Rank the 2016 Comic Book Movies

[BoredGuy]

I won't be putting a closing date on this poll.

yeah but if the thread rolls over it'll close the poll automatically
not that this thread's going that crazy at the moment, but it could happen

 

[Erzengel]

I really wanted to do a poll sans CW for essentially #2 CBM. I still think that with the inclusion of Deadpool, SS and Strange it'd still be CW with a significant lead. So even if this goes into a Part 2 thread, I think this thread was really for the best of the remaining 5 films.

 

[Mjölnir]

1. Civil War
2. Deadpool

3. X-Men: Apocalypse
4. Suicide Squad
5. Batman v Superman

I really hope that Doctor Strange turns out as I hope, and how reviews seem to indicate, so the year at least goes 50% on good superhero movies.

 

[Ujio]

1. Deadpool
2. Civil War
(gap)
3. X-men Apocalypse
4. Batman V Superman

5. Suicide Squad. Absolute dumpster fire, up there with Green Lantern and Fan4stic as one of the worst movies in the genre. I thought the third act of Suicide Squad was Fan4stic levels of bad. Enchantress is probably a worse villain than Dr. Doom from that movie. Ironically, both films have a giant blue portal shooting out of the sky and a similar final boss fight.


You know what, this movie isn't worth the time, but I have to vent.

I saw Suicide Squad a second time today. Sometimes novelty distracts me from flaws, so I thought I'd pay extra attention to the weaker aspects of the film this time around.

And... it's worse than I thought. Let me just dump this out in bullet point format so I don't waste too much more of my day here.

- The movie's main problems, from greatest to least: Editing, writing (this covers character motivations and storytelling through dialogue and visuals), music, and action (both choreography and visual clarity).

- This movie is edited like a rambling conversation about an early draft of a mediocre script. We should have spent more time with the characters before their captivity. Then their capture, additional backstory, and mission should have been presented with adequate buildup and transitions. Their team bonding needed considerably more screen time as well, or at least much more effective establishing moments if we're to believe they care about each other near the end.

- Half baked doesn't begin to describe the writing. Everyone's logic is broken.

- It makes no sense that Waller would recruit people like Harley, Boomerang, and Slipknot for a team intended to defend the US from hostile metahumans. They have no qualifications.

- It likewise makes no sense to send this ill-equipped team to fight an ancient superpowered witch with an equally strong brother. Waller's extraction is understandable, but then why did she murder the colleagues she must have personally selected to work with her in the first place? You'd think she would have ensured they had clearance to know about the Suicide Squad and the Enchantress situation before hiring them to staff her center of operations.

- Why did Waller's rescue chopper take a low flight path when she had excellent surveillance and would have known how Enchantress's soldiers were armed? The chopper even deploys decoy flares, so she must have anticipated anti-air munitions. But no, she lets the pilot go low enough not just for RPG, but within swatting range of Incubus's tendrils. Good job.

- Enchantress tapping into Waller's mind to find military targets should have been clearly explained. It's very easy to miss this point amid everything else that's going on. I'll take this opportunity to mention that the visual storytelling in this movie is sorely lacking. The principle of "show, don't tell" is violated in every scene. Army guy often blurts out info like a precocious 9-year-old explaining plot points to his little sister.

- Why did Enchantress build her genocide machine in the middle of Midway City? She is a teleporting witch who can go to a vault in Tehran and back in under a second. She wouldn't have had to contend with the Suicide Squad if she'd simply zapped herself to a remote location.

- Why would military guy let the Suicide Squad walk into a bar when he still has the neck bomb detonator and Waller is in need of rescue?

- Why the hell would army guy smash the neck bomb detonator and say the Squad is free to go? It makes no sense whatsoever. He endangered his mission and his life, and let the worst of the worst walk free just to punctuate a sentimental moment between killers. Wow. Waller should have had his head on a pike for that.

- Why in the world would Deadshot choose to help army guy find Waller, the one person who can keep him and his new friends (???) under her thumb. He literally walked himself right back into prison, just like everyone who followed him. Also, his daughter never thought he was "a piece of ****" in the first place, so his explanation is nonsense. Plus, this came right after army guy revealed that Deadshot's daughter's letter has been withheld. Which came right after army guy destroyed the one thing keeping the Squad from killing army guy and running off.

- I liked the bar scene quite a lot the first time I saw it, but the second time I was agitated by how out of character the whole situation was, for everyone. The Squad hadn't bonded nearly enough to act so buddy with each other at that stage. I'm going to repeat myself a little here, but if you recall, they were forced to cooperate under threat of death, and no sooner do they rescue the woman who holds their leashes, than they're chatting like old war buddies and choosing to stick together on second mission to rescue Waller that will result in death if they fail and years of prison if they succeed.

- Why did Harley pal around with the Squad after Joker deactivated her neck bomb? She said they had nothing better to do than help Deadshot save Waller, but clearly she did. They all did. Why not go find Joker's crash site? Why not get the hell out of dodge?

- In the final confrontation, Enchantress went dark mode again (her depowered state? Weird strategy) and fought everyone hand to hand, but not before trapping them all in illusions long enough for Incubus or herself to take them out with tendrils or teleportation. Which they didn't. Then she disarms them all at the same time after the pointless fight, which she could have done before. Then she offers to let the Squad join her because they fought well, when they were totally ineffective the whole time, and have absolutely nothing of value to offer the soon-to-be queen of the world.

- After Enchantress's heart gets ripped out by Harley due to her own inexplicable carelessness, and Killer Croc tosses the bomb at her machine, she has several long, very drawn out moments to watch the bomb and create an illusion of Deadshot's daughter to convince him not to shoot the bomb. There was ample time for Enchantress to teleport around the world three times over, yet she just lies there and watches the bomb while Deadshot was distracted. She could have retrieved it whenever she wanted, or moved it the same way she disarmed the Squad earlier, but nope.

- The action in this film is terrible. Just so very bland. No sense of style in the moves or framing, very few standout moments or interesting use of abilities. Utterly pointless slow motion that last for too long and rarely highlights anything special. Compare the action scenes to literally any Marvel film and the contrast could not be more obvious. I couldn't believe how bad the action was when I took the time to really look. Talk about crushingly dull fighting. Suicide Squad was in dire need of a competent action director. How WB could let this stand with Marvel as their competition is completely beyond me. Even BvS's fights are much better, especially Batman again random thugs. *

- The use of popular music is so artless and cynical that it actually pisses me off. I looked at the cinematography and performances and saw fragments of a decent movie with a grounded tone. I realized Suicide Squad's setting is not actually grimdark like I was saying in earlier posts. It's simply lit and framed like a serious film. The setting actually could have worked with very different editing and an appropriate score. But no, WB paid out the ass for a dump truck full of tracks dripping with flash and swagger, and had them staple-gunned over scenes that were clearly designed to strike more subdued tones. Guardians of the Galaxy uses classic song to craft moods that match the tenor and energy of each scene. Suicide Squad's music imposes itself like paintballs splattered across the Statue of David's junk. It's either painfully literal ("You don't own me..." "Don't tell me what to do..." as Harley is defying her guards) or crowbarred in at random because it's a classic (Bohemian Rhapsody in that ending montage of everyone settling back into prison life). Bugger off.

- All that said, the first credits song is perfect. Sounds real cool.

Suicide Squad is put together so ineptly, it's a wonder the final cut was ever approved for release. My second viewing snapped the movie's issues into focus, and yeah, it's one hell of a mess. Fundamental problems with editing, writing, and tone, with laughable action and an insulting parody of Guardians' jaunty soundtrack, there an extension of the impish tone shared between all its well matched parts, here a garish Instagram filter on every scene that wants to be earnest.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

You can rank them, but I'm not putting it in the poll.

Ah, ok.

Steve Ditko? You mean Stan Lee?

We can take both.

Absolutely.

 

[Erzengel]

Poll is up, please try and watch all of them prior to voting.

 

[OutOfBoose]

1. Deadpool
2. Civil War

3. Batman v Superman


4. Suicide Squad
5. Apocalypse

Didn't vote, I need to watch Doctor Strange.

 

[TeeKay]

1) Civil War.
2) Dr. Strange
3) Deadpool
4) Apocalypse

I have no idea which one is worse SS or BvS.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Current ranking

1) Deadpool
2) Civil War
3) X-Men Apocalypse
4) Batman vs Superman
5) TMNT: Out Of The Shadows
6) Suicide Squad

Will vote after I see DS but honestly enjoyed them all so far.

 

[OcStat]

1. Civil War
Distant 2. Apocalypse

Started Deadpool but didn't finish it, it was a little too much, kind of grating actually. I will try it out again but for me personally, this character might work better in 22 pages than 2 hours.


3. BvS, ranked below the first half hour of Deadpool I did watch.


Didn't see Suicide Squad or TMNT2.

Confident Dr. Strange will be #2.

 

[Consona]

Update, just saw Dr. Strange.

1. BvS
2. SS
3. CA:CW
4. Deadpool
5. X:Apo
6. Dr. Strange

 

[divan]

Update, just saw Dr. Strange.

1. BvS
2. SS
3. CA:CW
4. Deadpool
5. X:Apo
6. Dr. Strange

I can understand someone putting BvS or Apocalypse above Civil War but... Suicide Squad?

 

[Neverender]

They're all atrocious (like 2013 & 2015) aside from CW, which is merely a huge disappointment. Although I still have to see Dr. Strange before I can vote. The bar is set so incredibly low that it's hard to imagine it can't step right over the competition.

It's unfortunate that such a large percentage of comic fans don't have higher standards. We deserve much better.

 

[Consona]

I can understand someone putting BvS or Apocalypse above Civil War but... Suicide Squad?

It's somewhat hot mess, yea, but I had SO MUCH fun with it...

See, evaluating films is so difficult. Like I loved BvS for completely different reasons than I loved SS, and while some things in CA:CW really appealed to me or I've found them interesting, etc., somehow it just did not hit me like the silly SS even though I'm rather on the opposite side of things, I like over-complicated stuff like The Prestige or intellectual stuff like the first Star Trek movie from 1979 which I absolutely adore, yet I loved SS. t:

 

[Web-Head]

Haven't seen Doctor Strange but...
1) Civil War
2) Deadpool
3) X-Men: Apocalypse (I liked it more than others)
4) BvS (Same thing)

6) Suicide Squad. Put it at 6th already bc of how much of a dumpster fire it was and I know it'll be my least favorite of the year...if not the next 3 or 4 years.

Will vote after I see Strange

 

[daddydivine]

They're all atrocious (like 2013 & 2015) aside from CW, which is merely a huge disappointment. Although I still have to see Dr. Strange before I can vote. The bar is set so incredibly low that it's hard to imagine it can't step right over the competition.

It's unfortunate that such a large percentage of comic fans don't have higher standards. We deserve much better.

Maybe it's just difficult for you to find joy.

 

[Flint Marko]

Deadpool and Civil war were both successful, but the rest.... yeah, I can't decide if this has been a good year overall for CBM's or not.

 

[Juan1193]

1)Suicide Squad
2)Civil War
3)Deadpool
4)BVS
5)X-Men: Apocalypse

 

[ripse]

1. Cap Civil War
2. Deadpool
3. X-Men Apocalypse
4. Suicide Squad
5. BvS

 

[jmc]

Now the year is completed

1. Deadpool
2. Civil War
3. Dr Strange

 

[Lantern Venom]

They're all atrocious (like 2013 & 2015) aside from CW, which is merely a huge disappointment. Although I still have to see Dr. Strange before I can vote. The bar is set so incredibly low that it's hard to imagine it can't step right over the competition.

It's unfortunate that such a large percentage of comic fans don't have higher standards. We deserve much better.

Today's comic book film and TV landscape is a utopia compared to the options I had back in the 70s and 80s. Take a look at the offerings from that time period. You'll see almost nothing but terrible production values and writing that borrowed very little from the comics on which they were based. We're living in the golden age of the comic book adaptation.

 

[Flint Marko]

It's unfortunate that such a large percentage of comic fans don't have higher standards. We deserve much better.

I don't expect every meal to be a filet mignon, and I don't expect every superhero movie to be TDK/Avengers. I'd agree that the three stinkers released this year were atrocious, but let's not downplay how good we as fans have it.

 

[First Avenger]

I didn't find Apocalypse atrocious,just mediocre. BvS and SS were embarassing though.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Voted Deadpool after seeing, and not being overly impressed by, Dr Strange.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

So far, my list goes like this:

1. Captain America: Civil War awesome
2. X-Men: Apocalypse (great deal of fun)
3. Deadpool (enjoyable, but not as much as I could have found it)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
999. Batman V Superman: Dawn of
.
.
..
.
9,999. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice: Ultimate