Favorite Comic Book Movie Soundtracks

[Drizzle]

So Guardians of the Galaxy came out, and one of the great things about the movie that everyone is talking about is the '70s soundtrack. This got me thinking, there have been quite a few decent comic book/superhero movie soundtracks over the years. What are your favorites?

*Soundtracks meaning songs only, not scores. We have threads about best comic/superhero movie scores already. So I'm not counting John Williams's Superman score, Danny Elfman's Batman score or Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight score here.

Batman - The Prince stuff. This was the first time a superhero movie incorporated pop songs, and they were pretty good. The ones used in the movie seemed to fit.

Batman Forever - Looking back on it, the soundtrack might be the best part of the movie. "Kiss From A Rose" and "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" both get me nostalgic for the 90's.

Watchmen - This one has a great soundtrack that helps set the environment and time period for the film, even though most of these songs were referenced in the graphic novel. "Unforgettable", "The Times They Are A Changin", "The Sound of Silence", and "All Along the Watchtower" are all put to great use. It might actually be my favorite superhero movie soundtrack, even with the not bad but out-of-place "Desolation Row" cover.

Iron Man 2 - Because of this (and The Avengers), I'll always think of Iron Man when I hear "Shoot to Thrill" now. Plus, you've got The Clash peppered in there as well. And as a bonus, Tony's birthday party scene gave us Tupac and a Queen-Daft Punk mash-up. Not too shabby.

Guardians of the Galaxy - You knew this would pop up. The Awesome Mix lived up to its name. The opening credit scene was perfectly set to "Come and Get Your Love", plus we had one of the best, if not the best uses of "The Pina Colada Song" in a film ever. And "Cherry Bomb", "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" were great additions as well.

Honorable Mentions:
X-Men: Days of Future Past - "Time in a Bottle" during the Quicksilver scene
Hellboy 2 - Hellboy and Abe getting drunk and singing "Can't Smile Without You"
Kick-Ass - Hit-Girl kicking ass to "Bad Reputation", and Kick-Ass coming in on a jetpack and lighting the thugs up to Elvis.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Your honourable mentions and the Batman Forever Soundtrack.

Daredevil soundtrack was alright

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Watchmen definitely. I think it still beats GOTG for me

Also, Ghost World if it counts.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Watchmen soundtrack was awesome. I still listen to that today.

The usage of "Times they are a changing'" is imo the best usage of vocal music in a CBM.

Followed by Time in a Bottle and Shoot to thrill in their respective movies.

 

[psylockolussus]

-Daredevil
-X-Men: Days of Future Past
-Thor

 

[Golgo-13]

Batman 89
Blade 1
Kick Ass

 

[the last son]

Blade or batman forever

 

[FrozenBanana00]

Iron Man. I just think the soundtrack sounds like the suit in a way, the stomping feet and just totally rock and roll which is Tony Stark's style.

 

[def28]

This is pretty easy for me.

Blade
The Crow (How has no one mentioned this yet?)
The Crow City Of Angels
Tank Girl
Guardians Of The Galaxy

They all had the best use of the songs that really added to the film, characters or setting.

 

[Hellion]

Batman Returns

 

[def28]

The Siouxsie and The Banshees track is awesome.

 

[Doc Ock]

No scores? but I don't really listen to the "other" kind of music!

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Raimi's Spider-Man has some beautiful songs, especially Signal Fire by Snow Patrol

 

[Sexy Magician]

I just love GOTG soundtrack, 'If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain'

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

The song in Spider-Man 2 when Peter was deciding between Patrol and going to MJs play was great. Really added to the scenes.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

The Crow:

The Cure
Stone Temple Pilots
Nine Inch Nails
Pantera
Rage Against The Machine
Violent Femmes
Rollins Band
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Helmet
My Life With The Thrill Kull Kult

Does Transformers: The Movie count? If so, that too.

 

[DA_Champion]

The Dark Knight is excellent workout music.

 

[agentorange]

Watchmen soundtrack put me onto a lot of artists I normally wouldn't listen to like Bob Dylan. So I gotta go with that one.

 

[def28]

The Crow:

The Cure
Stone Temple Pilots
Nine Inch Nails
Pantera
Rage Against The Machine
Violent Femmes
Rollins Band
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Helmet
My Life With The Thrill Kull Kult

This really can not be beat. Such an amazing soundtrack.

 

[The_Manhunter]

Thor: The Dark World, Man of Steel, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Dark Knight Rises are my favorites. Don't want to rank them.

 

[Batmannerism]

Since the thread is about soundtracks, I'm going to stick with films that use
songs (scores are something else entirely ).

Here's my top 5. Probably closely in line with a lot of other folks, but I'm happy to agree with people about these fantastic soundtracks.

1. The Crow ( captures the mood of the film perfectly, and an amazing snapshot of early 90's/late 80's alternative music)

2. Watchmen ( for its variety, from classical to rock and punk, very nice)

3. but very close to 2nd Guardians of the Galaxy, which also has an amazing cross section of music - kind of the ultimate feel good superhero movie soundtrack, the exact opposite of the Crow.

3. Kick Ass: again a nice mix, and fits the film's mood perfectly. "Stand Up" by prodigy is a fantastic de facto main title.

5. Batman '89, even though I generally don't like Prince, again it fit the film and the times. Batman Forever should get honourable mention too -there was a lot of good stuff on there besides the Seal and U2 songs.


Big ups to the OP, I think this is a cool idea, and a lot of variants could come from this thread, as in "best song as an end title" ( e.g. Live to Rise from Avengers, Hold me Thrill me hit me kiss me kill me from Batman forever )
Or perhaps best use of a song in a particular scene e.g. I think "Seasons" by Chris Cornell was used to great effect in Man of Steel, but there are plenty of other examples.

cheers.

 

[Jochimus]

I have to confess that non-score soundtracks to superhero movies usually do nothing for me...but I'd also have to say that "Guardians of the Galaxy" is easily the only one that comes closest to being my favorite for its sheer guts; to back up a popcorn space adventure made in the second decade of the 21st century with songs from the late '60s and early '70s - a time frame that I'm sure would predate the existence of a healthy chunk of the general audience - is a pretty bold creative decision IMO.