I was going through my old posts just doing some general grammatical checkups, changing ‘ur’ to ‘your’ ‘ppl’ to ‘people’ etc and I realized it’s been a while since I’ve done a post simply for the fun of it. Most of my posts as of late have been deep in thought or concept, always attempting to provoke some new way of thinking, which is fine but I just feel like I’ve diverted slightly from my original goal of this blog, which is to just express all of my interests instead of just a few. Hence why today’s post is a little bit different.
Having just watched X-Men First Class two days ago, I felt inspired to post a list of super hero movies worth checking out, along with ones you should avoid at all costs and why. It’s going to be a two part post. Don’t worry it’s not going to be one of those, “Well it’s nothing like the comics” rants, this is strictly based off the quality of the movie.
MOVIES YOU SHOULD SEE:
1.) The Dark Knight:
Figured I’d start off with the no brainer. Chances are you’ve probably already seen this movie since any friend that had seen it probably told you it was the best Batman/superhero film of all time(it really is though) the acting is solid from the entire cast with Heath Ledger giving the best and last performance of his career. The plot is great and has excellent pacing, which is something hard to find in a hero flick, and you’re really placed into the grittiness of the batman universe. People die, batman fails to accomplish certain crucial goals throughout the film and the climax actually pays off, which is something even harder to find in super hero movies. Factor all of that being accomplished during the film’s two hour plus run and you have an entertaining way to spend an evening.
2.) Spiderman 2:
Before The Dark Knight came out, I would probably have given this film the title of ‘best superhero movie of all time.’ Spiderman was good, especially for a movie that had to cover the character’s origin, but Spiderman 2 was like a super hero movie classic. You can tell that one of the main purposes of the plot was to make the audience feel really bad for Peter Parker, and that goal is reached again and again. The girl he loves is with another man, his best friend hates his alter ego, his powers are spazzing out, and overall he just can’t seem to catch a break. The acting is pretty solid though it becomes more and more apparent throughout the movie that Tobey Maguire is a great Peter Parker and a so-so Spiderman. The film also has some of the best choreographed CGI fights I’ve ever seen in a super hero movie, one in particular that has yet to be topped in my opinion. Overall a great film.
3.) Watchmen:
Watchmen is definitely not your typical super hero movie. To start off, only one of the heroes in the film actually has powers, the rest of them, although formidable in their own right, aren’t too much different then your average human being. What makes this movie great is that it forces you to think critically, and if you aren’t willing to look into the metaphorical meanings behind the characters, this probably isn’t the movie for you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terribly deep or complex, things just aren’t as spoon fed to you as they would be in other action films. If you’re looking for another movie that has a healthy balance of plot, action, and gritty realism then it’s definitely worth checking out.
4.) X-Men First Class:
The Reason why this movie made my top five list of movies you should see is mostly because i was the one shunning it with every trailer I saw. Don’t get me wrong, X-Men and X-Men 2 were really good but X-Men Last Stand and Wolverine Origins left a bad taste and I wasn’t sure how the franchise would recover from back to back misfires. This movie puts my doubt to rest. Seeing how it just came out I won’t ruin anything about it but just know that the acting overall is solid, the action scenes are frenetic yet well choreographed and the plot is the most impressive they’ve had in this franchise since X2. Go. See. This. Movie.
5.) The Incredible Hulk:
The Incredible Hulk is a simple man’s hero to say the least. Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the hulk and everything in his way gets smashed. Period. How such a simple concept got so terribly thrown off course with the first Hulk Movie is still a question I still to this day cannot answer, since this movie pulls that off effortlessly and still manages to pull off a pretty good plot for a Hulk flick. Not to mention it definitely pulls off the suspense built up to the climax, which, in my opinion, is rare for a super hero movie. Good Stuff.
Honorable Mentions:
That’s it for now. Part 2 coming in the near future.