1. Thor: The Dark World
Box Office: 600 Million
IMDB rating: 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 65% 6.2/10
Audience: 83% 4/5
The good: Kurse, Frigga, Loki
The fight scene between Thor and Kurse was the best of the year. Frigga was awesome and her death was actually pretty well done. Loki as usual was amazing. The film was very well done and in my opinion the third best Marvel Studios film.
The argued: Malekith.
People really hated on the villain from the film. It got a Man of Steel feel, the second guy was better than the main villain. He may have been weak as a villain, but he had some ruthless moments and was decent in my opinion. He isn’t a great villain in the comics and I didn’t expect that to change. Also I loved his language.
The bad: Comedy
They took the Comedy a tad too far in this one. I for one do not hate the amount of comedy in Iron Man 3, but this one was just a little to much. But again I still feel this one tops as my favorite comic book film of the year. 8/10
2. The Wolverine
Box Office: 400 Million
IMDB rating: 6.8
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 69% 6.3/10
Audience: 71% 3.7/5
The good: The Drama
First off I am judging the PG-13 film, I did not see the R rated directors cut but may soon. The film did a great job with making a emotional and touching movie. They finally had a comic book movie that wasn’t about saving the world. There were almost no super powers in it, and I enjoyed that part. Hugh was amazing in it of course and it was well done.
The argued: Another Wolverine movie???
Of course everyone on this site is getting sick of the Wolverine by now. He has been thrown into the front of the fox universe more the Iron Man is at Marvel Studios, or even Batman has been for DC. Spiderman might be taking a back seat in his universe more than Logan is. Granted this does not hurt the film itself, but I think we could use some other characters getting love.
The bad: The Ending
It ended just kind of boring. The silver samurai was kind of boring, but the film still was well done. It just could have had a finer finish. To end I say 7.5/10
3. Man of Steel
Box Office: 650 Million
IMDB Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 55% 6.2/10
Audience: 77% 3.9/5
The good: The action, the villains
We all know the 55% from RT was a joke. Behind superman returns even. Which is why I enjoy IMDB’s ratings more as I feel they capture a better rating but anyway. I know people are raging that I didn’t put this at number one. But don’t get me wrong. I loved this film. Again the action was great, they did a good job capturing superman’s flying abilities. The CGI was a tad off at times, but again that is nitpicking. The action was intense and powerful. Zod was the best main villain this year. He was ruthless and well done I felt. It was good having a one dimensional character that simply wanted his race to survive. The whole mars joke is just that. A joke, he wanted to colonize earth. End of story. Faora was amazing as well for a second villain. Not as good as Loki or Kurse, but those are two hard villains to stand up against.
The argued: To much action. The neck snap
Everyone is saying there is too much action. I don’t think there was to much action, just to much one dimensional action. Let’s be honest, superman doesn’t have a ton of cool gadgets like Batman or Iron Man, and his powers aren’t as crazy as Thor or Green Lantern. He can hit hard and occasionally use laser eyes. So I feel that is why it got hate, because his action can get a little redundant. I felt there was maybe 10 minutes to long of fight scenes. But come on people it was epic! Superman kills. End of story.
The Bad: Flashbacks, Lois
I hate to bash on it. But the flash backs weren’t that great. Pa Kent’s death was poorly done. I mean superman could have saved him without the only explanation being “Aliens”. Just didn’t like how close it was to batman begins either. Lois was a tad annoying the “Comparing dicks” comment was cringe worthy. How she found Clark was forced. Like Cinema sins said. “Oh yeah everyone knows the cold guy who didn’t talk” Just don’t think she could have found him. Secondly with her, why did they take her captive and then leave her in an area where she could access Jor and escape? Why was she working with the military at the end to destroy the ship? How did she get to the bank were the family was. I can go on but to nitpick is ridiculous. Again the film was great! I give it a 7/10.
4. Iron Man 3
Box Office: 1.2 Billion
IMDB Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 78% 6.9/10
Audience: 80% 4/5
The good: Iron Legion, Tony Stark
Again I must stress, even though this is last, 2-4 are very close. I still loved the film. Just not as much as the other 3. The Iron Legion was amazing point blank. When they flew in it was probably the coolest 10 seconds of a comic book movie this year. It shows how boss mode his suits are. Mark 42 was bad but it was a prototype which is why it sucked so bad. Sadly that’s the one he was stuck with... Seeing tony stark infiltrate the “Mandarins” lair was cool. It just shoed he is something without the machines. That’s what I liked, people always say “Iron man would suck without his suits” well showed he’s not totally useless.
The argued: Mandarin, Comedy
The comedy in this film was not that bad in my opinion. Not Thor bad. After buying and watching the film again, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. 50% of the “Comedy” Is just the way stark is. He just talks like a jerk, acts like a jerk, and it makes it funny. Granted there was some comedy that took it a tad far, but I still thought it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The Mandarin. I will say I was ticked first seeing it. I wanted the old Mandarin. But then the second time, and with some research I came to lighten up. Killian is the Mandarin ok. Now we have that settled, the newest versions of the Mandarin aren’t to far off from this one. Successful business man etc. Is it the exact same? No but I feel it was good enough to get by I suppose. Plus I must say I was very surprised.
The bad: Plot holes
Where was SHIELD? Why didn’t he call his suits right away? All valid questions everyone asked. Now there are arguments. SHIELD doesn’t care about terrorists… Shield lets Iron Man hold his own. His protocol wasn’t set up yet. Obviously after the initial attack from the choppers he couldn’t have called his suits since Jarvis was offline. But still a little explanation would have been enjoyed. Rhody and Stark were talking on the boat, perhaps he could have told him why shield wouldn’t help. So until these are explained I think everyone can agree they are horrible plot holes. Hopefully they will be explained and we can see some better closure to the situation. Also with Ben Kingsly still doing something, there are small chances of seeing the this film expanded and finished well. Still loved it, 6.8/10.
Thank you all for the read, hope you enjoyed seeing me at least attempt to judge these with an open mind. If you must know Marvel Studios in my opinion has the greatest universe right now, and to me I have always wanted the shared universe so that’s why I really enjoy them. Man of Steel has opened the doorway for DC to create a great universe hopefully the capitalize on it with their next film. Fox in my opinion is a mess, but their films individually have been good except Origins and X3 of course. So there you have it, hopefully next year we see a better push from the comic book movies and really open the door for more great characters. I hope all of you take a different look on these films (Especially Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel) and enjoy what they did well and not focus too much on what was bad. It’s the golden age of comic books, lets enjoy it before it’s gone.