So I watched Ghost Rider last night.
Christ, what a mess.
Who the fuck casted Wes Bentley for Blackheart? Please be removed from the gene pool. Also: what’s with those terrible, terrible one-liners? Not to mention the naïve, child-like direction and script. My god, what a complete and utter waste. Cool effects aside, this one sucked big time.
It got me thinking though, about the heaps of super-hero movies we’ve seen these last years. I also wondered if I had caught all, or most, of them so I made myself another list, complete with ranking and comments for my viewing pleasure. This list includes only mainstream movies and/or blockbusters (mainly from DC and Marvel works), as there’s a lot of unknown and obscure adaptations out there. As an exception, I chose some independent heroes as well (from Dark Horse lines for example) and I also decided to exclude older (pre-2000) movies, which takes out the Batman trilogy, the first Superman movies and a few more.
Batman Begins (9/10) Captures perfectly the unique atmosphere and setting of the comic. Overall, the best super-hero film out there.
Blade (6/10) Not bad- but it set off an unpleasant streak of Goth-wannabes.
Blade II (6/10) A sequel on par with the first movie is commendable.
Blade Trinity (5/10) Strike three! This one had a much looser script and felt all wobbly.
Bloodrayne (4/10) Uwe Boll strikes again. Caution: a hot vampire as a protagonist never guarantees success.
Cat-woman (4/10) If it wasn’t for Hale Berry, this one would be even worse. Non-engaging script and extremely slow paced.
Constantine (6/10) Wrong man there- it’s a universal truth: Keanu Reeves just can’t act. Rest of the film was decent enough.
Daredevil (5/10) Decent attempt, again wrong protagonist.
Elektra (3/10) Extremely unfocused script, naïve storytelling. Great abs though.
Fantastic Four (4/10) Close, but no cigar. Wrong cast, wrong script.
Ghost Rider (2/10) Wrong everything, nice FX though.
Hellboy (7/10) There’s a case of correct casting. The unique personality of the setting was great on film.
Hulk (6/10) A great effort to see into the hero (in this case, the struggle of man vs beast) and some intelligent ideas. Relied heavily on FX though and that was its greatest mistake.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (7/10) That one got some bad reviews, but I liked it. It’s a very special and unique, wacky idea. If you don’t get it, you don’t get the film either.
Men in Black (5/10) Nice try at the time. You can’t watch it now.
Men in Black 2 (6/10) More solid script there, more polished character development.
Punisher (5/10) Decent try I think. It could have been better with a more dark and gritty approach.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (6/10) Correct adaptation of the era’s mood- excellent cinematography. Angelina should never, ever try accents.
Sin City (8/10) Excellent cinematography and FX, marvelous adaptation of Frank Miller art. There were some slow points when everything grew slow and tedious, but the art direction single-handedly wins the day.
Spiderman (7/10) Very good pacing, great effects, near-perfect casting. It’s a classic.
Spiderman II (8/10) More polished than the first one.
Superman Returns (6/10) It could have been much better. Based on a smart idea, but on film, it feels fake and plastic.
V for Vendetta (8/10) Alternative and political, as it should be. Bad blood effects are my only beef here.
X-Men (7/10) My favorite franchise here, this one made many heads to turn. Best casting ever.
X-Men II (8/10) Even more political and thought-provoking, excellent cast.
X-Men III The Last Stand(7/10) This one took a dive, unfortunately, as the director changed on the way. Still a great film though.
It seems I have missed some (Ultraviolet, Aeon Flux) but I’m not really sure I want to watch those… maybe only if I wanted to complete my list :P
Comments? Feel free.
3 comments:
I aggree! What a waste! It was terrible. It does not exist -as greeks tend to comment nowadays! Unacceptable cast - I hate N.Cage, who if imho wasn't Copolla's nephew would never EVER get a part in his life- and apart from the effects, the movie says nothing on a character that, at least for the standards of the screwd up Marvel Universe, has some depth and a sad story. I wouldn't even propose for a private DvD view at home. Perhaps only for the well known reason. Just to say that "OK, I've seen it..."
As for the list:
Since you involved MIB and Blade, that were clearly released past-mid of the previous decade, I find that you could also include the first four Batman movies and perhaps the Spawn disgust.
It is true, there is a trend out there and in addition to the lack of ideas by the script writters the resources run low, so we watch -as a result- many movies produced based on beloved characters with the general feeling that "I would have done it better". And yes, I believe that this has points of truth. Because, the objectively good movies were made by direcotrs who were comic book fans.
One of my favourite movies though, and perhaps best adaptaded, is Enki Bilal's Immortal. Based on the Nikopol Trilogy (which is Immortal, Woman Trap and Equador Frost), co-directed by Bilal himself, the movie is a Sci-Fi masterpiece and unfortunately has had little acknowledgement. Almost identical to the comic books, with a scaling progress and pace, a stunning female protagonist and a very good set of Special Effects and computer animations. Must See for every comic book and Sci-Fi fan.
@afanasoulas
Thanks for dropping by and leaving your comments :)
Thanks also for the Immortal tip- i'll DEFINITELY check it out :) As for my list, well... it's just that. My list :)
Well? Have you seen it yet? What are your thoughts about it, if so?
Post a Comment