"Best Comic Book Movie Ever"

[JP]

Every time a new comic book movie comes out and is critically and financially successful it is labeled by fans "the best comic book movie to date". I was just thinking to myself, isn't it time that that phrase died? I mean, I understand why it came about. The 'comic book' genre was pretty fresh and there really weren't that many out there, so when a good one came out it was labeled "best in it's genre". Well, now we've come to a point where there are multiple comic book movies a year and the comic book movie genre consists of so many films.

Imagine a new comedy came out and people said it was the best comedy ever. A little silly right? Considering there are thousands of comedies, all of which cater to variety of different people.

Superman The Movie was the best comic book movie ever.
Batman was the best comic movie ever.
X-Men was the best comic book movie ever.
Spider-Man was the best comic book movie ever.
X2 was the best comic book movie ever.
Spider-Man 2 was the best comic book movie ever.
Batman Begins was the best comic book movie ever.
Iron Man was the best comic book movie ever.

And now people are saying Hellboy II and TDK are the best comic book movies ever.

Can't we just forget about these films being "the best ever" and just enjoy each of them as films?

Thoughts?

 

[Gilpesh]

Well... the ones you sited were the best ones to date when they came out...

It's not like they are doing it for every comic book movie.

 

[JP]

Three of the movies I listed are from the same sumer of movies.

If TDK is the best superhero movie to date, then where does that leave Iron Man. How can it be better than Iron Man when both films are so completely different?

 

[Rac]

Sin City was also the best comic book movie ever.

 

[kyuubijavi1]

In the whole genra deal which means ranking up all the comic movies together and ranking them

It seems like TDK will be the best and its not just cause im a fan of the bat that i say that its cause alot of the reviews compare this movie to GodFather and Departed Heat hell I've even read the male Titanic.

That says alot for the movie but each one is different

the new Batman movies are taking a whole Gang movie feel
Ironman is more of a sci-fi film along with a couple others

I'm sure if you look through them you can find the right catagory for the film

but SH or Comic movie is just a loose tie up I mean you could say the same for Novel movies or movies based off real life events they are only linked by there original source

 

[jaymes_e06]

Every time a new comic book movie comes out and is critically and financially successful it is labeled by fans "the best comic book movie to date". I was just thinking to myself, isn't it time that that phrase died? I mean, I understand why it came about. The 'comic book' genre was pretty fresh and there really weren't that many out there, so when a good one came out it was labeled "best in it's genre". Well, now we've come to a point where there are multiple comic book movies a year and the comic book movie genre consists of so many films.

Imagine a new comedy came out and people said it was the best comedy ever. A little silly right? Considering there are thousands of comedies, all of which cater to variety of different people.

Superman The Movie was the best comic book movie ever.
Batman was the best comic movie ever.
X-Men was the best comic book movie ever.
Spider-Man was the best comic book movie ever.
X2 was the best comic book movie ever.
Spider-Man 2 was the best comic book movie ever.
Batman Begins was the best comic book movie ever.
Iron Man was the best comic book movie ever.

And now people are saying Hellboy II and TDK are the best comic book movies ever.

Can't we just forget about these films being "the best ever" and just enjoy each of them as films?

Thoughts?

You just said a mouthfull there and you are right but I don't think that "the next comic movie 'best movie' mantality" will change any time soon we feel the need to compare as fans and as humans.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Everybody's going to have a favorite & in their eyes, their fave is the best ever. I'm only bothered when fans push that statement like it's some scientifically-proven, historically documented fact.

 

[November Rain]

i see no reason in seeing a genre continually improving with time, isn't that the ultimate goal.

what's the point of releasing films if there older counterparts are superior.

 

[JP]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Everybody's going to have a favorite & in their eyes, their fave is the best ever. I'm only bothered when fans push that statement like it's some scientifically-proven, historically documented fact.

Like Spider-man 2

 

[November Rain]

spiderman 2 is a horrible film with more flaws than good bits.

slap in a film based on unnecessary character development and a decent fight scenes and everyone loves it.

exactly the same thing occurs in x2...

 

[JP]

What? X2 is the best comic book film ever!!!!

 

[Chris Wallace]

Like Spider-man 2

Actually, that is my favorite.

I find that this best ever/no two ways about it/disagree with me and you don't deserve to live" argument more often gets pushed in favor of "Batman Begins"

The original "Batman"

And the original "Superman".

 

[Chris Wallace]

By that same token, everyone will always have their opinion about which one is the worst ever.

 

[DieSmiling]

There's no definitive, and everyone has their opinions.

I think most people would agree that the top candidates are Superman: The Movie, Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins, and Iron Man, with The Dark Knight looking to trump all of them. At least, those are the ones I repeatedly hear as the top movies.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I've heard some cries for some of the underdogs as well; like The Crow & The Rocketeer, & even Superman Returns.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

TDK. 'Nuff said.

 

[KillerCroc]

Um, hello...has everyone forgotten about Howard the Duck. Masterpiece. Seriously, I am a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Batman Fanboy, but it bugs when people are already labeling TDK the best comic book movie ever and they haven't seen it. To keep it real, I like the majority of Comic movies I see (probably 99.8% of them) because they represent a genre and a medium I enjoy and relate to. I loved the original Hulk movie, I even liked Daredevil and Elektra. Catwoman, that fits in the .2%.

 

[webhead921]

I agree with the thread starter. We are now at a point when the number of comic book based movies that are coming out is increasing. There are a lot of good comic book movies out right now. Saying one movie is the "best movie ever" of a certain genre is kind of ridiculous (even with comic book movies, I know there still aren't too many). When I get into a discussion like this with my friends, it ends up being us arguing in favor of the movie that is based on the character we like better. Even movies that are not fan favorites (i.e. fantastic four, ghost rider) are still fun to watch for me.

MY favorite comic book movie is spidey 2

 

[Kevin Roegele]

....it is still Superman the Movie.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I agree with the thread starter. We are now at a point when the number of comic book based movies that are coming out is increasing. There are a lot of good comic book movies out right now. Saying one movie is the "best movie ever" of a certain genre is kind of ridiculous (even with comic book movies, I know there still aren't too many). When I get into a discussion like this with my friends, it ends up being us arguing in favor of the movie that is based on the character we like better. Even movies that are not fan favorites (i.e. fantastic four, ghost rider) are still fun to watch for me.

MY favorite comic book movie is spidey 2

I agree wholeheartedly. Hell, this year alone we got-what? Four comic book movies? It is better to just say "favorite" rather than "best", lest you become one of the annoying opinion-snobs that tend to dominate these threads.

 

[nite-owl]

I think it's fan thing aswell I mean fans of a certain character are going to say their movie is the best. But I agree what Chris said people should say favourite instead of best.

 

[Heretic]

There is a very good reason why this happens...and should continue happening...

We care.

Lots of books get turned into movies, but for the most part, book fans arent excited to see ANY book get turned into a movie, just the ones that they like.

The medium of comics is different. I cant stand the character of Ghost Rider. I would have no interest in reading his comic, but I rushed out to the theater and wasted my 8 bucks anyway.

We hope that when there's a good movie based on a comic book, it might lend a bit of respectablity to what we love, which is especially important considering that comics are so disrespected as a medium. No other medium is so widely viewed as being so devoid of good works.

Crumb, though not a comic book movie, was of course related to the medium. It was the best movie out the year it was released, but didnt get anywhere near the Oscar (it did win best documentary). American Splendor was more insulting, as it is a great representation of our medium but was passed over for lesser films.

We want these films to be great, all of them, even if we dont read the comics. I own every issue of Eightball (which Ghost World comes from) and Sin City, and I dont own a single issue of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or X-Men...but I feel that it is my responsibility as a fan to go see all of them. If you are a comic fan and you skip movies like Road To Perdition, then I feel you're doing a disservice to the medium.

I long believed that Indie comic films would end up being taken seriously and would seperate themselves from the "comic book movie" genre, but with Heath ledger possibly breaking the glass ceiling and giving a comic movie a major Oscar, and iron man getting such praise, I now believe that we can move together as a medium in its film translations. Our enemy is no longer each other, as in The dark knight or Iron man as people here argue back and forth, but the new enemy is good translations vs bad translations. We have to make sure that our voices ar eheard that we dont just want an endless supply of comic movies, we want a reasonable supply of good comic movies.

 

[OctaviusINC]

I think it's fan thing aswell I mean fans of a certain character are going to say their movie is the best. But I agree what Chris said people should say favourite instead of best.

Yeah, I agree with that.

But being a life long comic reader and comic film viewer, when critics DO say "It's the best comic book movie ever" I just don't get how they could say that when some comic films are so different from each other.

So people said "Iron Man" is the best. Better then "Road to Perdition"? To me, you can't even compare the two because they're so freaking different.

"Hellboy II" or "History of Violence"

"Spider-man" or "Wanted"

I don't know. I guess it'd be more dignified if you said "Iron Man" was the best "superhero" movie to date. I'm just saying to put "Sin City" in with "Superman" is just weird.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

How about Persepolis?

 

[Heretic]

You can compare all of those movies!

Whats a better movie? The Godfather 2 or Gigli? If you say you cant compare the two because they are different genres then you're fooling yourself. Which one is better at its genre than the other? I can safely say that Schindler's List is better than Elektra, and I feel that American Splendor is better than Battlefield Earth. Sin City is better than Man-Thing, Iron Man is better than Howard The Duck