My love of everything superhero, like so many others, began when I was a little kid.
I still remember pinning a towel around my neck, jutting my arms out in front of me with a determined frown on my face and “flying” the two foot drop from the arm of the couch to the floor.
In my heart I never stopped flying and it makes me geekily happy to see that the hero movie biz is now a multi-billion dollar Juggernaut, Cain Marko reference totally intended.
So, I thought I’d share with you a few superhero movies that I dig very much, and we can all pin a towel around our necks and jump off the arm of the couch together.
In no particular order, I think we’ll start with…
Iron Man proved that audiences will flock to a superhero story even if the character isn’t a household name, all you have to do is make sure the suit looks damn cool and cast the right guy, but casting RDJ was a big gamble. Even though he was known to be a brilliant actor, he also had a checkered past, was notoriously unreliable and at the time of production was considered uninsurable and a massive risk for a fledgling studio to bet all their chips on.
But his charisma and complete embodiment of Tony Stark blew it out of the park and set the new standard to which all superhero genre films are held. Not only did it launch Mr. Downey, Jr. back to the top of the A list, but Iron Man was the start of a billion dollar franchise and helped make Marvel Studios the movie powerhouse that it is today.
Next up is an adaptation of one of the best graphic novels you will ever read. Written by the incomparable Alan Moore and pencilled by the amazing DavE Gibbons, I know you all know which one I’m talkin’ about, the excellent, the awesome, the beautifully made…
WATCHMEN
Even though the movie doesn’t work exactly in the same way as the ground-breaking book did, it’s still leaps and bounds beyond what anyone else is trying to do with the genre, and from the gorgeous opening sequence to the grotesque, jaw-dropping origin of how Dr. Manhattan came to be, I still think this movie does the book truckloads of justice.
The ending of the movie is different to the book, and resulted in gnashing teeth from many naysaying book purists, but I actually preferred the movie ending…a lot.
Sorry Alan, sorry Dave.
I actually saw the next movie in this list before I read the comics it’s based on, and in my opinion the title sums up both extremely well, because both the books and the movie are indeed…
KICK-ASS
This story of a teenage kid taking on crime fighting with nothing but two sticks and a wetsuit is the ultimate underdog tale.
In a world of bloated, juiced-up superheroes, the idea of fallible good guys with absolutely no powers fighting the good fight is damn near revolutionary. Kick-Ass, simply put, is just a hell of a lot fun to watch and a great adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.s’ ultra-violent comic books.
And by the way, how freakin’ cool is Hit Girl? Damn cool, that’s how.
Now we go from one fun movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously right to another.
This is the movie that shows us you can abduct a boy from the earth in a spaceship but you just can’t take the jackass out of the boy. Yes, that’s right; I’m talking about Star Lord in …
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
This film was a refreshing change from the spate of ultra-serious superhero outings of recent years. Chris Pratt’s lead is a reminder that the everyman can be a hero, even if it takes a special crew of non-humans to tolerate him, because as I mentioned before…he’s a jackass.
Luckily, he turns out to be a heroic and ultimately likeable one and the amazing visuals make Guardians a feast for the eyes. The amazing soundtrack is the icing on an already substantial cake and when you throw in the gorgeous and deadly Zoe Saldana, a fifteen foot tall sentient tree and a wise cracking, gun toting space raccoon, you’ve got yourself a bloody great movie.
When it comes to awesome superhero movies, we’ve been living in a golden age of them for years now and there’s no sign of them stopping. I could go on for hours, I really could.
The Avengers, Hellboy, The X-Men, Captain America, Blade, Spider-Man, the list goes on and on, and when you throw in animated movies as well, the tally skyrockets. But I’m gonna finish off today with a movie that featured an actor who won an Oscar for playing one of the most beloved villains in the superhero universe. Heath Ledger’s re-imagining of the Joker was sublime and superb.
Some wonder if he would’ve still received the award had he lived for the chance to stand at that podium. I can’t answer that, but had he not, he still would’ve deserved it one hundred percent.
My last movie for today is of course, Christopher Nolan’s modern day superhero classic…
THE DARK KNIGHT
Suspending disbelief is part and parcel of being a superhero fan, you know these characters and situations don’t actually exist and sure, The Dark Knight has plot holes. But a lot of stories do, and that tiny chink in the movie’s otherwise perfect Kevlar weave bat-armour can easily be excused because of the amazing vision Nolan created with his take on the Batman world. It’s also probably the best example of any filmmaker creating a setting as real as a comic book inspired world can feel, a place where superheroes might actually occur.
It’s so confident and so compelling that it doesn’t even matter that the story doesn’t make much sense. The introduction to Heath Ledger’s Joker is maybe the best overall scene that Nolan has ever directed. By the time he’s been revealed, we not only know just how methodical he is, but also just how dangerous, and the stakes are established for Batman’s greatest on-screen challenge.
After Heath’s performance, every Joker from now on has their work cut out for them, and I’m waiting with bated breath to see what Jared Leto brings to that hallowed table when Suicide Squad comes out in August.
