Post by TrekBeatTK on Apr 3, 2016 17:07:21 GMT -5
In preparation for Batman v Superman, I rewatched every live-action movie based on DC Comics properties (including imprints). The only ones I didn't get to are the Batman serials, and Mask of the Phantasm, since I'm going to do the animated stuff next.
I will not spoil BvS here (there's good, there's bad, it's a hot mess but that was to be expected). But for those interested, here's how I rank the DC movies from worst to best:
The Spirit -- Frank Miller's completely wrong-headed movie of the Will Eisner hero is at times a neo-noir in the style of Sin City and at other times a very broad comedy. It's like a parody of itself, but it's hard to know which tone it should have. It also doesn't have a clear sense of setting since they dress like the '40s but there are photocopiers. Watch it only if you like an ever-present disbelief that this really got made
Catwoman -- both movies are bad, but at least this one you can watch and laugh at, while The Spirit wanted you to laugh with it sometimes. This movie was every bit as bad as I had heard it was. And it's somehow supposed to be in weird continuity with the Batman films, giving a whole other layer to the events of Batman Returns. Uch.
Justice League of America -- a failed TV pilot in the 1990s. It's Flash, Green Lantern, and some undercard JLA members and basically plays like an episode of Power Rangers. Terrible effects work too, and for some reason the whole thing is framed as a documentary with talking heads throughout. Poorly conceived.
It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman -- TV adaptation of stage musical that at times is a lot of fun and clever (there's a moment where the end of a song is held over an entire commercial break). But then it devolves into a kind of bland psychoanalysis of Superman. A lot of the music is forgettable too. A mildly amusing curiosity not nearly at the level of the Adam West Batman, but trying a dash of the same sensibility.
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace -- Superman unilaterally rids the world of nukes just because he can, and then finds out it didn't save the world. This movie has a couple nice moments or ideas that don't go anywhere, but there are so many threads and the main plot is just dumb. The budget also was so low that we are left with some of the cheapest-looking effects work of the series. A sad way to end things for Reeve, even if it was well-meaning.
Batman Forever -- I am committing sacrilege saying Batman & Robin is better, but screw it. Batman Forever is boring. I don't care a lick what happens in it. Two-Face has no reason to be in the movie; he's given nothing to do but be an obstacle. Val Kilmer is a bland Batman and Bruce Wayne. It's all the bad Schumacher stuff where Gotham suddenly looks like a child's playset. Why is the city lit in neon purple and green? The introduction of Robin isn't bad, but they try to make it an emotional through-line and it just doesn't work. What does the title even mean??
Supergirl -- incomprehensible, it's basically an '80s fantasy movie with all that means. It's all about magic, except it's not exactly because it's supposed to be alien tech, but somehow it's magical alien tech? Plays a lot like the Ewok movies; magical fantasy pretending to be sci-fi. So much of it makes no sense. And yet, it's nice to bring Jimmy Olsen in and I quite liked Lisa Lane. I like this Supergirl and that they stuck with her comics alias of Linda Lee and the brown hair. They've transposed orphanage for boarding school, and it works. ...except there's no reason for any of that stuff to be in the movie. It's a shoddy script with some solid effects. Nice to see a side of Krypton that wasn't all crystalline though (but why are they in "innerspace"
)
Batman & Robin -- yes, this is a bad movie. But taken for what it is, doubling down on the crazy, it's at least an entertaining one. From the very first lines of dialogue it's awful, and the opening sequence feels like a Batman on Ice show. But I can enjoy it for its campy awfulness. I'm not bored during it. It also gives Alfred a bit more to do. The trouble with the film is its emotional elements don't work with its attempt at camp. It cannot succeed at being Adam West Batman, but it tries to be more Silver Age. They've toned down the crazy lighting so that Gotham at least looks like Gotham in the exteriors and only the interiors are colorful and bizarre. The plot ends up being more James Bond than Batman. And yet, after it all, there's something to talk about at least.
Jonah Hex -- blink and you'll miss that you ever watched a movie. I literally had to watch it twice because I nodded off and missed half of it. It's like 85 minutes long. Basically it's cut down to the barest mechanics of plot which makes it tough to follow at times and leaves no room for character. It feels like a TV pilot more than a feature. A shame because it's a good cast, but the movie just breezes through everything, even resorting to an animated sequence for Hex's origins. This movie is like if a Jonah Hex movie came out and you didn't see it, but your friend did and tried to tell you everything that happened in it over lunch. This is a second-hand movie.
RED 2 -- undoes a lot of the fun of RED by doubling down on the comedy and making it all about Mary Louise Parker's character. It's like she said "I'll do the sequel, but only if I get to kill people too!" It's fine and has some decent moments, but completely unnecessary. If you enjoyed the first one, don't waste your time.
The Losers -- I actually saw this in the theater and forgot everything about it. So then I watched recently and again have forgotten everything about it. Chris Evans has one nice scene in it. But this is a passable, forgettable Saturday afternoon action movie.
Green Lantern -- it's not great, but it's not as awful as its reputation makes it out to be. The trouble with this movie is it either needed a rewrite or had one rewrite too many. Green Lantern is a very childish character; I mean, more than a lot of others, this is a character tailor-made for kids. It's very simple morality about how through imagination and the power of will you can overcome your fear. And at times, the movie plays to that. Hal creates kid-like things like a giant race car track. But the movie should have been that; it should have been aimed for kids. Instead, they cast too wide a net to make it PG-13 and chunks of it just don't work. There's too much exposition, and too many digressions (why does the villain gain psychic powers???). And yet, there are some very cool effects, Parallax looks great in some scenes, and Ryan Reynolds was a great choice. If they had held onto the "golly gee" Last Starfighter elements and focused it for a ten-year-old, it could have been great. But it ended up being all over the place. And it's so dark!
Wonder Woman -- a TV pilot from the '70s that wasn't picked up, as they went in another direction. From Star Trek veteran John D.F. Black, its problem is it's more Charlie's Angels than Wonder Woman. Some good bits, but not quite enough superhero to it, and the fight scenes are laughable. But look, it's Ricardo Montalban!
The Return of Swamp Thing -- wackier than the original, with a story that makes no sense since the villain was killed in the last movie and his return is never explained. I like the adjustments to the Swamp Thing outfit, with added leaves and moss. Pretty much I only remember Swamp Thing because this movie spawned those PSAs about not littering.
Superman III -- too comedic for its own good, and unfocused in its plot. But the stuff with evil Superman is interesting at times, and I love that he goes back to Smallville. Little touches like wearing his old high school sweater around his shoulders with the S on the back are very nice.
Superman Returns -- errs a bit too far on the other side, where it gets so concerned with honoring the Donner films that it forgets to hone its own story. You have to assume this is an alternate universe where the events of Superman I and II happened, but in the 1990s. There is some nice continuity in a way, and Spacey is a good Luthor even if his plot doesn't totally work. But it's a little too concerned with the bigger issues of Superman tonally, and also things happen that don't make sense. I kind of liked it enough when it came out, but there's nothing about it that really makes it stand out on rewatch.
Man of Steel -- another movie that's so concerned with "ideas" that it throws out the characters. I like some elements of this movie, like the learning to fly scenes. But this is a Superman movie that doesn't like Superman, really. It abandons a lot of what makes the character work. It's far too dark. But I place it above Superman Returns for at least having Smallville scenese that make sense for the movie. Still makes me angry on the whole, as it devolves into a lot of noisy disaster porn.
Steel -- Like Catwoman, I went into this infamous film expected it to be terrible, and I actually enjoyed it. It's not a GREAT movie, and gets a little campy in places, but it captures that inspirational and aspirational quality of superheroes that so many other films lack. Shaq is a solid role model in this movie. It's much better than Kazaam anyway. It's the kind of movie that might come on cable on a Sunday afternoon and I'll watch because it's mildly entertaining.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- this might change later. But initial reaction thinks maybe it's a little better than Man of Steel for addressing some of its criticism (though that only goes so far) and for having a good Batman and Wonder Woman. However, I can say no more without spoiling it, and there are a lot of reasons it's not higher up.
Atom Man vs Superman -- the follow-up to the original Superman serial. The two are basically tied for me, but if I had to I would give the edge to the first for being a little more focused. This one has a good Lex Luthor though, arguably the best.
Superman (1948 serial) -- not bad for being the first live-action version of the character. To the actor's credit, there's a clear difference between Superman and Clark Kent.
Swamp Thing -- low-budget Wes Craven movie that's sometimes silly and slow going, but is also a good character study with shades of Beauty and the Beast or other classic romances. The most confusing thing is the opening text which made me think Swamp Thing had already been created before the start of the movie. Instead, it's an origin story and takes a good 45 mintues to get there.
The Dark Knight -- Heath Ledger is great. That out of the way, this movie takes a hard turn halfway through where it stops making any sense. For that reason, I just can't enjoy it the way other people do. Up to the incomprehensible car chase scene, it's pretty good. Still one of the better comic book sequels ever made, but it gets too far up it's butt later on. All the things the final film get criticized for are here as well, the fanboys just don't like to see them.
The Dark Knight Rises -- doesn't have as charismatic a force as The Joker, but it does have one of the best onscreen realizations of Catwoman (yes, she's actually a burglar!). What I like about it is that it brings the trilogy full-circle. It doesn't all work, and it does leave a lot of questions lingering at the end, but it's at least Bruce Wayne's movie.
Constantine -- I liked this movie! I did not expect to, but I did. Some of it is dumb and doesn't really make any sense, but they sell it pretty well. It's better than it looks!
Batman (1966) -- I just dig this movie. It's broad and silly, but intentionally so. The key is that it plays itself completely straight. Batman and Robin take everything so deadly serious, even when discussing shark repellent bat spray or ball-point bananas. And underneath the silly facade, it's a clever idea to use all the main villains working together on one big scheme. And it's actually a pretty good one -- to destroy the United Nations. That Batman is only partially successful in saving things at the end and has to kind of hope for the best makes it even more interesting. It's a fun movie, it's a weird movie, and yet it knows exactly what it is doing.
Superman and the Mole-Men -- a B-movie in which Superman barely appears, but actually a very strong Superman story. What we think is going to be a battle against strange beings ends up being a small-town lesson in tolerance. This movie, basically the pilot for what became the Adventures of Superman series (it was aired in two parts at the end of season 1), is a better understanding of Superman than many other films have given us. Superman represents the better part of us, and directs us to be better than we are. He barely displays much power here, and never unnecessarily. Superman doesn't have to be super flashy to be effective. It's not even an hour long, but for all its brevity and very small budget, it has something important to say. To guys like David Goyer who don't get Superman or think he's relevant to today, this movie is an example of how to do him right in a way that could still be relevant.
Batman Returns -- Tim Burton's superweird follow-up is not enough of a Batman movie. It gave us the trend of Gotham being a land of freaks and every movie being a villain origin story. And yet, in its own twisted way it is much more effective than the later imitators, being a kind of bizarre fairy tale; the sort that only Tim Burton used to make. It's not all good, and some bits of it are just too weird that they border on silly (penguins with bombs strapped to them? penquin pallbearers giving Penguin to the sea?), but taken on its own terms it kind of works, and more than the Schumacher movies. If you're gonna go wacky, it takes an artist like Burton to say something with it. The effects work has improved this time around too.
A History of Violence -- Cronenberg's character study of a guy with a double life. Solid movie.
Superman II -- one of the best superhero sequels ever. As a kid, I liked it better than the first. Now I can see the flaws that arose in the contentious production of it. Both the Lester and Donner versions have their pros and cons. If I had to, I would probably give the edge to Donner just for the Brando stuff, but that version also has an ending that doesn't work. Ultimately whichever version you go with, the themes are the perfect progression for the story and the characters. The only logical sequel for Superman -- make it both bigger and smaller.
V For Vendetta -- This movie screams "Alan Moore" to me. It is masterfully constructed. I thoroughly disagree with its politics (even Alan Moore thinks it kind of missed the point, where the film seems to celebrate an extreme instead of how the book juxtoposes extremes), but this is a smartly crafted film.
RED -- I had no expectations for this movie, but I completely understand now why it got such good reviews. It's lots of fun!
Batman -- Tim Burton's Batman is one of the best looks at the character. It's not too dark, but not too campy. It's sort of an origin but not exactly. Michael Keaton remains my favorite Batman, partially because I think him the best Bruce Wayne. Every version of the Joker is very different, and Nicholson's totally works. The only thing that dates this movie is the Prince music and the fact that Wayne's security camera is an old JVC camcorder. But even the Prince stuff weirdly works as its mostly The Joker's music, and he's the Clown Prince of Crime.
Watchmen -- hugely ambitious and largely successful and hitting the themes of the graphic novel and not completely missing the point.
Batman Begins -- My favorite of the Nolan films. It has the best Gotham City (it looks like Gotham and not just Chicago), and there's actually an intricate plot for Batman the detective to piece together. Prequels rarely work, but this one is very thoughtful and gets all the themes of Batman, with the stuff about fear.
Road to Perdition -- a beautiful movie. Sam Mendes' follow-up to American Beauty features Tom Hanks as a mob guy on the run with his son. The cinematography alone makes it worth seeing, but the all-star cast helps a lot too.
Superman -- The Richard Donner film is still the height of DC Comics on film, resurrecting the genre and making it both light and grandiose. Despite a couple hiccups, the film as a whole just works. And of course Christopher Reeve has become the ultimate screen embodiment of the character. He makes you hope. He makes you believe. He makes you smile. That's Superman.
-TK
I will not spoil BvS here (there's good, there's bad, it's a hot mess but that was to be expected). But for those interested, here's how I rank the DC movies from worst to best:
The Spirit -- Frank Miller's completely wrong-headed movie of the Will Eisner hero is at times a neo-noir in the style of Sin City and at other times a very broad comedy. It's like a parody of itself, but it's hard to know which tone it should have. It also doesn't have a clear sense of setting since they dress like the '40s but there are photocopiers. Watch it only if you like an ever-present disbelief that this really got made
Catwoman -- both movies are bad, but at least this one you can watch and laugh at, while The Spirit wanted you to laugh with it sometimes. This movie was every bit as bad as I had heard it was. And it's somehow supposed to be in weird continuity with the Batman films, giving a whole other layer to the events of Batman Returns. Uch.
Justice League of America -- a failed TV pilot in the 1990s. It's Flash, Green Lantern, and some undercard JLA members and basically plays like an episode of Power Rangers. Terrible effects work too, and for some reason the whole thing is framed as a documentary with talking heads throughout. Poorly conceived.
It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman -- TV adaptation of stage musical that at times is a lot of fun and clever (there's a moment where the end of a song is held over an entire commercial break). But then it devolves into a kind of bland psychoanalysis of Superman. A lot of the music is forgettable too. A mildly amusing curiosity not nearly at the level of the Adam West Batman, but trying a dash of the same sensibility.
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace -- Superman unilaterally rids the world of nukes just because he can, and then finds out it didn't save the world. This movie has a couple nice moments or ideas that don't go anywhere, but there are so many threads and the main plot is just dumb. The budget also was so low that we are left with some of the cheapest-looking effects work of the series. A sad way to end things for Reeve, even if it was well-meaning.
Batman Forever -- I am committing sacrilege saying Batman & Robin is better, but screw it. Batman Forever is boring. I don't care a lick what happens in it. Two-Face has no reason to be in the movie; he's given nothing to do but be an obstacle. Val Kilmer is a bland Batman and Bruce Wayne. It's all the bad Schumacher stuff where Gotham suddenly looks like a child's playset. Why is the city lit in neon purple and green? The introduction of Robin isn't bad, but they try to make it an emotional through-line and it just doesn't work. What does the title even mean??
Supergirl -- incomprehensible, it's basically an '80s fantasy movie with all that means. It's all about magic, except it's not exactly because it's supposed to be alien tech, but somehow it's magical alien tech? Plays a lot like the Ewok movies; magical fantasy pretending to be sci-fi. So much of it makes no sense. And yet, it's nice to bring Jimmy Olsen in and I quite liked Lisa Lane. I like this Supergirl and that they stuck with her comics alias of Linda Lee and the brown hair. They've transposed orphanage for boarding school, and it works. ...except there's no reason for any of that stuff to be in the movie. It's a shoddy script with some solid effects. Nice to see a side of Krypton that wasn't all crystalline though (but why are they in "innerspace"
)Batman & Robin -- yes, this is a bad movie. But taken for what it is, doubling down on the crazy, it's at least an entertaining one. From the very first lines of dialogue it's awful, and the opening sequence feels like a Batman on Ice show. But I can enjoy it for its campy awfulness. I'm not bored during it. It also gives Alfred a bit more to do. The trouble with the film is its emotional elements don't work with its attempt at camp. It cannot succeed at being Adam West Batman, but it tries to be more Silver Age. They've toned down the crazy lighting so that Gotham at least looks like Gotham in the exteriors and only the interiors are colorful and bizarre. The plot ends up being more James Bond than Batman. And yet, after it all, there's something to talk about at least.
Jonah Hex -- blink and you'll miss that you ever watched a movie. I literally had to watch it twice because I nodded off and missed half of it. It's like 85 minutes long. Basically it's cut down to the barest mechanics of plot which makes it tough to follow at times and leaves no room for character. It feels like a TV pilot more than a feature. A shame because it's a good cast, but the movie just breezes through everything, even resorting to an animated sequence for Hex's origins. This movie is like if a Jonah Hex movie came out and you didn't see it, but your friend did and tried to tell you everything that happened in it over lunch. This is a second-hand movie.
RED 2 -- undoes a lot of the fun of RED by doubling down on the comedy and making it all about Mary Louise Parker's character. It's like she said "I'll do the sequel, but only if I get to kill people too!" It's fine and has some decent moments, but completely unnecessary. If you enjoyed the first one, don't waste your time.
The Losers -- I actually saw this in the theater and forgot everything about it. So then I watched recently and again have forgotten everything about it. Chris Evans has one nice scene in it. But this is a passable, forgettable Saturday afternoon action movie.
Green Lantern -- it's not great, but it's not as awful as its reputation makes it out to be. The trouble with this movie is it either needed a rewrite or had one rewrite too many. Green Lantern is a very childish character; I mean, more than a lot of others, this is a character tailor-made for kids. It's very simple morality about how through imagination and the power of will you can overcome your fear. And at times, the movie plays to that. Hal creates kid-like things like a giant race car track. But the movie should have been that; it should have been aimed for kids. Instead, they cast too wide a net to make it PG-13 and chunks of it just don't work. There's too much exposition, and too many digressions (why does the villain gain psychic powers???). And yet, there are some very cool effects, Parallax looks great in some scenes, and Ryan Reynolds was a great choice. If they had held onto the "golly gee" Last Starfighter elements and focused it for a ten-year-old, it could have been great. But it ended up being all over the place. And it's so dark!
Wonder Woman -- a TV pilot from the '70s that wasn't picked up, as they went in another direction. From Star Trek veteran John D.F. Black, its problem is it's more Charlie's Angels than Wonder Woman. Some good bits, but not quite enough superhero to it, and the fight scenes are laughable. But look, it's Ricardo Montalban!
The Return of Swamp Thing -- wackier than the original, with a story that makes no sense since the villain was killed in the last movie and his return is never explained. I like the adjustments to the Swamp Thing outfit, with added leaves and moss. Pretty much I only remember Swamp Thing because this movie spawned those PSAs about not littering.
Superman III -- too comedic for its own good, and unfocused in its plot. But the stuff with evil Superman is interesting at times, and I love that he goes back to Smallville. Little touches like wearing his old high school sweater around his shoulders with the S on the back are very nice.
Superman Returns -- errs a bit too far on the other side, where it gets so concerned with honoring the Donner films that it forgets to hone its own story. You have to assume this is an alternate universe where the events of Superman I and II happened, but in the 1990s. There is some nice continuity in a way, and Spacey is a good Luthor even if his plot doesn't totally work. But it's a little too concerned with the bigger issues of Superman tonally, and also things happen that don't make sense. I kind of liked it enough when it came out, but there's nothing about it that really makes it stand out on rewatch.
Man of Steel -- another movie that's so concerned with "ideas" that it throws out the characters. I like some elements of this movie, like the learning to fly scenes. But this is a Superman movie that doesn't like Superman, really. It abandons a lot of what makes the character work. It's far too dark. But I place it above Superman Returns for at least having Smallville scenese that make sense for the movie. Still makes me angry on the whole, as it devolves into a lot of noisy disaster porn.
Steel -- Like Catwoman, I went into this infamous film expected it to be terrible, and I actually enjoyed it. It's not a GREAT movie, and gets a little campy in places, but it captures that inspirational and aspirational quality of superheroes that so many other films lack. Shaq is a solid role model in this movie. It's much better than Kazaam anyway. It's the kind of movie that might come on cable on a Sunday afternoon and I'll watch because it's mildly entertaining.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- this might change later. But initial reaction thinks maybe it's a little better than Man of Steel for addressing some of its criticism (though that only goes so far) and for having a good Batman and Wonder Woman. However, I can say no more without spoiling it, and there are a lot of reasons it's not higher up.
Atom Man vs Superman -- the follow-up to the original Superman serial. The two are basically tied for me, but if I had to I would give the edge to the first for being a little more focused. This one has a good Lex Luthor though, arguably the best.
Superman (1948 serial) -- not bad for being the first live-action version of the character. To the actor's credit, there's a clear difference between Superman and Clark Kent.
Swamp Thing -- low-budget Wes Craven movie that's sometimes silly and slow going, but is also a good character study with shades of Beauty and the Beast or other classic romances. The most confusing thing is the opening text which made me think Swamp Thing had already been created before the start of the movie. Instead, it's an origin story and takes a good 45 mintues to get there.
The Dark Knight -- Heath Ledger is great. That out of the way, this movie takes a hard turn halfway through where it stops making any sense. For that reason, I just can't enjoy it the way other people do. Up to the incomprehensible car chase scene, it's pretty good. Still one of the better comic book sequels ever made, but it gets too far up it's butt later on. All the things the final film get criticized for are here as well, the fanboys just don't like to see them.
The Dark Knight Rises -- doesn't have as charismatic a force as The Joker, but it does have one of the best onscreen realizations of Catwoman (yes, she's actually a burglar!). What I like about it is that it brings the trilogy full-circle. It doesn't all work, and it does leave a lot of questions lingering at the end, but it's at least Bruce Wayne's movie.
Constantine -- I liked this movie! I did not expect to, but I did. Some of it is dumb and doesn't really make any sense, but they sell it pretty well. It's better than it looks!
Batman (1966) -- I just dig this movie. It's broad and silly, but intentionally so. The key is that it plays itself completely straight. Batman and Robin take everything so deadly serious, even when discussing shark repellent bat spray or ball-point bananas. And underneath the silly facade, it's a clever idea to use all the main villains working together on one big scheme. And it's actually a pretty good one -- to destroy the United Nations. That Batman is only partially successful in saving things at the end and has to kind of hope for the best makes it even more interesting. It's a fun movie, it's a weird movie, and yet it knows exactly what it is doing.
Superman and the Mole-Men -- a B-movie in which Superman barely appears, but actually a very strong Superman story. What we think is going to be a battle against strange beings ends up being a small-town lesson in tolerance. This movie, basically the pilot for what became the Adventures of Superman series (it was aired in two parts at the end of season 1), is a better understanding of Superman than many other films have given us. Superman represents the better part of us, and directs us to be better than we are. He barely displays much power here, and never unnecessarily. Superman doesn't have to be super flashy to be effective. It's not even an hour long, but for all its brevity and very small budget, it has something important to say. To guys like David Goyer who don't get Superman or think he's relevant to today, this movie is an example of how to do him right in a way that could still be relevant.
Batman Returns -- Tim Burton's superweird follow-up is not enough of a Batman movie. It gave us the trend of Gotham being a land of freaks and every movie being a villain origin story. And yet, in its own twisted way it is much more effective than the later imitators, being a kind of bizarre fairy tale; the sort that only Tim Burton used to make. It's not all good, and some bits of it are just too weird that they border on silly (penguins with bombs strapped to them? penquin pallbearers giving Penguin to the sea?), but taken on its own terms it kind of works, and more than the Schumacher movies. If you're gonna go wacky, it takes an artist like Burton to say something with it. The effects work has improved this time around too.
A History of Violence -- Cronenberg's character study of a guy with a double life. Solid movie.
Superman II -- one of the best superhero sequels ever. As a kid, I liked it better than the first. Now I can see the flaws that arose in the contentious production of it. Both the Lester and Donner versions have their pros and cons. If I had to, I would probably give the edge to Donner just for the Brando stuff, but that version also has an ending that doesn't work. Ultimately whichever version you go with, the themes are the perfect progression for the story and the characters. The only logical sequel for Superman -- make it both bigger and smaller.
V For Vendetta -- This movie screams "Alan Moore" to me. It is masterfully constructed. I thoroughly disagree with its politics (even Alan Moore thinks it kind of missed the point, where the film seems to celebrate an extreme instead of how the book juxtoposes extremes), but this is a smartly crafted film.
RED -- I had no expectations for this movie, but I completely understand now why it got such good reviews. It's lots of fun!
Batman -- Tim Burton's Batman is one of the best looks at the character. It's not too dark, but not too campy. It's sort of an origin but not exactly. Michael Keaton remains my favorite Batman, partially because I think him the best Bruce Wayne. Every version of the Joker is very different, and Nicholson's totally works. The only thing that dates this movie is the Prince music and the fact that Wayne's security camera is an old JVC camcorder. But even the Prince stuff weirdly works as its mostly The Joker's music, and he's the Clown Prince of Crime.
Watchmen -- hugely ambitious and largely successful and hitting the themes of the graphic novel and not completely missing the point.
Batman Begins -- My favorite of the Nolan films. It has the best Gotham City (it looks like Gotham and not just Chicago), and there's actually an intricate plot for Batman the detective to piece together. Prequels rarely work, but this one is very thoughtful and gets all the themes of Batman, with the stuff about fear.
Road to Perdition -- a beautiful movie. Sam Mendes' follow-up to American Beauty features Tom Hanks as a mob guy on the run with his son. The cinematography alone makes it worth seeing, but the all-star cast helps a lot too.
Superman -- The Richard Donner film is still the height of DC Comics on film, resurrecting the genre and making it both light and grandiose. Despite a couple hiccups, the film as a whole just works. And of course Christopher Reeve has become the ultimate screen embodiment of the character. He makes you hope. He makes you believe. He makes you smile. That's Superman.
-TK
