Top Ten #6 - Best Superhero Movies (since 2000)

Top Ten #6 - Best Superhero Movies (since 2000)

Since the beginning of the 21st century, comic book films have exploded onto the scene, bringing in critical praise and financial success for many studios. In this list, we're going to look at my entirely subjective top ten favorite comic book movies from DC and Marvel since 2000. Also, minor spoiler alert for films released from 2000-2017, although I will try not to spoil major plot points. 

10. Spider-Man 2: While very much a product of its time, this is a brilliant film. Especially before the explosion of the comic book film that came several years later. Tobey Maguire reprises his role as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and I believe that what makes this film great is the duality that he shows in both sides. While he is struggling with being Spider-Man, his struggles and internal conflict as Peter Parker is what makes him as a compelling character. It remains to be seen whether or not Spider-Man: Homecoming will dethrone this film after it is released, but right now, this is the hands down the best Spider-Man film ever. 

9. X-Men: Days of Future Past: After the steady and steep decline of the X-Men franchise, Matthew Vaughn brought it back into good light with X-Men: First Class, which, while not a fantastic film, is a solid film and hearkened back to the days of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen while still bringing a fresh spin on it. Days of Future Past took what fans loved about First Class, took what fans loved about the original trilogy, and took what all fans of the X-Men franchise which is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and put them all together. The result, under the direction of Bryan Singer, was a great action film with some emotion and dramatic tension that I believed to be one of the best comic book movies that summer. 

8. Batman Begins: After the horrific failure that was Batman and Robin, Warner Brothers and DC needed to rethink their strategy when it came to the character. What did they do? They brought in amazing and visionary director Christopher Nolan. And once he took the lead, there was no looking back. The first film, starring Christian Bale and Liam Neeson, set up a universe in which Batman exists with no supernatural powers and entities. They set up a gritty, real Gotham City with amazing performances and real stakes that made you care about the characters. 

7. Wonder Woman: The most recent entry into the DC film franchise, if you've read my review, you know how much I liked this film. While I didn't quite love it, I enjoyed it so much and had such a great time in the theaters. There were laughs, there was heart, and there was action. It almost felt like a movie for everyone that everyone could enjoy. Chris Pine and Gal Gadot led this film to the first critical success for the DCEU and I hope that the future films follow in their footsteps. 

6. The Avengers: When the Avengers lined up in the circle and the camera panned around them as the theme song began to play, there was a sense of awe and wonder as you realized that these separate characters could all appear on the big screen at the same time in the same place. The awe factor was a big reason that this film did so well. Not only that, but it had one of the only compelling villains in the MCU in Loki, who brought a charisma but also a cunning that made him scary, but also compelling as you looked into his motivation. 

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: When Kevin Feige brought on Joe and Anthony Russo, fans scratched their heads. While the first Captain America film was decent, Joe Johnston was not coming back to return, and rightly so as this film was going to be set in the present day and needed a new edge to it. However, upon seeing this film, fans realized that the Russo brothers were for real. The drama and dialogue were sharp and felt real, but most of all, the action was almost perfect. The hand-to-hand action and fighting brought a new edge to Steve Rogers as fans began to realize that he could stand his own. 

4. Guardians of the Galaxy: If you're talking about risks, this was one of the biggest risks that Marvel has ever taken and may ever take to date. A group of space aliens led by Chris Pratt sounded ridiculous when you stopped and realized that they had a tree and a raccoon. But this movie, under James Gunn, was fantastic. Pitched as an action-comedy, the humor and the chemistry between the team made them so lovable and made us care so much about them. 

3. Captain America: Civil War: How do you follow up the Winter Soldier? You bring in Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers and call it a Captain America film. Except, they actually made it a Captain America. Somehow, amidst the fighting, Black Panther and Spider-Man, and the incredible action, this was a Captain America story, and that was what impressed me the most. And who could forget the airport scene. 

2. The Dark Knight: Hailed as the best comic book film ever, I thought it was too for the longest time, until a mother film dethroned it, in my opinion. While many still think that this is the best one, I believe there is another that is better, but only to me. However, the Dark Knight is brilliant. Heath Ledger is the linchpin of the film. I believe that if Heath Ledger's Joker was not in the film, I would enjoy it much, much less than I do. But his haunting, frightening, and chaotic performance opposes Batman (Christian Bale) perfectly - one of the best comic book films. 

1. Logan: Many will disagree with me - many will say that the Dark Knight is the better film and I have no problem with that. But in my opinion, Logan is the better film. Slightly. Hugh Jackman should receive Oscar buzz for his performance, and so should Patrick Stewart. Their nuanced, tired, haggard characters carry themselves through the film. Dafne Keen also gives one of the best child performances ever and James Mangold's direction is golden. I believe that there is almost nothing wrong with the film. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor Reportedly Cast as Scar

Chiwetel Ejiofor Reportedly Cast as Scar

With recent reports that Hugh Jackman was cast in the role of Scar in the upcoming live-action The Lion King, new reports have claimed that a new actor is close to signing on for the project in the villain role. Chiwetel Ejiofor has reportedly been cast, and is close to signing on to play Scar, once voiced by Jeremy Irons in the Disney classic. Although James Earl Jones has returned to voice Mufasa, Jeremy Irons made no move to come back, and casting had to begin for a new actor. 

Star Wars: Episode IX Getting Rewritten

Star Wars: Episode IX Getting Rewritten

Episode 8, the Last Jedi, isn't even out yet, but new reports are speculating on the fate of the pre-production of Episode 9. According to new reports, the next film in the Star Wars saga, due out in 2019, will now be "rewritten" by Jack Thorne. While it doesn't suggest a page one rewrite, the fact that the word "rewrite" has been used might be cause for concern, although it may be a case of conflicting visions or a normal procedure. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp Officially in Production

Ant-Man and the Wasp Officially in Production

Marvel is going full-steam ahead with their slate of films as the Paul Rudd action-comedy superhero film Ant-Man and the Wasp, co-starring the talented Evangeline Lily, has now entered production. Check out the video by clicking the link below. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Now in Production

Warner Bros Loses Director, Disney Gains One

Warner Bros Loses Director, Disney Gains One

Jaume Collet-Serra, the alleged director of Suicide Squad 2, has dropped out in order to direct a new film for a different studio. Collet-Serra has now moved to Disney's group and is now going to direct the ride-centric film The Jungle Cruise, which will star the Rock (Dwayne Johnson). Suicide Squad 2 is now looking for another director, and it remains to be seen who it will be, as well as why Collet-Serra left the project to begin with. 

Deadpool 2 Official Photo of Domino Revealed

Deadpool 2 Official Photo of Domino Revealed

Deadpool 2 is well underway, and a new official photo has been released hyping up a brand new character. The picture shows actress Zazie Beetz lying on a rug a la Deadpool in the original marketing campaign. Fans will be introduced to Domino in 2018, as Ryan Reynolds returns top lay the titular role. 

Josh Brolin Back for Avengers 4?

Josh Brolin Back for Avengers 4?

Rumors of what Avengers 4 could be about have run rampant recently (read below), but amidst this talks, Josh Brolin has come out on Instagram and posted a picture of Thanos, heavily hinting that he will be back for Avengers 4.

While originally, Avengers 4 would have been Avengers: Infinity War Part II, Joe and Anthony Russo have been saying that this will be a drastically different film. Rumors have said that this could be a Secret Invasion film, where some of the Avengers have been compromised by Skrulls and the remaining Avengers and perhaps Thanos will have to take down.

Weekend Box Office Report (July 28th-July 30th)

Weekend Box Office Report (July 28th - July 30th)

Disclaimer: Every Monday, I will post the top five movies that grossed the most money DOMESTICALLY (in the United States), with some brief thoughts about each film. 

1. Dunkirk ($28.13 Million): One of the few movies that remained number one at the weekend box office two weeks in a row, Dunkirk is going strong. While it won't make a billion dollars, it's nice to see that people are going out to see this visionary war film, the latest in a line of spectacular films in Nolan's filmography. 

2. The Emoji Movie ($25.65 Million): This piece of garbage is at number two. Next week, I guarantee you it will be gone. While parents do want to send their kids to movies that will entertain them for a couple hours, they don't want to send their kids to pieces of garbage and this film will sink almost as soon as it emerged from the water. 

3. Girls Trip ($20.09 Million): This film is the exact opposite of the Emoji Movie - a film that no one really saw coming but has garnered critical acclaim for being one of the funniest comedies of the year. This weekend has been diverse in terms of the genres with a war film, an animated film, a comic book movie, a comedy, and a spy film. Girls Trip looks to make a good amount of money for the studio in the weeks to come. 

4. Atomic Blonde ($18.55 Million): While not doing the best at the ox office, Atomic Blonde is doing well enough, landing a number 4 spot in its opening weekend. While not quite the number that the studio would have wanted, it is a respectable number going up against some other films as summer winds down. 

5. Spider-Man: Homecoming ($13.45 Million): While it's making its money, and making a ton of it, the fact that Spider-Man: Homecoming hasn't made over 700 million dollars and locked at number 3 is a little surprising. I believe that this film was everyone's pick to be number one at the box office this summer, and while that may not happen, it still is making a large sum. 

Rewind Review #3 - Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War - Rewind Review #3 (Non-Spoiler/Spoiler)

Release Date: May 6th, 2016

Directed By: Joe and Anthony Russo

Rating: PG-13

Starring: Chris Evan, Robert Downey, Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Paul Rudd, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Daniel Bruhl, William Hurt, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner

Blurb/Synopsis: When the Avengers take on an international threat that leads to collateral damage, the government steps in to demand that the group be overseen be a higher power. Steve Rogers and some of the other Avengers are against this but are opposed by Iron Man and must fight to prove their side of the argument. 

Expectations/Background: Marvel has been releasing hit after hit after hit, but to be honest with you,  before watching Civil War for the first time, I was slightly nervous. Phase 2 thus far had had, in my opinion, two meh films (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World), two amazing films (The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy), and two good but not great films (Age of Ultron, Ant-Man). So coming from such a mixed bag, I didn't know what to expect from Phase 3. What I did know was that Joe and Anthony Russo were coming back to direct, from the Winter Soldier. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of my favorite movies of 2014 and of all time, and that already increased my anticipation. However, with such a huge cast, I was cautiously optimistic because I had no idea how they were going to juggle that many characters. Joss Whedon did it with about 6 or 7 in The Avengers but when more were stacked on top of them, he stumbled in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Would the Russo brothers buckle under the weight of these many characters? And then it was announced that Black Panther and Spider-Man would be in the film, and then my anticipation went through the roof. The Panther is one of the best characters in comic books, and the look of him is so regal and it was time for him to make his appearance. And Spider-Man is Spider-Man. But would the Russos be able to weave a compelling story with all these characters and story elements. The marketing, though, was excellent, with two equally compelling and strong trailers, and so I waited. Was this another hit, or was this a ticking time bomb?

The Movie: I don't know how they pulled it off, but Joe and Anthony Russo managed to take over 15 characters and gave each one of them compelling screen time and a solid arc, as well as a moment to shine. God knows how, but they did it. 

Positives: Like I mentioned before, each and every character has their moment to shine. And I mean each and every one. Almost every single character has a reason to be in the film. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow, insignificant characters in a certain sense, have a very good reason being there. 

In regards to Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, perfect characterizations. Talking about Steve Rogers, his character is so conflicted, but in the right ways and his internal conflict was brought out to the forefront. While there are so many different characters in the film, this feels like a Captain America film because you follow Steve Rogers' journey throughout. His relationships with the rest of the team, with Tony, with Bucky, all add this layer of depth that was set in motion in The Winter Soldier.

That being said, this does not mean that Tony Stark is the villain. Not by a long shot. Even though Steve is given the forefront, Iron Man is here, and all he's doing is standing up for what he believes in. What I love about his character is that what he believes in builds upon all his experience (except Iron Man 3?) and helps him grow into the character that we know today. The Iron Man/Tony Stark in Iron Man would not make these decisions, but the one here definitely would. 

The action is incredible as well. There are three major action set pieces, with a couple smaller ones in the middle, and they are truly something else. There is one particular scene in the middle that completely blows you away, and it lasts for a solid 15-20 minutes. But what I love about the action in the film is that it's warranted. It's not action for the sake of action; there's a real dramatic purpose and motivation to it, and that makes the stakes seem much higher. 

That's another great thing too - the stakes feel real, but also very personal. There's nothing really threatening to destroy the universe; it's just a feud between friends, between allies, between teammates that really brings the dramatic tension home. The best thing a film can do is to make you care about what's going on and you achieve that by grounding the film's stakes.

And yes, Spider-Man and Black Panther are both amazing. Spider-Man/Peter Parker is not in the film for very long, but when he is, he steals every scene that he's in. And Black Panther is truly incredible, with his action and the way he talks, he truly feels like a king or a regal figure. 

Negatives: There are a couple things that did bother me about the film, and they mostly revolve around narrative issues. 

There are a couple characters where I stood there and scratched my head, wondering, "What are they all about?" They weren't in the film for very long, but when they were there, I was sitting there going, "What are they doing?" 

There are also a couple plot conveniences that take place in the film. Nothing that takes me completely out of the movie, but a couple points where the film leads from one thing to another rather quickly and conveniently without a clear explanation as to why. While it may bog down the runtime if there were added explanations, it felt too easy at some points and it felt like there could be some more lines explaining certain things, or hashing out certain plot points. 

Character Ranking

1. Spider-Man
2. Black Panther
3. Tony Stark
4. Steve Rogers
5. Ant-Man
6. Bucky Barnes
7. *Spoiler*
8. Hawkeye
9. Falcon
10. War Machine
11. Black Widow
12. Scarlet Witch
13. Vision
14. Sharon Carter
15. Thunderbolt Ross

The Villain(s): If you do not know the main villain, I will not spoil it here. Tony Stark is not the villain - like I said earlier, if Steve were heads, Tony would be tails; there is nothing evil or malicious in him. You can clearly see both sides of the argument. But, there is a villain, and while he isn't awful, he feels very unnecessary and unneeded. While he was pivotal in a certain capacity, it almost felt like he could be taken out and the film would still make some semblance of sense. He was just a plot device really, and while the performance was good, the character wasn't so great. 

The Music/Score: My job here is to be brutally honest, and my honest opinion is that the score here is terrible. I don't know who wrote the score, but I can only really remember one particular cadence, and that's because it's from a scene I watched over and over again after the film came out. Other than that, there's literally nothing memorable about the score at all. 

**READER DISCRETION ADVISED - SPOILER ALERT - IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS SKIP TO "VERDICT"**

Spoilers: That airport sequence, my goodness, that was one of the most glorious pieces of action that I have ever seen. Giant-Man and Spider-Man, to that wide shot of the two sides marching towards each other and then running into battle. The entire thing was glorious.

Now, in regards to Zemo, I have to say, I was impressed that Daniel Bruhl was able to make such a shallow character feel at least a little more three-dimensional, because I felt that his character was almost entirely two-dimensional at times because of the way that he was written. But Bruhl's performance, at the very least, elevated him a little higher than a C-lister villain to around a B-lister villain. Nothing spectacular to note though, and If eel he could have been taken out of the film and replaced by something else. 

SPOILER ALERT OVER

The Verdict: One of the most entertaining films of 2016, it also manages to capture political ideologies into a film that has amazing action and great characters. While there are a couple things that could have been improved, I believe that this is one of the examples that the comic book genre should be looking at. The Russo brothers put emotion and heart behind superheroes that can fly and shoot lasers out of their hand, and that is something to be commended. Letter Grade: A. Number Score: 9.7

**IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER**: Letter grades and Number grades do not mean the same thing. Just because I give a film an A does not mean it gets a 9.5 or above. They do not line up like a traditional school grading system To see specifics, see below.

A- to A+: Amazing

B- to B+: Enjoyable, but Flawed

C- to C+: Redeemable in some cases, but heavily Flawed

D- to D+: Nothing but Flaws

F: A Failure of a Film

9-10: Nearly Perfect to Perfect

8-9: Very Good

7-8: Good

6-7: Okay

5-6: Average/Mediocre

4-5: Apparently Flawed

3-4: Heavily Flawed

2-3: A complete and utter mess

0-2: A Failure of a Film

Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War Runtimes Revealed?

Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War Runtimes Revealed?

While both Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War are still far away from release, both directors for each film may have revealed what the runtime may be, or a general idea of what it could be. 

Taika Waititi had this to say about his upcoming film: 

"The cut right now, I reckon it's about 100 minutes It's not gonna be a very, very long film. I think that stories are better when you leave them wanting more, and this film moves at a clip, it's got stuff happening all the time. I think people are still gonna feel exhausted by the end, they've been on the big journey and stuff, so I don't think we need the film to be three hours."

If this is to be believed, and it may change in the coming month with editing and post-production before release, this will be one of the shortest MCU movies to date.

In stark contrast, Joe Russo, co-director of the upcoming Infinity War, has revealed to Collider that Infinity War may be one of the longest films in the MCU. He said this:

"The current cut is over 2 and a half [hours], yes. Most of it is a movie you can show. Still a lot of work left to be done... It's currently going to be a film that lives in the two and a half, two and a half plus range."

Thor: Ragnarok will be released on November 3rd and Infinity War will be released on May 4th, 2018.

Daniel Craig Back for Bond 25

Daniel Craig Back for Bond 25

While earlier reports have indicated that Daniel Craig may be leaving the titular role of the British spy, it has been confirmed that James Bond will be played in his 25th film by Daniel Craig, perhaps for one last time. This will be the fifth time that Craig will play Bond, and is allegedly the last one in his contract.