Tribe Free Agent News: Back in the Beltran Running?
December 22, 201112 Days of a Cleveland Christmas: Day 11
December 22, 2011This year, as has been the case in the last few years, there were (way too?) many comic book movies. Some were good. Some were bad. Â Rather than going in depth, I am going to count them down from worst to best. Â Keep in mind that just because I thought one was worse than another doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy every popcorn-chomping minute, because I did. Â There wasn’t a movie on this list that I would have rather not seen at all. Â Some I might have enjoyed getting an extra discount off the matinee price, but that’s neither here nor there.
Without further ado… Number 5…
5.  Green Lantern – I like Ryan Reynolds. I like comic book movies. This was easily my least favorite of them all (even though I still liked it some.)  There were plot holes.  You have to suspend disbelief and there is a pretty lock-tight system in place because the character’s powers rely on his own mind and creativity.  In this case, using the word creativity is probably not my wisest choice.
4.  The Green Hornet – Seth Rogen isn’t a natural comic book hero and he was funny, campy and this movie didn’t take itself too seriously.  Jay Chou as Kato was really funny as well.  I can’t even remember any of the plot points of this movie anymore, but I remember it fondly.  Seems just about right.
3.  Thor – Speaking of not taking yourself too seriously, this movie didn’t either.  A lot of fun and the supporting cast of Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Stellan SkarsgĂĄrd (the professor from Good Will Hunting) did a lot for this flick.  Amongst the comic book movies I saw this year Thor was the one that best balanced fun and re-watchability.  It didn’t take itself as seriously as the top two, but I could totally see myself watching it multiple times on cable.
2.  Captain America – Chris Evans is always surprisingly good in things not named The Fantastic Four.  Hugo Weaving as the villain?  Oh yeah.  You don’t see comic book movies getting 78% on Rotten Tomatoes very often.  Not that that is the be-all, end-all for movies either, but it is an indicator of quality more often than not.  It is an origin story and a period piece which helps satisfy a lot of the need to push down your realistic sensibilities about dudes with superpowers.
1.  X-Men First Class – First class was the class of the comic book movies.  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender did a great job introducing us to the start of the X-Men universe.  The movie was chock full of great tension, action and pushing and pulling between good and evil.  Like any good X-Men story the lines were blurred throughout with great dramatic effect.  Add in the sex appeal of January Jones and X-Men delivered the most impressive comic book movie experience of the year for my money.
Of course this post could seem exceptionally silly this time next year as we prepare for The Avengers, the return of the latest Batman franchise, another Spiderman reboot, another Superman reboot, Ironman 3, and maybe another Wolverine movie.
Regardless, what did I miss? What order would you put them in?
22 Comments
yay for comics being fun again and making it to the big-screen! Finally getting tributes they deserve. Those of you who know me, understand why this makes me so happy.
I still need to see First Class.. GUH!
the current Marvel-Universe collection of movies has been the best thing to happen to comic-book movies. love how they are all intertwined and really looking forward to Avengers (Joss Whedon is a great screen-writer as well)
as for this list, my kids liked Green Lantern more than I did. none of us really liked Green Hornet. I didn’t let them watch XMen-1st class (though I enjoyed it but not as much as the other two).
They absolutely loved Thor and I agree it was fantastic. They hit the main plotlines while keeping things moving quickly (could have easily made that an ‘epic-style’ movie which would have taken away from the fun factor). In a normal year, it would have been my favorite comic-book movie, but this was not a normal year.
Captain America is just the coolest freaking superhero. He has super-powers, but they seem muted compared to the others. He’s the ‘intangible’ superhero. And, I thought they did an amazing job portraying it in this movie. It was cool, it was fun and they introduced the ‘cube’ plotline for the Avengers (assuming they will have an Avengers 2 at some point with Antman and the Ultron plotline as well).
the only movie you left off the list that i can think of off the top of my head is transformers 3, but i didn’t see it, so i can’t comment. altho i am upset i didn’t see it in the theaters because I’m sure it would have been better than it will be on my tv
of the 5 you listed, i would have quickly put green hornet at #5. i thought the movie was terrible, the villain was laughable, seth rogen just played himself (which may have been what the actual character is like, but it just came across as stupid to me)…overall just hated it. jay chou was the only thing i liked about it.
green lantern, on the other hand, i just watched a couple nights ago and liked it a LOT more than i expected, based on the reviews i had heard. much like rogen, i think reynolds was definitely type-casted, but it worked better for me for some reason. maybe i was just expecting the worst and didn’t get that, but i enjoyed GL.
haven’t seen thor yet.
was somewhat disappointed with cap. i thought the CGI on chris evans pre-super soldier was AWFUL. it looked like someone used the big head code from nba jam. and yet another typecast – tommy lee jones played every/the only character tlj knows how to play. LOVED hugo weaving though. and while i didn’t love the movie as a whole, i realize it was really more of just a set-up story for the avengers.
and will be watch x-men in the next couple days.
question to anyone – whats you opinion on the same actor playing multiple superheroes? not sure how much i liked seeing chris evans and ryan reynolds doubling up, as good of a choice as they may have been. using an unknown like in thor is a risk, but i just have a hard time forgetting they were in one when i watch them in another. but maybe thats just me…
I agree with you JNeids, seeing Evans as both Human Touch and Cap was too much. Not too mention personality wise Evans is extremely unbelievable as captain america. He played the goofy cocky touch fine, but I can’t believe they couldn’t have found someone more stoic and serious for the role. Reynolds I don’t have as big a problem with because no one watched x-men wolverine and of the people that did, few realize he was supposed to be Deadpool, who as a character they completely botched up anyways.
Wow, rereading that makes me sound like a huge dork. Oh well.
as for the movies coming out:
hate Spiderman as a dark movie. i prefer him to be one of the light superheros. it’s been done both ways in comics/cartoons, so not surprising they are going this route i suppose.
not sure why Bane is the main villain for the last Bateman Batman movie. but, scarecrow wasn’t the greatest villain either and they did a fantastic job with him in the first one.
never liked Superman movies.
i hope XMen do other characters before they do another Wolverine movie. i’d love the back-story movie with the Nightcrawler though they would have to work in a few others to make the same money.
Ghost Rider for 2012 (yawn)
Iron Man 3 is slated for 2013.
Doctor Strange 2013
Nick Fury for 2014
Ant Man for 2014
—————-
outside of those, the movie I am looking forward to is the 3rd installment of the Riddick series for 2012.
Captain America 2 2014
No news on Thor2? Thought for sure they’d be throwing that one out there as there are a ton more plotlines they can go. Saw one site claim it’s 2013, but IMDB doesn’t have it.
also, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ screenplays have been floating around for awhile. I assume it gets made at some point (GG could be awesome)
@Jneids – I have less of a problem with the double-up of Evans/Reynolds than I do with them switching out Ed Norton for Ruffalo as the Hulk.
I understand it’s because Norton wanted script control of his part like he did for the Hulk movie (and Joss Whedon laughed at him), but with all the continuity, changing one of the main guys hurts.
I’m more with JNeids (#3). Green Hornet was painful, I guess I just didn’t get Thor, it seemed pretty lame, the story build-up in captain america was really good, but the actions scenes at the end were painfully bad.
I did like Green Lantern a lot more than I expected, and while I’m a homer for the X-men I thought first class was one of the better movies in the series.
I agree with #2 and #3…Green Hornet was bad. #3 you and I must have similar movie tastes, because I agree with your assessment of each film that you’ve seen.
Here are my rankings for these 5:
5. Green Hornet
(huge gap)
4. Thor – I’d definitely watch it again, but only so I remember it
3. Captain America – Didn’t like Chris Evans as CA, thought the movie was kind of slow.
2. Green Lantern – I thought it was fun, wanted them to do more cool things with the ring.
1. X-Men – I still think X2 is a better movie.
I’ll also say that I actually didn’t think X-Men was as great as a lot of people did. A pretty average year for super hero movies. Personally, I really hope they make a Green Lantern 2, because there is a lot they can do with that franchise. I’m excited for the Avengers and totally giddy for the final Batman.
Don’t worry tron, I’ll one up you so you don’t feel as bad…
Reynolds also played Hannibal King in the 3rd Blade movIe, another Marvel Character. Agree about deadpool, they could have made him perfect for that role, but the messed that one up royally.
Maybe its the comic nerd/purist in me, but I don’t so much mind if one guy plays roles from different comic brands, REynolds as GL (DC) and Deadpool (MArvel), but like Evans doing Cap and Torch, both from marvel, kinda messes up the overall view of things.
God, I am sick of comic book movies. I think after the Dark Knight Rises comes out, I’m going to be done with them forever.
I didn’t think Captain America and First Class were too awful. The Green Hornet was at least a little different than your average comic book film. I’ve always enjoyed the work of Michel Gondry. I haven’t watched the other two films and have no intentions to.
@mgbode – i understand what you are saying about the dark spidey, but it worked VERY well for batman, so maybe that was their thinking, but i agree that i like him as a lighter hero. i really don’t like that they are rebooting that series so soon after it started. they really need a statute of limitations before you can reboot a series.
agree, too, on the actor switch for the hulk. i think i was in the minority that liked that second hulk movie, and would have enjoyed seeing ed norton continue in that role. shame it didn’t work out.
as for bane/batman, i gotta assume they chose him because of the bane storyline (the comics, not the clooney flick). I’m not gonna say what happens for those who are unfamiliar, but suffice to say bane is a good choice to end a story.
regarding supes: i have been waiting for them to get that right, and hopefully they do this time. superman returns was an insult.
and i hope ghost rider is better this time around. i always liked that character, so i didn’t hate the first movie as much as most, but admit it wasn’t great.
1. X-Men: First Class
2. Thor
3. Captain America
4. The Green Hornet
5. Green Lantern
I agree with your rankings here. I can’t wait for all the movies coming out next year, especially The Avengers!
@JNeids – I think most people remember the Ang Lee atrocity and never gave the 2nd Hulk movie a real chance. I liked it alot and thought they really nailed the Abomination (especially alter-ego wise).
Have you seen the Spiderman cartoon that has Peter Parker based in Japan? It’s very dark and it works well (Carnage and Venom involved heavily). But, it’s just a personal preference of mine that I like some of my comic guys light. Now, if they get it right and go with those storylines, then I’ll admit I was wrong 🙂
I do get what you are saying about Bane. And, like I said, they did a much better job with Scarecrow than I would have thought, so I have some faith they will make it work.
I didn’t enjoy any of these movies, save for Capt. America. I should have liked Thor according to my friends, but couldn’t get in to it. Green Hornet was deploreable. Having said that, SUPER excited for The Avengers and anything/everything to do with more Iron Man sequels.
@jaymes #10 – that’s a perfect point.
also, I laugh now when i watch Blade with Ryan Reynolds. considering what he has become it’s really funny to see him try to be hardcore.
then again, he used to bang scarlett johansson so what the heck kind of authority do i have to talk about him?
Good choice in your No. 1 pick (my favorite film of 2011 period), but I’d move Thor to No. 2. Much harder to pull off a fantasy movie of that caliber than a period piece during the war like Cap and Thor pulled it off.
Agree with everything on this list. As far as Spider-Man being dark; the character is not dark. He is charismatic, funny, and lighthearted. I can see why people would be mad about this change. I’ll still see the movie though.
I love comic book movies. I am a huge DC fan. I will watch any comic book movie though. I have been really disappointed, however, with DC’s lack of competition with Marvel in the movie arena. For every one DC comes out with Marvel releases 5. DC doesn’t seem to tie any of their characters together (a la Avengers). I mean come one. Have these guys not heard of The Justice league? Where is Wonder Woman? Aquaman? The Flash? Martian Manhunter? Get with it guys. And why does ever Superman movie have to retell the origin? How many incarnations of Zod do we have to see? That comic has been around since 1938 and you are telling me we can’t have another villain?
@Obie – Marvel didn’t either until Disney bought Marvel Comics and was able to conglomerate many of the characters under the same movie house.
One thing DC always seemed to struggle with was making people relate to their characters. Marvel pretty much achieved this feat the day Spider-Man was born. Even the powerful characters were made somewhat realistic. Superman isn’t easy to relate to. The only DC hero I ever cared about was Batman due to him having no powers and a great story and rogues gallery. The real question is where would DC be without him??