The 10 greatest comic book movies?

[Gilda]

For the purpose of this discussion, I'd like to limit this to English langauge comics and movies. Yes there are many top notch Anime adapted from Manga, and that's certainly a worthy subject for discussion, but I want for now to limit this to English language stuff. It should be an English language movie adapted from a comic or comics, and should be a theatrical release.

My personal list would be as follows:

1. Ghost World
2. American Splendor
3. Spider-Man 2
4. Road to Perdition
5. Sin City
6. X-Men 2
7. Spider-Man
8. The Rocketeer
9. Superman 2
10. My Name is Modesty

And no, I didn't forget Batman Begins. I think these are all better movies. The list may get reshuffled with the upcoming Fantastic Four and A History of Violence, and with Joss Whedon writing and directing Wonder Woman, it's looking good for a third movie with a female protagonist to make the list.

[El Pollo]

I totally agree with those movies on your list that I've actually seen. I never saw #s 2, 4, 5, and I never even heard of 10. I would have to add in there...
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - Even after Batman Begins, this is the best on-screen adaptation of the Batman character.
X-Men 1 - Because without this one, we wouldn't have X-Men 2.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1-3 - Sure, these were very much kiddie movies and much of the humor was stupid, but I was and am a huge fan of the turtles and really enjoyed all of these movies. I especially liked how the first movie blended elements from the adult oriented black and white comics with elements from the colorful cartoon world.

[Stompy]

Batman, Batman Returns..

X-Men 1 & 2

I haven't seen Batman Begins yet, but I'm sure that's on there.

Sin City.

Hm, that's about it.

[Da Munk]

I'm going to limit my list to superhero movies, since those are what immediately spring to mind when I think of "comic book" movies.

1. Sin City
2. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
3. Batman Begins
4. Spider-Man 2
5. X-Men 2
6. Superman 2
7. X-Men
8. Spider-Man
9. Superman
10. Hellboy

I'm sure that there are some that I'm forgetting that I would probably place in there instead, but at this moment those are the top ten superhero movies I can think of and pretty much the order I would rank them in.

[FngKestrel]

Greatest comic book movies? What kind of criteria are you using to determine greatness?

I didn't even realize that Road to Perdition was a comic book.

I agree with most of your choices, but I haven't seen American Splendor, Road to Perdition, The Rocketeer, My name is Modesty.

I'd have to append Men in Black to that list. The first one anyways.

[kalashnikov]

Aren't we forgeting Howard the Duck?

Oh, I guess no one was.

[djflish]

I'd have to say that Sin City is the greatest purely for the reason it is the most faithful to the source material.
It's pretty much frame-by-frame exactly the same as the comic book.

1. Sin City
2. X-Men 2
3. Blade
4. Spiderman 2
5. The Crow
6. Batman
7. Road To Perdition
8. X-Men
9. Hulk
10. Daredevil

And My Top 5 Worst....
1. Batman & Robin
2. The Punisher (the Dolph Lundgren one)
3. Catwoman
4. Garfield
5. Judge Dredd

[djflish]

And if was going to be decided by the box office takings, here's what the list would look like:

Top 20 Comic Book Movies All Time Gross
1. Spider-man--------------------403.7 million
2. Spider-man 2------------------373.3
3. Batman-------------------------251.1
4. Men In Black-------------------250.6
5. X2: X-Men United--------------214.9
6. Men In Black 2-----------------190.4
7. Batman Forever---------------184.0
8. Batman Returns---------------162.8
9. X-Men--------------------------157.1
10. Teenage Mutant Turtles-----135.2
11. Superman---------------------134.2
12. Hulk---------------------------132.1
13. The Mask---------------------119.9
14. Superman 2-------------------108.1
15. Batman and Robin------------107.2
16. Road to Perdition-------------104.4
17. Dick Tracy--------------------103.7
18. Daredevil----------------------102.5
19. Casper------------------------100.3
20. Batman Begins----------------94.9 and counting...

link: http://www.efavata.com/CBM/

[aberkok]

1. American Splendor
2. Batman Begins
3. Hellboy
4. Hulk
5. Spidey 2
6. X2
7. Ghost World
8. Blade
9. Batman (1966)
10. Sin City

...not in order

[Siege]

Wow, some of these movies, I didn't even know they were comic books.

[Gilda]

Originally Posted by FngKestrel

Greatest comic book movies? What kind of criteria are you using to determine greatness?

Whatever criteria one wants to use when determining the quality of a movie. Faithfulness to the source material is one aspect, mentioned by another poster, but I'd add in the look of the movie (cinematography), the quality of the performances, how interesting and/or compelling the plot is, whether the charactes well well defined or flat, the music, the overall entertainment value.

The way I did it was I looked at all the movies I knew of that were adapted from comics, and then attempted to judge the quality of the movie based on it's own merit alone, without reference to the comics from which it was adapted. This isn't always possible; someone whose read as many Spider-Man and X-Men comics as I have can't completely divorce preconceived notions of how the characters should be from her judgement. For example, I loved the X-Men movies, but think that Wolverine played much too central a role in them. He's overexposed in the comics as it is, and the best X-Men comics come from the early New X-Men days, the Byrne/Claremont era when it was a single book and a true ensemble piece. So I was a bit dissapointed that they made Wolverine the central character, but nonetheless think they did an excellent job.

I didn't even realize that Road to Perdition was a comic book.

It was a graphic novel from 1998, later split up into smaller volumes and republished to coincide with the movie. More recently, there have been three smaller sequels to fill in a gap in the time sequence.

[Suave]

1. X-Men 2
2. Batman Begins
3. Spiderman 2
4. X-Men
5. Batman Forever
6. Spiderman
7. Batman

I shan't bother putting anything else up there, because I don't think any of the other comic movies I've seen are worthy (even the classic Superman series, which is good only for purposes of nostalgia).

[Lasereth]

1. Sin City
2. Spiderman 2
3. Hellboy
4. X-Men 2
5. Blade 2

Haven't seen Batman Begins...It'd probably be on the list also. I can't think of any other movies that I'd put on there. I didn't like the first Spiderman, Blade, or X-Men very much.

-Lasereth

[mrklixx]

1. Casper
2. Dick Tracy
3. Supergirl
4. Spawn
5. Hulk
6. Richie Rich
7. Meteor Man
8. Steel
9. Timecop
10. Barb Wire





Oh, wait, I think this may be the wrong list.

[djflish]

I've seen Batman Begins now, so I'm taking out Daredevil and putting BB in my top 10!

[the_marq]

As a comic book fan I'd say there are not 10 "Great" comic book movies. My top 5 and the only good ones are:

1 Sin City
2 Batman Begins
3 Spiderman 2 (but not 1)
4 Heavy Metal 1 (but not 2)
5 American Splendor

[m0rpheus]

Not in order
1 Sin City
2 Rocketeer
3 Batman Begins
4 Spider-man
5 Superman
6 Superman 2
7 X-men
8 X-men 2
9 Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
10 The Crow

[wdevauld]

Originally Posted by mrklixx

1. Casper
2. Dick Tracy
3. Supergirl
4. Spawn
5. Hulk
6. Richie Rich
7. Meteor Man
8. Steel
9. Timecop
10. Barb Wire


Oh, wait, I think this may be the wrong list.

Animated Spawn movies, or the live action?

[mrklixx]

Originally Posted by wdevauld

Animated Spawn movies, or the live action?

The one that goes with that particular list would be the live action Spawn.

[Lockjaw]

1.Spider-man 2(best STORY and over all movie)
2. X-men 2
3. Spider-man
4. Batman
5. Sin City
6. Blade
7. Dick Tracy(Hey I liked that movie when I was a kid).
8. Spider-man
Mmm....that's all I've got.
Never saw Crow. Spawn was horrible. X-men was "ok" like Daredevil. Punisher and Hulk were meh. Elektra was horrible. Haven't seen Batman and I never really liked the Superman movies.

[Willravel]

1. Superman 1
2. Superman 2
3. Batman Begins
4. The Rocketeer
5. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
6. The Crow
7. Popeye (1980)

Can't think of any others worth mentioning. I hope Aeon Flux can make the list.

[ChistledStone]

To name a few. Daredevil - enjoyed it a lot except for the obvious inconsistances that have weak explanations. Both Xmen, although to Gilda who said that Wolv was focused on too much, he's a different character to the comic books. He was much more aggressive in the comic books and generally more of a badass. I can't honestly say which one was better, because they seem so different. Elektra not really, was too short and was kind of lame. Hulk = strung out too much and too much green motifs. Also ending lame and I really didn't get the father's powers etc. Punisher I think was good at establishing Frank Castle's anger behind his 'critical force' that drove him to kill so much. Was good for a mindless action. First spiderman gets very repetitive after watching it a couple of times. And the Second was good. Hellboy was very good. I liked it how it established mood and setting. Sin City is basically the same except I predict much better. And men in black 1 (the second one sucked ) because of Tommy Lee Jones mainly.

[Fremen]

Was the Buckaroo Banzai movie made from a comic, or am I confusing it with the comic in the movie?

[djflish]

There have been some awesome foreign language comic book movies too.
Two of my favourites are:

Akira
Brotherhood of the Wolf

[TexanAvenger]

Chasing Amy

Oh... I went there.

[djflish]

Originally Posted by TexanAvenger

Chasing Amy

Oh... I went there.

I didn't know Chasing Amy was a comic, I thought he turned it into a comic at the end of the movie?

[Johnny Pyro]

1.Spiderman
2.Spiderman2
3.Batman Returns
4.Darkman
5.Batman
6.X-Men
7.X-Men2
8.Batman Begins
9.Hell Boy
10.Orgazmo!!!
The Hulk sucked ass!!!!

[Gilda]

Originally Posted by Da Munk

I'm going to limit my list to superhero movies, since those are what immediately spring to mind when I think of "comic book" movies.

1. Sin City
2. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
3. Batman Begins
4. Spider-Man 2
5. X-Men 2
6. Superman 2
7. X-Men
8. Spider-Man
9. Superman
10. Hellboy

I'm sure that there are some that I'm forgetting that I would probably place in there instead, but at this moment those are the top ten superhero movies I can think of and pretty much the order I would rank them in.

While you're certainly welcome to use whatever criteria you like to make your list, I found it a little amusing that you say you're only using superhero movies, then have as your #1 a movie with no superheroes in it . Good list, though, not a bad movie on it. Hellboy very nearly made mine.

[Da Munk]

Heh, I was wondering if anyone was going to say anything about that. I guess they might not be sterotypical superheroes with capes and tights, but the characters were super enough for me to consider it a superhero movie. Plus it was just too damn good to leave it off the list, so I had to get it in there somehow.

[hulk]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Hulk? He bounced grenades off his bosom!

[El Pollo]

Originally Posted by hulk

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Hulk? He bounced grenades off his bosom!

Hey, I liked Hulk when the Hulk was actually in it. Unfortunately too much of the movie was spent doing... I'm not quite sure, but it definitely wasn't Hulk smashing.

[aberkok]

Originally Posted by hulk

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Hulk? He bounced grenades off his bosom!

I thought Hulk was a great movie...until his father developed his powers. I had no need for that to happen. Until that point (which was pretty close to the end), I thought it was amazingly well done, and bore Ang Lee's stamp very well.

[djflish]

I liked about the first three quarters of Hulk, then wtf was the ending all about??
Ang Lee did an awesome job and the cast all put in good performances, but the story was a bit off for me
Its still in my top 10 though!

[joecool]

No AVP fans huh?
Sin City got to be at the top with latest Punisher.
Brotherhood of the wolf rocked.
Blade 1 & 2.... there was no 3..... I SAID there was no 3
and about 5 mins of barb wire, invloved a chair and water.....

[djflish]

Originally Posted by joecool

and about 5 mins of barb wire, invloved a chair and water.....

[Locobot]

Originally Posted by mrklixx

1. Casper
2. Dick Tracy
3. Supergirl
4. Spawn
5. Hulk
6. Richie Rich
7. Meteor Man
8. Steel
9. Timecop
10. Barb Wire
Oh, wait, I think this may be the wrong list.

rofls, you forgot Judge Dredd! and pretty much every low-budget comic movie from the 70s.

On a serious note, you fools are forgetting Akira! nm sorry flish.

[OuterHeaven]

WHAT ABOUT CONSTANTINE?!?! I havent seen a single mention of it! That movie was kickass!!!!

[OuterHeaven]

1.Constantine
2.Batman Begins
3.Sin City
4.Road to Perdition
5.American Splendor
6.X-Men 2
7.Spiderman 2
8.Spiderman
9.X-Men
10.Batman Returns (Tim Burton FTW!!)

[StephenSa]

The Crow
Batman (Keaton)
Batman Returns
Batman Begins
Superman
Xmen 1
Xmen 2
Spiderman 1
Spiderman 2
Spawn
The above in no particular order, Superman was good for its time but looking forward to seeing a more up to date take on the character in the new film. Hoping to see a "Flash" feature film or "The Green Lantern", the former with Wally West and the latter with Hal Jordan. Haven't seen Fantastic Four yet so I can't add to leist but I hear its good.