Accepting any of these as a vote. What do you think? (includes mini-reviews which will keep coming as time goes on )

Hulk (2003)
Good grief, what a meh film... so unspectacular, and the plot was loopy
5/10

The Punisher (2004)
Can't comment, not seen yet...

Ghost Rider (2007)
?/?

Iron Man (2008)
Can't comment, not seen yet...

The Incredible Hulk (2008) [Because it's out soon]
Punisher: War Zone (2008) [Because it's out soon]

Blade:
Blade (1998)
Blade II (2002)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Can't comment, not seen any of them ...

Daredevil (2003)
I liked this myself, good fun, easy to follow (but not stupid) plot. 7.5/10

Elektra (2005)

Fantastic Four:
Fantastic Four (2005)
Oh grief, even worse than Hulk. So cringingly (sp!) bad... 2/10

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Spider-Man:
Spider-Man (2002)
?/?

Spider-Man 2 (2004)
?/?

Spider-Man 3 (2007)
?/?

X-Men:
X-Men (2000)
?/?

X2 (2003)
?/?

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
?/?

Steel (1997)
?/?

Catwoman (2004)
Constantine (2005)
V for Vendetta (2006)
?/?
Sin City (2005)
300 (2007)
Akira (1988)

Batman:
Batman (1989)
?/?

Batman Returns (1992)
?/?

Batman Forever (1995)
?/?

Batman & Robin (1997)
?/?

Batman Begins (2005)
?/?

The Dark Knight (2008) [Because it's out soon]

Superman:
Superman (1978)
?/?

Superman II (1980)
?/?

Superman III (1983)
?/?

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
?/?

Superman Returns (2006)
?/?

Ironman was great!
Spider man 1-2 was great!
Batman Begins has to be the best since it had to overcome the gay ones in the past which it did!

how about a poll or something


Does Akira count?

agree!

what about Sin City?

The first 2 Spidey and X-Men films are nothing to sneeze at, and Iron Man's certainly in the running, but I gotta give it to Batman Begins, hands down.

V for Vendetta is way up there for me.

If we're talking best film, then Sin City loses points for being too faithful. It certainly works as an occasional event - I really enjoy the resulting film - but I don't think I'd want every comic book movie to be done that way.

What if you never read the graphic novel?

Cuz you could grade these as adaptations or just "films"...

I actually hadn't read most of Sin City before I saw the film.

I hadn't ever heard of it... the movie blew me away. But I know it's cool to hate on it in the geek-dom.

Reason there's no poll is polls let people not provide justification... this is more for thought provoking arguments ()

Added

Take it in either context. Either:
How faithful it was to the original
How good it was a movie
Or both

It's always nice to have a proper discussion about these in one place

I can easily say that this is one of the best comic graphic novel adaptations i've ever seen.



How about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Or Hellboy? Or Swamp Thing? Conan the Barbarian? Dick Tracy? THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES?

And with MH. You have to include Manga adaptations as well.

Seriously, this list needs expanded.

OK, well maybe the list isn't complete... keep posting them, I'll add them tomorrow in one go. K?

What about -
History of Violence
and
Big Bang Love
?

Or does "comic book" only refer to "Ghey dudes in spandex"?

No, it applies to mainstream movies that most people will have heard of
Sorry, but I haven't heard of each of these...

Not in order of preference.

Sin City. Stylish, cool film making that's source accurate.

Hellboy. From the director of Blade 2/Pans Labyrinth This isn't the best comic book movie to date/not my favorite by a long shot (never read the comics) but it's well made, and fun. Great popcorn movie with Ron Pearlman looking great as the title devil/man whatever the hell he is. Looking forward to the second this Summer.

Constatine. This is halfway between being really cool, and wtf at the same time. Enjoyable supernatural film has Keanu Reeves of all people fighting off rogue demons, and monsters and what not. Similar to the gothic style/feel as Hell boy but darker and less coherent. Also the plot tries much too hard to keep you guessing and the outcome is just stupid beyond belief.

300 Love Frank Millers style/story telling technique but 300 as a film just falls flat. It's troy with lots of cool cgi gore, and dismemberments. Probably would have wowed me more if I hadn't played through God of War prior to seeing it. That and I'm sick to death with historical based films. Interested to see what The Spirit looks like next year. (Looks to have a similar look feel as Sin City so should be good)

Batman Begins. Best live action representation of Batman yet. Hopefully the second will hold up to it. I still think BTAS MOTP is the best Batman movie to date. Third would be Burton's first film.

Superman Returns. Loved Singer's work on the first two XMen mokies but WTF was he think when he made Superman returns. This was one of the most disappointing Franchise returns in recent memory. Why the hell would Superman have to leave earth only to return at the precise moment Lois's plane spirals out of control to save her only to discover she's moved on and has already born a son. And why the hell is Lex Luther being portrayed as a bumbling moron when he's a f*cking super genius. The only thing he can think of to do is sell cryptonite infected real estate once he floods the entire planet with water. God I hated this movie so much. To all the rabid Brett Ratner hating fanboys who feel he f*cked up the last Xmen movie, that's nothing compared to what Singer did to the Superman franchise.

XMen 1-3 Even with Ratner as director of the third installment this is still a pretty good trilogy on it's own. XMen 3 doesn't have near the strength of the first two films but Ratner makes up for it by blowing sh*t up whenever screentime allows so it's generally pretty entertaining. My only complaint if any would be Juggernaut who in the film looks like a turkey baster headed road warrior.

Blade 1-3 Have yet to see the third but the first two stand on their own pretty well. Plenty of blood/gore to appease any horror movie fan and popcorn action thrills for action lovers. Snipes was a pretty good choice for the lead. (Prefers Underworld movies though)

Iron Man. Pretty decent. Plot was a bit predictable but other than that enjoyable. Some really good LOL moments throughout. The biggest in the theater I was in was his first test of the rocket/propulsion what have you boots) Loved RDJ in the title role. Excellent well rounded actor who IMO was due his shot at being a classic super hero. Already anticipating the sequel and hoping RDJ won't be EB'd.

Hulk. Good until the three quarter mark. Absorption man/T1000 was epic fail as was the fight between three oversized mutated dogs. I think this would have been fine if it had just been Hulk vs the Military, disappears at the end. Not to excited about a follow up sequel but with Norton as Bana and an epic fight with abomination it may be worth a look at.

Dare Devil. Saw the Directors cut recently. Much better and adds a whole to the outset of everything happening. Liked the original but the DC fills in a lot of missing plot.

Ghost Rider. Meh. Nick Cage was fine being Nick Cage (isn't he always) but the villains get in the way of making this truly awesome/fun. Also needed more flaming skull vengeance and less cheese.

Saves rest for later.

V4V is...lacking, I thought. Having never read the graphic novel, I don't think it works as a stand alone film at all.


Ninja Turtles rules in a nostalgic sort of way.
Hellboy's a solid flick.
Conan is arguably based more on prose than on comics.
The others aren't even good movies, let alone good adaptations.

Speaking of Manga/anime.

Metropolis has my vote. Never read/heard of the comic but as film it's spectacular.

Darkman? I know it's not comic book based but it is a super hero type hybrid thriller comic styled movie. Dy the director of the Spiderman/Evil Dead films. Avoid the second/third films like the plague. Sam Rami does not direct and Dark (Liam Neeson) doesn't return but instead replaced by the guy in the Mummy films.

V4V is good but really didn't stand out much as a film for me. Feels more as a political commentary than anything.

Hellboy is fail IMO. I didn't give a crap about any of it, and I felt like I was supposed to if only I'd been a huge fan of the comics. It made no impact on me at all.

^
Obviously you're not a fan of Ron Pearlman then.

Road to Perdition anyone?

or have you not heard of Tom Hanks either?

No wonder the public still thinks of Comics as:



I think HB2 is going to Rawk - more because its less about how do we stay true to Mike Mignola's gimpy vision (I'm not a fan)
and more about Deltoro going absolute Apeshit .

I'm not a fan of flat performances.

Read the plot. Made me want to go back to sleep, and I have an exam soon... so yeah...

Only movies I've seen him in are voice over films... I'm not into "period dramas" that much...

Well Spider-Man 3 didn't help that...

#1: Batman (1966)
#2: Ghost World
#3: The Addams Family

My faves are easy.

In no particular order (because I don't want to sit here and try to think about ranking them):
Spider-Man 2 - I think this one was the most serious of the 3 films so far, and the one that held the closest to the spirit of ASM. I liked the first one a lot, and believe that we wouldn't be getting all these other comic book films were it not for the success the first one had (thanks, also, to X-Men). Spider-Man 3 was like Chinese food. It was really filling at the time, but at the end ultimately left me feeling unsatisfied.

Batman - I don't know why, but I just think this is a great movie. It was "gritty" and comic book-y all at the same time.

Iron Man - Seriously, if you haven't seen this one yet, put off buying that next Deluxe-sized TF and go see it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - This one is probably purely for personal reasons, but it was just like Batman to me. Gritty like the original graphic novels, but still a little goofy like the cartoon and the Archie comics.

Others that I like but wouldn't say are the "best."
X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman Begins, Blade, The Crow (thanks I.S.T.)

EDIT: forgot The Crow

Mike Mignola asspwns you. I'd argue Hellboy strays from his general vision quite a bit as(At least in the like six collections i've read) Hellboy tends to be way, way more mythological. The movie itself is based off of a graphic novel that John Byrne did most of the writing job off.

That said, Deltoro=win pretty much all the time.

I'm surprised nobody brought up The Crow. As an adaptation, it's of the Iron Man variety(Taking a large amount of inspiration from the comic, but definitely being its' own work). Hell, Funboy in the comic isn't a complete bastard. O_O

Odd and tragic bit of trivia: because of Brendon Lee's death, James O'Barr(the original comic's writer/artist) regrets ever making The Crow.

Agreed - the Crow is pretty well done.

As for the Trivia, wasn't the Crow originally about O'barr working through the mourning process? (death of a child or something?) if so then Brandon-guilt on top of it - and it must suck to be James O'barr.

What else has he done? I mean if Crow was his only contribution to the world of comics, thats not too bad, but he is a kind of "out-of-nowhere'D" writer/artist....

I'll never understand the appeal of The Crow...

It was dark and gothy without overdoing it, IMO.

At least, the last time I saw it I thought so. It's been around 4 years.



That would be correct. I must admit, the irony is astounding.

he's done at least one other Crow graphic novel since then. I tried to read one and it didn't really work. I dunno why, it just felt both A. too different from the original and yet B. a ripoff of the original. o_O

Still, if the guy makes it work, more power to him.

I just thought it was a cool movie. I dig anti-heroes, I guess.

It's just one of those funny things I've noticed on the internets... online fandom types tend to really like The Crow, and I thought it was kinda cheesy and teenager-y.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, he was only like 24 when he wrote it.

Oh, and yet more ironic/tragic notes to Lee's death. They were close friends.

It really kind of seems like no matter how hard this dude tried, angst kept following him. I feel sorry for him.

I liked The Crow, of course it was released when I was 18 and I haven't seen it since...

sounds like me and Weird Science... seeing that again later in life was not as fun as I thought it was going to be

Question Answer'D

So it's the graphic novel version of "Tears in Heaven"?

it was the death of his fiance, actually.

The creation of The Crow wound up being the exact opposite of what he intended. It became self-destructive rather than cathartic, according to O'Barr.

LOL to LMH
Thanks for the info to IST
&
to JOBarr

Wolvy will be the best, cause hes the best at what he does.

*dons bra on head*

One last note: Read an interview with him dated a few years ago, and he seems to have finally gotten out of the hole. Good for him.

Maybe he should write a comic about it.

He's busy writing a vampire cowboy western thing, and doing storyboarding.

*Doth not take bait*

Where is the love for SPAWN???? That movie started great CGI innovation.

Also Conan gets big props from me.

Not a Crow/Spawn fan. It was sad about Lee dying on the set but be it as it may I can't stand the movie. A punk rocker is murdered comes back and extracts vengeance on those who kill him. Not a lot happening. I also didn't like overly goth/emo feel of most of the characters. Spawn whichever incarnation is just not my atmosphere. Too dark, heavy handed to be any fun and it's very close to Ghost Rider concept only the anti hero has actually returned from the depths of the underworld to extract vengeance or whatever hell spawned vigilantes do. Never saw the live action take, looked dumb and badly done.

Not a huge art buff but props to those who mentioned Ghost World and Road to perdition. Both very well made and entertaining adaptations of the source material.

I don't think any body's mentioned Super Girl yet. Wouldn't be surprised if that one too is due a remake in the near future. (Not that the original was amazing by any stretch) Still better than Superman 4 though.


LMH. Hellboy wasn't a flat performance, that was from what I understand who the character was which was really neat primarily because of what he is. He's basically this massive demon who'd rather not be the hero but just have a normal life away from the all the action but unfortunately because of what he is doesn't have a choice. Say what you will about the characterization but IMO it's perfect for an anti hero. Batman could be considered similar because though his reasons for what he does or different he too works as the anti hero who'd rather not be noticed/publicized in his exploits. The hugest difference though is Batman gives a damn and actually cares about saving people and hellboy does it with this meh/whatever attitude. Never read the comics (don't care for the art style) but there was enough in the movie to captivate me for it's duration. A lot more anyway than any one of the prequel movies for Star Wars. In those I literally didn't care what became of any of the characters by the end. Bottom line is they were completely unnecessary and didn't do anything to provoke my interest at any point. Anakin becomes Darth Vader in the end something I already knew from the first films so where was the mystery/intrigue in any of that?

THE ROCKETEER




KTHXBAI

Probably because one has to spend so much effort trying not to think of what Kelly LeBrock looks like now.

Favorite Comic adaptation of all time?

Hmm ...

Men in Black? Nah, fun, but kinda silly.

Daredevil? Not really that good.

Elektra?

Batman Begins? I would say this is the best except it kinda drags in parts.

30 Days of Night? It was fun, but ultimately just basically a horror movie that happened to be written as a comic first.

Mystery Men was fun the first couple of viewings. After that some of the appeal disappeared.

I'm gonna have to go with Ghost World as my favorite. Thora Birch does a great job as a girl who has her own tastes despite what everyone else thinks, and, well, Scarlet.

I thought Spawn was terrible. probably one of the worst for me. but I was so looking forward to it that it could be my fault.
I thought 300 was better than Troy. the only thing I remember about Troy is Orlando acting like the prince in Braveheart and ALOT of screentime taken up by Brad Pitt breathing.
that said my favorites are (in no order)
Batman (89), Batman Begins, The Crow, Sin City and Creepshow.

If I had to make a top 10 comic book movie list it would be thus:
1. Spiderman 2
2. Conan the Barbarian
3. Batman Begins
4. Hellboy
5. Iron Man
6. TMNT
7. Superman 2 (the donner cut)
8. Constantine
9. Hulk
10. The Crow

Of course i reserve the right to amend this list the moment I pop a tent in my pants for Dark Knight and/or The Incredible Hulk