Top 5 Superhero Movies

   Captain American: The Winter Soldier is coming up real soon, as will my review, so it only makes sense that this cycle's Top 5 should be based around one of my most anticipated films of the year. In supplement to being a movie guy, I've also always been a bit of a comic book nerd, so superhero movies are important to me, and have to impress me. Hopefully Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be able to do just that and break this list. I think it may be obvious what my number 1 is, but let's go down the list anyway!

Honourable Mentions:

Batman (1989)
The Incredibles (2004)

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Iron Man (2008)

5. The Avengers (2012)

This may be a generic pick because everybody might choose this; but isn't that what's so great about it? The Avengers was so appealing to almost everyone. Sure, it's not the perfect film, especially in terms of a thought-provoking plot. It was simple, but it still did it's job. So much had been leading up to it, and it was actually still great; we still got a taste of all our favourite characters; we got the team together; we got one of the most downright entertaining action movies out there, and it's fun for the whole family. These are what made The Avengers so awesome to me. It's obviously not a tour-de-force in cinema, but it's still a landmark film with awesome superhero action. It fully established the universe that Marvel had been setting up since Iron Man, and now it's opened the door for an awesome franchise.

4. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

While I have high hope for the Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man 2, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man 2 is right now the definitive Spider-Man movie for me. The first Spider-Man movie did a great job of introducing us to Peter Parker, as well as his nemesis, the Green Goblin; but Spider-Man 2 was able to do that on an amplifed scale, as well as convey Spider-Man's conflict with his greatest foe. You may think I'm talking about Doc Ock, and while he's awesome, I think that Spider-Man's greatest foe is ultimately himself. This film tackled that, and it even further humanized Spidey for us. It was great to see such well-done character development and dramatic complexity, that hadn't really been seen in superhero movies before. Plus, this movie capitalized on the awesome web-slinging action, making it even better than before; as well as giving us the perfect dose of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. 

3. X2: X-Men United (2003)

Much like Spider-Man 2, X2 is a case where the predecessor was a great superhero movie but the sequel capitalized on its best components and surpassed it by a mile. X-Men was a revolutionary comic book superhero movie in that it introduced us to a slew of non-popular characters. Before that, most audiences only knew of the mainstream heroes like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. But X-Men opened the doors for comics that aren't well known to hit the screen and become mainstream. It did it awesomely, but X2 was even more awesome. The story and tone darkened, and we were able to better witness Wolverine as a damaged yet relatable character. The plot is excellent because while it deals with awesome action we come to expect in superhero movies, it brings the complex themes of politics and racism (eventually genocide). This brings together the good guy mutants and the bad guy mutants to stop the bad guy humans. And you gotta give to Magneto for being one of the greatest villains ever, most certainly among comics. His prison break scene is probably one of my favourite scenes out of any movie on this list, maybe even in movies in general. Besides Ian Mckellon's Magneto, the entire cast is big, giving us so many cool superheroes to identify with. And to know that X-Men: Days of Future Past will bring this cast back is so gratifying and makes me so hyped. 

2. Watchmen (2009)

Maybe the most underrated movie on this list is 2009's Watchmen. The original comic Watchmen comic book is personally my favourite comic of all time and often hailed to be one of the best (it was actually the only comic/graphic novel included in Time's Top 100 Books). Watchmen is a different kind of superhero movie. It's not bright and filled with action and hope. Actually, it's just oppositie because it's dark and full of despair. The Watchmen story holds a very mature plot about superheroes in a realistic world, on the backdrop of the Cold War, wherein various political and societal themes come into play. The superheroes don't have powers, besides Dr. Manhatten who's basically a dimensional god. It's not for everyone, due to it's highly mature themes and content, which contrasts it from most other superhero movies; but it's actually an incredibly interesting story with some of the most well-realized characters I've ever seen in superhero movies. The violence is gruesome, there's profanity and complex mature plot points. But best of all, the original comic book was said to be one of those that was "unfilmable" but yet this movie was able to capture most of the scenes right off the pages, convey its most crucial elements, add new ideas to make it more watchable as a movie, and adapt one of my favourite stories tto the big screen. And in the comic, there's little tidbits of backstory here and there of the backstory and history of the Watchmen, that you have to put together yourself. The film instead conveys the backstory together with tableu-type shots in the opening credits to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They are A-Changin'" to make it more accessible and understandable for viewers; as well as one of my favourite film openings ever. I could watch that opening alone over and over again; as I could with this whole movie.

1. The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012)

You saw it coming. The Dark Knight Trilogy is collectively my favourite superhero movies of all time. And I put them all together at the number 1 spot because firstly, I wouldn't have been able to mention as many awesome movies on this list if I split this up into the first three slots, and secondly, I sort of see this trilogy as the Batman epic, because it sort of ends at its roots. Batman is my favourite superhero, Christopher Nolan is my favourite filmmaker; hell, The Dark Knight is my third favourite movie of all time, while Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises are also in my top 50. This trilogy is legitimately a masterpiece that really began making superhero movies cool. It had the dark tone that Batman stories should have, great character complexities, amazingly realistic plots, gritty action, and some of the best villains ever put to film. You can't talk about these movies without talking about Heath Ledger. I mean, come on, he may've been a little crazy at the end of it all, but his interpretation and performance of the Joker was so perfect and so chilling, that he's probably even above Hannibal Lecter as my favourite movie villain of all time. It's sad that he died so soon, but we know that this is the definitive role that he'll be remembered by. Christian Bale kills it as Batman, and played a very convincing Bruce Wayne as well. Michael Caine was the perfect Alfred. Tom Hardy as Bane completely blew me away. Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon Levitt, GARY FREAKING OLDMAN; there's so many to name and it's all perfection. As is the writing, the directing, the special effects, the cinematography, and the awesome score by Hans Zimmer. Christopher Nolan really killed it with these films; which is great because these movies are awesome, but also bad because it makes every other superhero film seem disappointing because they can never be this good. The Dark Knight Trilogy are the greatest superhero movies of all time, along with being some of the greatest films of all time.