richard Donner Cut: A
- Watchable, but clumbsy. (Mostly due to Donner's limitations on how he was able to make it.) It clears up some of Lester's fumbles but, overall, decent.

Superman 3: C (Generously)
- Mostly servicable, the Clark vs. Superman stuff and Lana stuff is all good. The Pryor stuff? Not so much. The slapstick? Ugh.

Superman 4: The Quest for Peace: ???
- I'm sure this movie doesn't exsist and have no idea why I included it. My apoloigies for any confusion.

Superman Returns: B
- Much tauted, but I sort-of liked it. Well made, looks good, but a bit to melodramatic, not enough action and the greatest things the most powerful man on the planet does in the movie? Lifts increasingly heavier things.


The Batman Movies:
Batman- A
- Good movie for its time and one of Burton's best, before he became drenched in his own angsty gothy schtick. I've never been sold on Keaton is Bruce or Bats though.

Batman Returns: B-
- Good enough followup, I hated what Burton did to The Penguin, though.

Batman Forever - D
Now we're diving into bullshit, the begining of the end. Looks cheap, it's over the top and Kilmer has all the screen-prescence of RealDoll.

Batman and Robin: F
- As in Fucking terrible.

Batman Begins: A
- Good reboot movie, though I'm not into Bale's Batman (the voice) and the villain's plot is a bit outside the movie's "realistic" boundaries.

The Dark Knight: A+
- Fucking awesome movie. Just... awesome. However, it's interesting the movie's real focus is on Joker and not Batman. And, again, Bale really needs a new Batman voice. It sounds like he garggled acid before doing his lines. Ledger's Joker? Redefines the character in new ways and he fucking nails it!

Spider-man Movies:
Spider-man: A-
- Good take on the character but a bit too "colorful" the SFX with Spidey's swinging looks terrible (even looked terrible for its time) and the Power Raners-esque battle between Spidey and Goblin at the fair is just groan-inducing.

Spider-man 2: A
- Good follow-up but, again, maybe a bit too colorful and lighthearted. The musical montage is dumb. Villain is well-treated. The Spidey/MJ thing is getting tiresome.

Spider-man 3: C-
- Ugh. Too many sudden changes to established movie "canon" (Uhh... the guy who killed my uncle didn't kill my uncle?) Venom is awkwardly wedged in, terribly, another stupid musical montage and terrible pay-off on the Harry/Goblin thing. (By the way, boss. You think Spider-man killed your father? He didn't. Your father died by his own hands. Sorry I never told you the last few years. I meant to get around to it but, you know, stuff.) Pissed a decent franchise down its leg.

Hulk Movies:
Hulk: C-
- Melodramatic, a editing presentation that didn't completely work and an ending that made no sense.

The Incredible Hulk: B-
- A decent followup/remake but I think pretty much shows that maybe the Hulk as he's known in the comic can't work on the big-screen.

X-Men
X-Men: B
- Honestly not one I'm big on. I liked it well enough but, I dunno, it seems like the "evil plot" is tagged on and it didn't make a whole lot of sense either.

X-Men 2: B+
- A good followup, improves on the original and runs with it. Not a whole lot about this one I disliked but still feels like it is missing "something."

X-Men 3: C-
- Ugh. The loss of Singer shows and little in this movie makes sense.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: C-
- Servicable, but should've been so much better.

Other Movies:
Iron Man: B+
- Not a character I knew about or cared much about. RDJ sold me on it. Well made movie.

Iron Man 2
- Link in signature.

The Fantastic Four: B
- Eh, entertaining. That's about it. Maybe a bit too goofy.

The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: C
- Feh. Forgetable. Not much to re-watch with this one.

Captain America (1990): D
:hurl:

Supergirl: D-
:double hurl:

The Fantastic Four (1994): F
rojectile vomiting:

 

[Shazam!]

Superman: The Movie - A+
- Pretty much defined the "superhero movie" for a whole generation. A well made, nice, movie with a couple silly contrivances but plays well in "three acts" (Krypton, Smallville, Metropolis) and does a good origin story for the World's Greatest Superhero. My biggest quibble? The cop-out ending with the time-travel

Superman 2: Richard Donner Cut: A
- Watchable, but clumbsy. (Mostly due to Donner's limitations on how he was able to make it.) It clears up some of Lester's fumbles but, overall, decent.

The Donner cut should've been an all-encompassing project not only restoring his vision for Superman II but also Superman: The Movie. We all know by now that the original ending was supposed to be a cliffhanger with the missiles freeing Zod and co. and the movie ending with them on the way to Earth. I would've liked to have seen that restored also.

 

[Broccoli]

The Donner Cut was terrible and was unnecessarily harsh to the Lester footage. Granted, I know Donner wanted everything to be as close to his vision as possible, but there are just some things that Lester filmed that needed to be included that were not.

For example: the attack on that hick town. Granted, some of it was silly, but in the Donner Cut, Zod and Co. arrive on Earth, and then we learn all hell broke loose. Huh? This is a bad case of telling and not showing. Zod is a bad ass because we are told he is one.

Also, there were unnecessary changes for the sake of change. For example, he took out the scene where Zod and Co. destroy Mt. Rushmore and places a scene where he destroys the Washington Monument. Really? Did that really need to be changed?

And why'd he keep the Clark-Restaurant Jerk confrontation at the end of the movie? The previous encounter was erased. It makes no sense!

 

[Shazam!]

The idea was to include as much of the footage shot by Donner as possible, and the least possible amount of Lester's stuff.

 

[Broccoli]

^Oh, I realize that. But, there comes a point where you have to include various Lester scenes just to make the movie coherent (as in the hick town sequence).

I also think it was a bit of a cheat to film/create/CGI new stuff now (as in the Washington Monument sequence) and place it in the film as if it was always meant to be there (title sequences notwithstanding). At least in a project such as this.

But, then again, I realize I'm in the minority on this one.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Ranked, not rated...
The Superman Movies:
1. Superman: The Movie. It's not a perfect movie. There are plot elements that don't quite hold together for me, particularly turning back time. However, Christopher Reeve totally sells this movie, creating a believable, live-action version of the big blue boy scout. He took a character that, in physicality & morality, was every inch an American icon and credibly translated it into reality. Plus, his banter with Margot Kidder's Lois Lane is a constant joy to watch.
2. Superman Returns. Using cutting edge special effects, Superman has been brought to the screen in the way his heroics were always meant to be seen. Bryan Singer brings a sensitive, emotional eye to the visual storytelling. Brandon Routh is the next best thing to cloning Christopher Reeve.
3. Superman II: The Richard Lester Cut. Reeve & Kidder are back. General Zod is a camp villain icon. But the movie's got some major structural problems. In particular, Superman ends up without his powers for a grand total of 10-20 minutes of screentime. Also, Superman gives up his powers in order to be with a woman who has all but said that he's not good enough for her as Clark Kent.
4. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. I appreciate this version as an incomplete "What if?" But there's just not enough Richard Donner material to make a complete movie, and the butchered Richard Lester footage creates a bizarre Frankenstein's monster of a movie. Personally, I think the movie needs Lester's action-packed Eiffel Tower opening. Turning back time was dodgy enough in the 1st movie, but I can overlook it because he only turned it back a few minutes. Here, he turns it back so far that the entire movie never happens.
5. Superman III. Rediculous in the extreme. The Clark Kent vs. evil Superman fight is cool. The rest is a crappy Richard Pryor comedy.
6. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Mega crap. It's so bad, it makes Batman & Robin look competant!

The Batman Movies:
Actually, I find it too difficult to rank the Batman movies, except to say that Batman Forever and Batman & Robin are at the bottom. But comparing the Burton & Nolan movies are like comparing apples & steak. They're both great but they set out to do very different things. While Nolan's movies may have stronger, deeper plots, a movie isn't just about the plot. A movie is a subjective experience that depends just as much upon how it feels as how it makes sense. And on that front, the Burton movies are unquestionable epics. Burton's movies are about the myth of Batman. Nolan's movies are about Bruce Wayne, the man. Nolan lays out a specific psychology & methodology for why Batman does what he does. Burton theorizes, just as legitimately, that for anyone to do what Batman does, he would have to be a little bit crazy.

Spider-Man Movies:
1. Spider-Man. I really enjoyed this film. It struck just the right balance of plot & character, action & romance. It does a good job of capturing your standard story of the invisible nerd pining for the hot chick. Willem Dafoe is a hoot as the Green Goblin.
2. Spider-Man 3. That's right. I'm ranking the 3rd one above the 2nd one. More on the 2nd one later. I'll simply say that, while the 3rd movie is a mess, at least it's so action packed that it gets a lot of good popcorn value.
3. Spider-Man 2. The most overrated comic book movie of all time. The Peter/Mary Jane angst is interminable & repetitive. Dr. Octopus' action scenes feel like they've been randomly edited in from another movie.

Hulk Movies:

Neither is particularly good, although I think you might get something good if you smushed the 2 films together. Hulk has some emotional resonance but Eric Bana's performance is bland and Ang Lee's direction is too damn artsy for his own good. (What's with the lingering shots of moss on rocks?) Meanwhile, The Incredible Hulk is a soulless smash-fest, yet Edward Norton gives a much more compelling, charismatic performance than Eric Bana.

X-Men movies:
1. X-Men. I actually prefer the 1st movie over the 2nd. Bryan Singer packs the film with some great character moments, particularly between Wolverine & Rogue. Their 1st scene when he finds her hiding in the back of his truck is still my favorite scene in the entire franchise. Magneto's got a lot of great moments too. It's not perfect, largely because Singer was stuck with a very difficult, dense world to introduce and a suddenly drastically shortened production schedule. But still, character is king and X-Men has it in spades.
2. X2. Singer builds upon the emotions of the 1st movie and this time treats us to some of the most fantastic action scenes in the whole franchise. Nightcrawler was a great addition and Brian Cox gives an outstanding performance as Col. Stryker.
3. X-Men: The Last Stand. Singer is gone and it shows. However, while Brett Ratner fails to nail down the quieter moments of the series, he has a certain flair for the massively epic moments, especially when Phoenix kills Professor Xavier and when Wolverine kills Phoenix. Mystique & Magneto losing their powers is heartbreaking. All in all, X-Men: The Last Stand succeeds marvelously as a big summer movie providing a conclusion to these characters we've been watching for the last 6 years.
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Good production values but we didn't really need this story, did we? Most of the necessary meat of the Weapon X storyline was already digested in X2. Danny Huston is nowhere near as good as Brian Cox as Col. Stryker. Still, I look forward to the sequel, where we finally get to see the Japan storyline.

Other Movies:
There's kinda too many to rank properly here, particularly since my opinions on many of them will change frequently. Some movies I love even though I'll probably concede that they're crap (i.e. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II). But a few thoughts, at least:
Iron Man was an uneven movie with a great central performance by Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 2 was pretty much the same thing, only with a much less threatening villain.
I couldn't stand either of the Fantastic Four movies. Chris Evans & Michael Chiklis are great as the Human Torch & the Thing. Jessica Alba isn't as bad as people say. Ioan Gruffudd is too much of a lightweight to play Mr. Fantastic. Dr. Doom was totally botched. None of them are good enough to make me care.
As nearly anyone here will tell you, I love Daredevil, obsessively. It perfectly captures that feeling of what it must be like to be a superhero. And like I said about the Batman movies, sometimes the feeling that a movie evokes is what's most important.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I pretty much just listed the ones I could think of, add others if you wish. Though I'd like to limit this to fairly "recent" movies (i.e. nothing too much before 1979/not any serials, etc.)

The Superman Movies:
Superman: The Movie
Superman 2
Superman 2: Richard Donner Cut
Superman 3
Superman 4: The Quest for Peace
Superman Returns

The Batman Movies:
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Forever
Batman and Robin
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight

Spider-man Movies:
Spider-man
Spider-man 2
Spider-man 3

Hulk Movies:
Hulk
The Incredible Hulk

X-Men
X-Men
X-Men 2
X-Men 3
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Other Movies:
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The Punisher
Daredevil
Captain America (1990)
Supergirl
The Fantastic Four (1994)

God, I'm sure there's a ton of others. These are just from the top of my head.

The Superman Movies:
1.Superman 2: Richard Donner Cut
2.Superman: The Movie
3.Superman 2
4.Superman Returns
5.Superman 3
6.Superman 4: The Quest for Peace

The Batman Movies:
1.The Dark Knight
2.Batman Begins
3.Batman
4.Batman Returns
5.Batman Forever
6.Batman and Robin

Spider-man Movies:
1.Spider-man
2.Spider-man 2
3.Spider-man 3

Hulk Movies:
The Incredible Hulk
Hulk

X-Men
X-Men2
X-Men
X-Men 3
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Other Movies:
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Supergirl
The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The Punisher
Daredevil
Captain America (1990)

never saw the others.

 

[Skywalker]

Only including the ones I've seen...

The Superman Movies:
Superman: The Movie (A)
Superman II (A-)
Superman Returns (B-)
Superman III (D)
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (F)

The Batman Movies:
The Dark Knight (A+)
Batman Begins (B+)
Batman (B-)
Batman Forever (C+)
Batman Returns (C)
Batman and Robin (D-)

Spider-Man Movies:
Spider-Man 2 (B)
Spider-Man (B-)
Spider-Man 3 (D)

X-Men
X2 (A)
X-Men (B-)
X-Men: The Last Stand (D+)

Other Movies:
Iron Man 2 (A-)
Iron Man (B+)
Daredevil: Director's Cut (B-)
The Incredible Hulk (B-)
Blade (B-)
Blade II (B-)
Fantastic Four (C)
Daredevil (C-)
Hulk (C-)
Blade: Trinity (D)

 

[JacksonArcher]

That's all well and good, but Batman is still the better Batman film.

Good to know you're the absolute authority on the issue.

As family entertainment Burton's Batman was infinitely superior in inspiring kids to buy comics and opening up that world to them. It spawned the downright brilliant animated series and proved to the world that superhero films could be more than tights and campy humour.

Nolan's films gave us tools dressing up as Heath Ledger's Joker.

Burton's Batman also helped pioneer the superhero genre, was the first legitimate 'dark' portrayal of the character ever put to the screen, and was the first superhero movie in quite some time, since those Superman movies. It's not the same now when we have two-three superhero movies coming out within months of each other. Back in 1989, comic-book movies were still in their infancy, and Burton's Batman helped create the superhero genre we have now, where it is commonplace to see even the most obscure superhero adapted to the big screen.

 

[Broccoli]

I've been giving more thought to my earlier comments about the Donner Cut of Superman II. Now, I still don't think it is as great as people seem to make it out to be.

However, it does have some excellent scenes that I was happy to see inserted play out. For example, the scenes in the Fortress when Supes is talking to Jor-El. Specifically, I love the disapproving look Jor-El gives Lois when Supes gives up his powers. Also, I really like the scene where Jor-El gives up his essence to renew Supes's powers. It really brings the theme of "the son becomes the father and the father becomes the son".

I also like the opening bit where Lois is trying to figure out that Clark is Superman. That being said, I also like the Paris sequence too.

I would like to see (and I am sure it has been done) a merging of the two cuts.

 

[Broccoli]

Not to resurrect the Batman/TDK debate, but I found a Nostalgia Critic video where he compares the two films. While I don't necessarily fully agree with his assessment of the supporting characters, it is an interesting commentary.

Part I
Part II

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Burton's Batman also helped pioneer the superhero genre, was the first legitimate 'dark' portrayal of the character ever put to the screen, and was the first superhero movie in quite some time, since those Superman movies.

Oddly enough, there was only a 2 year gap between Superman IV in 1987 & Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. It's weird. They feel as if they're almost a whole generation apart.

 

[Broccoli]

Well, the dirt poor budget didn't help matters with Superman IV.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Kinda reminds me of the original Clash of the Titans, which was made in 1980 but is shot on such grainy film stock that it looks more like it was from 1968.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Not to resurrect the Batman/TDK debate, but I found a Nostalgia Critic video where he compares the two films. While I don't necessarily fully agree with his assessment of the supporting characters, it is an interesting commentary.

Part I
Part II

I don't necessarily agree with his assessment at all, but his commentary is insightful and very funny.

 

[Broccoli]

Well, at least he threw up that disclaimer the beginning...even if you are completely wrong.

 

[UncleRogi]

Bruce and Tony are NOT super, just extremly(?) enhanced

 

[Broccoli]

^ That's what she said.

 

[Gojira]

Kinda reminds me of the original Clash of the Titans, which was made in 1980 but is shot on such grainy film stock that it looks more like it was from 1968.

I remember the first time I saw the original Clash of the Titans I was shocked to see Harry Hamlin in it because I was sure that was a movie made in the early 60s!

 

[Pauln6]

Kinda reminds me of the original Clash of the Titans, which was made in 1980 but is shot on such grainy film stock that it looks more like it was from 1968.

I remember the first time I saw the original Clash of the Titans I was shocked to see Harry Hamlin in it because I was sure that was a movie made in the early 60s!

Probably deliberate so that the models don't contrast too much with the actors. I still have a great deal of fondness for those models, far more so than modern CGI.