12. X-Men (2000) - This is the movie that kicked off the recent explosion in comic book movies after disasters like Batman & Robin killed the genre in the 90s. Marvel dipped its toe in the water after years of development hell and straight to video releases with Blade, but Bryan Singer's X-Men was the blockbuster that led to those that would follow. As a result, it isn't a perfect film, as they didn't have the time or budget to do everything as well as one would like (as studios didn't yet have the confidence to spend the same kind of money they do now on comic book films), but it still holds up fairly well. Hugh Jackman made the character of Wolverine his, while the film admirably squishes 40 years of continuity into a comfortable 90 minutes.
11. Hulk (2003) - There's basically two schools of thought when it comes to 2003's Hulk: those who rank it amongst the worst comic book adaptations for turning the Hulk into a quiet exploration of fathers and sons instead of the explosive Hulk movie they were expecting, and a vocal minority who think the film a hidden success with Ang Lee, who took a summer blockbuster and decided to do something more conceptually ambitious. Given that I rank it #11, I obviously fall into the second group. Not everything Lee tries is successful, but I gotta admire him for his efforts. The sequel/reboot was undoubtedly more exciting, but this was the better movie.
10. American Splendor (2003) - One of the more unique comic book adaptations, the film managed to take Harvey Pekar's autobiographical musings, added about five levels of meta, and created a quiet indie that is far more entertaining than you'd expect the life of a gruff, shlubby iconclast would be. What surprised me about this film is how it managed to find the real heart and sentiment behind Pekar's story, while I was expecting a film that kept everything beneath a few layers of irony (although there's plenty of irony here as well).
9. Oldboy (2003) - Not the sort of film I usually check out, I did so in part because of its growing cult status and even more for the purposes of this list. So yay listmaking! Oldboy is a graphically violent, highly stylized, utterly twisted, operatic tale of revenge that needs to be seen to be believed. I'm not even sure that I liked it, but damn if it didn't stick around in my brain for weeks afterwards. Even if you might end up hating Oldboy, you should probably watch it anyway. Easily one of the most unique films on this list.
Article comments
1 - Dusty Somers
Nice piece. Not sure if I agree with the Spiderman movies ranking so high - first viewing was great, but they haven't held up over time very well for me.
Here's hoping Nolan's third Batman film won't go the way of the Spiderman and X-Men franchises.
2 - Dan Coloman
I Think your list is pretty solid, however you did leave out some pretty good movies.
1. Fantastic Four- rise of the Silver Surfer. Although the first FF movie seemed way too campy and the Doom character was not as menacing as in the comics, it did have a better storyline and more action than the first.
2. Blade- the first movie was the better of the bunch. It had some weak points, but overall very entertaining.
The Punisher(Tom Janes)- not that great, mainly for the Vincent Vega Villan, but the new one for this fall rumors to have Jig Saw, one of the better advisaries.
Dare Devil and Electra- Again, entertaining and somewhat loyal to the book. not my favorite.
Ghost Rider- Not a big Nicholas Cage fan, but I love the fact that They used Peter Fonda and his Easy rider bike in the film.
3 - Andy
I've seen all but two of those (Ghost Rider and Elektra), but must say that none of them were contenders for this list. In fact, I thought Rise of the Silver Surfer was worse than the first Fantastic Four movie.
That said, I am somewhat looking forward to the new re-casted Punisher movie.