Assessing the Marvel Comic Movie Directors Thus Far

[TMC1982]

I'm going to make Blade (1998) the starting point, because I consider that to be the first modern, Hollywood movie based on a Marvel Comic series. Therefore, I'm not going to bring the 1989 Punisher movie with Dolph Ludgren or the 1990 Captain America movie with Matt Salinger into the conversation.

[BigSams50]

I voted Singer. X-Men was good, X-2 was very good. Sucks he didnt do X3. Woulda voted Raimi but SM3 dissapointed me.

[El Payaso]

Bryan Singer because of his X-Men movies. And believe it or not, I liked Brett Ratner's "X-Men: The Last Stand" very much.


Sam Raimi did good only with Spiderman 2. Jon Faverau's "Iron Man" was very good but "Iron Man 2" was average crap for me. Mark Steven Johnson was okay with "Daredevil" but bad with "Ghost Rider." I hated both Fantastic Four movies. I really like what Ang Lee did with Hulk, but the movie has its big share of problems. Louis Leterrier's "The Incredible Hulk" wasn't bad but it was merely above average. Haven't seen "Elektra" but I have only heard bad comments. I haven't seen none of the Blaade movies; I don't know any movies by Stephen Norrington, I don't like Guillermo del Toro at all (this guy is the truly 'style over substance' case) and I have never liked David S. Goyer too much. Gavin Hood's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was horrible as was Jonathan Hensleigh's "The Punisher" and I don't know or have seen the rest.

[YoungE808]

Bryan Singer, he gave us two of the better Marvel films early on in the game. From what we know about how his version of X3, it would have been awesome.

[Daredevil]

Jonathan Hensleign did amazing in the Punisher 2004 movie. But after seeing Daredevil Director's Cut I believe that that is probably the most faithful to the source material and most definite "Daredevil" movie so I gave my vote to MSJ. And I dont know why everyone hated Ghost Rider.

Gavin Hood's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was horrible as was Jonathan Hensleigh's "The Punisher" and I don't know or have seen the rest.

D:<

Why would you even TRY to put The Punisher on the same level as X Men Origins Wolverine? The Punisher is way out of that films league.

[Punisher_MAX]

the 04 Punisher is probably one of the most underrated Marvel movies thus far...as a Punisher fan i didnt like it at first but then i re read all the comics it took influences from and then it suddenly became one of my favorite movies. its not perfect but given the fact that the studio ****ed it over in the end it came out as good as we couldve hoped for

[MessiahDecoy123]

I think Matthew Vaughn will be the best Marvel comic book movie director after X-men.

He's half way there after doing Kick Ass.

[Daredevil]

I really like the idea of this thread but I don't think that Sam Raimi deserves it at all :/

[Ipodman]

Its a coin toss between Raimi and Singer for me... but I voted Raimi because I saw Spidey 1 & 2 in theaters

[VenomVsSpidey]

Raimi.....Vaughn's my second favorite though. Could get the X-Men series up to par with X1/X2

[webhead731]

Sam Raimi by far.

He made what I consider the best superhero series ever. :up:

[Daredevil]

I think its quite obvious that the director of Howard The Duck should win

[El Payaso]

I think its quite obvious that the director of Howard The Duck should win

And he should.

But because of the Incredible Hulk TV pilot and the episodes "Married" and "Prometheus."

[Rac]

Singer, hands down.

[comicfan4Life]

Norrington came close since he did blade and that's the film that pretty much kick started it all including the slow-mo bullets past head thing (at least to my knowledge), but Raimi gets it hands down. He made two damn good movies and I honestly believe would've made a good third one if a certain character wasn't forced in for the sake of popularity. That said, it sucks because I hate when that happens. You get a good director who gets a raw deal because when all is said and done their names follow the words "directed by", and people think that's all there is too it. Raimi did good and it's a shame at what happened with S3.

[Denny67]

Jon Faverau has been the best without question IMO. Louis Leterrier comes in second followed by Sam Raimi and finally Guillermo del Toro.

After that the drop off in the quality of film making is immense.

Short answer: Faverau :hrt:

[Daredevil]

Jon Faverau has been the best without question IMO. Louis Leterrier comes in second followed by Sam Raimi and finally Guillermo del Toro.

After that the drop off in the quality of film making is immense.

Short answer: Faverau :hrt:

Come on, you cant say that. Theres tons of great marvel movies not limited to those directors that you mentioned.

[WeaponXProject]

Double pizzzzost.

[WeaponXProject]

1. Favreau
2. Matthew Vaughn
3. Singer
4. Raimi
5. Guillermo
6. Jonathan Hensleigh
7. Brett RATner
8. Lexi Alexandder
9. Mark Steven Johnson or whatevs
10. (worst) Gavin Hood

[Parker Wayne]

I'm gonna say Favreau because it was his directing + RDJ's performance that helps both films overcome terrible scripts.

Singer's #2

Raimi's #3 (even though I like Spiderman 1 and 2 more, and I think they were better films, Raimi's direction proved a bit inconsistent at times.)

[TheWatcher]

Sam Raimi.

[hopefuldreamer]

1. Vaughn
2. Favreau
3. Mark Steven Johnson
4. Raimi
5. Singer
6. Ang Lee

[Parker Wayne]

Jon Faverau has been the best without question IMO. Louis Leterrier comes in second followed by Sam Raimi and finally Guillermo del Toro.

After that the drop off in the quality of film making is immense.

Short answer: Faverau :hrt:

:dry:

And you put Leterrier second? He wasn't even the reason TIH was good. Norton's rewriting of the script made it a great film.

[Denny67]

Come on, you cant say that. Theres tons of great marvel movies not limited to those directors that you mentioned.


I have to disagree there.

Aside from Iron Man I & II, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man I & II and moments in the Blade franchise Marvel films have ranged from pretty underwhelming to flat out garbage.

X-Franchise = terrible (the Nightcrawler scene was the only cool thing out of 3 movies)
Daredevil = terrible
Elektra = terrible
FF = terrible
Ghost Rider = terrible
Punisher = terrible (Thomas Jane was ok but it could have been great and fell short)
Hulk 2003 = meh (had some cool moments and a good cast but over all missed the mark)

Some may think that my film standards are set a little too high (and that is ok) but I gave it quite a bit of thought prior to posting and I stand by my initial opinion.

[Daredevil]

I have to disagree there.

Aside from Iron Man I & II, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man I & II and moments in the Blade franchise Marvel films have ranged from pretty underwhelming to flat out garbage.

X-Franchise = terrible (the Nightcrawler scene was the only cool thing out of 3 movies)
Daredevil = terrible
Elektra = terrible
FF = terrible
Ghost Rider = terrible
Punisher = terrible (Thomas Jane was ok but it could have been great and fell short)
Hulk 2003 = meh (had some cool moments and a good cast but over all missed the mark)

Some may think that my film standards are set a little too high (and that is ok) but I gave it quite a bit of thought prior to posting and I stand by my initial opinion.

Disagrees completely with what I bolded. Wow why are the Spiderman movies so overrated... there was only one good movie in the entire franchise for petes sake.

[Denny67]

Disagrees completely with what I bolded. Wow why are the Spiderman movies so overrated... there was only one good movie in the entire franchise for petes sake.

Don't know what to say about the Daredevil one. Personally I hated everything about it from the costume to the guy wearing it.

The second of the Spiderman films was the best of the three for sure. The first was an origin story which by default made it a little slower. I thought it still had a charm to it that gives it a place at the table but by no means was it perfect and I had certain issues with it. The third movie was just awful. It is one of the few movies I have ever walked out of the theater and had feelings of anger.

Bottom line is that films are a matter of personal taste. Sometimes people just have different standards, and sometimes we like a film just because we really want to and will find the good in it no matter how far we have to dig to find it.

In discussions like this there are bound to be differing points of view and that is fine. This is why I offer up my opinion and allow others theirs, without casting judgments. As I see it what we say here holds little to no weight anyhow; it is just a fun way to kill some time. In the end the only votes that count is how we spend our dollars.

[co2]

I want to say Raimi, because I still think Spider-man 2 is the pinnacle of the Marvel films so far, but Raimi isn't as diverse as Bryan Singer. So I think I will have to go with Singer. X2 is pretty much up there with Spidey 2 and Iron Man for me. It also has a tone that I think is harder to capture than Spider-man.

[Chris B]

Honestly, it's a tie between Raimi and Favreau for me. Singer was great as well.

[david icke]

And he should.

But because of the Incredible Hulk TV pilot and the episodes "Married" and "Prometheus."

Kenneth Johnson did not direct Howard the duck, he did direct 'Steel' though, which is actually worse than HTD.
It was whadjamacall him who directed HTD, Williard Hyuck, the guy who , with his wife, co-wrote American Graffitti with Lucas, and again with his wife, did some additional script work on the 1st Star Wars(and gets the credit for what lines they added in the screenplay book).
He never directed another movie after HTD though.

I voted for Singer, he made the 1st superhero movie that to me truly felt like the characters had walked off the page and onto the screen. Watching that 1st X-Men film was actually kind of spooky for me.

Raimi I would give second place to, he got Spidey down pretty good, although not perfect. Better than I was expecting though, at least with the second movie, the first one lacked a truly fantastic Spidey/villan superpowered showdown.

Then i would give 3rd place to Matt Vaguhn on the strength of Kick-ass, i have not seen Stardust.

[david icke]

I really like the idea of this thread but I don't think that Sam Raimi deserves it at all :/

You wonder why Sam Raimi gets plaudits for the Spider-man movies, and at the same time wonder why people don't like Ghost Rider? That is kind of mindblowing to me.
Ghost Rider was an awful hark back to deeply average superhero movies of the early 90s like the Shadow, it was as if no progress had been made since then.
MSJ did well with DD because the source material was so good, the Miller books basically elevated that guy's game.
but still, moviemaking wise, it is not as good as either the Spider-man or Singer X-Men movies, they are basically the crown jewels of the Marvel Movies so far.

[Dead Ken]

I voted for Favs. It was either him or Raimi. They're both great directors in their own right, I don't think any other Cgi fights were ever as kineticand well shot/edited as Spidey vs. Ock, not even the Burly brawl in the Matrix Reloaded! And both Iron Man films are very well filmed as well as well written dialogue-wise, but they also have greatly shot action scenes.
However, in terms of movie companies getting in the way of an original idea of both of them (to my understanding Sony wanted Venom in SM3 while Raimi didn't like the character and Marvel forced an Avengers tie-in which messed with Faverau's original ideas) I think Faverau made a better film with Iron Man 2 than Raimi made with SM3. Though Raimi is the one for me when I want another low budget horror :D

[huzzah]

Toss up between Faverau and Norrington for Blade1. Faverau just won...only just.