The 100 Best Superhero Movies E-Book

Sam Pine

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 364

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Suffering from superhero fatigue? Superhero films are ten a penny these days and often disappoint with their cardboard characters and tiresome CGI destruction. Though this genre is increasingly the object of snooty disdain from film industry royalty there have been many great superhero films which are simply great films period - irrespective of genre. This book will hopefully remind you that not all superhero films are the same. Let's attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff and count down the 100 best superhero movies of all time.

Leseprobe

The 100 Best Superhero Movies

Sam Pine© Copyright 2023 Sam Pine

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CONTENTSAuthor's NoteThe 100 Best Superhero FilmsFilms That Missed the CutAUTHOR'S NOTEThe first thing you learn when you attempt to compile a list of the 100 best superhero films is that there aren't actually 100 good superhero films! As a consequence of this the lower half of the list will involve wading into some choppy waters at first. Films which aren't very good but are there to make the numbers up. The list that follows is of course subjective and based on my own personal tastes. Your list might be very different but that's the fun of lists. THE 100 BEST SUPERHERO FILMS(100) ATOM MAN vs SUPERMAN (1950)Atom Man vs Superman (1950) was the second live action Superman serial and has Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill back as Superman and Lois Lane. It was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet. The premise has Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot) blackmailing the city of Metropolis with various technological inventions, including a disintegration machine. Lex is also the shadowy villain known as Atom Man. As ever, it will be up to Superman to stop him but that won't be easy as Luthor seems to be creating a synthetic form of Kryptonite...Atom Man vs Superman is generally felt to be a step backwards from the first live action Kirk Alyn feature although it does have some plus points and also plot strands that seemed to influence later films. The synthetic Kryptonite was used in Superman III and 'The Empty Doom', a nether world that Superman is banished to, seems to anticipate The Phantom Zone in 1984's Supergirl. The Empty Doom scenes are pretty good and we see Superman try to make contact in some vague astral form.If you were being generous you could argue that this serial is somewhat ahead of its time. Lois becomes a TV reporter and there is a ballistic missile sequence with Superman that seems strangely similar to the one years later in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. Lyle Talbot is very good as Luthor and as the first actor to play him in live action sets down a decent blueprint for the actors that followed later. What doesn't work so well is Luthor's other persona as Atom Man. The main problem with Atom Man is that he seems to have a bucket on his head that has been dusted with glitter. It looks every bit as preposterous as that sounds. It is ridiculous that the characters never seem to notice that Luthor is Atom Man. Why does he even need a secondary persona anyway?Interestingly, Luthor has invented a device that can transport people to other places (he's naturally been using this device himself to get out of jail). A transporter. I wonder if the makers of Star Trek picked up on this idea? Maybe the writers of the 1963 Twilight Zone episode Valley of the Shadow did too.The plot is rather far out, which is fun, but the special effects and spectacle is hamstrung by the serial's patently shoestring budget. Animation is again used for Superman flying although they do make some vague attempts for close ups to depict Kirk Alyn being buffeted by wind. I can live with the animation for Superman flying but they also use this technique for Luthor's flying saucer (yes, naturally the villain has a flying saucer!) The flying saucer animation is too cartoonish and thrown together and looks terrible set against real backdrops.Kirk Alyn throws himself into the role of Superman again, smashing through doors and dispensing preposterous lines in deadpan fashion. You have to admire the way that Alyn approaches this serial. He knows it is complete nonsense but he's going to give it everything he has all the same and just faintly wink at the audience without ever resorting to parody.There's a sense of treading water at times here, especially a flashback sequence that just shows footage from the first serial again depicting the origin of Superman. It feels like a cheap way to pad out the running time and is rather annoying. Generally though, although weakened by some terrible effects and the awful look of Atom Man, this is decent fun at times and if you enjoyed the 1948 serial you should have a good time with this one too.(99) SUPERGIRL (1984)Supergirl is a 1984 film directed by Jeannot Szwarc. The film was a spin-off from the Superman series and a vague attempt to launch a new money spinning franchise after Superman III had met with a mixed reception the previous year. Kara Zor-El (Helen Slater) is a young woman who resides in the Kryptonian Argo City in trans-dimensional space, wherever that is. Argo City is powered by an orb known as the Omegahedron and Kara's mentor Zaltar (Peter O'Toole) teaches her about its magical properties, in addition to a place called Earth where her "cousin" went to live a while back. "Most great artists find mathematics troublesome Kara," says Zaltar in a fetching blue jumper. "Only use your imagination. Saturn and Earth are in outer space, but we - we are in inner space." Things go pear-shaped in this peaceful refuge though when an accident occurs and the Omegahedron is sucked out through the city's contained walls deep into space, leaving Argo City and its inhabitants without power.While Zaltar faces exile in the "Phantom Zone" for not looking after the Omegahedron, Kara follows the orb to the planet Earth in order to retrieve it and after emerging from a lake soon has superpowers, a Supergirl costume, an alter ego called Linda Lee and a place at a girls school. The only snag is that the Omegahedron has somehow ended up in the mitts of a would be sorceress named Selena (Faye Dunaway) who starts to become very powerful as a consequence. "I am Selena, Diodenes of Catania, Priestess of Sekhnet. I am the Ultimate Siren of Endor," declares Selena helpfully. With Argo City and its inhabitants slowly dying, the battle between Kara and Selena for control of the Omegahedron commences...That, in a nutshell, or a couple of paragraphs, is the plot of Supergirl and it has to be said it isn't the most inspired thing to ever come from the pen of Harold Pinter. I'm joking of course. Supergirl was written by David (The Dark Crystal) Odell and is rather incoherent and strange at the best of times, sadly lacking a consistent sense of fun and wonder. The film shows some distinct signs of rewrites and heavy editing and eschews almost completely any explanation for how Kara learns about her powers or comes by a skimpy Supergirl costume to fly around in. She's soon in possession of a secret identity and a place at a girls school where her new friend just happens to be Lucy Lane (Maureen Teefy), the cousin of Lois. "You are kidding me," says Lucy. "Clark Kent's your cousin? You're putting me on." What an extraordinary coincidence!Despite all the references to the Man of Steel, Lucy Lane as Kara's friend and the similarly contrived presence of Marc McClure's Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen later on in the story, Christopher Reeve apparently ducked out of an appearance in Supergirl and we can only presume he read the script and thought better of it. Therefore we get no scenes with Superman and Supergirl meeting each other - Superman's absence explained by him being away from Earth on an important mission. It's disappointing not to get at least a Superman cameo and unsurprising that the director Jeannot Szwarc later commented that the failure to get Christopher Reeve involved did Supergirl no favours whatsoever.Although the film is never really exciting or inventive enough to ever justify its existence the casting department at least got a few things right. Helen Slater has just the right mixture of innocence and determination as Supergirl and looks great in her costume too - especially surrounded by flowers, bunny rabbits and hazy sunshine as she wallows in the natural beauty available on Earth. "I am Kara of Argo City, daughter of Alura and Zor-El, and I don't scare easily!" endearingly announces our heroine to Faye Dunaway's villain Selena. Like Christopher Reeve, Slater always manages to remain relatively believable and dignified in superhero clobber.Faye Dunaway camps it up as the baddie Selena to variable effect although these comic witchcraft scenes probably take up more of the film than they really should. Selena has assistants in the form of Brenda Vaccaro as Bianca and none other than Peter Cook as Nigel - who just happens to be a teacher at Kara's school. The comic banter/bickering between these characters in Selena's lair ("A word of advice, Nigel, if I had your skin problems, I'd stop bothering people, put a bag over my head and go live under a bridge") soon becomes rather tiresome and Cook obviously had a few bills to pay rather than a deep desire to be in a Supergirl film. Hart Bochner as Brad - a dim young man who takes a shine to Kara and is then taken by Selena with the use of a love potion - doesn't add an awful lot to the film but does allow the damsel in distress device to be reversed with Supergirl having to rescue him all the time. One sequence where she lifts him into the air while he's still in a fairground bumper car is daft but quite good fun.The special effects are understandably dated at times but there is a good moment when a mountain fortress appears in a small town and we also get to see what life is like in the bleak "Phantom Zone" when Supergirl is thrown in there by Selena. An invisible monster in the film is clearly stolen from Forbidden Planet. The flying scenes are ok but some of the visual effects are a bit so-so, even for 1984 you suspect. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is not bad though and, on a further musical note, there is an unintentionally funny moment where Selena throws a hip party and has the powerhouse sound of What Is Love? by Howard Jones playing. On the whole Supergirl is uneven and padded out with too many scenes involving Selena's camp coven and Kara at school instead of giving the character of Supergirl a suitably reverent mythology. The picture lacks coherence, wit and wide-eyed spectacle and is never as much fun as a Salkind Superman spin-off featuring Helen Slater in a Supergirl costume really should be. There are a few good moments here and there, some of the designs are enjoyable and Slater is appealing but this is nothing special. (98) MAN OF STEEL (2013)When the eugenic dystopia planet Krypton faces disaster and destruction through over exploitation of their natural resources, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) decide to save their infant son Kal-El by placing him in a rocket ship bound for a stable planet known as Earth where he lands in Kansas and is raised as a human by Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane). The Earth's sun imbues Kal-El's Kryptonian physiology with incredible powers and abilities but also triggers fear, confusion and alienation. The adult Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) keeps his powers a secret and drifts north, looking for clues about his identity.They may reside in an ancient alien spaceship the military is investigating in the Arctic but this also draws a determined and curious journalist named Lois Lane (Amy Adams). Krypton was in the midst of a military coup by General Zod (Michael Shannon) but when Zod and his loyal followers were banished to the Phantom Zone for their crimes the destruction of their planet released them. The ancient Kryptonian spaceship in the Arctic now attracts the attention of Zod and his army, who have been looking for the historic space colonies of their former world but finding only ruins. Zod believes that Kal-El has a genetic codex of the entire Kryptonian race in his DNA and travels to Earth where he demands that humanity hand him over or face devastating consequences. Clark must now face up to his true destiny - that of Superman, protector of the human race...Man of Steel has some major problems but this is a bold retooling of the character away from the Donnerverse and probably had to be done sooner or later. The David Goyer script - which borrows here and there from the comics, most notably from John Byrne and Mark Waid - is a trifle clunky at times and also maybe takes itself a little bit too seriously. You can count the jokes in this film on one hand and it's a shame there weren't more. Goyer's "genetic codex" McGuffin is so McGuffin it should be on display at the McGuffin museum but I suppose it serves its purpose. Some of the ideas in the screenplay are interesting and welcome though. I liked the way they made Krypton (shades of the birthing pods from The Matrix) a planet of eugenics where people are created to fufil set roles, be it army generals, scientists etc. Because Kal-El is the rare result of a natural birth it further positions him as the ultimate outsider and also makes him special. This also supplies the motivation for Zod. He isn't a pure villain in a sense but merely carrying out his genetic programming - the survival of the Kryptonian race.Krypton no longer has the ice glazed crystalline serenity of the Donner films and is now HR Giger meets Dune meets Chronicles of Riddick. The Kryptonians have creepy nanotech sculptural technology and a fondness for brown colour schemes. One obvious problem with any Superman film is that the origin story is more or less off limits because you can't compete with Richard Donner's Norman Rockwell rendition. Their way around this is to present scenes of Clark growing up as flashbacks. We see him terrified by the onset of his x-ray vision at school (this is an arresting scene) and get a number of moments with young Clark and Kevin Costner's Jonathan Kent. This shorthand device is something that comics use all the time but it's somewhat ungainly in the film and makes the pacing seem a little off at times.Costner's Pa Kent is trying to protect his adopted son and doesn't want him to reveal his powers until such day as the world might be ready. I'm not sure that Goyer or Costner ever quite work out what exactly they want Jonathan Kent to be but I think Costner gives Man of Steel some heart and has the single most moving line in the film. Diane Lane is fine as a slightly kooky Ma Kent although maybe a bit too young and attractive for the part. Even with a few fake liver spots she still looks like a former supermodel. This is by far the most serious Superman film to date and eschews the camp.Man of Steel is rather bonkers at times (Russell Crowe riding that giant dragon fly thing was a bit too much Avatar for me) but I liked the sense of scope - a science-fiction comic book spectacular - and willingness to try something new. If I had a big gripe it would be that director Zack Snyder doesn't nail the flying sequences. He shoots in flight Superman as a small wobbling object up ahead - the idea presumably that Superman would be hard to capture in flight so this would feel more realistic. It doesn't really work.I did love though the shots of Superman hovering in the air as he descends (so amazingly comic book) and the fluttering CGI cape is a thing of wonder. There is a fantastic moment in the film where Superman is slammed into a bank vault by Zod's second in command Faora (Antje Traue) and the way this is composed and delivered by Snyder is perfection.I liked the first fight between Superman and the Kryptonians in Smallville because it was like the Superman v Doomsday battle from the comics brought to life in live action. Super-powered beings crashing through petrol stations, diners and the bric a brac of small town America. An interesting idea here is having Lois Lane aware of Superman's identity early on having been compelled to investigate stories about a mysterious stranger who saves people in incredible feats of heroism and then vanishes. You can't accuse this Lois of being fooled by a pair of glasses.Henry Cavill has features so chiselled and handsome he looks like he should be in a comic himself and proves to be a commanding and impressive Superman once in costume. It's a shame that he doesn't get an awful to do as Clark Kent here except frown and look worried because Cavill has a very charming smile and a likeable screen presence. Michael Shannon (who is made up to look very Boris Karloff) is quite effective as Zod and I liked the use of solid supporting actors like West Wing star Christopher Meloni and gravel voiced Diagnosis Murder veteran Harry Lennix. Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline are also well cast as the young Clark in the flashback scenes. Russell Crowe is a bit hammy as Jor-El but to be fair to the actor he does seem to be lumbered with an awful lot of exposition to deliver.The score by Hans Zimmer is somewhat one-note and could have done with a lighter touch at times. He has a great new "superhero" theme which worked superbly in the trailers but it only (save for the end credits) seemed to feature a few times in the actual film. You do unavoidably find yourself pining for John Williams now and again. The pacing of the first half and too much exposition (example - we have "terraforming" explained to us by about three different characters) makes Man of Steel clunky at times and I would have certainly  liked a more colourful visual aesthetic. Man of Steel is no classic and still divides fans. The bombastic tiresome action third act is too much pomp and CGI and the filmmakers seem to forget that Superman would be more concerned about the safety of civilians than he seems to be here. One could argue that the use of Zod was a mistake and he maybe could have been introduced in a film further down the line.Still, all of this seems to illustrate the strange problem Hollywood seems to have of working out what to do with Superman now and making him appeal to fresh generations. Superman Returns was slated for not having enough action and Man of Steel was slated for having too much. Bryan Singer was felt to be too reverent to Richard Donner's film while Snyder was rained on for straying away from the Christopher Reeve model of Superman. It seems you can't win whatever you do. Perhaps the best response would just be to make a great Superman film again. Man of Steel is an interesting film but it is certainly open to question whether it is a good film. Most people would probably say it wasn't. (97) THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1994)At the time of writing there have been four Fantastic Four films. Three were big budget Hollywood productions and the other one was made by Roger Corman for about $10. Guess which one of these films is the best? That's right. It is Roger Corman all the way for me. I'd rather watch the 1994 film any day of the week than sit through the Tim Story Fantastic Four films again. Everyone probably knows who the Fantastic Four are by now. Four astronauts are bombarded with uncanny cosmic rays in space when they test their experimental rocket. They return to Earth and realise they now have remarkable and very strange powers that take some getting used to. Brilliant scientist/inventor and Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards can now stretch his body like a piece of elastic and becomes known as Mr Fantastic. Sue Storm (Reed's girlfriend) can now make herself invisible (and is later able to generate force fields) and becomes Invisible Girl. Johnny Storm (Sue's brother) now has the ability to control fire and fly and becomes the Human Torch while the last member of the team Ben Grimm has his body turned into formidable orange rock (no idea why they made it orange but it looks good) and becomes the Thing.The four adopt blue costumes (well, three of them do anyway) and become The Fantastic Four, using their powers and scientific knowledge for good and vanquishing Earth threatening villains who have cosmic carnage up their galaxy spanning sleeves. This was a new type of comic in many ways at the time and became popular and famous for irreverent qualities although the characters are great too of course. The four central protagonists of Fantastic Four were not stoic square jawed superheroes with no flaws but very human and like a big dysfunctional family.They argued and bickered a lot and the comic was notable for its sense of humour. The Fantastic Four were somewhat radical in the way that they made no attempt to hide their identity and instead embraced their celebrity status. They didn't wear masks or have a secret headquarters. The Fantastic Four were an open book and would appear on television or do interviews. It was a nice premise and made for some good jokes.I liked the fact that the team were quite self-deprecating too. Bickering superhero teams are nothing out of the ordinary now but it was a departure at the time. Stan Lee's approach was to make his heroes more flawed than the DC ones and also more bizarre. People who had got their powers from strange scientific accidents rather than being born with them. Pseudo-science superpowered troubleshootersAnd of course we also have Victor von Doom aka Doctor Doom. Doom is an inventor and sorcerer and leader of the fictional nation of Latveria. He is the Fantastic Four's most recurring and famous foe. He is to them what Kingpin is to Daredevil, Dr Octopus is to Spider-Man or Lex Luthor is to Superman. I could go on but you get the general idea. His metallic mask and armour was based on a skeleton because Lee wanted him to be the personification of death.The first Fantastic Four film went into production in 1992 because the movie rights - held by Bernd Eichinger's German based Neue Constantin Film - would revert to Marvel unless Neue had a film in production before the end of 1992. Neue couldn't get a big-budget version going with a major studio so the company turned to low budget expert Roger Corman. "They had a script for a film with a $30 million budget but wanted to make it for $1 million," said Corman, 89. "My first thought was 'Now that's a challenge. We might have to trim a few things.'"The film was rushed into production five days before Neue's option ran out. Once it was completed, the German company had 90 days to buy out Corman's distribution rights. "I went to lunch with Bernd, who told me he'd sold both the film and the rights to Fox, who was going to make a $60 million version and they didn't want this low-budget movie around," recalls Corman. "I was kind of disappointed because it would have been an interesting challenge to distribute, but I was sitting there with a pretty hefty check." Ultimately this bargain basement 'lost' Fantastic Four film was never released but today, many years later, has been available to stream. Is it any good?I am honestly not joking when I say that 1994's Fantastic Four, as compromised and laughable as it is, is actually the best Fantastic Four film. I'd much rather watch this than either of the Tim Story Fantastic Four films or the Josh Trank version (which was largely reshot by the studio and ruined). It won't come as a huge surprise if I say that the lack of money is an all too glaring problem in the 1994 film. The special effects are terrible and the sound, lighting and general production leaves much to be desired. That said, the film has a scrappy earnest bargain bin eighties charm and it's endearing that the cast are all obviously trying their best. The costumes are enjoyably bright and comic book-esque too. They may not have had the budgets and CGI, but these old superhero films at least embraced the costumes of the weekly source comics without embarrassment.The actors playing the Fantastic Four match their roles surprisingly well with Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards and Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm both better than the film has any right to expect them to be. The Thing's stone encrusted make-up is not bad at all considering the budget.Dr Doom sounds a little muffled but Joseph Culp is giving it his all as the villain. The Fantastic Four is no lost masterpiece and laughably amateurish in places but for a micro budget film that wasn't even supposed to released it's not as bad as legend would have it. With a stirring music score Fantastic Four is surprisingly watchable and in terms of spirit (if not of course budget or direction) is the most faithful adaptation of the comic we've had. I know that's not saying an awful lot given the treatment of the FF onscreen but it is quite remarkable when one considers how much more they spent on the later films.(96) THE PUNISHER (1989)"When mobsters slew his family, Frank Castle vowed to spend the rest of his life avenging them. Trained as a soldier and equipped with a state-of-the-art arsenal, he now wages a one-man war on crime! Stan Lee presents... The Punisher!" Ahem. The Punisher first appeared as a villain in a 1974 issue of Spider-Man and quickly became a cult character. He proved to be so popular that he eventually got his own series of comics and became a hero (or anti-hero) himself rather than a villain."The Punisher" is Vietnam special forces veteran Frank Castle. When his family was killed after getting caught up in the middle of a mob shoot out in Central Park, Castle decided to devote the rest of his life to fighting crime and terminating the type of people who had killed his wife and son. He wears a (wonderful) black costume with a white deaths head skull logo and has a top secret base of operations where a man named "Microchip" makes all of his weapons and gadgets. Microchip is David Linus Lieberman - a former genius computer hacker. When Lieberman got too close to the secret files of a crime organisation they killed his nephew in revenge and so - like Castle - he now devotes his life to fighting mobsters and criminals and eventually teamed up with The Punisher. He's sort of like Q from the Bond films.As The Punisher is a vigilante, Castle and Microchip are off the grid so to speak and always in hiding. The police would arrest The Punisher if they ever caught him. The Punisher is like a cross between Batman (like Batman he uses fear and intimidation) and Dirty Harry. Unlike Batman though, he doesn't catch murderers and mobsters and hand them over to the police. He prefers to shoot them instead and has a zero tolerance attitude to crime. This makes him a somewhat more controversial character in the Marvel universe (although the all ages nature of these comics means they can never go too far with this) and also more interesting in a way.Some people think that The Punisher is a one dimensional gun toting character who doesn't really fit in with the spirit of Marvel and others find him quite refreshing in a way. He's someone who relies on his training and wits rather than superpowers and his moral compass has been known to spin. Marvel heroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man loathe The Punisher for his methods and he's had his share of run-ins with them.The first attempt to translate The Punisher to live action came with this 1989 Mark Goldblatt directed film starring Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle. Sadly, the film didn't get a theatrical release in the United States despite reaching some international cinemas and so has been largely forgotten. It's certainly not a disaster though and is arguably the best of the three Punisher films that have been produced to date. The premise of the film is largely the same as the comic. Castle is a cop who had his family slayed by mobsters. He now lives underground waging war on criminals as a vigilante. In the film he ends up having to battle the Yakuza after they stage a turf grab on the Mafia.There's a decent supporting cast in the film with Jeroen Krabbé as a Mafia boss and Kim Miyori as latex baddie Lady Tanaka. Louis Gossett doesn't get an awful lot to do though as a policeman following the blood trail left by The Punisher. The main flaws of the film are the patently small budget, lack of Microchip character and, unforgiveably, the fact that The Punisher never wears his iconic skull logo costume.Positives? Lundgren is surprisingly suitable as a brooding Castle, the action is pretty good with endless machine gun mayhem. The most frustrating thing about the 2004 Punisher film was the lack of action but this film certainly delivers more carnage for your money and is generally more entertaining (albeit less polished and rough around the edges). The villains are fun, and - all in all - it works as a park your brain at the door and enjoy eighties action yarn. Despite its relative obscurity this is by no means a bad film and worth a look if you are a fan of the comic(95) SUPERMAN III (1983)After the problems that arose with Superman II - which was mostly directed by Richard Donner but finished by Richard Lester (who then got the screen credit) after Donner was sacked - producers the Salkinds had a clean slate once again to continue the franchise on their own terms. Lester was hired again and Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder, who had both supported Donner, were either absent (in the case of Hackman) or reduced to a cameo (Kidder). Lester, who didn't take Superman half as seriously as Richard Donner, once again increased the comic elements and Superman III also found room for comedian Richard Pryor to play a major role in the film.In Superman III, Clark Kent/Superman (Christopher Reeve) returns to his home town Smallville for the Daily Planet to write an article and attend his High School reunion. He meets Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), someone he had a crush on at school, and begins a romance after learning she is now a divorcee with a young son called Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Meanwhile, back in Metropolis evil business tycoon Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn) - aided by his his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson) - plots to dominate the globe financially by controlling the world's coffee and oil supplies. He recruits embezzling computer genius Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) along the way and when Superman starts to interfere in his plans orders Gorman to create a synthetic form of Kryptonite so that the Man of steel will be a problem no longer.Superman III opens with a Mack Sennett style slapstick sequence on the streets of Metropolis with an escalating series of comic incidents and accidents that does tend to tip the viewer off to the fact that this is going to be much lighter than Richard Donner's take on Superman. We soon meet Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman. Gorman is unemployed and has just had his benefits stopped but quickly discovers, as you do, that he has a natural gift for computer programming and can do virtually anything with a keyboard in front of him. When he starts embezzling money in his new job he attracts the attention of the big boss, Robert Vaughn's Ross Webster, who then recruits him as a pawn in his bid for world financial domination. "You know a wise man once said," muses Webster. "I think it was Attila the Hun - It is not enough that I succeed, everyone else must fail." Vaughn is a decent enough villain but Gene Hackman's amusing Lex Luthor is badly missed, especially as Webster is essentially Lex Luthor with a different name.The inclusion of Richard Pryor as comic relief in Superman III is one that I could take or leave. I like Richard Pryor and he supplies some funny moments here but - as Christopher Reeve later commented - his presence does seem to make Lester look for jokes all the time, like a strange bit where Gorman accidentally skis off the top of Webster's skyscraper wrapped in a pink tablecloth and a scene where Pryor has taken to wearing a giant foam cowboy hat to break into a computer facility. You do unavoidably sometimes feel like you are watching an early eighties Richard Pryor comedy rather than a Superman film. Perhaps because of this, Superman III subsequently feels less ambitious and a lot dafter than its two predecessors. Interestingly though, the character of Gorman was originally written to be a disguise for the supervillain Brainiac.The sections of the film where Clark Kent returns to Smallville are enjoyable though with good performances by Reeve, Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang and Gavan O'Herlihy as the old school bully Brad. Even here though there are moments of comic deflation like Clark Kent accidentally sampling dog food on a picnic with Lana and declaring - "Great paté!" Why Lana has not bothered to label the dog food is never explained but someone somewhere came up with this joke so in it went. There are some decentish action set-pieces scattered through the film - like a big fire at a chemical plant that Superman battles, leading to him deciding to deploy his super ice breath to freeze the surface of a lake. The darkest and most memorable sequence in the film occurs when the synthetic Kryptonite has a strange affect on Superman, subverting his character until he is unshaven with a darker uniform and drowning his sorrows in bars. "Well I hope you don't expect me to save you, 'cos I don't do that nice stuff anymore."After his conscience is given a prod, Superman eventually splits into two different personas and we have an Evil Dark Superman versus Goody two-shoes Clark Kent showdown in an old scrapyard. This is quite an enjoyable sequence and Reeve seems to be enjoying playing a baddie for a change, if only for part of the film. "You always wanted to fly Kent. Now's your chance!" The "Dark Superman" character gets up to a few shenanigans that Lester (unsurprisingly) exploits for comic purposes too, like straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Superman III enters War Games/Demon Seed territory when Gus produces plans for a giant super computer which Webster and co balloon to a remote location to put into operation. "I just don't believe a man can fly," says Gorman before more comic capers involving a donkey ride.Annie Ross as Vera and Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia make a so-so team for Robert Vaughn's baddie. Lorelei is sort of Miss Teschmacher although the twist here is that she's really highly intelligent but pretends to be ditsy. It's not much of a twist to be honest. Superman soon arrives to do battle, met with a barrage of missiles as he flies over canyons, the villains watching it all on a screen where it is played out like a (now rudimentary) computer game where you have to blow Superman up. The film becomes perhaps a little too sci-fi as it moves to a resolution. Superman III's general obsession with computers has unavoidably dated it more than the earlier two films - although some of the FX are quite good and better than the ones on show in 1987's Superman IV.Superman III is incredibly ridiculous and not a patch on the original or either version of Superman II but it isn't quite as awful as legend would have it. It is better than Supergirl and Cannon's Superman IV and has Christopher Reeve and Annette O'Toole. Call me strange but I'd rather watch Superman III than Man of Steel given a choice. The downside is a not terribly inspired story/script and far too many comic pratfalls and incidents. At the very least though it did inspire a joke in the Mike Judge film Office Space. (94) X-MEN APOCALYPSE (2016)X-Men: Apocalypse, directed by Bryan Singer, begins in ancient Egypt at the time of the pyramids and Pharos as we learn there were also fearsome mutants back then and, after an expensive CGI sequence, we establish who the villain is going to be - En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isacc), soon to be known as Apocalypse. When we flash forward to Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) in the present day (1980s), intrepid CIA agent Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne) is investigating a secret group in Cairo who protect ancient relics. She uncovers one such tomb it just so happens to reanimate Apocalypse, a dormant mutant brooding for three millennium year sin his dreams intending to cleanse the Earth on his return.Back at the X Men School we welcome younger versions of familiar mutants from the first four films of older Professor Xavier timeline, Scott Summers / Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) the newest to show off his skills at mutant school. We also meet Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who can teleport and is recruited by Raven (Jennifer Lawrence).En Sabah Nur begins to draw together the servants of doom in Cairo’s shadows, including disgruntled mutants, increasing  their powers if they sign up to his world domination plans. Meanwhile over in Eastern Europe, Magneto (Michael Fassbender), laying low after his failed world domination attempt of his own has been discovered and extremely angry once again, teaming up with Apocalypse. But the final piece of the puzzle is the professor, his mind meld skills the ideal way to spread Nur’s evil message around the world. It's time for the young X-Men to start saving the world. X-Men: Apocalypse is yet another entry in the seemingly endless X-Men cycle although, after two strong entries in First Class and Days of Future Past, this one has a somewhat tired by the numbers feel. Apocalypse doesn't make for the greatest villain and poor Oscar Isaac has to endure some hokey looking blue make-up to play the part. McAvoy and Fassbender are good again and help give the film more gravitas but there feels less to this film than the last few and it always seems as if we are treading water before a big CGI superpowered battle at the end.Jennifer Lawrence hardly spends any time in Mystique's blue yellow eyed form, a sign perhaps that she couldn't be bothered with too many elaborate make-up sessions and - as a superstar they were just happy to have in the film - was catered to.  It's fun anyway to see some new characters. Psylocke, Jubilee, and a fresh take on Storm by Alexandra Shipp, Cyclops by Tye Sheridan and Jean Grey by Sophie Turner. Evan Peters again gets the most memorable scene as Quicksilver. Saving the kids in the mansion to Sweet Dreams.This film should have been more fun though. Watch the deleted 'mall' sequence online. The young characters have fun in the mall to Safety Dance, playing arcade games, using their powers. This sequence is funny and uplifting (the young mutants are completely accepted in the mall by other kids) and what the film should have been more like overall.X-Men: Apocalypse is the first film in the series for a couple of entries that never quite manages to justify its existence. One feels as if the potential for a better film was somehow lost here.(93) HULK (2003)The Hulk is a fictional superhero created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, who first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book The Incredible Hulk in May 1962 published by Marvel Comics. Scientist Bruce Banner was hit by a gamma ray and gained an alter ego known as Hulk, a huge green monster man with incredible strength. Lee says he knows nothing about science and wouldn't know "a gamma ray from an eggplant" but his guide was whether something sounded good. Gamma rays sounded good. Stan Lee was inspired by Boris Karloff and Frankenstein and how he felt always sympathy for the monster in old horror movies. That's what gave him the idea for the Hulk. He wanted Jekyll & Hyde in there too.The Hulk became a familiar face on the small screen through the fondly remembered Bill Bixby television series in the seventies. It was acclaimed director Ang Lee who was chosen to bring the Hulk to the big screen in 2003. The film met with a muted reception although - over time - it seems to have gained some fans. Some liked the atypical nature of this comic book film and its focus on drama. Ang Lee wasn't too convinced though in a later interview. "My problem is that I took the whole thing too seriously. I should have had more fun with it, instead of all the psychodrama!"In the film Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), a brilliant scientist with a cloudy past about his family, is involved in an accident in his laboratory causing him to become exposed to gamma radiation and Nanomeds (a tiny life-form that is supposed to heal wounds but has killed everything with which they have made contact).Confused and curious about his survival, Banner discovers that since the accident, whenever he becomes angry he transforms into a giant green monster destroying everything in sight in an act of fury. Bruce's mysterious past and the answer to why the radiation had this effect becomes revealed to him as his birth father David Banner (Nick Nolte) intervenes with hopes to continue experimenting on him.On the plus side, Eric Bana makes for a decent Bruce Banner in the film, the Australian actor cast on the back on his performance in Chopper. There's a good supporting cast here too with Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliott joining Bana and Nolte. The desire to make a more restrained and dramatic film works well at times but it does make Hulk feel like small change in the broader comic book universe that would soon begin to unfold. This is not the most exciting of comic book adaptations despite its good intentions and commendable acting and direction.Perhaps the biggest quibble one could have with Hulk though resides in the CGI. When Banner finally becomes the Hulk it just isn't very convincing. Hulk seems weightless and fake. It's too obvious that we are looking at a special effect and this takes us out of the film. The CG Hulk was much, much better several years later when he appeared again in the Avengers films. That later Hulk has a sense of weight and a personality. We believe in the Hulk in the Avengers films. He seems like a real character. In Ang Lee's Hulk it looks too artificial. Hulk is an interesting film in the way that it doesn't approach the Hulk in the way one might anticipate but it's no lost masterpiece. A decent film but not a very good one.(92) DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022)Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was directed by Sam Raimi. In this sequel, Doctor Strange finds himself up against Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch as she seeks to be with her children in another reality. Strange must protect America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) - who has the ability to travel between dimensions by punching open doorways. Suffice to say then, this sequel offers more multiverse capers and Doctor Strange will have his hands full trying to find a way to put a stop to Wanda's plans. In the story, Strange encounters different versions of himself and also Mordo, Professor Charles Xavier, Maria Rambeau/Captain Marvel. Captain Carter makes an appearance and you also get John Krasinski as Reed Richards. Multiverse of Madness has plenty of surreal imagery and weirdness but it is never quite as offbeat as you hope - although Raimi does (enjoyably at times) include many horror flourishes along the way. One problem with this sequel is that you probably need to be familiar with the show Wandavision. The deluge of Marvel television shows, which tie into the movies, was not a great idea because it diluted the brand and no one likes homework. To be up to speed with the films now you need to have watched two or three shows hidden behind a paywall. A lot of people simply don't have the time for this and it isn't as if the Marvel shows were especially brilliant anyway. Another weakness is that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness sometimes feels more like a Scarlet Witch film that a Doctor Strange one. It isn't a bad film though and certainly has its moments (like a ludicrous but stylish sequence where Strange and an alternate version of himself throw musical notes at one another). It does run out of steam somewhere along the line with that familiar CGI overload feeling creeping in and having you glancing at your watch. Benedict Cumberbatch is again enjoyable as Strange (Cumberbatch has by now mastered the art of playing arrogant geniuses - though Strange does show a softer side when he becomes protective of America) and it's fun to see the 'Illuminati' made up of alternate reality heroes. The death of Black Bolt is quite gruesome for a Marvel film. By this stage multiverse capers were starting to get a trifle tiresome in superhero films and Multiverse of Madness doesn't really add an awful lot that is new to this concept. You wouldn't say this film is going through the motions but it does feel somewhat bland and safe at times for a picture directed by Sam Raimi. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is decent enough but it's never much more than and is one of those films that you quite enjoy at times but then forget almost instantly as soon as you amble out of the cinema back into reality. You'd have to say that a Sam Raimi directed Doctor Strange film probably should have turned out better than this. (91) THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008)After Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk film failed to have the mass appeal the studio were looking for it was decided to reboot the character only five years later with a new film directed by Louis Leterrier. Edward Norton replaced Eric Bana as Bruce Banner. In the film, Banner is living in Brazil but the American government - in the form of General Ross (William Hurt) - is after him. Banner is seeking Ross's daughter (Liv Tyler) while Ross's henchman Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) takes in some Hulk serum and becomes a monster known as the Abomination.This film takes far too long to get the Hulk onscreen and drags as a consequence. When the Hulk mayhem arrives it's fun but there simply isn't enough of it. To make matters worse a large portion of the Hulk action involves him fighting a CG creature known as the Abomination in a tiresome and cartoonish looking setpiece. This sequence really doesn't work for me and it's almost as if the screenwriters have thrown the towel in and just written 'twenty minute CGI fight' instead of writing a third act. It feels far too derivative.Edward Norton fails to bring much warmth or likability to the part of Bruce Banner and makes one ever fonder of Bill Bixby and his gentle character work in the television series. There's a fine cast here who are all negated by their parts. Tim Roth is completely miscast as a Russian in the British army (or something) and Liv Tyler is given precious little to do as the love interest. William Hurt is paying the bills as the obsessive general.This is a film that falls between two pitfalls. It doesn't have the script or dialogue to make the drama work and it lacks enough Hulk action to give one a sense of value for money. The big fight at the end is the sort of Hulk action we probably don't want. Hulk fighting an unconvincing CG creature as they throw cars at each other etc. This is the second Hulk film in five years that doesn't really work. Fans would have to wait for The Avengers before the onscreen potential of the character was realised.(90) THE FLASH (2023)