CFE's 100 Comic Book Movie Countdown

[Majik1387]

Its ranked way too high.

 

[CFE]

Not really, no...IMO.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I thought X-Men Origins: WOlverine was awesome, honestly.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Not really, no...IMO.

I agree, I think it's just about right. It wasn't horrible and wasn't great. I think I enjoyed X3 in theatres more because I didn't have as high of an expectation for that movie that I did with Origins.

The biggest detriment to Origins, (for me) is the potential it had. I knew X3 wasn't going to be great, because you can't try and cram the Pheonix saga in one movie and do it justice, especially when you introduce the cure storyline as well.

Origins didn't have that problem. In fact, I was expecting it to be much leaner and more focused, but they overcomplicated it. It's really too bad because it could have been much deeper, especially if they played around with the themes presented in Barry Windsor-Smith's Weapon X storyline. That graphic novel perfectly illustrated the maximum amount of horror I expected Wolverine to go through. After seeing all that they did to him, you realize why he has to fight so hard not to lose himself in his animalistic side. I would have loved for them to take some of that and put it in the movie. It would have made it so much more emotionally intense.

It also could have tied into the relationship with Sabretooth as well. If you found out, after Logan goes through all this torture at the hands of Weapon X, that Sabretooth was in on the plan to capture him, and supported them in torturing him and trying to turn Logan into an animal, it would have been sick, but it also would have fit perfectly, because that's all Sabretooth wanted. It's all he's ever wanted, for Logan to finally become like him.

Unfortunately they missed out on a great opportunity by skimming over all that. And really, that's the biggest probelm with the film. They skim over too much. They mention things, but they don't expand on it. Like Logan's battle with his animal side. We get plenty of lines about his struggle, but we never see a struggle. I never got a sense that Logan had to control anything about himself. It was really too bad, because the lack of visible struggle with his animal nature in the X-men films was one of the biggest problems I had with Wolverine in the X-men movies. This was the film they should have fixed that in, but they didn't.

All in all though, that's all fanboy talking. Putting my thoughts on the character from the comics aside, the movie really isn't that bad at all. It's entertaining and all the actors give great performances, they were just hampered by a lackluster script.


EDIT: sorry CFE, I kind of went off on a tangent there

 

[boydston_14]

My friend brought up an interesting thing about the X-Men movies and Wolverine: Why does Wolverine have to cry in all of them?

 

[thejon93]

My friend brought up an interesting thing about the X-Men movies and Wolverine: Why does Wolverine have to cry in all of them?

He's too invincible. So they decide to hurt him emotionally instead

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'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' Review:

Anyhow, decided to go see 'Wolverine' eariler on today... I could waste all of my whole-hearted time nitpicking all the flaws with this film, but... I'm not gonna. This film is utter garbage. It's quite the piece of work, riddled and plagued by poor dialogue, poor action sequences, poor characters, etc. This film does have some nice touches (most of the ones 'CFE' had mentioned), but none of them stand out and make an impressive movie in anyway. However, looking back and reading 'CFE's review on it has made me glad of viewing the movie (nice to see he put the review in spoiler tags, like I suggested).

The cast members are likable and... well, that's pretty much it, as far as my interest goes, but they did make a lot of what I viewed today tolerable (which I really appreciate, because it could've been a greater disaster in other's hands). My favourite sequence is a tie (actually). One being the opening helicopter sequence, introducing the whole team to myself and the audience (reminded me a little bit of the way 'Predator' introduced the whole hunting crew), some really interesting characters there that'd I'd be interested in seeing later-developed in future (potential) spin-offs.

And my second favourite scene is actually the whole "Blob" sequence. I really liked the guy playing Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), he really had a great presence with Hugh Jackman. In fact, a lot of these guys have great presence with Jackman. I'm hoping that they all get together and do the commentary with one-another, I'd definitely be purchasing the DVD opening day, if so.

Lastly, I want to explain further why I dislike this film... My main problem with it is that they try so hard to push for the emotional investment you have with each characters. And, ultimately, they fail. These characters are virtually indestructible. So indestructible that it makes an action sequence feel a lot less exciting than it would be with characters who have the risk of potentially... dying. These sequences just don't have that sense of thrill.

And a secondary problem I had with this film were some of the performances, from: Young James & Victor to Stryker & Silverfox. Maybe it's because these guys had some of the worst spoken dialogue in the whole movie ("You're Not An Animal"; sounds... a... little... rob-tronic). I honestly wished that Michelle Monaghan would've stuck around to play the role, considering the actress we got in-return (Lynn Collins) couldn't convince me her way out of a wet paper-bag.

Overall, I didn't like the film. I liked pieces of the film, but a lot of it fell flat with it's generic nature (I rolled my eyes when Silverfox was explaining to Logan the whole... moon thing, closing with the obvious "So That's Where His Name Came From").

Rating: 48% ~ With a likable cast and some nice sequences, this may please some nimble fans of the series and, particularly, of this character. However, it fails in winning over the mass with it's cliche-ridden script and virtually indestructible (main) characters.

 

[Kahoot]

Spoiler

1: SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (Richard Donner, 1978)
2: THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
3: BATMAN (Tim Burton, 1989)
4: SUPERMAN II (Richard Lester/(Richard Donner), 1980)
5: ROAD TO PERDITION (Sam Mendes, 2002)
6: BATMAN RETURNS (Tim Burton, 1992)
7: THE ROCKETEER (Joe Johnson, 1991)
8: WATCHMEN (Zack Snyder, 2009)
9: X2: X-MEN UNITED (Bryan Singer, 2003)
10: BLADE (Stephen Norrington, 1998)

------------

11: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Bruce W. Timm and Eric Radomski, 1993)
12: The Crow (Alex Proyas, 1994)
13: Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
14: Spider-Man II (Sam Raimi, 2004)
15: Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
16: Sin City (Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, 2005)
17: The Incredible Hulk (Louis Leterrier, 2008)
18: Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2002)
19: X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
20: Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006)

------------

21: American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, 2003)
22: A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
23: Art School Confidential (Terry Zwigoff, 2006)
24: Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
25: Blade II (Guillermo Del Toro, 2002)
26: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Steve Barron, 1990)
27: Wonder Woman (Lauren Montgomery, 2009)
28: Justice League: The New Frontier (Dave Bullock, 2008)
29: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Guillermo Del Toro, 2008)
30: Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (Curt Geda, 2000)

------------

31: V For Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)
32: Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero (Boyd Kirkland, 1998)
33: Daredevil (Mark Steven Johnson, 2003)
34: Spider-Man III (Sam Raimi, 2007)
35: HULK (Ang Lee, 2003)
36: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009)
37: Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995)
38: Blade: Trinity (David S. Goyer, 2004)
39: Conan The Barbarian (John Milius, 1982)
40: X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner, 2006)

Spoiler

------------

41: Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997)
42: From Hell (Albert and Allen Hughes, 2001)
43: The Mask (Chuck Russell, 1994)
44: The Spirit (Frank Miller, 2008)
45: 300 (Zack Snyder, 2007)
46: Punisher: War Zone (Lexi Alexander, 2008)
47: Superman: Doomsday (Bruce W. Timm, Lauren Montgomery and Brandon Vietti, 2007)
48: Hellboy (Guillermo Del Toro, 2004)
49: Constantine (Francis Lawrence, 2005)
50: The Punisher (Jonathan Hensleigh, 2004)

------------

51: Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)
52: Timecop (Peter Hyams, 1994)
53: Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Curt Geda and Tim Maltby, 2003)
54: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Tim Story, 2007)
55: TMNT (Kevin Munroe, 2007)
56: Batman: The Movie (Leslie H. Martinson, 1966)
57: Mystery Men (Kinka Usher, 1999)
58: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (Michael Pressman, 1991)
59: Ultimate Avengers II: Rise of the Panther (Will Meugn​iot and Dick Sebas​t, 2006)
60: Fantastic Four (Tim Story, 2005)

------------

61: Wanted (Timur Bekmambetov, 2008)
62: Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (Curt Geda and Steven E. Gordon, 2006)
63: Superman III (Richard Lester, 1983)
64: Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfield, 2002)
65: Judge Dredd (Danny Cannon, 1995)
66: Ghost Rider (Mark Steven Johnson, 2007)
67: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Stephen Norrington, 2003)
68: The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (Bill Bixby, 1989)
69: Conan the Destroyer (Richard Fleischer, 1984)
70: The Punisher (Mark Goldblatt, 1989)

------------

71: Death of the Incredible Hulk (Bill Bixby, 1990)
72: Spawn (Mark A.Z. Dippe, 1997)
73: 30 Days of Night (David Slade, 2007)
74: Bulletproof Monk (Paul Hunter, 2003)
75: Captain America (Albert Pyun, 1990)
76: Red Sonja (Richard Fleischer, 1985)
77: Superman and The Mole Men (Lee Sholem, 1951)
78: The Incredible Hulk Returns (Nicholas Corea, 1988)
79: Elektra (Rob Bowman, 2005)
80: Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997)

------------

81: Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 1982)
82: The Crow: Salvation (Bharat Nalluri, 2000)
83: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (Stuart Gillard, 1993)
84: Supergirl (Jeannot Szwarc, 1984)
85: The Return of Swamp Thing (Jim Wynorski, 1989)
86: Captain America II: Death Too Soon (Ivan Nagy, 1979)
87: Barb Wire (David Hogan, 1996)
88: The Crow: City of Angels (Tim Pope, 1996)
89: Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Rod Hardy, 1998)
90: Virus (John Bruno, 1999)

------------

91: Captain America (Rod Holcomb, 1979)
92: The Crow: Wicked Prayer (Lance Mungia, 2005)
93: Catwoman (Pitof, 2004)
94: Tank Girl (Rachel Taladay, 1995)
95: Steel (Kenneth Johnson, 1997)
96: Man-Thing (Brett Leonard, 2005)
97: Son of the Mask (Lawrence Guterman, 2005)
98: Howard The Duck (William Huyck, 1986)
99: The Fantastic Four (Oley Sassone, 1994)
100: Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (Sidney J. Furie, 1987)

Intresting that Superman IV is still #100 when the X-Men Origins: Wolverine should've nocked it off the bottom. What happened to [post=16527867]The Phantom (Simon Wincer, 1996)[/post] on the list?

 

[CFE]

Well 'Phantom' is technically more comic strip and I wanted the list to be more comic book

But at the time, the Phantom was a better choice than things like the animated 'Dr. Strange' etc etc...

 

[gwynplaine]

What about "Blueberry", a terrible film with Vincent Cassel in the title role and adapted from a magnicificent comic book by the same name, crerated by Jean Giraud aka (and better known in the US) as Moebius ?

Also The Baby Cart series, fantastic samourai movies adapted from a famous Manga (but maybe you were not doing mangas).

 

[Spider-Fan]

I was very meh to this movie. I gave it a 5.5/10 myself. Too many large and gaping plot holes in the film, it felt cookie cutter, and Wolverine was too tame.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Intresting that Superman IV is still #100 when the X-Men Origins: Wolverine should've nocked it off the bottom. What happened to [post=16527867]The Phantom (Simon Wincer, 1996)[/post] on the list?

Oh come on, Origns wasn't nearly that bad. You'd honestly rank it lower than the 1994 F4 or Howard the Duck?

 

[Kahoot]

Oh come on, Origns wasn't nearly that bad. You'd honestly rank it lower than the 1994 F4 or Howard the Duck?

huh

I didn't rate it at all. I've not seen all 100 movies on the list and Origns is one of the ones I haven't seen (yet). I was pointing out that before Origns was on the list Superman IV was ranked #100 and afer Origns was on the list Superman IV was still ranked #100. I was showing that there was a movie removed from the old list after Origns was added and that was The Phantom (Simon Wincer, 1996).

 

[Mutagen]

Nice review, the simple stuff pretty much sums it up for me; not as good as X-men or X2, but a welcome improvement to The Last Stand. I'm glad Jackman got at least something to work with this time, and it didn't turn out as horrible as many claimed it to be, strictly my opinion of course.

 

[Infinity9999x]

huh

I didn't rate it at all. I've not seen all 100 movies on the list and Origns is one of the ones I haven't seen (yet). I was pointing out that before Origns was on the list Superman IV was ranked #100 and afer Origns was on the list Superman IV was still ranked #100. I was showing that there was a movie removed from the old list after Origns was added and that was The Phantom (Simon Wincer, 1996).

My fault. When I read your post I thought you were saying Wolverine should have taken it's place as the bottom ranked movie. I read your post wrong.

 

[CFE]

Keep your eyes open for my 'Star Trek' review in the respective thread...most likely on Saturday.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Keep your eyes open for my 'Star Trek' review in the respective thread...most likely on Saturday.

Nice I'm embarrassed to say I haven't watched any Trek before this, but I'm definitely planning on catching the movie this weekend.

 

[gwynplaine]

What about "Blueberry", a terrible film with Vincent Cassel in the title role and adapted from a magnicificent comic book by the same name, created by Jean Giraud aka (and better known in the US) as Moebius ?

Also The Baby Cart series, fantastic samourai movies adapted from a famous Manga (but maybe you were not doing mangas).

Bump.

 

[CFE]

With the exception of "Akira" I really didn't want to include manga-adaptations simply on the basis that there are so many.

 

[DX]

I know I'm late and the list is finished but I've been reading some of these reviews and you've done a bang-up job, CFE. I look forward to more.

 

[CFE]

100 Science Fiction Films will start up in September to count down to the end of the year...that'll be in the Misc. Films section.

In truth that will not only include the 100 ranked films, but full reviews of prominent films NOT featured on that list...so about 120 or so reviews.

 

[Superman]

I don't know if there were ever any actual comic books made about them....but they are comic book flavored.

The Fantastic Argoman
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
Superargo Against Diabolicus

Made in the 60's...all are costumed superheroes with various powers. They are a hoot to watch.

I've looked it up for my Yahoo group and as far as I can find Argoman was never a comic book.

I caught the last few minutes of "Superargo and the Faceless Giants" on TV years ago. It looked like it would have been fun to watch.

 

[gwynplaine]

With the exception of "Akira" I really didn't want to include manga-adaptations simply on the basis that there are so many.

.

 

[CFE]

Well now that I'm out of school for a few weeks, I think I'm going to take the opportunity to review some of the films that didn't make it on the list...as well as some of the comic strip films ("The Shadow," "Dick Tracy," etc.)...

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Great review CFE. I agree on almost every single point. I also gave it a 7/10

 

[CFE]

Well lets hope "Wolverine 2" is better..."Deadpool" to for that matter.

Yeah there's a whole slew on the horizon that I'm ready to see and review, etc...