EDITORIAL: The 13 Worst Superhero Films

EDITORIAL: The 13 Worst Superhero Films

In honor of the upcoming Halloween season, I’ve written an article about the one thing that truly frightens nerds to our very core: terrible Superhero movies! In a genre that requires massive and constant suspension of disbelief, these films have gone above and beyond the call of disappointment. Abandon all hope ye who read onward.

Editorial Opinion
By Grievo - Sep 13, 2012 01:09 PM EST
Filed Under: Comics
Source: the Sophisticated Gentleman's Guide to America

13. Green Lantern.




This film just narrowly made the list by the way it squandered so much of its perceived potential.  The Oa stuff is great (all 3 minutes of it)!  Everything else?  Pretty much unbearable.  Ryan Reynolds tries his hardest, along with Mark Strong as Sinestro, but literally everyone else, aside from the Oa designers and effects gurus, could not be forced to give one shiny crap about this movie.  Blake Lively drags this into the realm of utter misery, making it the first time I couldn’t understand the plot of a film because the actress was constantly and randomly conveying absolute nothingness, making all of the stakes seem completely inconsequential.

12. the Spirit



“the Spirit” is incoherent, yet beautiful, like a dream.  Rented it twice by accident, still can’t remember any of it.  Even Eva Mendes’ bare butt couldn’t save this vague abortion.  Frank Miller needs to sober up.

11. Masters of the Universe



Pitch: Let’s take He-Man out of Eternia and put him in the 80’s with a synthesizer subplot that is absolutely useless!  After the pretty-cool first 15 minutes, this rapidly descends into a dated, two hour face palming session.  I will give credit where its due to Billy Barty for his awesome fried chicken eating / stealing.

10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3



Steve Barron’s return to his greatest film got some hopes up, but this effort was ultimately heartless.  Aside from the “Corey Feldman/ Donatello is a pedophile” subplot, the Turtles look the worst they ever have, inexplicably.  Casey Jones, who was so awesome in the first film, essentially gets a glorified cameo this time around, babysitting wacky, ancient, Japanese Samurais, present day.  I understand that “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” was awesome, but that doesn’t mean that EVERY film should be “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

9. Captain America (1990)



2 words: rubber ears.  Captain America (“Revenge of the Nerds” jock extra, Matt Salinger) manages to be a superhero for approximately 5 minutes before getting strapped to a rocket and launched into some icy water, freezing him until 1990, where he becomes just barely a fish out of water but still seems plenty damn comfortable.  Cap’s  great strategic mind is only shown when he repeatedly fakes like he’s gonna vomit, then runs away from the enemny, multiple times, throughout the entire film.  Red Skull has a face for 98% of the movie, and is Italian.  Pre-Captain America, Steve Rogers is still a huge, muscular, dude, but his clothes are baggy (special fx!).  This film and the shame caused by his offspring are obviously the reasons J.D. Salinger fell off the face of the Earth.

8. Steel



“Steel”: where for some random reason, Shaq builds rubber armor and hits drug dealers with a hammer.  For the record, let me just state that evil Judd Nelson ONLY works in the Breakfast Club.  Oh yeah, and Shaq can’t act, and somehow doesn’t quite come across as a super-genius (I know, I know, hard to process when he played such a convincing rapping Genie is Kazam).  But he really likes Superman (but only in real life)!

7. Batman and Robin (1997)



Amazingly, remarkably bad, as if it intentionally so.  The dialogue is somehow all one liners and childish puns. I have heard rumors that the script was in fact a coloring book.  Batman and Robin carry lasers, rubber lips, and ice skates in their boots.  The sometimes amazing Uma Thurman gives us her absolute worst.  Batman is the friendliest, nicest father figure on Earth.  PS: Michael Goughes’ Alfred death faces are hilarious.    Also: Evil Hockey Players.  Really?  Really?!  Okay, okay, I'll chill out (GET IT?!).

6. the Last Airbender



You can tell the plot to this did not express itself easily because most of the film’s dialogue is narration.  While the cartoon series, “Avatar: the Last Airbender” is arguably the greatest American animated serial of all time, this film failed to capture ANY of what made the show so profound.  The plot involves a bald white kid, who for some unexplained reason is stuck in a block of ice, but then for some reason two pilled out white kids break him free and are like, "Whatever."  Most intelligent viewers swiftly left the theater when, about a third of the way in, our protagonist Aang shows up to an enslaved village of EarthBenders and says, “Remember you are Earth Benders!”  to which they all instantly remember this fact and immediately take back their town via rock levitation.  Kudos to M. Knight Shyalaman for inventing the term “Race Bending” in regards to the whitening of the cast, and Indian-ing of the villainous Fire Empire.  The studio obviously gave up on this about midway through as there are literally scenes of Aang practicing his bending, with NO SPECIAL EFFECTS UTILIZED.  Meaning the actor is pretending to telepathically control the elements, and the elements are sitting there doing NOTHING.  Also, mad props for a climax where our hero refuses to fight and the bad guys just give up and leave because they see a big wave (in the TV series, Aang power zords into a huge water monster and kills an entire army).  Arguably the worst fantasy film ever.

5. Alyas Batman y Robin



75% Philipino.  25 % English.  100% Unintelligible.  Bat Boners.  Bat Beach Boys song and dance numbers every 10 minutes.  Midget Spider-Man.  Am I forgetting anything?  Ah yes, Bat Coffee.  

4. Hero at Large



John Ritter stars in this prequel to Kick Ass.  Nuff said'.

3. Superman 4: the Quest for Peace



A homo-erotic He-Man Villain with the voice of Gene Hackman!  Long, monotonous Superman monologues discussing Nuclear Proliferation!  Ducky!  Massive love interest confusion also ensues as Margot Kidder is too wacked out of her mind on drugs or insanity to be considered desirable to any non-Norman Bates types (but is still contractually bound to appear in this series), thus giving us a random, vapid hot blonde for Supes to fly around with (Mariel Hemingway, who can inexplicably breath in space).  I can’t even imagine what this film would have turned into if they had used the footage they’d shot of a mentally disabled, New-Wave Bizarro.  Obviously the reason Ernest Hemingway killed himself.  PS: Superman confirms rapist status this time around with blatant overuse of the “Super Kiss.”  Shame on you, Superman.  Shame on you.

2. Son of the Mask



“Son of the Mask” takes everything from its dumb yet entertaining precursor and dumbs it down to a level I’m assuming is meant for babies or people who are overall distracted/ can’t understand English.  What stands out as the worst part of this awful film is Jaime Kennedy’s musical performance of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”  It boggles the mind that a producer recorded this, put as much effort into salvaging Kennedy’s off key performance as possible, fails, and yet still inserts the song into the film, completely devoid of charm, humor or talent.  But what of the sometimes great Alan Cumming as Loki?  Before this film I had no idea that Cumming was an obvious cocaine addict spiraling out of control and into dementia.  This film will makes you go back and hate Nightcrawler in X2.  This sequel also does away with the major plot point of its prequel that the mask only works at night, so, for die hard “Mask” fans, no, this film is not meant for you either.  The make up effects people were not briefed on which "Mask" sequel they were working on, and eventually settled on a green version of Rocky Dennis' face for Kennedy.  There's not even any bad catchphrases this time around (Smoookin'!).

1. Catwoman



This is the eye of Madusa of all Superhero flicks; watch, and you will surely lose a piece of your soul if you watch the whole thing.  Halle Berry seductively licks a tuna can, and that is somehow the best part.  Mind blowingly, life alteringly non-sensicle, poorly acted, horribly edited, non-plotted, with the worst Superhero costume in the history of cinema. Absolute, silver screen, vomit.  This is how Berry want from winning the Oscar, to starring in WWE films with David Otunga.  Pardon me, I have to go gouge out my eyeballs for remembering this film exists.  On a scale of 1 to 10, the film is the least amount of fun since those fish that swim up your urethra and hulk out.



0. Spook



Seeing this 10 minute Superhero flick is believing.


Dishonorable Mentions: Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, X-Men Origins Wolverine, Hulk.
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marvel72
marvel72 - 9/13/2012, 1:30 PM
i agree with some of them,i think the worse are the following.

-batman forever
-batman & robin
-superman 3
-superman 4
-supergirl
-steel
-the spirit
-howard the duck
-captain america
-crow city of angels
-crow salvation
-crow wicked prayer
-catwoman
-ghost rider
-ghost rider 2
-fantastic four
-green lantern
-x-men origins wolverine
-alien vs predator 2
-the punisher(89)
-hulk
-jonah hex
Sabconth
Sabconth - 9/13/2012, 1:37 PM
The Last Airbender still burns, no way Shyamalan gets forgiven for doing that to what could have been a great film series.

SomTingWong
SomTingWong - 9/13/2012, 2:12 PM
marvel knows how to make good movies
lokibane2012
lokibane2012 - 9/13/2012, 2:12 PM
Airbender was doomed to fail the moment Shyamalan signed on. Shyamalan does dark, brooding, atmospheric films. Airbender was a fun, adventure, action-packed series.

complete style mismatch.
jessepostal
jessepostal - 9/13/2012, 2:36 PM
Masters of the universe wasn't that bad, loved it as a kid, and can still watch it. Tmnt 3 def gave me chest pains as a kid,very heartbreaking.
LP4
LP4 - 9/13/2012, 2:38 PM
I don't understand why people keep slamming other films that were just so-so. Yet they seem to give a "free pass" for Bryan Singer's shit-turd "Superman Returns"

That movie was the biggest, smelliest pile of dog-doo ever. It was boring, emo, stalkerish and pathetic. It wasn't even a reboot and even failed at being a remake. It failed at revitalizing the Superman franchise and nearly re-destroyed the franchise.

Superman Returns deserves a rightful place here in this list
calin88
calin88 - 9/13/2012, 2:38 PM
Green Lantern is not as bad as the rest
LP4
LP4 - 9/13/2012, 2:39 PM
Last Airbender sucked, it was like they jam-packed the entire show into one movie and it felt weak but i still enjoyed that more than "Stalkerman Returns" give me a break people. Even the lame gumby Green Lantern movie was better. At least these movies kept me awake and my eyes open.

MrReese
MrReese - 9/13/2012, 3:07 PM
as always I agree with @LP4 Routh sucked donkey dick!!!!! XD
Grievo
Grievo - 9/13/2012, 3:10 PM
I agree that Superman Returns was boring as hell, and Lois was THE most miscast actress ever, but its plot is still coherent, its excellently shot, edited & scored, and Routh & Spacey did admirably with the bland parts they were given, thus not quite making this list. I totally forgot to put on Blade 3 though, what a shitfest.
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 9/13/2012, 3:13 PM
the Last Airbender was bad, but no worse than Jonah Hex, the Spirit, or Spirit of Vengeance. If you knew absolutely NOTHING about the characters and the show, or the production, you could still have some fun watching it, and that was me.

Of course, afterwards, when I caught the whole show on Netflix, I was like "wow, they hammered out all of the show's playfulness".
Grievo
Grievo - 9/13/2012, 3:27 PM
fair enough; I would also like to note that Dolph Lundgren's Punisher was awesome, but mostly because he wasn't a whiny little b!tch like Thomas Jane in Punisher: Florida Vacation! Warzone was definitively the best though, with the greatest last line in cinema history, "Great, now I've got brains all over me."
Grievo
Grievo - 9/13/2012, 4:34 PM
I put both Ghost Riders as honorable mentions at the bottom of the list, as they are completely unforgivably awful, but Cage's over the top, seemingly intentionally horrible performances make them somewhat almost bearable. XMO: Wolverine is also at the bottom, along with Ang Lee's Hullk. These are all awful, just not awful enough to make the top 13. And Iron Man 2 was a bit of a letdown, but still pretty enjoyable (robot fight scene to "Another One Bites the Dust," nuff said').
Facade
Facade - 9/13/2012, 6:00 PM
Superman Returns
lokibane2012
lokibane2012 - 9/13/2012, 6:24 PM
Damn, Iron Man 2's gotten a bit notorious over time hasn't it? I remember when it first came out the reaction was more "enjoyable but not as good as Iron Man 1". Now everyone just shits all over the film.

It was certainly not as bad as Superman Returns and Ang Lee's Hulk.
Supes17
Supes17 - 9/13/2012, 7:53 PM
M Night buttraped Avatar. I almost wept of the attrocity at the movie theater
ThunderKat
ThunderKat - 9/13/2012, 10:40 PM
Hero at Large

You shouldn't include this movie as it has no source material of a comic book or cartoon nature.
That said, it was a good and charming movie. It is a truly romantic movie with a man trying to impress his neighbor while his own morality overrides self aggrandizing and makes him a hero. It is one of the most realistic portrayals of a man putting on a costume to "do good."

CPBuff22
CPBuff22 - 9/14/2012, 4:49 AM
TDKR should have made that list as well.
Grievo
Grievo - 9/14/2012, 7:10 AM
^ yep
Grievo
Grievo - 9/14/2012, 9:53 AM
I am absolutely shocked to my very core that someone defended Hero at Large. John Ritter fighting crime = not realistic.
Bizo
Bizo - 9/14/2012, 2:42 PM
THIS LIST IS BULLSHIRT! ALL OF THESE MOVIES WERE BETTER THAN THE NOLAN BUTTMANS! CATWOMAN WAS GOOD JUST NOBODY SAW IT CUZ NERDS ARE RACIST AND SEXIST.
John5
John5 - 9/15/2012, 4:49 PM
Agreed, Catwoman was VERY underrated. Mreow!
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