Howdy everyone, I would just like to start this off by saying...
I'M FINALLY ON SPRING BREAK!
Haha, gotta love Burn After Reading. Anyway, the magical week known as Spring Break came rather late this year, but who cares, it's here!
And for my first full day of Spring Break, I spent most of it doing one of my favorite things at one of my favorite places on my favorite day of the year (besides Christmas)
Being a huge music geek, National Record Store Day is one of the biggest days of the year for me and the majority of America's music geeks. And this year I went wild at Monster Music & Movies (the best music store in Charleston, in fact all of South Carolina for that matter). I spent 50 bucks this year, picking up four albums and one DVD. They were...
So overall Record Store Day 2011 was a success for me, and I can't wait to listen to the albums and watch A Fistful of Dollars.
Now it's time for, you guessed it, another one of my Top 10 lists. Well, I was going through movies on Netflix the other day, and after coming across a few comic book movies, I thought, "Why haven't I made a list of the best comic book films?" And so, after a lot of thought, I've compiled my list of what I think are the Top 10 Best Comic Book Movies ever made.
#10:
300
Some of you may disagree with this, either because you think it's way too high on the list or it's way too low. Either way, 300 is a pretty good film. Despite being soaked in blood and gore, it still does a good job of telling the story of the 300 Spartans and Zack Snyder did do a pretty damn good job of directing here. Sure, the dialogue can get pretty weak at points, and it does have it's hammy and overdone moments, but 300 still holds up, and it's a great adaptation of a graphic novel that keeps all of the grit and glory of it's source material.
#9:
Hellboy
Yeah, the picture is kinda sappy, but still, Hellboy is just flat out awesome. Directed by visual genius Guillermo Del Toro, Hellboy is without a doubt one of the most visually stunning movies of the last ten years, maybe even of all time. You really get a good understanding of the title character, as well as his team of super humans and... well... humans. Ron Perlman does an excellent job as Hellboy, and he realyl captures the fact that Hellboy is more than, well, a demon fighting against what he came from. His performance makes him feel much more human, which is what the film is all about.
#8:
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Mask of the Phantasm was a spin-off of Batman: The Animated Series, and was the only movie based on the show to be released in theaters (The other being Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero). Mask of the Phantasm captures all of the dark aspects of the show, and even goes darker and more brutal than the show for most of the film. The story is about Batman trying to track down a mysterious new foe known as The Phantasm, while also chasing after The Joker, who's in on all of this in some way. All of the things that make this movie great are exactly the same as what made the TV series great, it's pretty much just an hour long episode of the show. But that's not at all a bad thing.
#7:
Scott Pilgrim v.s. The World
Scott Pilgrim is just one of those movies that's impossible to hate. It's just so charming in it's own strange,drugged up way. Once you get used to the chaotic logic of the setting, it becomes such a fun movie that you can't peel your eyes from the screen. The whole movie is eye candy, the majority of the jokes work well, and Michael Cera really delivers in thetitle role. Granted, it does kind of drag everynow and then, and sometimes you just wish desperately that it'll get going with the plot, but it's still areally fun movie that's bound to gain major cult status as the years go by.
#6:
Spider-Man 2
Known as "The Godfather Part II" of superhero movies, Spider-Man 2 is easily the best in it's trilogy, and is one of the best comic book films ever. Out of the three Spider-Man movies, this one gives us the most in-depth look at Peter Parker and what Spider-Man means not only to himself, but to his loved ones and the rest of New York. Now granted, Spider-Man 2 had a big advantage over the other two movies because they had Michael Chabon as one of the writers (I doubt any of you know who Chabon is though). Sure it has some weak aspects, like Tobey Maguire is still a wimp, Kirsten Dunst still doesn't give it her all, and it kind of hammers it message into your head a little too much, but it's still the best film in the trilogy, and one of the best comic book movies.
#5:
Iron Man
In terms of overall entertainment value, you're not gonna find many movies more fun than Iron Man. With it's quick and clever humor, awesome action scenes, and of course, Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man is just one of those movies where if you don't have a great time watching it, then you just take life in general way too seriously. Sometimes when movies focus more on the creation and concept of a superhero lead, it just gets grating and you get too eager for the action to start already, but with Iron Man, a movie where the focus is really entirely on the creation of the suit, it's actually really interesting to see how Tony Stark builds this thing, but when you get to the butt-kicking, it's still sweet and satisfying.
#4:
Batman Begins
I'm SO happy that this movie was made. Not only because it's a great movie, but also because it saved Batman's name in movies. After Batman & Robin, it was gonna take a lot to redeem Batman's name, but the prophet known as Christopher Nolan came and saved Batman. It's great to see a live action Batman movie that isn't just silly. Let's face it, the Tim Burton movies and especially the Joel Schumacher ones were pretty silly and pointlessly weird. Nolan actually depicted Batman the way that Batman is supposed to be seen, a hero that doesn't go by what everyone assumes and while doing the right thing, is still questioned. The movie takes itself seriously, and that really pays off in my book.
#3:
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Everything that was great about the first Hellboy is back and is great here as well... only everything is amplified times ten. Everything that made Hellboy great the first time around is even better the second time, making for one of the best comic book movies ever as well as one of my favorite films ever. And while the first movie only had a couple of issues, Hellboy II patches them up perfectly, such as dialogue and the main villain. Speaking of which, the villain of Hellboy II is one of the things that makes it so great. The villain is the prince of a lost civilization who wants to wipe out humanity because he feels that the humans ran his kind out. He doesn't just feel like a diabolical mastermind like most other comic book villains, you actually sympathize for him at some points, and feel the pain that he's going through. Hellboy II really is a spectacular movie, and is much more than just your typical supernatural shoot 'em up.
#2:
The Dark Knight
Yeah, pretty obvious wasn't it? Well, yeah, it's impossible for anyone to make this list and not have The Dark Knight in the Top 5. This movie is great for so many reasons, Heath Ledger's bone chilling performance, the portrait of politicians shown through Harvey Dent, Batman's many internal conflicts, the list goes on and on and on. There really is nothing like The Dark Knight, because it's more than just a comic book flick, it's also an epic story of crime and how much anarchy the human mind can take without breaking. But what movie could possibly top The Dark Knight?
#1:
Batman: Under The Red Hood
It's probably a bad thing that I mentioned earlier where I live, because now all of you are going to egg my house for putting an hour and fifteen minute animated movie above The Dark Knight. But, in my mind, Batman: Under The Red Hood is the best comic book movie ever made. The animation is outstanding, the voice acting is terrific, the story is masterfully written, and it's extremely mature for an animated movie. Where as Mask of the Phantasm is dark but still suitable for kids, Under The Red Hood is just flat out brutal, and I'm actually pretty surprised that it got a PG-13 rating. I would tell you the plot, but I would probably get caught up in it and end up giving too much away. It's just a friggin' fantastic movie, and is one of the few animated films, and just films in generalthat I would actually call perfect. Under The Red Hood is a perfect film. There you have it.
P.S.
Because I know that this is going to come up, I know that Sin City isn't on the list. I haven't seen Sin City, and thus I can't judge it.
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Song of the Day:
Radiohead - Lotus Flower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8
Picture of the Day: