TOP 10 Greatest Comic Book Movies

TOP 10 GREATEST COMIC BOOK MOVIES
 With The Dark Knight Rises in theaters, and The Avengers coming out on DVD we are at a very exciting time in the world of comic books. We always dream of the characters from those pages coming to life and being played on the big screen by our favorite actors (Robert Downey Jr. would play everybody). I also know that there are a crazy amount of lists just like this one hovering around cyberspace. What makes this one different? I've read the comics. I know the characters. Plus, if your reading this, it doesn't really matter. So, read on.

10. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World



    I don't know if there has been a movie that wears it's comic book origins so visible on it's sleeve. This film was Hollywood's best attempt at bringing at a comic book to the screen and still have the comic book aspect remain. There have been attempts (Ang Lee's The Hulk, Batman and Robin), but they come out corny (Batman and Robin) or misunderstood (The Hulk).

Scott Pilgrim is a great movie with a great cast. It's an inventive ode to nerds. Whether it's Scott's everyday loser life or his ninja-fighting, super-powered imaginary one, it's all played with Michael Cera's sweetness.

9. Hellboy

  Ah, Hellboy. First off, let me say that Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman make this movie. There are few movies that suprise me. The first time I saw Hellboy, it suprised me. It was all sorts of awesome rolled up in charm and thrown into a box of pure badassness. From Guillermo del Toro's special affects and character creations, to Ron Perlman's hero, to Selma Blair's perfect mixture of hotness and awesomeness. The movie doesn't try to make the story believable like most other comic book movies today.

 Hellboy is one of the most slavishly faithful to its origins of any film in this genre with the scenery, characters, and story. It's all so close to the comic that the attention to detail and production design is truly astonishing. It's inventive, well performed, visually lush, and stylised.

8. 30 Days of Night

I've been sticking up for 30 Days of Night for years. In my opinion it belongs on lists like this, and is one of the greatest vampire movies of all-time. Brutal, exciting, and intense. So intense that even though you’re watching one of the goriest movies you’ve ever seen, you may not even notice.   You’re too caught up in what’s going to happen next. Are the vampires coming? Will they run? Will they hide? Will anyone make it out alive?

 It’s so rare that a modern horror movie actually scares it's audience. Most seem to boil down to buckets of gore or cheap, easily spotted scares. This film brings the gore, but mixes it with a brutal, vicious, nail biting intensity that grabs you by the hair, drags you through the street, and cuts off your head when you least expect it. When you see it, you won't be thinking 'comic book movie', but a successful comic book movie it is.

7. Captain America

 
   Comic book fans have been waiting close to 70 years for this movie. A damn does this movie get it right. I was questioning the movie early on because of Fantastic Four's Chris Evans didn't seem like Captain America to me. Boy was I wrong. This movie does very few things wrong.

Tthe movie is nostalgic. Though there are plenty of the usual digital enhancements and overscaled effects, it has a grandiosity that the genre is mostly missing.  It is enjoyably preposterous, occasionally touching, and generally likable. There is enough energy and imagination packed into the movie to make you a bit sorry to see it all dissapear at the end. It might have been nice to be able to look forward to a few more sequels in the old days. Captain America is a reminder, at once successful and self-defeating, of the kind of fun that comics used to be.

6. Avengers

   In Joss Whedon we trust. The Avengers are here, and resistance is futile. Marvel had a plan for world domination and it won. Whedon weaves a story that allows each of the heroes to do what they do best. And while they may not have exactly equal time, audiences get enough of each to feel satisfied, but not sated. Clever work, indeed.

Whedon wisely gives the group the appeal of a comic ensemble, so when the 3-D battles with alien armies grow numbingly familiar, the breezy comic dialogue, divvied up among the collective, makes for a happy and welcome distraction. Bring on Phase 2!

5. Iron Man

  The movie that started Marvel's supremacy, and brought Robert Downey Jr. back to the land of the living. Iron Man is an origin story in more ways than one. This is, after all, the first true Marvel Studios picture, the first fully financed by the comic-book publishers-turned-entertainment megahouse.

   Everything works pretty well. The dazzling, computer-aided visual effects, the story, the characters, and the buzz it created thanks to a 30 second teaser post credits. But who nowadays doesn’t have superpowers? Actually, Iron Man doesn’t; his heroism is all handicraft, elbow grease and applied intelligence. Those things account for the best parts of Iron Man as well.

4. X2: X-Men United

  Growing up, the X-Men were my favorite comics. There were so many different characters, it was hard to do the same thing twice, so ever issue was fresh (and because Wolverine and I have the same last name). I remember seeing X2 at the midnight showing left me so satisfied that when my head finally did reach a pillow at about 3 in the morning that I found myself laying awake thinking about ways to see it all over again.

   The first X-Men movie was my favorite movie at the time. The second movie was an absolute masterpiece. A consummate blending of deep delving character exploration, team oriented action, amazing set pieces, and PERFECTLY done mind blowing, super-powered, special effects that rip the roof off of any previous effects efforts in the genre. Plus it has the second best comic book movie opening of all time. BAMF!!!

3. Superman

  Any list that doesn't include this movie in the top 5 is not a REAL list. This movie is amazing. I watched it a few months ago, and I can tell you, it's the year 2012 and this movie still holds up. Richard Donner's big-budget blockbuster Superman: The Movie is an immensely entertaining recounting of the origin of the famous comic book character.

  With a triumphant score by John Williams, the searing sincerity of Christopher Reeve and a preposterous grand finale, it is impossible not to root for Superman in this most enjoyable of feel-good movies. You'll watch this movie, and you will believe a man can fly.

2. Spider-Man 2

  The first Spider-Man was the movie that started the Comic book movie trend. What held that movie down was the familiar origin story that held Peter Parker back. With no origin story to tell, Spider-Man 2 hits the ground at ramming speed and, slightly over two hours later, collapses in blissful exhaustion.

  This movie is truly one of a kind. Hands down. Spider-Man is my favorite comic (I'm up to Amazing Spider-Man 550). Being a comic veteran who knows his Spidey, there isn't much to complain about (I do like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone better that Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst)

1. The Dark Knight

   Okay, let me start by saying Christopher Nolan is much, much smarter than your average filmmaker. It is ridiculous how much praise The Dark Knight truly deserves. Heath Ledger is this film's crowning jewel. By the time you get to the end credits, you'll immediately want to see it again.
Before the first movie I didn't know what to think about Christian Bale being cast as Batman. But he mad me a believe when he growled the words "SWEAR TO ME!" in Batman Begins. I had the same beliefs about Heath Ledger (the skater/surfer dude from Lords of Dogtown, and the love-struck knight from A Knight's Tale). But when the Gotham news network plays the Joker's video and the Joker yells "LOOK AT ME!" it truly gave me goosebumps. I knew right then and there, nobody will ever be the Joker again, because Heath Ledger is the Joker. The character died with him.

It not only surpasses Batman Begins - previously considered the high-water mark of movies about the Caped Crusader - but one that magnificently transcends the superhero genre.