Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Ten Best Superhero Movies of All Time RELAY

Brittani, over at the brilliant Rambling Film, has (likely inadvertently) passed me the baton in yet another ass-kicking relay. There have been a few relays going around before, The Top Ten Film Icons, the Top Ten Influential Directors, not too mention a whole slew of others I wasn't included in. Today, I trade in my wrinkled khakis and dry-erase markers for neon spandex and computer that only I can turn on.

I present to you the 10 Best Superhero Movies of All Time Relay, courtesy of my own personal hero, Bubbawheat, of Flights, Tights and Movie Nights.


Here are the rules, as stolen from Brittani:

1. The list of movies will be passed to another blogger who will post their list within a week.

2. The blogger will take their list, remove 3 movies – with explanations, and replace with 3 new movies – with explanations.

3. If a movie lasts five rounds without being removed, it becomes locked in; it is permanent and can no longer be removed from the list.

4. If a movie is removed three different times, it is locked out and can no longer be put back onto the list by someone else.

5. Once four movies are locked into place, bloggers will replace 2 movies.

6. Once eight movies are locked into place, bloggers will replace 1 movie.

7. Once all ten movies are locked into place, the relay will be complete.

Got all that? Me neither. No, actually it makes perfect sense, but I fully lost track of who did what, when and how many times (Bubbawheat has an awesome word-free version of it all, actually). That said, here is my entry:

Locked in (and not going anywhere):


There's nothing I can add about any of these films that hasn't already said by someone significantly smarter, but I will tell you this: I saw each of these films in theatrically. Right? I'm pretty cool like that. Now, who wants to touch me? I said...who wants to f--king touch me?

Here are the five that I can play with. Three can stay, two must be replaced. Let's take a look...


Staying: 
  • Blade 2 stays without a doubt. Easily the best movie of this tier and one of my all-time favorites.
  • X2 improved upon the first one, which at the time, wasn't an easy feat. It's still my favorite X-flick.
  • Superman II stays by default, as I have no recollection of this one. I haven't seen Super, and Cap 2 is too new, so they get bounced on a technicality. 
Sorry, Brittani. You invited me to this party, and by removing one of your picks, I just clogged the toilet. Dick-move, I know.

Now, I get to add my two to the mix, and I'm going to take the term 'comic book' (and subsequently, superhero) as loosely as possible in order to so. My additions...


  • Oldboy is one of my favorite movies of...ever. Based on a Japanese manga, this film destroyed me by how savagely beautiful it was. I've seen it a few times since, but that first time? I was speechless. I don't think many movies have to be experienced, but this gets my vote. Oh Dae-su is incredible.
  • The Crow may not be as good as I remember it being, but I was 15 in 1994 and this was the movie. It was very atmospheric and just so f--king cool at the time, I couldn't handle it. Oh, and if you didn't own the soundtrack, I'm pretty sure you would be uniformly ostracized, if not immediately beaten to death with a skateboard. Brandon Lee was perfect as the revenge-seeking anti-hero.
There you have it. These two might not exactly be 'superheroes' but I'm standing by them regardless. Thanks again to Brittani for passing me the baton. I'm going to swing it over to the jaw-dropping awesomeness of Sati at cinematic corner.

Don't look for Kick-Ass on her list.

15 comments:

  1. Wow. Definitely stretching the term superhero to include Oldboy. However, since it's one of my favorite movies ever I'm not mad at ya. Also love the pick of The Crow. I toyed with the idea of including that one, myself. I just watched it recently and it is still very cool. Nice work.

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    1. C'mon, Dell. Crazy origin story? Check.Feels like an outsider in normal society? Check. Impossibly sinister villain? Check. Possesses a magical weapon? Yep. He's totally a superhero. Hell, he's definitely more of an ass-kicker than say, The Rocketeer. I never saw that guy cut his own tongue off.

      My bullshit aside, glad you dug the picks. The Crow probably doesn't deserve a top 10 spot, but as a kid I loved that movie. Had to put it out there, even if it's going to get yanked asap.

      Delete
  2. Very original picks and thank God it's not Kick Ass among them.

    Oh God the rules for this thing could not be more complicated. I'm assuming most time spent on this will be checking if something is locked out or in, but the list is missing something big so I accept the challenge.

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    1. I try to have things as clear as possible on the main page for this which I will update with these picks tonight or tomorrow. Currently the only locked out movie is Cap 2, and the locked in are the same 7 as here. If you have any questions, just let me know!

      Delete
    2. Sati - your anti-KickAss stance always amuses me. I love it. Good luck with your entry. I'm sensing Thor might make an appearance, no? I personally might have put Thor 2 on the list...had I remembered it.

      Bubbawheat - Honestly, I was totally confused when I started (I took notes, too!), but once I saw the layout on your site it was easy-peasy. Awesome work, by the way.

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    3. So I get to replace 2 movies, yes? I looked at the chart but I felt like the opposite of Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind :)

      Shit, you reminded me of Thor! That wasn't the one I had in mind but now I'm all set with 2 :)

      Delete
  3. It's okay, I knew you were going to remove Super because you hadn't seen it. But at least it was in there for a few days. lol

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    1. Yeah, sorry about that. Maybe I'll watch it soon, and then feel like a bigger a-hole.

      That should be fun.

      Delete
  4. Aww, I just realised... you could've been my teenage dad. Aww. :(

    I will watch Oldboy in your honor, though.

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    1. I'm so very old, Elina. So very, very old.

      And I would have been all for being someone's teenage dad, but, yeah...no such luck.

      Tell me you meant 'watch Oldboy again', right? I mean....you have seen it, like, ten times, no?

      Ha. Good one. You almost had me.

      Delete
  5. Very brave choices, I wasn't completely thrown by Oldboy the first time I saw it, but that was a while back and I had seen a lot of Asian cinema at that point. Maybe I'll take to it better if I revisit it again sometime soon. The Crow is one of my all time favorites and I'm pretty sure is in my personal top ten superhero movies, very nice choice there. And I'm curious how long Oldboy will last, it's a great movie, but it depends on how you define "superhero". Thanks for joining in!

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    1. Thanks for having me. This is/was an awesome idea.

      I'm pretty sure Oldboy is going to be out real fast, as that dude isn't all that super (but he's a tough hombre, to say the least) but I'm cool with that. Maybe The Crow will have legs.Can't argue with your top 7 so far though...all solid choices.

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  6. Great list! As usual “superman” is one of my best superhero movies among this list. You know one thing, my son of only four years old, is also a great fan of this movie. He is ready to do everything just for watching this movie.

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    1. Sweet. Superman isn't really my guy, but I have no problem with anyone who digs Supes. I also support anyone who has a four year old and still finds time to use a computer. So, yeah.

      I'm with you.

      Delete
  7. There are many people trying to learning a new language from movies. I would say that certain movies gave us more slang / catch phrases than anything else in recent memory.

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