5. Man of Steel/ Superman
Never has a superhero movie divided fan opinion since the release of Man of Steel last summer. The annihilation of Metropolis and the killing of Zod created a whirlwind of controversy which is still furiously debated about with many celebrities adding their two cents to the debacle. However, this is a personal list which obviously contains bias and this is my view on Superman's major on screen outings. Many say X-men paved the way for Superhero success at cinemas, however, without the release of Superman in the seventies, studios might never have seen the potential in caped crusaders. Christopher Reeve played an excellent mild mannered Clark Kent and a heroic hero in Superman but the film is, obviously, well... dated and quite drastically too. Man of Steel was a breath of superpowered air into the seventy five year old Superman. The film modernized the hero to a new generation with stunning special effects and a strong cast lead by the superb Henry Cavil. it's hard to fault the flying sequences and the superpowers in comparison to the original which with the help of modern movie making, done justice to Superman's abilities. The story may have been a little rough around the edges but it mainly stayed true to the Superman ethos with the necessary modifications made to fit the digital age. Man of Steel surpassed the Superman movie of 1978 and hopefully will be looked back in 30 years fondly like many still do with the classic Superman.
4. The Amazing Spiderman/ Spiderman
Another somewhat controversial choice in terms of fan opinion, over which film best portrayed the Spiderman story. Both films serve as origin stories to the wall crawler but are handled in different ways. The 2000 version follows Spiderman as he gains his powers to defeating the Green Goblin, whereas. the 2012 retelling sees Spiderman begin to unravel the mystery of his parents past and deal with the threat of the mutated Lizard. The two films both faced fan backlash on the design of the main villains, which I personally think the Lizard was an accurate look but Green Goblin was a bit too robotic. Contrastingly, both films dealt with different girlfriends of Peter Parker in Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacey. The Amazing Spiderman uses parkers first love interest Gwen Stacey which is more in keeping with the comics and Garfield and tone had a stronger on screen chemistry. Again, this is a matter of taste; I preferred Andrew Garfield's performance to Tobey Maquire as I felt Garfield captured both the serious yet light hearted side to Spiderman and also the awkwardness of Peter Parker. Whilst the technology involved didn't look too different I still favour The Amazing Spiderman as i believe it is more in line with the comics and I just personally prefer the story and the cast.
3. Captain America: The First Avenger/ Captain America
Does this really count? Do I really need to explain the superiority of the 2011 film? Well, the reason I included this on the list is before the MCU version, many movie fans would have seen only the 1991 movie and assumed that's how Captain America was a character. Although the 1991 film never received a theatrical release (because it was terrible) it did at the time gather interest. Comparing this to Captain America: The First Avenger is like comparing Catwoman to The Shawshank Redemption, completely illogical! So these two are here to highlight the power of Marvel Studios compared to the terrible superhero movies of the past.
2. The Incredible Hulk/Hulk
Ang Lee's CGI fest Hulk was released in 2003 and was a catastrophic mess. Lee feared at one point his career might have been over due to the films failure. Then along came The Incredible Hulk of 2008; which introduced the green goliath into the MCU. The film really served as a building block to the Marvel Cinematic Universe masterplan. The film began to connect the dots with Robert Downey Juniors' cameo but it did so with an action packed character study. Whilst Ang lee's brooding mess failed to capture the Hulk, the reboot successfully demonstrated the might of the creature and the sensitive Bruce Banner within the monster. Although Norton didn't return to the role, he played the Hulk with the correct intensity and anger. The Incredible Hulk serves as a much more true story to the Marvel Comics property and provides an outlet to show off the supporting characters of betty Ross and Thunderbolt Ross who are long overdue a return to the MCU.
1. The Dark Knight/ Every Other Batman Movie
After years of terrible Batman films the character was given the movie that he, the fans and really the entire world deserved in The Dark Knight. Batman Begins did trump all other outings but The Dark Knight hit a home run and a lot of this is due to Ledgers performance as The Joker. George Clooney basically destroyed Batman but this return to the top has made most of the memories of Clooneys portrayal vanish. The dark Knight is not only considered one of the best superhero films ever, but also one of the best movies ever made featuring in the top of IMDbs top 100 films. the film captures every sense of the character and the supporting characters including Alfred and Gordon. That is why The Dark Knight is the best superhero reboot in existence.
Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts in the comments below, maybe in years to come this list might be updated with The Fantastic Four reboot or Ben Aflecks outing but for now here is my list. Please hit the thumbs up to get this discussion going!