30. 30 Days of Night (David Slade, 2007)
I once tried to convince my other half to live in Alaska. She almost agreed. Then she saw 30 Days of Night. Now I have no chance of ever moving there. Ever. Damn you David Slade! If youve followed comics over the last decade one of the top titles that stands out has to be IDWs 30 Days of Night, written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. It is the bloody tale of a small town in nowheresville, Alaska (aka Barrow) that is plunged into absolute darkness every year for 30 straight days. This is a genuine phenomena which makes the events of 30 Days of Night all the more scary. Especially for girls youre trying to convince to up sticks and move there. The 30 days of darkness is nothing new for the inhabitants of Barrow, except this year things are going to be a little different. You see this year Barrow will host some visitors - a group of vampires ready to exploit the lack of sunlight and dine on the locals. I cannot think of a better vampire movie than this. Nor can I think of a better advocate for living in a place where the sun never stops shining. Im now trying to convince her to move to Mexico. Heres hoping she hasnt seen From Dusk til Dawn.
29. Azumi (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2003)
Mega violent, oober stylized, balls to the wall adaptation of the 1994 Manga series by Yu Koyama. A beautiful young woman is raised to become the ultimate assassin during a tumultuous time in Japans history (17th Century). After excelling to the top of her training class, and murdering her fellow assassins at the command of her Sensai, she is charged with helping the Tokugawa Shogun to restore peace by killing the three most feared and ruthless Warlords of the time. This is your classic Manga tale and has translated excellently to the screen. Many changes were made to condense the story into a film (and sequel) but it fails to detract from the fact that this is an excellent martial arts epic that makes Crouching Tiger look like a cowering kitten. Excuse the terrible pun.
28. Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998)
Some say that Blade was responsible for the resurgence in comic book movies. I dont know if thats true but it sure went a long way to make them cool again. Wesley Snipes stars as Blade, a half-breed Vampire that is able to walk in the daylight, which comes in handy seeing as hes a vampire/demon/monster slayer on the side. Kriss Kristofferson is his right hand man while Stephen Dorff excels as the villain of the piece. Blade is superior in every way to its sequels and richly deserves its higher ranking in our list. The fight sequences are higher impact. The dialogue is superior and the story is far cooler than either of the others - although only Trinity is considered to be a poor sequel.
27. Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
Lets make one thing perfectly clear. Until Smallville hit the small screens Superman was never really very cool. And that isnt to say that Smallville necessarily made Clark Kent a cool dude it just made him seem less ... well ... cheesy. You only have to look at Richard Donners 1978 opus with a Jesus complex to see how unconvincing Christopher Reeve is as the most macho man that ever existed. But thats why its so brilliant. Reeve is perfect as the geeky journalist that nobody takes notice off, and yet secretly is the saviour (theres the God complex again) of humanity. Hes also so unlikely a choice to play Kal-El that hes absolutely the perfect choice to portray the Man of Steel because Reeve oozes all-American hero from every pore. On the other side of the coin Donner has Gene Hackman hamming it up splendidly as Lex Luthor, the billionaire madman intent on destroying our cape wearing hero after his plan to sink California with missiles is ruined. Superman is an iconic adaptation of one of the most successful comic books of all time and the image of Reeve in his red pants and blue all in one will make a believer out of you. But with FX this bad, believing a man can fly might be a bit of a stretch.
26. 300 (Zack Snyder, 2007)
Before Christopher Nolan came along there was another contender to the title of saviour of the comic book genre. That contenders name was Zack Snyder. With only the fantastic Dawn of the Dead remake under his belt, 300 seemed like a big punt for a relatively untested director but boy did he prove his naysayers wrong. If you dont already know, 300 is a fictionalised retelling of the battle Battle of Thermopylae where a band of 300 Spartans battled over a million Persian soldiers and very nearly won. Despite sounding a lot like one of those far fetched stories your dad would tell you when you were a kid, 300 is a fantastic action epic that has some genuine heart-in-mouth moments. It is a gorgeous tapestry of comic book imagery that completely changed the way comic book movies were presented and received, and is an almost shot for shot translation from the original Frank Miller novel - a concept Snyder then took onto his next production the superb Watchmen.