100 Greatest Comic Book Movies Of All Time
13. Batman Begins
Batman Begins may not be the most exemplary effort in Christopher Nolan’s barnstorming Dark Knight Trilogy, but it’s still very much a close second.
Taking major cues from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, Batman Begins resurrected the Caped Crusader on the big screen after the miserly Batman & Robin and produced one of the most riveting versions of the character in the process.
I could talk at length at how Christian Bale was a revelation as Bruce Wayne and Batman (his voice was certainly less cartoony in 2005 than it would be in years later), or even how creepy Cillian Murphy was as Scarecrow, but one of the best and perhaps most overlooked things about Batman Begins are its visuals. Gotham City looks stunning, boasting an orange-y colour pallet that blends the real with the surreal, and thus serves as the perfect compliment to Scarecrow’s presence.
Nolan would eventually divest from this pallet for Begins’ sequels, but - save for Burton’s Batman, and its similarly inspirational animated counterpart - this is still the best Gotham City has ever looked.
[EP]
12. Guardians Of The Galaxy
The chunky guy from Parks & Rec. A wrestler. A green alien woman. A talking racoon with a penchant for violence. A walking tree who can only tell you who he is.
Marvel Studios were definitely smoking the non-cigarettes when they decided the next instalment in their billion-dollar franchise would be this ragtag bunch, directed by a guy who wrote the Scooby Doo movies.
While they may or may not have been on the James Blunts, when the movie came out we were all getting hooked on something else entirely. A feeling. A family. The Guardians of the Galaxy.
Utterly hilarious, completely absurd, and filled with more heart, visual pizazz, character work, and sheer balls-to-the-walls entertainment than half the MCU combined, this is Marvel at their most confident, and one of their very best outings to date.
[JH]
11. Spider-Man
There’s been some revisionism going on with Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy. Though they were initially revered, the modern opinion has shifted to seeing them as being too campy, too goofy, and ultimately too dated to be held up alongside the likes of The Dark Knight or Avengers: Infinity War.
If anything though, that’s exactly why they’ve stood the test of time.
The OG Spidey isn’t afraid to completely revel in the character’s colourful, Golden Age silliness, represented in all of its 1.85:1, televisual glory. As an origin story, this first attempt hits the right balance between Peter Parker drama and superhero action, with the relationship between Peter and nemesis Norman Osborn making their (surprisingly bloody) final showdown all the more dramatic.
[JB]