FEATURE: The Top 10 Best And Worst Comic Book Movies Of 2016 - Part 1
"I finally have them... the worst of the worst." It's that time of the year again, so after the jump you'll find what I consider to be the 5 worst films we covered here on ComicBookMovie.com in 2016...
Putting together a best/worst of list for comic book films can be a tricky business. First off, there aren't usually that many "pure" comic book-based releases each year, and so it's necessary to draft in some movies that were covered on the site (like Warcraft, Ghostbusters etc) but aren't really considered CBMs.
Even then, dividing them up into best and worst categories can be difficult because we're working from such a small pool of genre pictures. For instance, I actually enjoyed most of the movies on this "worst of" list to some degree, but simply didn't feel they deserved a "best of" place over any of the films on there. That said, there's no denying they all had some pretty big problems - so let's not feel too bad for 'em!
Anyway, let's get started. Have a read through, and whether you agree or disagree, let us know why and give us your own top 5 worst of lists in the comments section.
5. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
I'll be honest, this could just as easily have wound up at #5 on my best of list, but at the end of the day I decided X-Men: Apocalypse (spoiler alert) was more deserving of that spot. I enjoyed Zack Snyder's superhero smackdown quite a bit, but it definitely had some major issues.
A lot of people complained about the darker tone and the more violent, gloomy interpretations of The Man of Steel and The Dark Knight - but that stuff didn't really bother me as much as where the film fell short on a technical level. Some scenes - particularly around the middle - felt jumbled together and out of place, and really hindered the flow of the story. Plus, Henry Cavill wasn't given nearly enough to do as Clark Kent/Superman, and let's just say Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor was... divisive.
An extended cut of Batman V Superman did fix a few of the problems, but there's really no excuse for not doing a better job with with the theatrical release.
4. Suicide Squad
Speaking of Enchantress, she's bloody awful. While most of the other characters actually make this movie watchable, this gyrating joke and her CG lummox of a brother make every scene they appear in outright laughable.
There is also an extended edition of Suicide Squad, but it doesn't actually improve on the theatrical version in any significant way... unless you were left wanting more of Jared Leto's Joker? Anyone?
3. Warcraft
We all hoped that Duncan Jones' adaptation of the mega-popular Blizzard Entertainment series would finally break the video game movie curse, but alas, all it broke were the hearts of Warcraft fans everywhere. Okay, that's an exaggeration - the movie wasn't even really bad, it just wasn't nearly as good as it needed to be.
The main criticism seems to be that the human characters simply weren't half as compelling as The Orcs, which is a big problem when we're supposed to be rooting for them. Some of that can be attributed to the writing, but the likes of Dominic Cooper, Travis Fimmel and the usually dependable Ben Foster don't exactly light up the screen. The tone is also an issue. Jones attempts to combine high fantasy silliness with a more grounded take on the material, and though some individual moments do work, as a whole it just doesn't gel together.
Still, there is potential there, so hopefully we get that sequel some day.
2. Ghostbusters
There's no getting around it: Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot was better received than it really had any right to be upon its release, probably due to all of the backlash that was aimed at it from various different factions all throughout its production/promotion. It was obvioulsy tempting to heap praise on a movie that had been run into the ground by sexist morons (not that they were the only detractors) for so long, but at the end of the day the movie was only marginally better than many assumed it would be.
The cast - who were, or course, the target for most of the whining - actually turned out to be the film's saving grace, with McCarthy, Wiig, Jones and McKinnon all giving likeable, sporadically amusing performances. It's just a shame they were saddled with such lousy material to work with.
Ultimately, Ghostbusters didn't fail because it was a retread of such a beloved classic, or because it had an all-female team - it failed because it simply wasn't a very good movie.
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows
Fans were optimistic when it was revealed that classic animated series characters Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang were going to be introduced, and while the Shredder's bumbling mutant henchmen do provide a few chuckles, the alien brain from Dimension X is embarrassingly bad. As is Stephen Amell's Casey Jones, who is altered from the grungy, mentally unbalanced vigilante from the comics, to a.... clean-cut cop who happens to own a hockey mask.
Nobody expects a movie like this to be much more than brainless entertainment, but TMNT 2 revels in the first part and forgets about the second altogether.
That's it for the worst, tune in next week for the best! In the meantime please share your own lists below.