Battle of the Comic Book Films Tournament(2020 Edition)

venom892

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A few years back I did a tournament of every theatrically released comic book adaptation. Several films have been released since then. So with this pandemic raging, I figured this be a nice way to pass the time. Below are links to the prior tournaments.

2011-https://forums.superherohype.com/threads/battle-of-the-comic-book-movies-tournament.350803/

Winner: The Dark Knight

2013-https://forums.superherohype.com/threads/battle-of-the-comic-book-films-tournament-2013-edition.460343/

Winner: Avengers

I did research and came up with all the round 1 matches. As previous winners, I gave The Dark Knight and Avengers byes. I tried to find common things between films(Directors, Actors, Year released, etc) Now given I'm including ALL comic book adaptations, there will be some mismatches. But I find it more to include all films rather than the best of the best as it gives way to a more unpredictable bracket(certain films not making it out of round 1 while other surprising ones advance etc.)


Here are the rules
1. A film must have a traditional theatrical release, meaning
-No direct to TV/DVD/streaming films(DC animated films, TV Doctor Strange, etc.)
-No one night engagements(Ex: The Killing Joke or Harley Quinn/Batman)
-No Films that released Internationally, but not domestically(Dolph Lundgren's The Punisher)

2. At the end of 24 hours, I'll count the votes and the one with the most votes advances to the next round.
-No votes after the 24 hour period will be counted
-In the event of a tie, the first vote after the 24 hour period will be the decider.

3. There isn't a traditional bracket like say March madness. Once a movie advances, I catalog it and once a round is over, I make the next round's matchups based again on common elements(director, actor, studio, etc)

4. There might be matches that are three films rather than two since we have an uneven amount of films entered.

That's it(for now at least). Now let us proceed to Round 1 Match 1!
 
Battle Of The Michael Keaton Films

Batman(1989)
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VS.

Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man-Homecoming-Printable-Posters-MyPosterCollection.com-27.jpg
 
Batman. Although I think Keaton himself is better in Spider-Man. Spider-Man also has the better lead (Batman tends to get lost in the shuffle in the Burton films). But as a whole, I found Batman to be a much more entertaining movie thanks to the design and Jack Nicholson stealing the show.
 
Aaahhhhh, how I missed this activity.


I love both, but I will go with X-Men cause I prepared myself for its 20th anniversary this year, and because I love it more.
 
You know, a year ago I would’ve gone with X Men, but recently this year my family sat down to watch Superman Returns after Crisis was on TV and my kids mentioned that they’d never seen the Brandon Routh Superman despite the fact that I bought a copy when Blockbuster went out of business. Rewatching it, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Therefore my vote goes to Superman Returns.
 
Batman and X-Men for sure. I just recently watched Batman 89 too and damn does that movie still hold up. I'm not a huge fan of the first X-Men either and I still find the sequel vastly superior, but I do prefer it over Superman Returns which I am just not that big of a fan of at all. Brandon Routh was a really good choice for Clark Kent/Supes though and I really enjoyed seeing him again on Crisis.
 
X-Men. I don't love the first X-Men movie. In a lot of ways it feels more like a tv pilot than a full-fledged movie. It is a lot smaller and cheaper looking than previous superhero films like Superman and Batman and the plot is rather basic. It seems to mostly exist to introduce the characters for future adventures. But it does do that rather well. Also, while it doesn't particularly hold up well today now that several superhero films do it, it was pioneering at the time for actually being a serious film dealing with real issues and not just a campy action movie.

Superman Returns is a little underrated. I like the look and feel of it, and Brandon Routh was a pretty good Superman (I much prefer him to Henry Cavill). But it is held back by too many flaws, the main one being it just isn't very exciting. Also, the kid subplot just didn't work. This also has one of the weakest portrayals of Lois Lane, who is normally one comics best female characters.

On a personal level, I have them closer in quality than probably most people do. However, there is no question that X-Men was the more successful and significant of the two, and that does a lot to swing me in that direction. I'd have to pretty clearly like Superman Returns more to pick it, and I don't.
 
Sin City hands down. Love that movie, but I don't hate Iron Man 2 either. I actually enjoy Rourke in that movie as Ivan Vanko even if the writing for his character isn't all that great. The supporting cast of Iron Man is honestly the best thing about that movie IMO.
 

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