Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The Best comic Based Movies

Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
May 5, 2008
24,767
27,842
The Misty Mountains
List of Marvel Comic Movies

List of Dark Horse Comic Movies

List of DC Comic Movies

My list in no order of preference:
*Superman
*The Punisher
*Mystery Men
*X-Men
*X-Men 2
*Wolverine Origins
*Spiderman
*Spiderman 2
*Hellboy
*Batman Reboot 3 movies
*Ironman
*Ironman 2
*Thor
*Man of Steele

The Worst:
*Howard The Duck (I don't remember if I saw it, but know I heard about it) :p
*Daredevil- Ties with Ghost Rider in its awefullness. ;)
*Ghost Rider
*Sin City
*RIPD
 
Reviewing that Dark Horse list and I didn't realize many of those were based off comics.
 
Howard the Duck was horrible. And as much as I love Bill Cosby, it is as painful to watch as it is to get free movie passes to see Leonard: Part 6.

BL.
 
Suture said:
Reviewing that Dark Horse list and I didn't realize many of those were based off comics.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it’s interesting how many films have a comic (or graphic novel) as the source, especially the ones without superheroes (at least of the classic, comic variety) like A History of Violence.
 
My favorites in no particular order:
Watchmen
Batman Trilogy (Nolan reboot)
The Avengers
Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy

There's quite a few from those links I've never seen, and some I've never even heard of (like Man-Thing).
 
I thought Sin City was a fantastic film. As far as others not on there.

Good:
Ironman 3
Batman (1989)
The Avengers
Superman
V for Vendetta
X-men
X2
X-Men First Class
X-Men Days of Future past

Bad:
Catwoman
Fantastic Four
Spider-Man 3
The Amazing Spider-man Series
Joel Schumacher's Batman Films
 
AustinIllini said:
I thought Sin City was a fantastic film. As far as others not on there.

Good:
Ironman 3
Batman (1989)
The Avengers
Superman
V for Vendetta
X-men
X2
X-Men First Class
X-Men Days of Future past

Bad:
Catwoman
Fantastic Four
Spider-Man 3
The Amazing Spider-man Series
Joel Schumacher's Batman Films
Click to expand...

My personal issue with Sin City has a lot to do with an oppressive stylish touch. It's just me. ;)
 
Huntn said:
My personal issue with Sin City has a lot to do with an oppressive stylish touch. It's just me. ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, it’s _highly_ stylized, so if that doesn’t work for you, it kind of wrecks the whole experience.

I really dig on it, but I love stylized art, and have been a long time Miller fan (even if he kind of lost his marbles in the last several years...)

Also prefer artists like Mike Mignola, Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker, Bill Sienkiewicz - more so vs. artwork, that’s good, but more traditional - like Perez, Byrne, Zeck (who I do like as well, but from an artistic perspective, I like the less traditional).
 
D.T. said:
Yes, it’s _highly_ stylized, so if that doesn’t work for you, it kind of wrecks the whole experience.

I really dig on it, but I love stylized art, and have been a long time Miller fan (even if he kind of lost his marbles in the last several years...)

Also prefer artists like Mike Mignola, Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker, Bill Sienkiewicz - more so vs. artwork, that’s good, but more traditional - like Perez, Byrne, Zeck (who I do like as well, but from an artistic perspective, I like the less traditional).
Click to expand...

It reminds me of The Crow which I like and was able to overlook the stylized digital and model backgrounds. I think The Crow's story appealed to me more, good spiritual justice. :D
 
Ghost in the Shell

Other than that:

Watchmen
Batman
Iron Man
SinCity (haven't read the books though :D)


Oh, and I really liked the latest Wolverine. But no idea about how faithful it is regarding that particular stroyline within the books - caught the spirit quite well - and that's what counts.
 
Huntn said:
List of Marvel Comic Movies

List of Dark Horse Comic Movies

List of DC Comic Movies

My list in no order of preference:
*Superman
*The Punisher
*Mystery Men
*X-Men
*X-Men 2
*Wolverine Origins
*Spiderman
*Spiderman 2
*Hellboy
*Batman Reboot 3 movies
*Ironman
*Ironman 2
*Thor
*Man of Steele

The Worst:
*Howard The Duck (I don't remember if I saw it, but know I heard about it) :p
*Daredevil- Ties with Ghost Rider in its awefullness. ;)
*Ghost Rider
*Sin City
*RIPD
Click to expand...

I liked Sin City, shoot if you have read the comic, it is almost a frame by frame depiction of the book. I thought it was good. Haven't seen the new Sin City yet though.

Man of Steele was absolutely horrendous in my opinion. Daredevil was just ok and ghost rider (both movies) were also really bad. Haven't seen RIPD but it looked bad. Let's not forget Catwoman and Fantastic 4 (both of them). Wolverine Origins (horrible).

Loved Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor one and two, Ironman (1) and X-Men DOFP.

Really liked
X-Men First Class
Captain America
Blade
Hellboy (1), Hellboy (2) was just ok.
Dark Knight Series
Spider-man (1 and 2)

Ok Movies:
Watchmen (directors cut)
X-Men
X-Men 2
 
When you take the lists as a whole, the transition from comic to movie is at best uneven.

How do you rank the best comic based movie? Is it by accuracy? Iron Man rocks that one, despite the change of the origin story location. But there are some pretty good movies (Men in Black) that don't really follow the comic.

Spiderman 3 is a pretty good lesson on how not to make a comic movie. They tried to ram about 5 comic story lines and three villians into 2 hours and by doing so, didn't do any justice to any of it. So the studios set up some pretty high demands, the fans had high expectations (Venom), and everyone came out disappointed. Not that it was a (Catwoman) bad movie, but it could have been so much more.

Movies are an inherently different form of story telling. Watchmen was a good movie, but compared to the comic, a lot of the narratives and themes just couldn't make the transition to the screen, no matter how much time you had.

And you know, even the poorer comic book movies have their flashes of brilliance. Michael Clark Duncan cast as Kingpin? That was a bold casing choice on a number of different levels - and it worked!
 
ejb190 said:
When you take the lists as a whole, the transition from comic to movie is at best uneven.

How do you rank the best comic based movie? Is it by accuracy? Iron Man rocks that one, despite the change of the origin story location. But there are some pretty good movies (Men in Black) that don't really follow the comic.

Spiderman 3 is a pretty good lesson on how not to make a comic movie. They tried to ram about 5 comic story lines and three villians into 2 hours and by doing so, didn't do any justice to any of it. So the studios set up some pretty high demands, the fans had high expectations (Venom), and everyone came out disappointed. Not that it was a (Catwoman) bad movie, but it could have been so much more.

Movies are an inherently different form of story telling. Watchmen was a good movie, but compared to the comic, a lot of the narratives and themes just couldn't make the transition to the screen, no matter how much time you had.

And you know, even the poorer comic book movies have their flashes of brilliance. Michael Clark Duncan cast as Kingpin? That was a bold casing choice on a number of different levels - and it worked!
Click to expand...

It's a combination of faithfulness to the story and atmosphere with personal preference. Faithfulness does not necessarily mean accuracy. :)
 
My list:

Best:

Captain America The Winter Soldier
Blade
Dredd
Hellboy
A History of Violence
Iron Man
Superman II
X-Men First Class



Worst:

Avengers
Spider-Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
Batman The Dark Knight
X-Men Days of Future Past
Blade Trinity
Iron Man 3
Thor The Dark World

--

My particular criteria I have to completely believe in the characters and the world, even if I do not know the storyline. Let's face it, very few adaptions will be as accurate as 300 was to it's source material.

I found a lot of highly rated and/or beloved comic films awful. The storytelling and/or acting did not click for me. This is true of any film, if I cannot believe in the character and/or get lost in the world, you've lost me.

I am not so much of a crank that these have to match the comic adaption faithfully. I was nicely rewarded with Captain America The Winter Soldier adding even better master villains to the the excellent WS storyline.
 
Last edited:
I don't know which is the best movie.

But the WORST movie.

Catwoman 2004, it was so bad I walked out of the theatre, it's the only time in my life.
 
kazmac said:
Best:
...
Dredd
...


Worst:

Avengers
Spider-Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
Batman The Dark Knight
X-Men Days of Future Past
Blade Trinity
Iron Man 3
Thor The Dark World
Click to expand...

Totally forgot about Dredd - +1 for that one! And I really enjoyed the Ang Lee Hulk now that I think about it. Excellent adaption.

Glad I missed most of your worst-list flics. Bummer to find X-Men DoFP there - was looking forward for that one :(
Completely agree with Avengers, Spider Man3 and every Nolan Batman that is not the first (Beginning was good). Thought the last one pure garbage so curious why you put The Dark Knight up there, but whatever. I'd put the first Capt.America in that list too. ;)

Dredd, yay! :D
 
Happybunny said:
Catwoman 2004, it was so bad I walked out of the theatre, it's the only time in my life.
Click to expand...

Daredevil was pretty lousy too on the Marvel side of life would love to see that character get a Batman -> Dark Knight style reboot.

I really enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier on a plane recently.

Even though it's TV and not 100% faithful to the books. The Walking Dead rocks.

B
 
kazmac said:
My list:

Best:

Captain America The Winter Soldier
Blade
Dredd
Hellboy
A History of Violence
Iron Man
Superman II
X-Men First Class



Worst:

Avengers
Spider-Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
Batman The Dark Knight
X-Men Days of Future Past
Blade Trinity
Iron Man 3
Thor The Dark World

--

My particular criteria I have to completely believe in the characters and the world, even if I do not know the storyline. Let's face it, very few adaptions will be as accurate as 300 was to it's source material.

I found a lot of highly rated and/or beloved comic films awful. The storytelling and/or acting did not click for me. This is true of any film, if I cannot believe in the character and/or get lost in the world, you've lost me.

I am not so much of a crank that these have to match the comic adaption faithfully. I was nicely rewarded with Captain America The Winter Soldier adding even better master villains to the the excellent WS storyline.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I mostly agree with your worst list. :) Avengers was a good big ensemble movie, competently made, but I found it dissatisfying for some reason. I thought the Dark Knight was the best Batman ever made in large degree to Heath Ledger and an above average story.
 
kazmac said:
My list:

Best:

Captain America The Winter Soldier
Blade
Dredd
Hellboy
A History of Violence
Iron Man
Superman II
X-Men First Class



Worst:

Avengers
Spider-Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
Batman The Dark Knight
X-Men Days of Future Past
Blade Trinity
Iron Man 3
Thor The Dark World

--

My particular criteria I have to completely believe in the characters and the world, even if I do not know the storyline. Let's face it, very few adaptions will be as accurate as 300 was to it's source material.

I found a lot of highly rated and/or beloved comic films awful. The storytelling and/or acting did not click for me. This is true of any film, if I cannot believe in the character and/or get lost in the world, you've lost me.

I am not so much of a crank that these have to match the comic adaption faithfully. I was nicely rewarded with Captain America The Winter Soldier adding even better master villains to the the excellent WS storyline.
Click to expand...

I totally forgot about Dredd. Loved that movie. Spot on!

I don't think the Avengers was worst but man, I felt it had issues. A few scenes did not need to be in the movie at all. I agree with Huntn, it left me feeling blah once the movie was done.
 
twietee said:
Totally forgot about Dredd - +1 for that one! And I really enjoyed the Ang Lee Hulk now that I think about it. Excellent adaption.

Glad I missed most of your worst-list flics. Bummer to find X-Men DoFP there - was looking forward for that one :(
Completely agree with Avengers, Spider Man3 and every Nolan Batman that is not the first (Beginning was good). Thought the last one pure garbage so curious why you put The Dark Knight up there, but whatever. I'd put the first Capt.America in that list too. ;)

Dredd, yay! :D
Click to expand...

You might like XMDoFP, but for me, it was very disappointing. Dredd impressed the heck out of me. I know very little about the Judges and their world and even though I still can't get into the comic, I found the movie to be terrific in explaining that world. Urban was fantastic and it was an entertaining movie. I am sorry I missed it in theatres. If the sequel gets made, I will be in the theatre.

The first Captain America has issues (hello Red Skull, rush to freeze Steve, Avengers commercial) but Chris Evans, Toby Jones and Sebastian Stan were so great in their roles and they kept the humanity of Cap so I can't utterly hate it.

Huntn said:
Interesting, I mostly agree with your worst list. :) Avengers was a good big ensemble movie, competently made, but I found it dissatisfying for some reason. I thought the Dark Knight was the best Batman ever made in large degree to Heath Ledger and an above average story.
Click to expand...

I forgot a lot of my worst movies instantly (while watching.) That's a huge indicator nothing clicked. I know people dig the Dark Knight, that's cool. And I understand people liked Ledger, but I thought Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent was a much more interesting villain.

rhett7660 said:
I totally forgot about Dredd. Loved that movie. Spot on!

I don't think the Avengers was worst but man, I felt it had issues. A few scenes did not need to be in the movie at all. I agree with Huntn, it left me feeling blah once the movie was done.
Click to expand...

I do not like Loki (including Norse mythology), so that's a big issue. I am also not a Joss Whedon fan (another rant I'll avoid, work time is almost here), so you put those two together, plus how forced some characters felt and voila.

That said, I will probably see Avengers Age of Ultron (cheaply), but if that stinks the only thing that will make me see A3 is Bucky.
 
I love comic movies. Specially Sptder man, superman, xmen and batmen. All are amazing and excellent movies to watch. And one more thing, normally we can watch these movies along with whole family
 
great fan of comic book movies, one of my faves which isn't here is Scott Pilgrim, great film really close to the graphic novels!

Also Guardians and Winter soldier along with dark knight trilogy are great movies too
 
I have to add Danger: Diabolik to my list. Completely forgot about this until I rewatched in the wee hours this morning. There are not many English translations of the Diabolik comic, but folks who have read the Italian say this is very faithful.

Regardless, it's so much fun. Very campy and playful. And sexy as all get out. I think my choices of favorite characters would be different had I seen this as a little girl.

Okay my question to anyone who is reading this > What unfilmed comic adaptation would be your dream comic movie?

Mine: 2000AD's Slaine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back