Tuesday 10: Two Thumbs Up, Up, and Away (Best Superhero Movies)
July 22, 2008 – 10:06 pm by Allen and Tim- There’s not many excellent — or even very good — movies based on standard (i.e. Big Two) superhero fare. We came with about a dozen or so films that we both really dig, and a had a more difficult time than you’d imagine coming up with a dozen more that we knew weren’t gonna make the grade. Sorry Fantastic Four franchise! Maybe someday, Unbreakable.
- There’s even fewer superhero movies floating around that aren’t based on standard comic book fare. We came up with The Rocketeer pretty quickly, but just as quickly left it off the list because it didn’t seem to be ’superhero-y’ enough and neither of us remembered any part of it as fondly as the image of Jennifer Connelly in the movie. (But don’t feel bad, Billy Campbell — I have a feeling you’ll show up again in next week’s Ten.)
- Marvel’s movies rake in more dough (even if you handicap Marvel for their advantage in sheer quantity of releases), but DC seems to have put out more memorable films.
And yet a Pixar Studios masterpiece trumps them both…
10. Batman (1989). This movie bridges the gap between the wince-inducing last gasp of the old school superhero movie (Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, anyone? Or no one?) and the wow-inducing sunrise of the new (X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman Returns). Warner Brothers discovered, as we all soon did, that matching the director with the project might be a worthy use of time before signing that first check. Tim Burton brought a vision that didn’t treat the material as “kid’s stuff,” and really seemed to understand the source material and how best to take advantage of its conversion to moving pictures. DC’s approach to building its creative team obviously rubbed off on Marvel, who would eventually sign up Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi to launch their two big franchises. Speaking of…
9. X-Men. (2000) The most popular comic series of the last 30 years would have made ungodly sums of cash no matter who shot it or starred in it, but Marvel wisely paid attention to what worked for DC and also what failed miserably with the Batman movies, and got it right the first time with X-Men. What worked: getting directors and writers with the right sensibilites and the right sensitivities. So enter Bryan Singer, who’d cut his teeth on a character-intensive ensemble piece (The Usual Suspects) and a taut thriller that touched on the horrors of Nazi persecution, war and how sneaky evil can be sometimes (Apt Pupil). What didn’t work: an escalating cycle to cast “name” actors in main roles in superhero films. By keeping the known quantities to a minimum — and at this point, Halle Berry was best known for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and Boomerang — the movie overcomes that handicap of “that’s not Batman, that’s George Clooney at Halloween.”
8. Superman: The Movie. (1978) We’re giving Warner Brothers and the orginal Batman crew a little too much credit, probably, as the same path we just applauded Batman and X-Men for taking, Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve cleared out in the first place decades before. While the Batman movies’ appeal springs from what we can become, Superman movies draw us in because of what we wish we could become. However sappy that sentiment is, that’s why the first two Superman movies hold up so well today.
7. X2: X-Men United (2003). The sequels always tend to play better than the kickoff flick, probably because there’s no need to waste a third of the film “introducing” everybody, thus giving the creative team space for a more detailed plot. X2 in particular succeeds because both the action and character pieces don’t hit you over the head with the “people hate things that are different” theme, unlike X-Men and X-Men 3: The Last Stand.
6. Superman II (1980). (Note that Roman numerals for sequels are oh so very passé these days.) Even though Stan Lee has a prominent role in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, does Smith reference any Marvel big-screen triumphs? No, because there weren’t any at that point, and because “Kneel before Zod” is just much, much cooler than even Stan Lee most days.
5. Spider-Man 2 (2004). Oh, look, yet another second installment. See, what’d we tell you? Spidey 2 ups the action quotient from Round One while also giving us that most rare and wonderful of characters: a truly sympathetic villain. Alfred Molina’s Dr. Octopus was far more developed than his comic-book counterpart — he actually seemed less like a villain than simply a broken man pushed too far. (Keep this distinction in mind when we make our way up to the number two slot in a bit.)
4. Iron Man (2008). Closer to Stan Lee’s ideal of the Flawed Hero than even his revered Spider-Man — not only is Tony Stark besieged from without, he’s besieged from within. Possibly no other mainstream hero has as many self-inflicted obstacles and limitations. Not to mention the fact that any first semester psych major could break Peter Parker’s whiny neursoses down in a second, while world-class head shrinkers could go on for days about the complexitites of an alcoholic, narcissistic (but strangely hyper-self-critical) genius with a life-threatening injury that seals himself in a suit of armor, but paints it bright red and yellow.
3. Batman Begins (2005). Strangely, DC’s carefully crafted re-entry into the genre got nearly universal high marks, while the just as technically sound Superman Returns didn’t exactly shoot to the top of anyone’s list of All Times (including this one). It’s hard to put a finger on why, but maybe it’s just because both Nolan films work harder to show you not just the hero’s outer and inner workings, but those of the supporting cast and city as well; Superman Returns suffers by comparison as it stretches an examination of, really, just Superman over an equal amount of time without revealing much of anything else. Batman Begins is more of an experience for the viewer than just a Superman plot you can watch.
2. The Dark Knight. (2008) Honestly, what else can we say about this week-old movie? The Dark Knight all of the elements required to make a good comic-book movies and a whole bunch of the elements required to make a great movie… regardless of genre. And remember when we said to keep in mind that whole “truly sympathetic villain” thing? The Dark Knight pulls that feat off in a big way, while also containing one of the least sympathetic villains ever committed to film.
1. The Incredibles (2004). Surprise! But, really in terms of super-movies that succeed, why not The Incredibles at the top of the list? It manages to nail several different comic-book high concepts (The Superhero Family; ducking from the bad guys to preserve secret identities; awkward childhood made more so by having special abilities and so on) that less-ambitious offerings like the Fantastic Four and even X-Men movies barely touch upon. Oh, and all of this happens in a movie your kids will watch without giving a damn about any of that. The Incredibles, in terms of plot, character, acting, execution, you name it, rivals The Dark Knight as a Great Superhero Movie that’s also Just A Plain Great Movie. In fact this movie’s so good, that neither of us wants to see a sequel made in our lifetimes.
Hmmm, look at that… two of our top four superhero movies ever were released in the last four months. Does this mean that we’re entering some sort of Golden Age of Superhero Movies or something? And if so, will that Golden Age die a horribly brutal death with the upcoming releases of The Spirit and Watchmen?
