MOVIES – Top Ten Live Action Superhero Movies.

I’m pretty certain I’m going to make some people very, very angry with me with this top ten list, because today I’m going to be talking about my favorite live action superhero movies.  And I absolutely know that people are going to think I’m crazy based on my list here.

I’ve  done  a Top Ten Superhero Animated Movies and a Top Ten Superhero Animated TV series list.  Click on the highlighted text if you’re interested.  But today I’m going to be talking about live action superhero movies.

You can either watch the video or read the transcription below it.  Below I also provide  a trailer for each movie:

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10. Captain America

My number ten, I don’t have the DVD because it’s on Netflix so I can watch it anytime on-demand.  It’s Captain America.

I loved the trailer, I thought it was great, I couldn’t wait to watch it and I thought that it really paid off in the first half of the movie, second half not so much.

The first half, I loved. The turning of Steve Rogers into Captain America, all that stuff was fantastic and I absolutely loved it.

One of the things I do like about Captain America as a character is that he’s a stand up guy. He’s a really good guy and the way he comes across isn’t cheesy, it’s just honest and it’s heartfelt and you kind of root for him.

He’s got very down to earth values, but the reason why it’s not higher, is because the second half of the movie, it just seemed like,

“…and then he became Captain America and everything went awesome, the end.”

There wasn’t really much of a movie once he became completely accepted as Captain America.  It was just about how awesome he is.

The Red Skull shows up and he’s basically,

“Curses Captain America- you’ve foiled me again,”- and there was nothing about it that was compelling about the second half of the movie.

Still it’s really actually very re-watchable, in spite of that and it feels good to watch it, it makes you happy.

So my number ten is Captain America.

9. The Dark Knight

Oh here we go, let’s start pissing people off. My number nine is actually Batman: Dark Knight.

Why is this my number nine and not like my number one right?  That’s the big question, and that is because it’s so difficult to sit and watch this movie all the way through and not want to shoot yourself in the head.

Of course, everybody knows Health Ledger as Joker is incredible; the story is actually really, really good, very dramatic, it’s just fantastic.

This is a really deep movie, it speaks to you, it has really strong themes, and it’s a great, great Batman.  But it also feels so dark and so overbearing, that it’s really hard to just sit and watch it and enjoy it, without wanting to slit your wrists.

That’s really the reason. The other reason why, is that Batman here is really heavily compromised as a character at the end of this series of lying and cheating and becoming a cheat.

There’s something about the ethics at the end of the story that just didn’t ring true to me, which is going to be ironic because you’re going to see what my number three is. And then I totally go and back peddle and excuse myself, and make excuses. So I understand that I’m going to contradict myself later on, so just bear with me.

Alright so my number nine is Batman: Dark Knight.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man

My number eight, and yes I really like this movie, The Amazing Spider-man, the new Mark Webb Spider-man.

I really thought they actually captured Spider-man much more in this, than in the Sam Raimi Spider-man Movie.

Yes you just heard me right. I did say that, it actually reminded me more of the Ditko Spider-man. Very skinny guy who’s kind of not the most likeable person in the world.  Because Steve Ditko and Stan Lee didn’t really make a very likeable Peter Parker.

And this Spider-Man really came across this way.  It was really reminiscent of that to me.

He has mechanical web shooters, which makes him a scientific genius, which is actually part of the character.  There’s something about this that I like, and  yes it’s a little dark, but he’s much more of a funny Spider-man than all the other types of live action Spider-man’s, and he is a little bit of a jerk.

You know what, Spider-man is a bit of a jerk. He is. I am a huge Spider-man fan, and he’s my second favorite superhero.

I really liked The Amazing Spider-man movie, my number eight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8ctUN1ZSI

7. X-Men: First Class

My number seven I don’t have, I want to own it, but I’m saving my pennies for now and that is X-Men: First Class.

X-Men: First Class is the only X-Men movie that I think really nailed it.  I’m not a huge X-Men fan, but I actually really, really thought that X-Men: First Class really captured the team. It was something about the way that the characters related.

The interaction with the characters, you really liked the way they worked together, you were rooting for them when they got together, they did their thing.

I liked the era. It was 60’s, it was kind of a spy kind of thing going, it worked.

I liked the feel of that movie, it’s exciting, it nailed it.  I think it really did do a good job of getting the X-Men right.

More so than the other X-Men movies, so my number seven X-Men: First Class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ccSiH4olo

6. Spider-Man 2

My number six is Spider-Man 2.  Spider-Man 2, yes. As much as I like The Amazing Spiderman, it’s still not as good as Spider-Man 2.  Spider-Man 1, I thought was awful. I thought it was a lame, lame, lame movie.

This movie actually was not, the relationship between Doc Ock and Peter Parker that is what makes this movie.

The whole Kiki’s Delivery Service story line in it and you know how much I like Kiki’s Delivery Service if you saw my Top Ten Miyazaki Movies. This is Kiki’s Delivery Service with Spider-man.

He loses his powers and then he has to try to— it’s just really interesting, I really liked it, it was a lot fun.

A lot of really fun, good, exciting action in it.  Dr. Octopus is a really good bad guy in this, not cheesy like the Green Goblin was in the original, in Spider-man, the first one.

I like this, Spider-Man 2.

5. Superman: The Movie

My number five is something that I’m constantly ranting almost against, I don’t want to rant against it, because I really do enjoy this movie and that is Donner’s Superman: The Movie.

This is the movie that all superhero movies keep copying.  This is the movie that set up the genre of superhero movies. This is the formula that is copied over, and over, and over in different ways, even if it’s told in different sequences.

The superhero movies of today are basically retelling this movie over, and over, and over.

This is a great movie, Christopher Reeves, fantastic Superman, very silver age Superman.  A happy light-hearted— it captures the wonder and excitement, and the music in it is great, the relationship between Lois and Superman is fantastic.

What can I say? It’s just great. The cast is fantastic.

The only thing, if anything, is that I think the bad guys are so comedic, that they don’t come across as dangerous to me.  But it’s excusable because the movie overall is deep and thematic and fantastic, there’s a reason why everybody’s copying this movie.

My number five Superman: The Movie.

4. Batman Begins

Alright here we go the next controversial movie on my list, It’s Batman Begins.

What can I say about Batman Begins? It’s the best Batman movie ever made.

I think it’s better than Dark Knight, even though Dark Knight is deeper and the themes are deeper.

Batman Begins is watchable over and over because it doesn’t go so depressingly dark.  It does really play up the danger of being Batman, what he has to go through to become Batman, there’s just something about it that really, really hits on so many levels.

If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to watch, it’s a must watch.

Along with Superman: The Movie it’s one of those must watch superhero movies, Batman Begins my number four.

3. Man of Steel

Here we go, this is where I stick my foot in my mouth and contradict myself from what I said about Dark Knight.  My number three is Man of Steel, yeah Man of Steel, okay.

I’m a huge, huge Superman fan, so I liked this movie. I kind of wanted to like this movie, but it turned out that it wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, though it had so much of what I wanted in it.

That said, I really, really enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t quite the Superman movie that the Donner Superman movie was.  The Donner movie, you’ve got Superman in it, in Man of Steel, you really don’t have really Superman in it.

You kind of have until the very, very end, it’s kind of like the creation or the beginning of Superman.  How he became Superman and how he’s learning to be Superman, even though he’s got the suit on, he still doesn’t know how to be Superman.

His ethics aren’t completely there, because he’s constantly fighting all these other forces.

It’s cheesy, it’s got some plot holes in it, and there is a controversial element in it that kind of takes Superman to a different place where he usually doesn’t go to.

Although you could arguably say that he does exactly the same thing in Superman 2.  And that’s where I’m back peddling.

Batman does something in Batman: Dark Knight, that isn’t very dramatic.

Well Superman does something in the Man of Steel, that is not very Superman-ish, but it’s a little bit different because in Batman: Dark Knight, you’ve got an established Batman.

While in Man of Steel, you’ve got a character who’s trying to become Superman, and hasn’t quite made the choices that he will eventually, as a more mature, well developed superhero.

First of all, I think Henry Cavill is a great looking Superman, I think he plays the character well, I like the cast, I like the action in it, specifically the action.

It’s a little dark, it’s not as funny as I would have liked, but I think it’s essentially still Superman.  And I have an entire video as to why I like the movie, maybe I should just shut up and let you watch that one instead.

If you want to see it, just find the link below on my blog, if you’re watching this on my blog. You should be watching it on my blog, because it’s meant to be watched on my blog.  Okay so I’ll shut up now, let me go to my number two.

2. Iron Man

My number two is Ironman.  To be honest, I kind of watched Ironman 2 more than I’ve watched Ironman.

Actually, if I was going to watch one of the two, either Ironman or Ironman 2, I tend to put Ironman 2 in there, because it has more action in it.  But this is the movie that kind of set up the Marvel Universe, and the lightheartedness and it showed that you can go lite and yet still be powerful and exciting and real, without it having to go down Dark Knight Movie territory.

This is a fun movie, it’s fantastic, the story is rock solid while in Ironman 2, not so much, which is the reason why this is in and not the other one.

So this is a great, great movie. I highly recommend watching Ironman.

When I left the theater after watching this movie, I was so pumped. This movie got me so pumped, it’s so exciting, like it makes you want to be Ironman.

So my number two is the original Ironman Movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIFaeqwES1Y

1. The Avengers

My number one, I don’t own it because it is on Netflix, but as soon as it’s off Netflix I’m going to go buy it.  It is The Avengers movie.

The Avengers movie– Joss Whedon directed it and wrote it and made it spectacular, it is fan service all over the place.

It is fun, fun, fun.  You leave that movie so overjoyed and happy, like yay it’s the Avengers, it’s so exciting, you know.

There’s something about watching that movie that makes you actually really feel like you’ve read a comic book.

It’s not dark and brooding, which a lot of people dislike about movies like Man of Steel and Batman.  But this movie is very lighthearted, it does a good job of mixing light-hearted humor with serious action and it doesn’t feel cheesy at any point.

And it shows and compliments the characters, the characters come together, they’re butting heads and they’re very entertaining and it plays up the characters really well.

It really puts the Hulk on the map, makes him very exciting to watch.  It shows that really the Hulk, as a character, needs other people around him, to really make him stand out. The Hulk is a little bit like salt, you just need a little bit to really make things pop right.

Everybody loves Loki, there’s a huge fan base of Loki now, because he’s just such a great villain in this movie.

Captain America is played dead on. I love his dialogue, and I love the way that he and Tony Stark are butting heads.

So that’s my number one, The Avengers.

In Conclusion

And that’s my list, what do you think, am I crazy?  I know, I know, you’re mad at me for where I put a lot of these movies.

Let me know, let me have it, I don’t care, let me have it.

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