Fangirl Speaks! Comic Book To Film A Go Go

Posted on Jun 10, 2010

Mondo Film & Video Guide’s Top Ten Comic Book Movies Of All Time

Written By: Spazzy
Mondo Film & Video Guide Contributor

It seems as though Comic Book based movies have spiked in the past couple of years, but they have been around for a while.  Here, I am going to discuss, IN MY OPINION, the top ten comic book based movies. (As if you couldn’t tell that from the title)  Sorry if you do not agree, but this is my review, and how I feel.  The more the movie follows the story line of the actual comics, the better.  Granted, some of these stray, they are still way better than others.  Also, I feel I should state that I only picked one movie from certain sequels or trilogies, to make it fair.

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#10 – Kick Ass (2010)

Mark Millar answered the age old question most nerdy kids have with the creation of Kick-Ass:  Why hasn’t anyone tried to be a superhero?  Kick-Ass is the story of Dave (Aaron Johnson) Lizewski and his adventure into heroism.  A lot of people either didn’t like the eight-issue miniseries by Millar, or they didn’t approve of the movie. Personally, I enjoyed both.  It could be because I don’t take things to seriously, or that I really like violence.  This movie has the violence. Plus, Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) was amazing.  I seriously would love to be her, only a more adult version considering her character is ten years old. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) is her father who has trained her to fight crime since she was little.  Besides several differences in the movie from the graphic novel, I found this to be very entertaining. I mean, there is love, loss, betrayal, and badass fight scenes.  So yeah, there were ridiculous moments, but it made the ride worth it.

#09 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Heroes in a half shell, turtle power! Sorry, my inner child was reliving the glory days of the TV show.  This is one of the comic book based movies that is extremely close to the source material from the comics created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.  The story of four turtles that got doused by Ooze, raised by a rat (who was also doused by Ooze as well) and trained in martial arts to be the fearsome fighting team we all know and love.  Named after the great artists of our time, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael fight the good fight against The Shredder, and his evil foot ninja.  I think that the voice actors were perfect for their respective turtles, and the
actors of April O’Neil (Judith Hoag) and Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) played their parts perfectly.  The first of three live action movies, this one is the best.  No Vanilla Ice singing “Go Ninja” or time traveling in this movie.  Just pure comic book based goodness.  Not bad for what started out as a parody.

#08 – Superman: The Movie (1978)

The classic Superman movie directed by Richard Donner that struck fans and warmed their hearts to an orphaned alien boy that would one day be the world’s best boy scout.  The role that Christopher Reeve was born to play, and he sure did sell it.  From the classic, goofy Clark Kent, to the Man of Steel, this movie is in comic book history.  It does an excellent job of telling Superman’s origin story.  Growing up on a farm in Kansas, discovering his true origin, and that he is destined to be great, this movie covers it all, Truth, Justice and the American way.  In my fangirl opinion, the cast was phenomenal. His arch enemy Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is present and trying to foil all that Superman cares about.  And how can we forget the love of his life, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), the hard nose reporter that will do anything for her story.  Sometimes it is hard for me to believe they are an item, just the different personalities and all, but I digress.  This movie was ahead of its time, and a great movie that introduced a lot of the world to Superman, that would have never really known otherwise.

#07 – Sin City (2005)

Besides minor details, like Jessica Alba not showing her boobs while playing Nancy the stripper, this movie is almost panel for panel; dialogue and all exactly like the comic books.  This movie has a stellar cast including Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson and numerous others.  Each actor played their respective roles perfectly.  My favorite character was Marv (Mickey Rourke) and his search for the killers responsible for his Goldie’s murder.  These tales are dark and grimy and show the corruption in a city, and what people will do to either set things right, or just how far the bad guys will go to make their point.  Though there is a story that involves a rapist (which I despise) it is bearable to get through to see what happens to him in the end. Much kudos to Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez for making this film spectacular, not only did their actors perform splendidly, but the visual effects were beautiful.  I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, if they ever decide to make it.

#06 – 30 Days Of Night (2007)

Most people didn’t know that this was based on the comic books by Steve Niles.  I find the plot very original and well told for a vampire horror ‘flick’.  I chose this movie because it is very faithful to the comics in the plot, but also goes deeper and tells a better story.  Though in the comics, Eben (Josh Hartnett) and Stella (Melissa George) Oleson are happily married, in the movie they are not, but I found that this helped the story line be a tad bit more interesting.  The movie takes place in a small Alaskan town that is covered in nightfall for a month.  This is perfect for vampires.  30 days of eating townsfolk that are cut off from other civilized people.  Seems like the perfect plan, until the humans decided not to just give up and die.  The story is intense, and well played throughout the movie.  It shows the desperation that some will do to survive, or what they will do for their families so at least they can watch the sun rise.  Bloody and grim, this is a great movie to watch on a chilly night.

#05 – X2: X-Men United (2003)

The sequel to hit movie X-Men, X2 has more mutant activity than the first.  Though a lot of the story is tied back to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), it also shows more of the other mutants in their element, as well as introduces new characters, like Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming).  The storyline of William Stryker (Brian Cox) kidnapping Professor X (Patrick Stewart) to use him to destroy all mutants, is direct from the comics, which we know by now is something that I am greatly found of.  To me, this movie has more action, more mutants displaying their power, and of course for all the fans that are extremely in love with Wolverine, more of his origin story.  More of the mutants seem to let loose, and with Magneto (Ian McKellen) helping the X-Men, you can see why.  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is really shown in this movie.  Out of all three X-Men films, this one is by far the best.

#04 – Hellboy (2004)

Guillermo del Toro is a master when it comes to making scary creatures come to life.   I would love to get inside his head one day and see what makes him tick.  He is the reason Hellboy came to life on the big screen, and I think that he did a wonderful job.  The movie was close to the comics, and I believe that Ron Perlman made the perfect Hellboy, as well as David Hyde Pierce providing the voice of Ape Sapien.  Selma Blair didn’t really sell me 100% as Liz Sherman, but with every movie, there is a little room for debate on acting skills of different actors.  This movie shows that a creature of evil can be raised to be a savior of mankind.  Besides, they fight Nazis in this movie, which is a huge win in my department. This movie brings humor, action, adventure and a little bit of horror to the comic scene.  I think in another life, Hellboy could have been a comedian.

#03 – Iron Man (2008)

I remember sitting/leaning at Waldenbooks, reading Iron Man and thinking that Robert Downy Jr. just looked like Tony Stark.   This movie wasgreat.  Granted,while I am more of a DC gal, I can fully enjoy and do research over othercharacters I may not be so in tuned with. Robert was simply perfect.  Icannot state that enough.  His mannerisms, his speech, the way he heldhimself and talked to the technology was fantastic.  Simply loved it.  Thesuit looked real, and the movie made it seem like this could really happen, if you have enough money and the brains to accomplish it.  Jeff Bridges played the part of Obadiah Stane very well, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Pots could almost steal the scenes away from Robert.  This movie wasintense, and showed that a comic book based movie can be adventurous, andstay true to the story lines as well as make a profitable. I also love howJon Favreau, the director, plays a character in the movie.  I find it fun when directors do that.  The battles are fast paced and really show how far the movie business has come within CGI.  This is without a doubt one of my favorite movies.

#02 – Spider-man 2 (2004)

Again, I chose a sequel over the original. Why? Because you already know the character pretty well, and can get right into the new plot with a new villain and get the ball rolling so to speak.  No origin story needed, and most of the supporting characters are already there, so you just need to introduce the new villain, and get on with it.  Spider-Man/ Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, is still trying to balance his life of crime fighting and being a college student.  He is still madly in love with Mary Jane, played by Kirsten Dunst, and still trying to comfort Harry Osborn, played by James Franco, after the loss of his father.  In this movie, we are introduced to Doctor Otto Octavius (Doc Ock), played by Alfred Molina.  Again, it seems that Sam Raimi can make the perfect choice for the actor to work with a particular character. This movie speeds up the action with more fights, love and just great acting.  I love the ending, which I won’t spoil, but I think it is beautiful.  That’s the girl in me. But after talking with a lot of other nerds and such, most people agree that Spider-Man 2 is a better movie than the first.  Maybe it is because there isn’t a Power Ranger suit running around trying to destroy our poor hero?

#01 – The Dark Night (2008)

And finally, the best comic book based movie has to be (again, in my opinion) The Dark Knight.  This movie shows the tale of Batman and his greatest foe, The Joker.  Played by Christian Bale and Health Ledger respectively, this movie broke the mold in telling the story of these two foes.  Christopher Nolan did an epic job in directing this movie.  The main complaint I hear from, just about everyone, is that Christian needed to tone down his Batman voice.  He was a little hard to understand.  I think the surprise of the film, besides Heath’s amazing performance as the Joker, was Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, or in the end, Two-Face.  I imagine most people really think about his role, but he played it to perfection, just like the other actors did with their characters.  Of course though, I really feel like Heath stole the show as the Joker.  He had fantastic mannerisms to accompany his version of the Joker.  I’m sure he left some impressions in young minds that gave them nightmares. With so many memorable quotes in this movie, I will leave you with one of my favorites: “Introduce a little anarchy…upset the established order…and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.”

Spazzy is a contributor to the Mondo Film & Video Guide. You can email her directly at spazzy@mondo-video.com