100 Greatest Comic Book Movies Of All Time
87. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze
Go ninja, go ninja go! Go ninja, go ninja go!
On the basis of its kickass theme song alone, the second ‘90s Turtles film was always going to be sillier and more of its decade than the already silly and of-its-decade original flick.
Perhaps to compensate for the studio-mandated toned-down violence, The Secret of the Ooze upped the amount of on-screen Vanilla Ice by 100%, revelling in absurdity and its own flash-in-the-pan success.
It’s wilder than the original ever was, and although it absolutely would not work for a modern audience, as a time capsule of pure ‘90s pop-culture, there’s nothing that even comes close to beating it.
[JB]
86. Punisher: War Zone
Like with Ghost Rider 2, the sequel to The Punisher became far better when it realised it wasn’t going to be the next big superhero blockbuster, and would be better served doubling down on the things it knew it could do well. Which in this case was ugly, glorious violence.
Ignoring most of what happened in the first film (with a new actor in the lead role to boot), War Zone is entirely its own, gory beast. It’s not sophisticated, and it does feel a little rough around the edges, but it was a hard-R comic-book movie at a time where that was a rarity.
Also, it was the first superhero movie helmed by a female director, so it’s worth checking out just for that.
[JB]
85. Superman Returns
This semi-sequel, semi-reboot was considered a rather unique experiment back in 2007, and looking back now it’s hard to escape the feeling that in a world where movies like Halloween are revered for entirely reshaping a franchise’s canon, Superman Returns may have been more warmly welcomed today.
It’s a shame Brandon Routh wasn’t given another chance as Supes after this film disappointed as well. Though most of the reactions at the time were based on how uncannily he looked like Christopher Reeve, his performance was more than an impersonation, and provided the world with the most underrated screen version of the big blue boy scout to date.
[JB]