16 Mar 2017 10:39:52
In honour of Ed1's views on my favourite superhero films I thought I'd do my top 10 best Superhero films of all time - would be interested to get everyone else's thoughts.

1. The Dark Knight - Not just an excellent superhero film this is an excellent film full stop. In 2009 Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for best film, TDK wasn't even nominated. I love that film but it will be a footnote in cinematic history whilst TDK will go down as one of the greats and should have taken the statue home, at least Heath Ledger was awarded for his stunning portrayal of the Joker.

2. Spiderman 2 - There have been dozens of superhero films in the last 15 years but not one has done as good a job of bringing a comic to the screen as Spidey 2 did. The character design is perfect, the story could be told in a four-issue run and 13 years later the train top fight is still the best superhero fight scene ever committed to celluloid.

3. X2 - The first X-men film launched the dawn of modern superhero blockbusters but it was a proof of concept, for the sequel Fox fully committed. The budget was much bigger and that gave Bryan Singer the ability to bring his vision to the screen. Nightcrawler's attack on the president is stunning and Ian Mckellan's Magneto is a brilliant villain. X2 showed that superhero films could be smart as well as exciting.

4. The Winter Soldier - This is Marvel's The Dark Knight, it's an excellent spy thriller that happens to based on a superhero. Chris Evans is probably the best casting decision Marvel ever made, and his supporting cast are excellent.

5. The Avengers - This shouldn't have worked, it should have been overblown and clunky but Joss Whedon kept the tone perfect and balanced his amazing cast giving them each time to shine. 'Puny God' is one of the greatest lines in Hollywood history.

6. Kick Ass - This is how you do an R-rated superhero film. Kick-Ass both satirises and celebrates comics by exploring the real consequences of vigilantes dressing in spandex. What really makes this film fly though is Hit Girl, her crazy relationship with her father and the shock/delight of seeing this sweet little girl carve through villains makes her one of the best characters in superhero films.

7. Guardians of the Galaxy - The film that proved that no one understands superhero films like Marvel, they poured money into a production of an obscure comic with an unproven cast and a 'quirky' director and their instincts were spot on. This is simply the most fun superhero film ever made.

8. Deadpool - Another risk that paid off brilliantly. Every decision the production made worked, the action, the humour, the casting, the marketing, the style, it just got everything right. it's proof that if you give passionate and talented people opportunities then great things are the reward.

9. Civil War - So much about this film is spot on but it's its imperfection that gets it on my list. The hero on hero airport battle distracts from the rest of the film, it's at least three characters too heavy and exists to sell the film rather than serve it but, taken on it's own, the scene is the culmination of our superhero fantasies. It is an epic throw down and brilliantly choreographed, shot and edited.

10 Blade 2 - This is my wild card, not only is it a great sequel that builds on its predecessor rather than repeats it but it's also stylistically brilliant. Benicio Del Toro was the perfect director for this franchise and Donnie Yen's work as action coordinator is right on the money. Don't forget, this film was ground breaking with it's use of digital stuntmen over a year before the Matrix: Reloaded did it (admittedly the effects have dated badly but they were state of the art in 2002).

Honourable mention - Batman - Tim Burton's Batman has been thoroughly superseded by Christopher Nolan but in 1989 it was a revelation. It showed that superhero movies could be true to the comics whilst still being great films, it was the progenitor of every superhero film since and deserves its place in the pantheon (Superman, on the other hand, is a product of it's time that, in hindsight, is just very dull).

{Ed001's Note - apart from Spidey 2 and X2, the one I have most difficulty with is Blade 2! I love Blade, the character and Donnie Yen as an actor, I liked the Blade films, but that one was the worst by a country mile, of the trilogy. Batman on the end is another one I have issue with, it is awful. One of the worst films ever made and that series of films killed my love of comic books for a while.

I really do not understand those three sequels you have picked at all, there is nothing about them that worked for me. Spidey was an awful take on the character and had none of his character from the original comic books. The appearance in Civil War was actually the closest to his comic book persona and the first time I have had hope they have got it right.

Still, if we all liked the same things, for the same reason, life would be so boring. I was thinking about asking Ed033 to set up a series of polls, one each week, to vote on which one out of a series of films is best. Anyone interested in doing that?}

1.) 16 Mar 2017
16 Mar 2017 11:35:20
It's funny ed, I thought blade 1 was ok and 3 was utter bobbins but 2 got it just right. As for Spidey, I'm reserving judgement on the new guy till the film comes out, I trust Marvel but making him interesting again is a big ask.

As for the poll idea I think it's great.

{Ed001's Note - I didn't think any of the Blades got it right, but the first was the best and 2 was woeful. Looking back on 3 now, it was a good warm up for Deadpool for Ryan Reynolds.....

I will have a word with Ed033 about doing the polls then.}

2.) 16 Mar 2017
16 Mar 2017 11:39:34
Ps I may have over egged how good the original batman was, nowadays it looks almost as camp as the TVs series, but at the time it was groundbreaking and it's important in the history of superhero films hence the 'honourable mention'.

{Ed001's Note - I remember it being bigged up by critics etc but watching it just made me cringe with how terrible it was at the time. I could not even countenance how bad it would seem now.}

3.) 16 Mar 2017
16 Mar 2017 13:30:47
I want to share my top 5. Sorry, because I'm not a fan of comic book films and I can only think of this 5. These films really blown me.

1. Batman Begins - I love Batmam as a character, but hated all the films. But this, the realism of the story, was so good that it made me forget all those craps came out before it, especially the Batman with Val Kilmer and Batman with the Penguin (sorry I really can't remember the titles)

2. Man of Steel - this is a comic book character that I don't like at all for so many reasons. I tried watching the old films but failed to enjoy them. I remembered watching Superman Returns, and that film was super boring. But this one, yes, it was loud (maybe too loud) but the origin story was really entertaining to watch. Costner, eventhough didn't feature much in it, was really good as the Superman's father.

3. Watchmen - I don't want to sound like I'm a movie expert, but there were something about its cameraworks, editing, and plots that, for me, were really engaging. I enjoyed the film so much I watched it quite a number of times. Rorscharch is my favourite character in that film.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy - when I watched the trailer, and saw Chris Pratt in it, I asked myself "Chris Pratt? Really?". Well, like you said Putney, it was really fun to watch, and the humours were hilarious.

5. Ang Lee's Hulk - one thing I was dissapointed about this film is the last battle scene with his father. The rest of it was brilliant. It was long, the action wasn't that much. If only Ang Lee managed to cut it short a bit, add more Hulk action in it, it will easily get on top of my list here.

4.) 16 Mar 2017
16 Mar 2017 18:41:37
I won't go into a top ten as such as I will just keep arguing with myself over what deserves to be number 1.

The dark knight is a superb movie and is up there with my favourites across all genres.

The whole captain America trilogy stands out for me, I think there a cut aboveboard the other marvel films.

Deadpool, had the potential to be awesome and they surpassed it imo.

GOTG funniest marvel film and one I didn't expect to like, watched it and was instantly hooked.

Ironman deserves a mention (1&2) in particular as without those I don't think we would have the MCU as it is today.

Spidey should be in here but I think the new one will blow it out of the water, was sceptical when he was added to civil war but seems very well casted.

Also a fan of the 1989 batman, I know when you watch it now it's a bit dated but for me it started my love for DC/Marvel.

As for The polls ed001 could be a great addition to the site.

{Ed001's Note - fingers crossed as Ed033 is setting up.}

5.) 18 Mar 2017
17 Mar 2017 23:58:18
1 - avengers: has to be as it had such a big build up over the span of years and just delivered! Still remember the first time I saw it in the cinema and absolutely loved it! Was just a great comic book adaptation!

2 - the dark knight - think the greatness of this one glosses over the over all quality of the 1 & 3, both good but think get more credit than deserved.

3 - Spider-Man 2, was a great adaption of Spider-Man and still the best Spider-Man film made.

4 - X2; first x men was good but lacked somewhat and this made up for it, touched on a lot more of the story from the comics and had some great scenes

5 - guardians of the galaxy, just a fun funny and joy to watch, again marvel did great at adapting a fairly odd comic book series on the big screen

6 - the watchmen; probably the best adaptation of a graphic novel I've seen. But different from other hero films and had a great storyline

7 - dead pool, think this has been covered already - perfect person for this passion project

8 - captain America winter soldier- think this is the best stand alone marvel film from this franchise, wasn't as epic as civil war but much better story and had the more espionage parts to it.

9 - civil war - probably an improvement on what the comics offered and is a really good film, preferred winter soldier but this wasn't as good

10 - Logan, doesn't stay true to the comics but is a much better wolverine film then has ever been done, very different tone to it and not entirely action driven. But got to at least see a few scenes of what wolverine should have been like - only down side is took till their last attempt to finally get what made wolverine a good character