SUPERHERO MOVIES – TOP 10 COUNTDOWN – PART 4

AND HERE WE GO...

Faster than a speeding bullet we’re back to the countdown with the best theatrical offerings that DC Comics have ever produced!

#5 – SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE

In today’s era of multiple superhero movies each year, it’s hard to remember back to 1978 which gave us SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE…then the eleven years before Tim Burton’s first Batman offering.  Two superhero movies in spanning all that time.  Yes, I know there were three Superman sequels…but they all suck.  

People who have fond memories of Superman II should rewatch it to realize that it doesn’t hold up.  Richard Lester’s ham-handed comedic directing (with fired director Richard Donner’s material) doesn’t work for anyone over 10 years old.  The special effects are weak…seriously who can’t tell that those are flying dolls traveling through a miniaturized set?  And the climactic fight(s)?  Well, one of them involves Superman introducing a bunch of new hokey powers: cartoon throwaway shield, zero-gravity hand ray, and the power of illusion!  Then of course the earlier fight in the city of Metropolis which involves the most over extended sequence wear the citizens of Metropolis, all of whom are so annoying that I was routing for their subjugation to Zod, are being blown around town and laughing and having a meery good time.  What a horrendous movie.  And for all its hype, the Richard Donner cut…suffers as well for other reasons.  Of course, both versions of Superman II don’t have Richard Pryor or Nuclear Man…so in that regard they are successes.

However, two years before all the horrible Superman sequels, 1978 brought us an incredible superhero movie that truly made audiences believe that a man could fly.  And wow did flying look fun!  The casting of every character in Superman: The Movie is perfect!  I’ll argue that no other superhero movie has succeeded so solidly in both casting, costumes, and general sets appearance.  Metropolis is New York City!  Luthor is a fiendish villain with a great plan!  And Superman is…SUPER!

Considering how much material Richard Donner needs to cover, the pacing of this movie is fantastic.  The first hour gives us the destruction of Krypton, Jor-El’s reasoning for sending his only son to Earth, the villains of the Phantom Zone, young Kal-El’s landing on Earth, life in Smallville, the death of Pa Kent and his message (thank you Glenn Ford for 10 minutes of a movie that still resonate with such power decades later), the construction of the Fortress of Solitude, and the introduction of Metropolis!  Wow!  Amazing!  I know people are holding out hope for Zac Snyder’s Man of Steel…but man, that’s a lot of work to live up to. 

Superman: The Movie also delivers a 10-minute sequence that still rocks today.  Superman’s first night in Metropolis: saving Lois Lane, catching a helicopter, thwarting a jewel thief, stopping a bank robbery, saving a cat, and rescuing a crashing Air Force One.  Great cinematic stuff!  If I’m ever channel surfing and this segment is even close to airing, I always stop to watch and am never disappointed.

#4 – THE DARK KNIGHT

Watch the movie HEAT with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, and then watch The Dark Knight!  Both are the top films of the cop-criminal and hero-villain genres…and I’d argue that the one with the masks and capes is a better effort and I love HEAT.

Christopher Nolan knocks an utter grand slam with his second dive into the world of Batman.  The studios were so confident with Nolan that the movie didn’t even need to have Batman’s name in the title!  There are so many levels taking place in The Dark Knight that it’s easy to lose sight of the social and political commentary and just focus on Batman chasing the Joker and Two-Face.  But go back and rewatch the movie and you’ll see it’s filled to the brim with topics for discussion.

Anyone who hopes to write or a direct a superhero movie needs to watch and learn how Nolan manages to succeed in handling two supervillains (and never loses site of his hero).  So many other films have tried and failed when it comes to the use of multiple enemies for the hero, The Dark Knight is the primer for great implementation.  First, the Joker is shown simply as a force of nature.  He’s the shark from Jaws.  You don’t know why he arrived and why he does the things he does.  You don’t need that information.  All you need to know is when he is on screen really bad things are going to happen – and you’ll be captivated the entire time.  His persona is summed up perfectly as Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne, “Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." Then there’s Harvey Dent’s fall from grace and emergence as Two-Face.   Powerful stuff with incredibly gross CGI that is too realistic for its own good.  With these two villains, you fear for Batman and every single person in Gotham City.

The success of The Dark Knight is that it stays down to Earth on such a grim and gritty level that while watching a movie where people wear costumes, you can actually find yourself thinking, “If superheroes exist, this is what it would be like.”  At times it’s almost too dark.  Often people I talk to say the reason they don’t like The Dark Knight is because they want their Batman more family friendly and cartoony.  This is why I love The Dark Knight.  Because we’ve already had umpteen versions of Batman as a comic book character from comics, to cartoons, to the 1960’s TV show, to the Burton movies.  It’s easy to lose site that Chris Nolan is the first one to give us a truly grim visage of what life behind a mask can do to both a person and the city is strives to protect.  It’s not pretty but it’s damn original and entertaining!

There’s far too much for me to cover as to why I love The Dark Knight.  For my tastes, it’s the single best example of Batman in any genre ever!  Batman sums it up nicely with, “Sometimes the truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded...”

The Dark Knight is one helluva reward!

Had my Top 10 list been written three years ago, Superman: The Movie and The Dark Knight would have been ranked #3 and #2 respectively.  Just shows that in the last few years a couple of movies have come out that really shined a powerful light on the superhero genre from comics to movies.

The NEW Movies #3 and #2…are just around the corner…

SUPERHERO MOVIES – TOP 10 COUNTDOWN – PART 2

SMASH!     BOOM!

Ok, so this wasn’t so “soon”…but never fear true believers I’m not bailing on the topic yet.  After all, anyone with not 1 but 8 framed superhero posters in his dwelling is so engrossed in the genre that it’ll take more than sloth and writer’s blog to derail him.

So let’s keep it going by continuing my personal picks for the best superhero movies of all time.

#9 – THE ROCKETEER

I love this movie!  I remember seeing it at a sneak preview back in 1991 and loving every moment of it.  A great moment was during the movie after Cliff dons the rocket for the first time to save Malcolm and then flies off into a montage of goofy moments, a patron in the theatre shouted, “Rewind that!  It was awesome!”  This brought out a loud cheer and immense clapping from the audience.  Seriously, there’s not enough clapping in movies anymore.  Still when my first viewing ended, I knew that the movie would fail to cross over into mass appeal.  Not sure why, because it’s essentially Raiders of the Lost Ark meets WWII Superhero.  Joe Johnston is a solid director and managed to mix the genres even more successfully years later with Captain America: The First Avenger (coming soon to my list).

The Rocketeer is probably overlooked by most superhero fans because of the era it takes place in, and that Cliff Secord is more of an adventurer than a superhero.  However, the character was created first in the comic books (thank you Dave Stevens for your stellar ode to Commando Cody and Rocketman!).

Watching The Rocketeer (and I just stumbled upon it on cable which is why I was inspired to return to the countdown) makes me smile.  There’s a simple purity to the action and the era.  Good guys were good.  Bad guys were Nazis and mobsters.  The only minor quibble with the movie is that it was 1-2 years before CGI really took off, so some of the FX is dated…but it still manages to add charm since the entire concept harkens back to the serials of the 1940’s.

Twenty five years later and the movie still is a gem.  If you have never seen it (or at the least in a decade) give it another viewing.  It’s exciting time well spent.

 

#8 – SPIDER-MAN

Let me make it clear that I did NOT enjoy 2012’s offering The Amazing Spider-Man (at all).  In my view it was a completely unnecessary origin story that fell so close to the first (superior) movie that they had to make changes and thus eliminate all the good parts and fill those gaps in with dreck.  Plus, I think Andrew Garfield (and his freakish head and hair) doesn’t look like Peter Parker…he just looks like Andrew Garfield…with poufy hair.

However, back in 2002 the first Spider-Man movie hit!  And it was amazing, spectacular, sensational, and ultimate!  Spider-Man looked like Spider-Man, Peter Parker looked like Peter Parker, and the entire cast looked like they came right out of the comic book…and the origin SPOT ON PERFECT!  Sam Raimi’s love for the character and the world he inhabits shows in every scene and montage.

So why doesn’t Spidey rank higher on the list?  Two reasons weigh this one down a few slots.  First, the Green Goblin’s studio enforced look…horrendous!  He looks like he fell out of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  Sad that such an iconic Spidey villain was made completely unrecognizable.  Thankfully everyone seems to have learned from their mistakes as all future villains are easily a match from comic-to-screen.  Second, the movie has one or two stumbling points of severely stilted dialogue -  Spider-Man’s conversation with the Green Goblin on the rooftop being a prime example.  It’s cringe worthy!

That aside, the rest of the movie is a hoot that culminates in one of the best superhero vs. supervillain battles in movies (Doc Ock’s future arrival will signal the best).  I still feel so sorry for the pounding that Peter Parker takes at the hands of the Green Goblin, especially that painful pumpkin bomb blast to the mask!  OUCH!

But, when all is said and done the movie delivers popcorn thrills and left audiences happy having learned that “With great power comes great responsibility” and “Who am I?  I’m Spider-Man!”

 

#7 and #6…before 2013…I promise.