Limiting myself to live action ones, though there’s been
some decent straight to video cartoons
1.
Batman Begins: Best use of Batman’s Bruce Wayne persona
in live action
2.
Captain America: The First Avenger: I like the fact
that he’s motivated to fight the bad guys simply because he hates bullies
3.
Daredevil: While it has some cheesy moments, I like the
look at him as troubled hero
4.
The Dark Knight: Heath Ledger rightly won an Oscar for
his take as the Joker
5.
Hulk: Despite a weak final act, this is a nice cerebral
take on the monster hero
6.
Incredible Hulk: Less cerebral than its predecessor, still
an intelligent fun action movie
7.
Kick-Ass: Very nice twisted humour
8.
Punisher War Zone: I realize I’m fudging the definition
of superhero here (but then, Hulk, V, and most of the Watchmen characters are
also arguably borderline cases), but it definitely has a superhero feel to it;
some nicely twisted kills
9.
Spider-Man 2: While I’m not a big fan of the original
Spider-Man franchise overall, this was my favourite installment in it; some
nice bits of heroism and look at identity issues
10. The
Spirit: Yes, I know it’s not exactly true to Eisner’s vision; it’s just so darn
twisted it won me over anyway
11. Thor:
Nice look at what it means to be worthy of great power
12. V
for Vendetta: A fun socio-political thriller.
13. Watchmen:
Surprisingly faithful to the original deconstructionist work
14. X2:
X-Men United: A nice look at the hero team under siege, with some nice
character arcs
15. X-Men:
First Class: A fun look at the evolution of the early stages of the complicated
Professor X-Magneto relationship
My choices might surprise some people. Sorry, Spider-Man, while having some nice
moments has too many dramatic missteps to make this list. I really do feel that Daredevil and Hulk are
underrated. So are Fantastic 4 and Ghost
Rider, though not enough to make the list.
.
2012 should be interesting, with Ghost Rider: Spirit of
Vengeance, Dark Knight Rising, Avengers, and Amazing Spider-Man all scheduled
to come out.
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