30 Truly Awful Lines That Ruined Comic Book Movies
With great power comes terrible dialogue, apparently.
What is it with comic book movies and idiocy? There seems to be a worrying trend that runs through the entire genre that dictates the bigger and more successful the property, the greater the proximity to an idiotic implosion (see Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Dark Knight Rises, to a much, much lesser extent.) The most common crime seems to be skimping on the script, and leaving very capable actors looking like idiots spouting horrendous dialogue riddled with cliche and outright stupidity. And that's not a strong foundation to build your film on. We're not for one minute suggesting that comic book movies need to be verbose and as cleverly written as a Tarantino movie - though his take on the genre would be incredible to witness - but there has been a worryingly fertile history of stupidity in some of the biggest comic book movie releases. Even when Oscar winning scripters like Akiva Goldsman, or nerd-Gods like Joss Whedon, or even the widely heralded David S Goyer are given the opportunity to write a superhero script, they seem to fall into the same traps, imagining their audience to thrive on silliness and cheap jokes, rather than authentic, engaging dialogue. Honourable Mention
"It's what I do that defines me." - Batman Begins
Now, that's not strictly a terrible line, as you get a sense of grandeur and the right kind of foreboding with it, even if it's a face-smackingly obvious thing for any hero to say, but the real issue is with the way Christian Bale delivers the line. We've already discussed the worst acting moments from Batman movies, and it would be ignorant to not acknowledge how close this moment pushed the selection there too.