4. Watchmen
I'm going to be complete honest here: I wanted to hate Watchmen because I despise every other film by Zack Snyder and think he's one of the most overrated directors working now. Simply put, all of his films are completely style over substance, that is apart from Watchmen: the visuals perfectly compliment the story in a way that Snyder has never been able to copy and I'm pretty sure will never be able to do again. Watchmen has some amazing visual effects yet the story really takes center stage with Alan Moore's incredible story that is still, in my opinion, the greatest comic book story ever written outside of the obvious classics like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman. Watchmen is a dark, somewhat nihilistic film that works incredibly well at bringing the outlandish costumes and effects found in all comic book movies into a really engaging story that has a lot to say about what it means to be a superhero in general. Watchmen could have easily failed or devolved into a campy mess but Snyder keeps the film engaging letting the story take center stage instead of visual effects for once in his career.