10. Spider-man 2
Sam Raimi was able to bring the web slinger to life with 2002s Spider-man, but it was in 2004 when he really got it right. Spider-man 2 Brought a new sense of humor and depth to the character that the original only touched upon. Not only that, but it also gave us some of the best action scenes in comic book movies to date, mainly due to the villain in this go around being the four mechanical armed foe Doctor Octopus. It had a great balance of action, emotion, and comedy. Plus it wasn't dragged down by an origin story this time. all of these things put together made, in my opinion, the best Spider-man movie so far.
9. Batman
The original movie about The Dark Knight, Batman brought a darker look to CBMs that no other mainstream movie had really done before it. This was Burtons' second film and he was still able to dazzle audiences with his story of The Bat verses The Joker. It's interesting how Burton always seemed to focus on the villains story rather than Batmans' but it worked in this first installment (not so much the second). Although he does give off the vibe that he kind of doesn't care about Batman so much as he does about The Joker. Also this features the best Batman to grace the silver screen, Michael Keaton. It was the first of the most successful CBM series, and the best was yet to come.
8. Superman
When most fanboys and fangirls think of the original comic book movie most think of 1978s Superman. The tagline was "You'll believe a man can fly" and boy was that right. It brought Superman and superheroes back to the forefront of media and became an instant classic. Much of it has to do with the casting of Christopher Reeve, who I consider to this day, much like Keaton to Batman, to be the greatest actor to portray the character.
Ever since the T.V. show Spaced I've been a fan of Edgar Wright. His comedies are some of the best of all time and he has proven time and time again what fantastic writer and director he is. It only made sense that he would be called in to helm a comic book movie at some point in his career, and that happened with Scott Pilgrim. This film did things that others wouldn't dare being that it's pretty damn risky to have such a visually active movie. Putting up sound bubbles with the word POW when someone gets hit, or having a "pee meter" are things you don't normally see in movies, not even comic book movies, but he took a chance and ended up with a visually stunning and unbelievable smart and witty movie.
6. Sin City
Another visually risky movie, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, with a little help from Tarantino, were able to literally bring the page to life with Sin City. The idea to do the film completely in front of a green screen would, until then, usually be a big mistake. However that combined with the use of black and white are what make this violent gritty anthology film one of the best. It also doesn't hurt that it had one of the best casts for a film in recent years.
5. Watchmen
There are many people divided on this film for not being 100% the same to the original graphic novel. Me, I was surprised and happy with just 90% and that's what I got. Yes, the ending isn't the same and doesn't make sense if you take into account Bubastas showing up, Rorschach's mask, and it just being kinda stupid. But I was able to look past it being that a giant squid would be difficult to translate to film. Not to mention the rest of the movie was all pretty much word for word and visually the same as the graphic novel. Now I'd say the "Ultimate DVD" version is the best with the added scenes, especially Hollis Mason's death which in my opinion is one of the best in the film, and the Curse of the Black Freighter cartoon. It was the closest thing to a perfect Watchmen movie we could ever hope to get, and it pretty much is near perfect.
This is the big one for all the Marvel fans and it was glorious. Anything that you wanted to see in this film, it delivered. Hulk vs Thor, Iron man vs Cap, Cap vs Thor vs Iron man, Black Widow vs Hawkeye, Loki vs everyone, Nick Fury vs stupid ass decisions IT WAS AWESOME... So why than isn't it higher on the list? Well, yes all of the action in the movie was dynamic and amazing and yes the chemistry between everyone was right on the money as well as their attitudes toward each other and their motivations, but what this movie lacks is what everyone says it lacks, a more interesting story. I'm not saying that it's a bad story, I'm just saying that it leaves one wanting. And that's basically the reason it isn't able to hit number one on the list for me.
3. Iron Man
Wait... Iron man is higher than Avengers???? ARE YOU INSANE?? Just hear me out on this one. Iron man is a damn near perfect super hero movie with unbelievable character development, a brilliantly driven plot, spot on acting, and wonderful directing. If you doubt this, I'd like you to, for a moment, think of the character of Yinsen. He is in the movie for probably about 20 minutes consecutively, and yet in that small time period he becomes a fully developed character that we come to know and actually care about what happens to him. They do this so that we can understand why Tony decides to completely turn his life around. Yinsen is a pivotal character and even though we only see him for a short period of time, he has a huge impact on the story and the audience. The transformation of Tony is completely well done too. From the moment we see him gambling away his money and being a careless snarky selfish human being, to the final scene where he practically sacrifices himself, he goes through a transformation and that can't be said for some superheroes who have their own movie as well. *coughCaptainAmericacough*
2. Road to Perdition
Again, this is a comic book movie list, not just a superhero movie list. I've only recently had the pleasure of viewing this highly under rated and beautifully crafted film. I haven't read the source material, admittedly, but I'm definity going to try to get my hands on a copy because if it is anything at all like the movie than I know I'll love it. This film is a very different kind of gangster film than what most are used to and that may the reason it was never fully recognized when it was released. This was also the follow up film for Sam Mendes to his Oscar winning first film American Beauty which is also an inspired work. Road to Perdition is a stunning film with an amazing story of a father and son and is well worth checking out if you haven't already.
Yes this is an obvious choice and I was considering putting Road to Perdition at number one, but I decided that this film exhibits everything that a comic book movie should have. This is Chris Nolan's masterpiece and it can be put up with any classic film and be argued to deserve to be in the same category as them. This movie brings up themes that no other CBM has before it. Themes of what the act of chaos brings out in everyday people, how a decent man can brought down, how one person can completely drive a city into madness with some barrels of gasoline and a couple of bullets, and the most important theme that more superhero movies should have, would the villain even exist if the hero never decided to put on the cape and cowl? All of this plus an extremely well executed story and directing style. Not to mention the award winning performance by Heath Ledger of the Joker, the best performance of the character, I might add, on the silver screen. It is the ultimate CBM, and there is a reason that most people put this at the top of their list, because it's simply that best.
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