100 Greatest Comic Book Movies Of All Time
19. Kick-Ass
After a couple of years of Marvel’s rising dominance, along with the more grounded Batman series from Christopher Nolan, Kick-Ass arrived as a short, sharp shock to the superhero system, and quite simply kicked its ass.
Spectacularly violent, bursting with gore, and all the more visually arresting because of it, with Matthew Vaughn on the kind of form that would see him elevated to bigger (if not better) blockbusters, this is a wonderfully twisted entry into the genre.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is good as the lead, but you’ll stay for a genuinely good Nic Cage performance and Chloe Grace Moretz announcing herself to the world with a C-bomb.
[JH]
18. Blade II
Stephen Norrington can probably count his decision to pass on Blade II as something of an error, considering how great it turned out to be, but he gave Marvel fans the perfect partnership in Guillermo Del Toro and Blade with his departure, so we can thank him for that.
Del Toro applied his horror credentials to the series, turning what was already a badass character into something darker and even cooler than Norrington had. He also injected some B-Movie blood to the project alongside great fight choreography (which makes up for slightly lacking CGI in places) and a surprisingly excellent villain played by 80s pop icon Luke Goss of all people.
Wesley Snipes ups his game with the better material and this is easily the most watchable of all the Blade movies.
[SG]
17. X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Bryan Singer returns to the director’s chair for the first time since X2, and funnily enough delivers the best X-film since then, courtesy of rewriting history.
Days of Future Past is a continuity-bending effort, but also a staggering X-Men movie in its own right. The blending of old and new lends itself to being both thematically rich and emotionally resonant at a level only Logan has surpassed in the franchise, and the performances are uniformly excellent.
It has a twisty plot and some excellent action moments, with Singer determined to remind everyone he was The Man when it comes to this franchise, and the 130-minute runtime goes back faster than Quicksilver.
[JH]