I did forget BATMAN BEGINS...

Place it at # 3 and move everything else down one notch.

My bad.

Oh. I finally sat thru ALL of Daredevil the other night.

Holy jumping crap was that a trainwreck.

The ONLY good thing was that "raindrop" radar effect, but they must have realized it and overused it to death.

gah!

~P~
P-TOR

and the winnah…
- Spider-man (big budget) - Marvel
- Spider-man II - Marvel
(joint - I can't choose between these)

BATMAN (1989) and BATMAN RETURNS were good Burton movies, but they were mediocre Batman movies. They featured a semi-jokey, semi-creepy script that only existed to prop up Burton's trademark circus-meets-goth visual stylings. Rather than serve the characters or legacy of Batman, the first movies were a showcase for strange imagery and classic "Burtonisms". While the directors's go-to template (alienated loner, clad in black, makes good while surrounded by freaks) may seem suitable to Batman's world, it just didn't click. Those movies felt more like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS than any Batman comic. (True fact: Burton hadn't read Batman comics before directing the movie).

My picks as best DC or Marvel comic-to-film adaptations are MASK OF THE PHANTASM, BATMAN BEGINS, and the first two SPIDER-MAN movies. Why? Because in each case, they translate the comics to the screen perfectly, in terms of costumes, characters, themes, concepts and situations. And that's rare. Usually, filmmakers aren't comic book fans or they don't get what makes them special beyond merchandising possibilities.

As for the Superman movies, they were OK, but haven't aged well. They are remarkably cheesey and have very dated production values that make them look like a made-for-TV movie. I know that shouldn't count (especially since they aced the casting and script) but it kinda does.

Just noticed that Superman IV is on the list 2x.

(It's soooo bad that might be accurate.)

Anyway, I MEANT to place it Dead LAST.

Sorry.

~P~
P-TOR

SOME of which I have yet to see all the way through (some were just too bad to watch, others, I only saw a few scenes), sadly, so I can't be 100% sure of their placement, but I'll denote those with (**) to be fair, and place them where I think they should fall.
YES, I know that makes the validity of my list entirely suspect.
I'm not making "THE" definitive list here.

If I forgot any, my apologies.

*Yes, TV movies are admissible (otherwise, Marvel wouldn't have squat for the list until BLADE.

TV SERIES' are NOT admissible(but most series are far better than their big-screen counterparts).
I'd LOVE to add the HULK & Spider-Man 1970's series', and ANY of the Paul Dini Animated DC series are GOLD!

---------

Worst to Best

***WORST***
- Superman IV - DC
- Generation X (TV) - Marvel
- Punisher (Dolph Lundgren) - marvel
- Nick Fury TV - Marvel (**)
- Superman IV - DC
- Catwoman - DC (**)
- Elektra - DC (**)
- Batman & Robin - DC
- Captain America ("movie") - Marvel
- Justice League (TV) - DC (**)
- Supergirl - DC
- Batman Forever - DC
- Superman III - DC
- The Death of the Incredible Hulk (TV) - Marvel
- Captain America (TV - several) - Marvel
- Ultimate Avengers 2 (animated DVD) - Marvel
- Iron-Man (animated DVD) - Marvel
- Ultimate Avengers (animated DVD) - Marvel
- HULK (big budget) - Marvel (**)
- Fantastic Four (big budget) - Marvel
- Fantastic Four (Roger Corman) - Marvel
- Howard the Duck - Marvel
- Batman / Mr Freeze - SubZero (Animated DVD) - DC
- The Return of the Incredible Hulk (TV) - Marvel
- The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (TV) - Marvel
- Return of Swamp Thing - DC (**)
- Superman Returns - DC (**)
- Daredevil - Marvel (**)
- Punisher - Marvel (**)
- Swamp Thing - DC
- Ghost Rider - Marvel (**)
- Constantine - DC (**)
- X-Men : The Last Stand - Marvel
- Batman Beyond: Return o/t Joker (animatedDVD) - DC
- Batman (1960's Adam West movie) - DC
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (animated DVD) - DC
- Man-Thing (TV / DVD) - Marvel
- Doctor Strange (TV) - Marvel
- Men in Black II - Marvel/Malibu/Aircel (**)
- Blade: Trinity - Marvel
- Blade - Marvel
- Blade II - Marvel
- Men in Black - Marvel/Malibu/Aircel
- Batman - (Tim Burton) DC
- Batman Returns - DC
- X-Men - Marvel
- Superman - DC
- Spider-man (big budget) - Marvel
- X-Men II - Marvel
- Spider-man II - Marvel

and the winnah...
- Superman II - DC
***BEST***

I'm NOT a DC fan and I actually can't STAND Superman as a character, but Superman 1 & II were great films.

If I could add other companies flix to the list, Hellboy & Sin City would be fairly high on the list, and sadly every miserable adaptation of an Alan Moore epic tale would be far down the pike.

Just my 2cents.
You may disagree with ALL of it.

~P~
P-TOR

BTW: anyone arguing that Marvel's comics-to-movie adaptations are better than DC's comics-to-movie adaptations just got something else to brag about...

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037509,00.html

Awesome.

X3>X1

I feel someone at last understands me. I didn't dislike the first two X-Men movies, but I don't get why everyone thinks they're so great. They're cold, emotionally distant and more concerned with looking right than being done right. Kind of like Superman Returns, actually.

I liked X3. I didn't think it was a brilliant film; even as a superhero movie it's about on a par with Daredevil. It was the only movie of the lot to capture the sort of delightfully hackneyed tortuous angst that Claremont did so well.

And I’m getting annoyed (mildly, but still annoyed) with people using “strawman” to mean “an argument on the Internet I don’t like.”

And I'm absolutely furious with pedants. Well, not really.

And I'm getting annoyed (mildly, but still annoyed) with people using "strawman" to mean "an argument on the Internet I don't like." Strawmanning is a very specific arguing tactic. It's accusing your opponent of holding a position they don't actually hold, and then showing how that position is fallible. For instance, if I wanted to strawman you, Graeme, I would accuse you of liking the Justice League TV pilot, and then show why that pilot was a piece of crap. (Which I could do pretty easily, just by showing a shot of David Ogden Stiers done up like Martian Manhunter.)

The videos' argument that more is better may be fallacious, but it's a different type of fallacy.

X3>X1

Yeah, that logic train came off the tracks for me too, Spidey.

Mary Jane being literally next door happened in the comics first, both in regular Marvel Universe and ultimate marvel universe. I’ll give you the organic webbing though.

You're right. Fortunately, that's actually not the detail I was getting at and that's down to my ham-fisted writing: in the comic, Mary Jane lives next door with her Aunt (a detail I had forgotten) but Peter never met her until "Face it Tiger, you hit the jackpot". In the movie, Mary Jane is someone Peter has adored from afar since childhood, which is a pretty substantial change.

The hero of the film uses his amazing powers for super-peeping-tom action. Seriously, spying on Lois like that was creepy.

Crystals are not fascinating.

Spacey's performance was way over-the-top. I don't doubt this was Singer's intent, as he wanted to ape every aspect of the 70s films, right down to a ditzy assistant for Luther, Nostalgia for Christopher Reeve aside, the earlier movies don't stand the test of time.

Superbaby.

The five year absence. So Superman left humanity to its own devices for years to look at some space rubble? Great...way to pick-up on the defining characteristic of Superman: his desire to protect people.

Picking up the island of kryptonite.

Granted, some of the Marvel movies have been awful...X-Men 3 is a sterling example of how not to end a trilogy...but Singer's new take on Superman 3, if better than the Last Stand, isn't better by much.