BEYOND CAPES AND MASKS
Ten worst and best superhero movies
There was a time when superhero movies were odd ducks on cinema screens. Superman (1978) was about an alien child growing up on Earth — was it science fiction? Action-adventure? A thriller? A children’s movie?
Those days are long past, of course. Four of the top six movies at the worldwide box office in 2019 were superhero movies, including the No.1 hit, Avengers: Endgame.
Five of the top 10 all-time box-office champs are superhero movies, including
Avengers: Endgame at No.2.
By this point, with more than 100 movies based on Marvel and DC comics alone, nobody worries about what genre they fall into. Superhero movies are a genre of their own, substantial enough to have its own subgenres: animated superhero movies, teen-superhero movies, superhero spoofs, superhero-group movies and so on.
They feature top movie stars. After the likes of Christian Bale, Michael Douglas, Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellen, Jack
Nicholson, Robert Redford and Will Smith have appeared in superhero movies, it’s actually more worthy of note that a handful of major stars — Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington — haven’t.
The genre also has a history, extending technically back as far as the animated short Superman (1941), but for all practical purposes the starter’s gun was fired in 1978 with Superman — which is much more recent, but still 42 years ago, before the birth of many of today’s most passionate superhero-movie fans.
Like any proper genre, superhero film has its winners, movies that are good enough to appeal even to people who aren’t into the genre, and its losers — ones that even people who love the genre aren’t likely to go for.
What makes a great superhero movie? Well, a strong story, compelling characters portrayed by charismatic actors, striking visuals, fresh dialogue, a sense of humour … all the things, in short, that make a great non-superhero movie.
So let’s take a look at the best of the best, 10 superhero movies made during the past four decades that should appeal even to those for whom flying people in Spandex doesn’t check many boxes.
WONDER WOMAN (2017)
Director Patty Jenkins had never made a film on this scale, but you wouldn’t know it from the finished product. The script is terrific, and the World War I scenes give
1917 (2019) a run for its money. The real triumph, though, is Gal Gadot’s performance as Princess Diana. Since Christopher Reeve first strapped on Superman’s red cape, the best superheroes have been unknowns. Reeve came with no backstory, and neither does Gadot. He was Superman, end of story. Gadot is Wonder Woman.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)
Chris Evans’ first outing as the star-spangled Avenger is a great period piece, with 1940s America presented with loving detail. The cast includes Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci and Hugo Weaving, and the script is crisp and engaging. As for Evans, after whiffing as the Human Torch, he proves that he’s an ideal Captain America.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014)
Nobody expected anything like the success that greeted this film, which featured a cast of second-stringers as a B-list Marvel superhero team who’d never been able to sustain their own comic, let alone a big-screen spectacular. But they’re called “comic” books for a reason, and director/ co-writer James Gunn showed a comic flair that too few superhero movies have been able to capture, and laughed all the way to the bank.
THE AVENGERS (2012)
Juggling a half-dozen heroes, several villains and the supporting casts of several other movies is no picnic, but director Joss Whedon — a notorious comic-book devotee in his element — makes it look easy. Three subsequent Avengers movies, the limp Justice League (2017) and the entire run of X-Men movies make Whedon’s work look all the more impressive. His use of character humour is particularly effective.
THE MASK (1994)
There may never have been a more perfect match between actor and comics character than that between Jim Carrey and the fantastical Dark Horse Comics character. (The film also launched Cameron Diaz’s career.) Carrey, a little-known comic when he signed for the movie, puts his rubber features and off-the-wall imagination at the service of the character, and the results are as fresh today as they were then. He wasn’t in the sequel, Son Of The Mask (2005), and it sank without a trace.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy got progressively darker, longer and more overstuffed. Batman Begins, however, is a rare example of a really good superhero movie based on a DC character, easily the best Batman movie to date. Christian Bale brings a new realism and credibility to the character, and Nolan goes dark without going brutal or nihilistic, as he would in the later films.
DOCTOR STRANGE (2016)
Director Scott Derrickson embraces the trippy flamboyance of original artist Steve Ditko, producing a film whose visual sense is like no other. Star Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t afraid to make sorcerer Stephen Strange unlikeable, and a terrific supporting cast add depth and gravitas amid the craziness. Doctor Strange wasn’t an obvious cinematic triumph — the comic has been cancelled regularly since the 1960s — but Derrickson, Cumberbatch & Co made it one.
SUPERMAN II (1980)
It’s rare that the sequel is better than the original, but Superman II outshines its progenitor in every way. Stripped of the bloat — the interminable “death of Krypton” sequence, Clark and Lois mooning their way through the clouds — and the ridiculous time-travel ending, Superman II gets down to the basics: Clark Kent comedy, Superman action and a trio of seriously nasty baddies for the hero to battle. The Metropolis showdown is more exciting than anything in the original.
LOGAN (2017)
Inspired more by the Old Man Logan comic than by the X-Men comics that made Wolverine — and star Hugh Jackman — famous, this dark, post-apocalyptic drama isn’t part of the standard Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it draws wonderfully nuanced performances out of Jackman and co-star Patrick Stewart, repeating his role as the telepathic Professor Xavier. Not for all tastes, but a great demonstration of the depth and power of which superhero films are capable.
THOR (2011)
Shakespearean obsessive Kenneth Branagh was the perfect choice to direct this film, bringing an epic grandeur to the saga of Marvel’s most epically grand hero. Unknown Chris Hemsworth is a perfect Thor, surly, touchy and noble despite himself, and the similarly unknown Tom Hiddleston becomes a star before our eyes as a wily, sarcastic, charmingly despicable Loki. Branagh’s Asgard is everything it should be, living up to artist Jack Kirby’s sweeping visuals in the original comics series.
SWAMP THING (1982)
Alan Moore’s legendary run on the title, from 1984 to 1987, made this peripheral character must-read material for comic fans ever since. The film, made just before that time, is an uninspired monster movie that sees none of the potential in the character that Moore was to realise shortly thereafter.
SUPERGIRL (1984)
All of the weaknesses of the Superman series metastasise in this bizarre mess of a movie, whose plot seems to confuse even the actors themselves. The special effects are weak, the cast is a mix of bad actors and good actors giving bad performances, and by the end you’ll be rooting for technical problems to disrupt your viewing.
HOWARD THE DUCK (1986)
Steve Gerber’s bizarre, one-of-a-kind character transfixed Marvel fans for a few years in the 1970s, but was played out by the end of that decade. How this movie ever got made is hard to imagine, but everyone involved lived to regret it.
THE CROW (1994)
Setting aside that star Brandon Lee literally got killed making the movie, it’s a dark, incoherent saga that is hard to follow, in part because it’s intentionally poorly lit.
BATMAN & ROBIN (1997)
Take a miscast George Clooney as Batman, a 27-year-old Chris O’Donnell as the Boy Wonder and an embarrassed-looking supporting cast. Add an incoherent plot, confusing special effects and armour with nipples, and what do you get? Everybody’s least-favourite Batman movie.
HULK (2003)
A prestigious production from director Ang Lee, this ambitious film flopped badly due to a talky, uninvolving script, a lacklustre lead performance by Eric Bana, laughable special effects — intentionally so, Lee has claimed, though it’s not clear why — and a lack of action. It has subsequently earned some respect from critics, but it remains unpopular with audiences.
CATWOMAN (2004)
Selina Kyle is comics’ first prominent costumed female, and still one of its best. The morally ambiguous former jewel thief and Batman frenemy… doesn’t appear in this movie. Instead, Halle Berry plays a completely different character with a completely different, far less interesting backstory and personality. Berry seems to be counting the minutes until she can cash her cheque.
FANTASTIC FOUR (2005)
For some reason, the team that launched Marvel Comics in its current form in 1961 has been snakebit on the big screen. A cheap knock-off made in 1994 by lowbudget producer Roger Corman, with a no-name cast and a super-low budget, was never even released, though bootleg copies have circulated. This version, characterised by miscasting of most of the major characters, was lame, and a 2007 sequel was even worse. A 2015 reboot had a strong cast, but the characters were rewritten in slapdash fashion and the movie sank at the box office, a rare flop for Marvel in the current era.
THE SPIRIT (2008)
Will Eisner’s legendary 1940s comic book was known for its light touch, which director Frank Miller — creator of some of the darkest and most violent comics of the 1980s and 1990s — completely whiffs on.
THE GREEN HORNET (2011)
Seth Rogen, a gifted comedian, is at sea as an action hero, and the film falters in every department. The script is particularly inconsistent in tone and even basic continuity.