So far I've ranked the Batman movies, the Superman movies, the other DC movies, the Avengers movies, the X-Men movies, and the non-Marvel and non-DC comic movies. There's only one major franchise of super-hero movies I haven't ranked yet, and that is the Spider-Man franchise. But I'll continue to put that off for a while, while I rank this summer's comic book movies.
As ever, my ranking system is
Green=excellent Blue=pretty good Black=Okay Red=avoid
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron--Not nearly as good as the first one. Too bombastic, too long, a few interesting character moments but not enough of them. We learned a lot about Hawkeye, who it turns out differs significantly from his comic book version. He has a wife and children tucked away in some safe place in the Midwest, and the moments we saw of his household were among the best in the movie. The new characters Quiksilver and the Scarlet Witch didn't really resonate. This wasn't terrible, but it felt like a time-filler, and what a lot of time it filled.
Ant-Man--Just saw this today. A lot of fun, if a little trifling. Because Ant-Man can't rely on his strength to get by, he has to rely on cleverness, so that's a nice change of pace from most other comic book movies. For the nerds, the Ant-Man in the movie is Scott Lang, with Dr. Hank Pym as his mentor. Hews pretty closely to Scott Lang's comic backstory, although Dr. Pym had lots of changes, which makes sense as his is a character that was damaged by some really bad story-writing choices decades ago (depicting him as a wife-beater, for instance). Funny and fast-moving.
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Here's the master list of all comics movies I've rated so far, in order from best to worst:
Crumb
American Splendor
Iron Man
Heavy Metal (1981)
Avengers
Superman (1978)
Captain America
Batman Begins (2005)
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
X-Men 2: X-Men United
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Superman II
Batman (1989)
Ant-Man
The Dark Knight (2008)
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine
Sin City (2005)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Swamp Thing (1982)
Iron Man 2
Watchmen (2009)
Batman Forever (1995)
Superman Returns (2006)
Thor 2: The Dark World
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Mystery Men
Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Superman III
Supergirl (1984)
Thor
X-Men 3: Last Stand
Hulk (2003)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman Returns (1992)
Superman IV
Batman (1966) (Haven't seen)
Catwoman (Haven't seen)
Constantine (Haven't seen)
Green Lantern (Haven't seen)
Hellboy (Haven't seen)
Judge Dredd (Haven't seen)
Man of Steel (Haven't seen)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Haven't seen)
V for Vendetta (Haven't seen)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Haven't seen)
Nick,
ReplyDeleteWhat about e Fantastic Four? I don't see it on the list. Have you seen it and what did you think? Just wondering.
Patrick Morrissey.
Pat,
ReplyDeleteHey, a comment! It was so unexpected I didn't even see it for two weeks. I'll get to the FF soon!
Nick.