7.23.2003

Ranking the Comics Movies
One of the columnists over at Cinescape is publishing a four-part piece, ranking the best and worst movies-from-comics ever (Part One, Part Two and Part Three). So far, they've done the best, and half the worst. To save you some time, here's Tony Whitt's expurgated best list followed by my invaluable commentary:
    1. Batman. Not sure that I'd put it at the top, but very little to complain about in this movie. No one saw Keaton as Batman, but he sure pulled it off. Started the tradition of super-villains hamming it up, lamentably.
    2. X-Men/X2. Okay, I've seen it now for the third time -- two in the theater and once on the bootleg DVD -- and I can say unequivocally that Bryan Singer created a tight, exciting, spectacular masterpiece of comic film. It makes the original X-Men movie, which I thought was a solid B effort, obviously inferior by comparison. However, I don't see this to be a problem because I believe that you should improve with follow-up efforts. Now the bar is set that much higher for X3, whose plot will most likely involve the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga. Woo hoo!
    3. Spider-Man. I like this film. I really do. Just not to the extent that a lot of audiences did. I wouldn't debate the ranking, but I will say in response to "Never heard a bad word about this one" -- the element that I found most fantastic/unbelievable was not the wall-crawling nor was it the web-shooting, but the guy in the end who told his childhood sweetheart that they could only be friends. WHATEVER.
    4. Superman II. Just a bit better than the first one, if only for the cool fights scenes between the super-trio and the S-Man.
    5. Superman. Classic, true to the origin, funny, poignant, and Gene Hackman.
    6. The Hulk. Haven't seen it yet (AIEEE!), but I'm going to anticipate putting it here.
    7. The Crow. One big music video. Fun to watch, but not a helluva lot of depth to the plot. I would have put The Phantom higher than this.
    8. From Hell. Not seen it, again.
    9. Blade. Won't disagree with this pick. Not the greatest movie, but definitely cool.
    10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I'm not kidding). Okay, what? Like this is better than The Shadow?

And now, the WORST:
    10. Fantastic Four. Never seen or heard of it. They are doing a live-action redo of this shortly, which will probably improve on the film.
    9. Daredevil. I'm not sure that Daredevil was on the worst films of all time, but then how many adaptations are there? I have to admit I was disappointed in the film, so I'll acquiesce (read: crappy writing).
    8. Batman Returns/Batman Forever/Batman and Robin (grouping). Okay, I can easily put Batman and Robin on this list, but the other two aren't that bad.
    7. Spawn. Have to agree it was boring.
    6. Superman III/Superman IV/Supergirl. I fully agree. These movies nearly destroyed the industry, until Batman came along and single-handedly resurrected it.

So, speculations on what will be chosen as among the Top Five worst comics-to-film movies ever? I'm going to guess that Captain America in No. 1. Until then... well just go about your business.

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