Here we are at part two of the list… and the titles are getting noticeably better! Now we know that Top 47 might have been a funny way to title the feature so we decided to be tricky and rename it! Through the use of our highly skilled editing team we’ve changed the name to better reflect what’s going on here. As explained in the beginning of part one, this is a ranked list from worst to first, of all modern comic book based movies starting with the first X-Men flick as a jumping off point. Now, as we move into part two we’re definitely getting into titles we’d like to watch. Check them out and let us know where you think these movies should be! Did we screw everything up? Are we spot on? We want to know so yell at us in the comments section.
36 – X-Men 3
After building up such good credit with the first two X-Men movies, Bryan Singer took off to make Superman Returns (We’ll get to that later) leaving the franchise in the hands of Brett Ratner. Ratner would proceed to make one of the biggest cinematic catastrophes of all time. Pretty much everyone but Wolverine is completely wasted here and even then, Jackman only has so much to work with. It did have that incredible scene where Magneto moved the bridge, but what little positives could be found in this drivel were completely eliminated by “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”
Box Office – Domestic: $234.3, Worldwide: $459.3
35 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
With Wolverine being the only one with enough cache left after X3, they decided to bring Wolverine’s origins to life, promising fans that they would stay true to the comic and not err like they had with X3. They proceeded to go back on their word IN THE FIRST SCENE and it was all downhill from there. Instead of focusing on the oft talked about Deadpool fiasco, I’ll talk about the worst scene in the movie. Remember the guy that Striker sends after a rogue Logan? The guy who can’t miss a shot? Well, Wolverine is impervious to bullets now, so he kills him. When Striker hears about this, he pulls out the only thing that can stop Weapon-X… adamantium bullets. It was honestly that idiotic.
Box Office – Domestic: $179.8, Worldwide: $373
34 – Daredevil
Maligned by almost everyone, we admittedly had a soft spot for this one for some time. We still don’t hate it, but you couldn’t pay us to sit through it again. Affleck is flat as Murdoch, Jennifer Garner is Greek (?!) and their love story is basically summed up in a sparring match on a playground. Michael Clark Duncan is great as the Kingpin and Jon Favreau is a great addition, but there is precious little to be gained from this one. This trailer doesn’t not help its case.
Box Office – Domestic: $102.5, Worldwide: $179.1
33 – Superman Returns
When Superman Returns was first released back in 2005, we thought it was amazing! We agreed with all of the really positive reviews it got and thus was confused as time went on and a general dislike for this movie grew. So, about two years ago, we decided to rewatch it and immediately thought, ‘well, this is certainly pompous’. Brandon Routh channeled Christopher Reeves as best he could, James Marsden gave us legitimate reasons for his face being oh so punchable, Kate Bosworth was… present, but there’s no denying Kevin Spacey as the diabolical Lex Luthor. The lack of jaw-dropping action probably came from the villain being a real estate agent, but nothing can explain the many plot holes.
Box Office – Domestic: $200, Worldwide: $391
32 – Iron Man 2
Hot off the rousing success of Iron Man, Favreau and Downey plunged headlong into an ever expanding universe with Iron Man 2. Favreau has come out and said that the production was rushed and the script still needed work even as they began filming and good god does it show! Mickey Rourke is written out of 45 minutes of the movie, the climactic battle is about 30 seconds long, Tony’s poisoning is miraculously cured and Stark’s infamous battle with alcohol was reduced to one scene that involves dancing in his armour. It put a damper on the Iron Man hard on everyone had, right up until the Avengers brought it back faster than a Viagra.
Box Office – Domestic: $312.4, Worldwide: $623.9
31 – Captain America: The First Avenger
The least of the movies in the MCU, Captain America was a build up story to introduce Captain America into the Avengers universe. Nothing really clicked in it outside of Haley Atwell and Chris Evans, and Steve Rogers would struggle to find his niche until his sequel.
Box Office – Domestic: $176.6, Worldwide: $370.5
30 – Hellboy
There’s a real trend we’ve noticed while putting this list together; the first movie (minus a few stand outs) in a series tend to be perfectly adequate but not much else. This is a great description for Hellboy. We really dig the Hellboy comics and Del Toro does too, obviously. Ron Pearlman was a great choice, even if the rest of the cast was questionable. Great set dec, incredible make up and some pretty solid set pieces, it just never elevated past ‘fine’, especially when you consider the ultra cheesy ‘Hellboy threatens the Other Side’ ending. Still, we liked it and it really locked Del Toro in as one of our favorite directors.
Box Office – Domestic: $59.6, Worldwide: $99.3
29 – The Amazing Spider-Man 2
We really wanted to put this higher up on the list, we really did. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone come back as our leads, they demonstrate just amazing chemistry and it has some very real and emotional moments that will soften even the stoniest of hearts. Unfortunately, Sony decided they wanted a connected and expanded Spidey-verse and decided to dump a bucket load of stuff on top of the movie. We hated Paul Giamatti for the first time in his career; Dane DeHaan only seemed to get accustomed to the role in the last 25 minutes and was a just terrible Green Goblin for all of 2 minutes. Jaime Fox was also in there as Electro whose motivations were poorly thought out and pretty stupid overall. Basically, Sony rebooted Spiderman because the studio overloaded Sam Raimi with villains and then proceeded to do the exact same thing to Marc Webb. Hopefully Spidey can recover and Garfield’s considerable acting chops can right the ship in the next, inevitable installment.
Box Office – Domestic: $200.9, Worldwide: $704.9
28 – X-Men
This is beginning to sound redundant, but the first X-Men, the first true modern CBM, was a perfectly fine origin tale. It wasn’t great (Do you know what happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning?) but it definitely had some awesome moments (the train station, the Statue of Liberty fight etc.). The real winner for this one, though, is the casting director(s). An overall great cast, it also made Hugh Jackman a star, something we’re quite thankful for despite what happened with the Wolverine movies.
Box Office – Domestic: $157.2, Worldwide: $296.3
27 – Blade
And so comes the anomaly on the list. Yes, it’s out of the assigned time, but it gets in just cause of the sequels and because it really does have that new CBM feel. Very much a product of its time, Blade still manages to rise above the silliness that was assaulting CBM’s at the time and is a bad ass flick! In its violence and (kinda) humour, it solidified itself in the new area of comic book movies by being everything a good CBM should be years earlier.
Box Office – Domestic: $70, Worldwide: $61