Directed by: Bryan Singer
Cast: Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Anna Paquin (Rogue)
There’s a moment in X-Men when Wolverine questions the black leather uniform he’s just been given to wear. “What would you prefer – yellow Spandex?” comes the rather deft, tongue-in-cheek response.
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Cast: Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Hugo Weaving (Red Skull)
As true-blue as its pure-hearted hero, Captain America is a film out of time – a modern Marvel blockbuster with an authentic Saturday matinee soul. Maybe it’s the fact that director Joe Johnston served an apprenticeship in the house of Lucas and Spielberg (he storyboarded the matchless truck chase in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and there’s a drop of that film’s bloodline in Cap’s occult-plundering Nazis and tangible, two-fisted action sequences). Or perhaps it’s the period setting – as invigorating a twist for the Marvel canon as Thor’s other-dimensional realms – that allows Johnston to expel the moral ambiguities and tainted patriotism of the 21st Century and revel in a clear-eyed, sepia-tinted idealism that’s as far from the smart-ass zing of Iron Man as it’s possible to imagine.
Directed by: Alex Proyas
Cast: Brandon Lee (Eric Draven/The Crow), Michael Wincott (Top Dollar), Ling Bai (Myca)
Stylish adaptation of an underground comic about a rock musician who comes back from the dead to avenge his own and his fiancée’s murders. Visually stunning, it’s about as noir as films come, with an almost tangible atmosphere of brooding menace that’s punctuated by some severely graphic action scenes. The script may not be Oscar-standard, but among the (rarely critically lauded) supernatural revenge genre, this is a standout movie.
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Michael Keaton (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman), Danny DeVito (The Penguin)
If Batman was playing second fiddle to the Joker in Burton’s first film, then he’s right at the back of orchestra giving an occasional ping on the triangle this time around. Burton seems to have lost all interest in his hero, placing the Penguin and Catwoman up front and centre. But while Pfeiffer’s purring, PVC-clad femme fatale is one of superhero cinema’s most iconic performances, DeVito’s Penguin is just too blustering and unsubtle to work.
Directed by: M Night Shyamalan
Cast: Bruce Willis (David Dunn), Samuel L Jackson (Elijah Price), Robin Wright (Audrey Dunn)
Certainly the most unusual superhero film in this list (it takes a long while before you even realise that it is), and arguably the last great film directed by Shyamalan, Unbreakable is a typically glacial piece of cinema from the director, but totally, engrossingly hypnotic at the same time.
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Luke Goss (Prince Nuada)
God, we love Guillermo del Toro. He talks about cinema so passionately and so intelligently. Every time one of his films comes out, we’re willing him on to success. Which is why it pains us to admit that Hellboy 2 is a little bit of a disappointment. The big fella’s first adaptation of the Mike Mignola comic laid a solid foundation for his labour-of-love franchise, but part two never quite becomes the world-conquering triumph you’re hoping for.
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Cast: Bill Campbell (Cliff Secord), Jennifer Connelly (Jenny Blake), Timothy Dalton (Neville Sinclair)
You might assume from this film’s art deco designs, gangsters, Nazis and airships, that this is an adaptation of a genuine ’30s pulp comic hero. But no. The Rocketeer was actually created in 1982 as a pastiche/homage to early heroes such as Commando Cody. He wasn’t exactly the most successful comic character ever, though, starting life in Starslayer, before starring in three issues of his own comic. But the concept was cool enough to inspire this movie. And Starslayer has never had a movie, has he?
Directed by: Kinka Usher
Cast: Hank Azaria (The Blue Raja), Janeane Garofalo (The Bowler), William H Macy (The Shoveller), Ben Stiller (Mr Furious), Geoffrey Rush (Casanova Frankenstein)
Mystery Men is much funnier in theory than it is in practice. A description of the film leaves you convinced that it must be hilarious. Captain Amazing, concerned that he’s going to lose his sponsorship deals because the public is growing bored of him, releases his arch enemy, Casanova Frankenstein, from prison so that he can fight him again and raise his profile. Instead, Frankenstein captures him and so it’s up to a band of superheroes with powers as useless as an inflatable dartboard to rescue him: The Blue Raja, who throws cutlery; The Bowler, whose weapon is a kinetically-charged bowling ball; the flatulent Spleen; The Shoveller, with his trusty spade; and Mr Furious, who, erm, gets angry.
Directed by: Stephen Norrington
Cast: Wesley Snipes (Blade), Stephen Dorff (Deacon Frost), Kris Kristofferson, (Abraham Whistler)
Sometimes you really wish CGI had never been invented. Watching the end of Blade is one of those times. The film starts promisingly enough as a kind of martial arts Godfather with vampires, full of political power struggles within a bloodsucking Mafia. Sadly, it ends up as Raiders Of The Lost Coffin with a badly-judged computer generated finalé in which Tom and Jerry cartoon violence replaces gore.
Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson
Cast: Ben Affleck (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Jennifer Garner (Elektra), Colin Farrell (Bullseye)
Not as bad as some remember, but far from a classic either (hello Ben Affleck, hello Colin Farrell). Mark Steven Johnson was the director charged with bringing the Man Without Fear to the big screen, his previous experience writing Grumpy Old Men obviously convincing someone that he was the man for the job. Borrowing mainly from Frank Miller’s run, the movie focuses on Matt Murdock’s doomed relationship with the assassin Elektra (played by Affleck’s future wife Jennifer Garner). It’s not exactly remembered fondly by its stars, however. Affleck has since said: “Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again soon.” Garner went on to play Elektra in the character’s own underwhelming spin-off (2005) and her ex-boyfriend, Michael Vartan was quoted afterwards as saying: “Jennifer told me it was awful. She had to do it because of Daredevil. It was in her contract.” The director’s cut, however, is very well regarded.
Maverick in Wonderland (5)
