5. X2: X-Men United (2003) - With the basic origin story out of the way, and budget less of a concern, Bryan Singer was able to build on the promise of his first movie in the series to deliver a movie closer in spirit to the comics. Easily the best superhero team adaptation (not that there's been a lot of competition), X-Men United delivered the big action and epic moments familiar to a life-long fan of the characters, managing its multitude of characters more effectively than some solo character sequels that get filled with supporting cast and villains. It's a little hard to watch this now and not think about what a lost opportunity X-Men: The Last Stand was, but that's hardly the fault of this movie, which has earned its spot in the top five.
4. Sin City (2005) - If this list were strictly judging the movies on how well they adapted the reference material, Sin City would win hands down. As faithful an adaptation as you'll ever see (and perhaps a bit more faithful than you'd ever want to see), Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's collaboration oddly did more for me than Miller's original, 2D creation. Odd, because they're basically the same thing (other than the odd splash of colour, the combination of three stories into one, and of course the participation of actors), but what felt a little flat and graphic-for-its-own-sake on paper came alive on screen as an audacious piece of pop art. I think a lot of what was so thrilling about the movie was how it used fresh technology to so closely realize the visual style of the book, opening up new possibilities for the medium of film in how it can adapt the medium of comics. Either that, or the simple fact that it all simply felt so cool. Sometimes it's as simple as that.
3. Spider-Man 2 (2004) - The first GREAT superhero movie, Spider-Man 2 took everything that worked with the first movie, and improved on it, taking out some of the duller stretches of origin-building, while heightening the action and melodrama that is signature to the series. Throw in an action-sequence (on the train) that might be the best of any film on this list, and you have the best movie offering from Marvel Comics to date. So far, it seems that the template for superhero films are solid first offerings that set up the movie universe, followed by superlative sequels, and then, thus far, followed by disappointing-to-downright-awful third entries. Here's hoping the next series on this list can break the trend.
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.