Who Would Win if All the Comic Book Movies Of the 00's Got in a Fight?
On the incredibly important question of which comic book movie is the best of the decade, I side with Dave Weigel, who picks Spider-Man for its tone-setting early success, over Matt Yglesias, who picks the excellent (and surprisingly rewatchable) but somewhat slight Iron Man. The problem with Iron Man is that the movie itself — script, direction, design — is only pretty good; it’s Downey’s performance that really makes the film. As soon as the third-act baddie comes into play, and Downey mostly disappears behind a CGI mask, the movie becomes just another good-but-not-great summer action movie; the film’s robo-a-robo third act isn’t all that much better than The Incredible Hulk‘s.
Still, I think both Weigel and Yglesias overlooked a better — if far less obvious — choice: Guillermo del Toro’s magnificent adaptation of Hellboy, which looks gorgeous, gets all the mopey, lovestruck character beats just right, and manages a number of zippy action sequences to boot. Even more impressive is that del Toro managed to figure out how to adapt weird and potentially off-putting source material without making any significant sacrifices — the lovable, grumpy, outsider core of Mike Mignola’s hell-spawned comic-book character is still there.
UPDATE: OK, if I had to rank the best of them, it would look something like this:
8) The Incredible Hulk
7) Iron Man
6) Batman Begins
5) Spider-Man
4) X-Men 2
3) The Dark Knight
2) Spider-Man 2
1) Hellboy
This ranking is based on my judgment of overall quality — but it doesn’t entirely account as much for how influential these movies are or for how much I personally liked them (despite its many obvious flaws, I actually really liked The Dark Knight, if only for the intensity and noirish sheen it brought to the Batman franchise). Another point I’d make is how awesome it is that we had eight good or very good big-budget comic book movies over the past ten years. Like Weigel says, this is the sort of thing that probably would’ve made my 15-year-old self go into a joy coma (and, frankly, sometimes threatens to do the same to my 28-year-old self).
Everything in competition takes second prize to “The Dark Knight,” which was even better than “Superman: The Movie” (though it feels like a betrayal of my childhood to admit this).
— Jeff Peterson · Dec 31, 09:07 PM · #
Oh, and “Spider-Man 2” was better on every level than #1 — the origin benefited from being retold quickly in the credits, the villain was more challenging and credible, action and CGI better, and the performances just as good. As with the first, one had to overlook the sappy romance dialogue, and there was also more dubious science to discount, but a close second to “Dark Knight” as a distillation of the superhero comic in the decade.
— Jeff Peterson · Dec 31, 09:16 PM · #
Peter,
Great post. I would second Jeff Peterson with regard to “Spider-Man 2” and “The Dark Knight”. I also think you are right about “Hellboy” being a seriously under-rated film (it would be #2 on my list).
Jonathan Last makes a good case that the first “X-Men” movie was really the most influential comic book movie here:
http://galleyslaves.blogspot.com/2009/12/end-of-decade-lists.html
I also like “Spider-Man 3” more than most — I think turning the Sandman into a sympathetic villain was a great idea and yet still gave us great fighting set-pieces between Spidey and Sandman. And while both “Fantastic Four” films are flawed, I think the second film captures the spirit of the Silver Surfer as a world weary emmisary for Galactus well and even gives us some great visuals.
Finally, I know it will drive everyone crazy, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Ang Lee’s “Hulk”, or at least the first two-thirds. I think folks don’t give him enough credit for how faithful he was to the high-jumping, fighting tanks and planes Hulk from the early comics. Those are great scenes in an admitedly flawed movie.
— Arminius · Dec 31, 10:03 PM · #
Going with the second installations of Batman, Spiderman, and X-Men over the originals shows that you are infinitely more sensible than Weigel, but all three of you have ignored Sin City completely. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
— NC Saint · Jan 1, 02:49 AM · #
Your last point sums up my feelings perfectly – that we are having a discussion about the best comic book movies, with multiple contenders, is fantastic.
— Jeremiah · Jan 1, 06:04 AM · #
As is typical of discussions of The Dark Knight, its supporters aren’t talking about the fact that the movie’s plot makes no earthly sense. I’m on record elsewhere going over the movie’s incredible number of plot holes and absurd contrivances, so I won’t go into detail, but suffice is to say that like a lot of movies with manufactured plot twists, the motivations of the characters simply make no sense when you learn the next piece of twisty information. The movie’s supporters turn to the “the Joker is an agent of chaos, so his actions don’t have to make any sense whatsoever,” which is an incredibly lame cop-out. But even if you do excuse the Joker, there are plenty of things in the plot (particularly as concerns the Chinese gangster) that simply don’t make sense.
It’s a small thing in terms of the plot, but the most insulting of all: after having captured the Joker, who has terrorized Gotham for days, who Gordon knows battled the Batman to a standstill in hand-to-hand combat, Gordon leaves him alone in an interrogation room with a single, fat, middle-aged, unarmed cop! And, surprise surprise, the Joker… beats him up and gets away! What a shocker for a veteran policeman like Gordon! Why didn’t he put the Joker in a cell? Why didn’t he surround him with a whole group of highly armed officers? Why didn’t he just lock the door of the interrogation room???
Ludicrous. And the fact that so many people just ignore this stuff when talking up the movie is annoying.
— Freddie · Jan 1, 02:50 PM · #
Surely the more interesting question is: if you put all the superheroes of the films mentioned above in an arena and got them to fight it out, which one would win?
— Joshua Mostafa · Jan 1, 07:20 PM · #
Yeah, I think a lot of people have conflated “comic book” with “superhero”, and maybe aren’t aware of how many good movies this decade were derived from graphic novels and comic books. I’d like to put my word in for Watchmen, not so much because its good – and it’s not that bad, it’s better than at least a few of the ones already on the list – but because it turned out a lot better than I think anyone would have guessed, based on the legendary difficulty of adapting Alan Moore works to film. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a movie that I hate to watch but love to look at – a lush, steampunk mashup of some of my childhood favorite novels.
Last month’s Sherlock Holmes could be considered a comic book movie that never had a comic book. Honorary mention?
— Chet · Jan 1, 07:25 PM · #
Some other non-superhero comic book adaptations of the Aughts that deserve considering include Ghost World, A History of Violence, American Splendor, and Road to Perdition. That’s not including movies adapted from manga, like Old Boy and Metropolis, which could arguably be included depending on your definition of comic books. If on the other hand, we’re just doing superhero movies, The Incredibles should probably be considered.
I suppose the category could just be best movies adapted from superhero comics though, in which case I largely agree with this list. I would have included Hellboy 2 somewhere on there though, even if it had to be at number 9.
— Xelgaex · Jan 2, 11:49 PM · #
Sorry… we’re talking about Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy, right? I’ll give you that it was a delight to look at, and I appreciate that any text-based movie has to diverge somewhat from the original material. But to say it got the characters “just right” is asinine. Hellboy as Oscar Madison? Abe Sapien as nattering simp? The Nazis sans any of the quirky mannerisms that make them such great villains? Plus throw in Myers, the Hellboy-Liz romance, the government conspiracy angle, and the layer after layer of boogada-boogada stuff that del Toro carelessly overplays… the freaks-gotta-stick-together plotline that buttressed the whole movie is not just a Hollywood cliché; it was a poor substitute for the personal demons that drive the principal characters in the book. Hellboy’s denial about Anung un Rama, Liz’s wanting to forget her past, Abe’s search for his identity – the BPRD is an opportunity to redefine themselves contra their true nature. And there’s an added touch in how the BPRD treats them and everything around them as ordinary (not for nothing is it located in Connecticut). Instead, we got a good monsters vs. bad monsters movie. And pancakes! Because in the book Hellboy once said he liked pancakes, so wouldn’t it be great to blow that up into a defining character trait? Exactly.
— Dan · Jan 3, 02:20 AM · #