So, you might be wondering, "How was Iron Man?" Well, I give it a "very good" rating. It's not the best superhero/comic book movie I've ever seen, but it's definitely up near the top. In fact, here's my list of the 20 best comic book/superhero movies counting down from 20.
20 - Spider-man 3
19 - Superman 2
18 - Punisher (2004)
17 - Sin City
16 - Blade
15 - Hulk
14 - X3
13 - V for Vendetta
12 - The Rocketeer
11 - Fantastic 4
And now, the top 10.
10 -
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - A very underrated movie in my opinion, and I never see it get the credit it deserves. It's got a great story and the art and voice acting is good. Why didn't this make more money?
9 -
X-Men - While Blade was the first successful Marvel movie, this is the one that showed everyone that superheroes could be a money making machine. The way this movie so aptly introduces so many characters in an hour and a half movie is astounding.
8 -
Superman: The Movie - Can there ever be another Superman actor like Christopher Reeves? The character differences in his Clark Kent to Superman were wonderful. Also, the effects are surprisingly still watchable considering the movie's age. Really, the only reason that I rate this so low is because of some of the horrible scenes in the movie. The vomit-inducing "Can-you-read-my-mind" flight is beyond insipid, and the deus ex machina time travel bit at the end is just sloppy.
7 -
Spider-man - It's a faithful rendition. It's got a good cast. Overall, it's a solid movie. There just seems to be that little something that doesn't put it over the top for me.
6 -
Batman (1989) - Where
wasn't this movie back in the day? I remember seeing kids getting the Batman symbol shaved/dyed into their hair. Everyone quoted lines from the movie. It was a phenomenon. But for all its wonder, it hasn't aged well for me. If I see it on TV, I never really stop and watch. That means out of the top five for now.
5 -
Batman Begins - Dark, brooding, and action-packed. That's the Batman I want to see, and this movie served it out in multiple doses. I actually missed this one in the theaters, but when I saw the DVD, I immediately watched it again. And then, I watched it again the next day.
4 -
Iron Man - And here's our newest contender. Really, this movie is similar to the first Spider-man movie. There's nothing to not enjoy in this one. And what a great choice to not try and feature the Mandarin who would have bombed as a believable movie villain.
3 -
Spider-man 2 - Took everything that Spider-man did right and improved it. And it was refreshing to see movie executives make smart decisions like Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus instead of throwing someone like Danny Devito or Arnold Schwarzenegger in there. The fight on the train was the fight scene that helped put this movie over the top. It was the WOW! factor that the first movie lacked.
2 -
The Incredibles - After seeing this movie, my first thought was that I no longer cared if the next comic book movie that I saw was live action or not. The only thing that I wanted was a well-crafted, smart movie. This was one of only three movies that I've ever seen in a theater a second time. It's also everything that I wanted to see in a Fantastic 4 movie. The WOW! moment for this movie? The scene when the family first uses their powers all at the same time. When I first saw that, I think I had a little glee of excitement escape. Honestly, if we could get Pixar to do a movie about every Marvel and DC character, I would be a very happy man.
1 -
X2 - And here's another movie that I saw multiple time in the theater. (I'm going to keep the third one a secret.) This movie gets the viewer going right off the bat with the WOW! moment right in the first scene. How amazing was that Nightcrawler opening fight! Has that character ever been more awesome in any format, comics included? And why don't movies start out like this more often? And, as a bonus, halfway through the movie, we get another WOW! scene as Magento escapes his cell using three little iron balls. Add in some feral Wolverine rage fights and there's so much to enjoy in this movie that it couldn't be anything other than number one on my list.
So go enjoy one of the best comic book movies out there. It's definitely worth the price of admission. And the ending bonus scene was perhaps the best bonus scene I've seen yet.
And as a bonus for you who have read this far. I give you an Iron Man sketch that I did at work while waiting to go see the movie last night.