There has been a slew of movies based on comic books in recent years and, unfortunately, the average quality of these flicks does not tend to be great we’re looking at you Green Lantern. But every now and then you’ll find a gem among these turds and we thought that we’d share a few of our favorites with you! Here are our best movies based on comic books, for your pleasure.
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier: In a seemingly endless storm of bad movies based on comic books, the latest “Captain America” movie is absolutely refreshing. With an interesting story that is based on one of the best-written comic book arcs of all time, this film finally shows Cap doing what he does best taking action. With great acting from Chris Evans, Robert Redford and Samuel L. Jackson and a stellar tone, this movie is one that you should not miss.
Iron Man: Many people say that the first “Iron Man” movie should be credited with bringing forth all of the other superhero movies that have come since it was first released. Why? Because it was such a good movie that it had cross-over appeal to those people who aren’t even interested in comic books. With Robert Downey Jr. spitting wonderful one-liners and Jeff Bridges acting about as malevolent as you’ve ever seen him, “Iron Man” is just a great movie.
Batman Begins: Christopher Nolan’s movies have always been two things: beautifully shot and wonderfully written. And this holds true for his first foray into the superhero movie genre. “Batman Begins” is what we all think a Batman movie should be. It’s dark, gritty, realistic and, most of all, badass. And while this movie is wonderful on its own merit, what makes it even better is how bad the last few Batman movies were that came out before it. Does anybody remember “Batman Forever”? How about “Batman & Robin”? Nope? Good.
The Avengers: Not to be confused with the terrible remake of the old British spy show with Uma Thurman, “The Avengers” did what we were all waiting for, it unified the Marvel universe in the filmic medium. There had never been another superhero movie that combined the universes of two separate comic book characters. Finally seeing them come together and launch into a battle of epic proportions was pretty awesome. Oh yeah, and the movie is directed by Joss Whedon, so it’s got that going for it too.
300: People are of a split opinion about this film. Some see it as Zack Snyder’s best film, his breakout hit and a wonderful representation of an incredibly tough comic book to adapt. Others see it as a poorly written ode to latent homoeroticism. I’ll leave the choice to you.
Thor: It’s basically Shakespeare in space, but what else would you expect from Kenneth Branagh? Regardless, thanks to the acting and muscles of Chris Hemsworth, it’s one of the better superhero movies to date.
X2: “X2” was (and is) the best of the “X-Men” movies to date. While “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and even “X-Men: First Class” are both solid flicks, they don’t come close to “X2” in terms of storytelling and character development. That and you get Wolverine’s origin story as well as the beginning of the Dark Phoenix Saga. What more could you ask for?
