Mike's Favorite NON-MCU Comic Book Movies!

A little while back, I ranked all the MCU movies in order from my least-favorite to favorite. But what about all the OTHER comic book movies out there? No, I’m not going to rank them ALL, but what I am going to do is count down my top ten favorite NON-MCU comic book movies!

As long as it was initially theatrically-released in the country that I live in, and originally based on a comic (an English language comic, I’m disqualifying manga because that could be a whole other list), it counts for this list. I've also disqualified any direct-to-video comic book movies, even if they had a theatrical release.

Before I begin, of course, we have to start with some honorable mentions! Movies that were considered for this list, but ultimately did not make it into the top ten!

-HONORABLE MENTIONS-

 Superman II
(1980)



I went back and forth between this one and the first Superman, and even briefly considered giving them both a single entry since their productions were linked. However, I decided I enjoy re-watching Superman II more than the first, so it gets a solo mention. I actually don’t have a lot of nostalgic love for this movie, as I only saw it and its predecessor as a teenager on home video, but I do have a lot of respect for them. The first and second Superman films are basically the prototypes for the modern superhero movie and superhero movie sequel. Sure, they’re a bit cheesy in places by today’s standards, but there’s also a lot of clear affection for and faithfulness to the source material.

I think Superman II is faster-paced and more exciting than the first one, with memorable performances from its cast- especially Christopher Reeve and Terrance Stamp, and a lot of crowd-pleasing moments. It’s undoubtedly my favorite Superman movie… or movie just featuring Superman in its cast.


Spider-Man 2
(2004)



While I don’t much care for the three leads of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy (Mcguire, Dunst, and Franco) and how their characters were portrayed, this movie still manages to be my favorite live-action Spider-Man film, if only by a slight margin. Most of that is down to the supporting cast and the villain, as Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock is charming, compelling, menacing, and a seamless blend of actor and CGI. Also, J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson is one of the best portrayals of a comic book character on-screen ever and he’s at his very best here. This movie does its best to basically do a version of Superman II with Spider-Man and mostly succeeds.

There is a scene I absolutely hate in it, which is the part where a powerless Peter Parker walks away from a mugging-in-progress. Forget being Spider-Man; a normal HUMAN BEING shouldn’t be able to do that and sleep at night, but I guess it fits with my theory that Tobey Mcguire is part robot. Still, he does lend warmth and depth to Peter Parker’s struggle between super-heroic responsibility and wanting to live a normal life. There’s some great cinematography in here from Raimi, and it’s a generally good movie… even if I don’t think anyone’s gotten Spider-Man completely right yet in live-action.


Batman Begins
(2005)



The first Batman movie I drove and paid for myself to see in theaters, Begins is a solid piece of work that I enjoy revisiting from time-to-time. I’ve always enjoyed the dialogue in this film, even if Christopher Nolan’s quick and obscuring cinematographic choices and unbalanced sound design sometimes baffle me. My knowledge as a comic fan actively worked against me for this movie, as I can admit to not seeing the Ra’s (“Raysh”, Nolan, not “Raz”) Al Ghul twist coming the first time around. What? When Ken Watanabe died, I just immediately thought “well, he’s got a Lazarus Pit, so he’ll be back.”

Both Liam Neeson’s Ra’s and Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow are great villains, the score is great, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman are great, Katie Holmes is… acceptable, and Christian Bale has a good balance between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Me and my friends and the entire Internet do like to make fun of Christian Bale’s Bat-voice, but it’s relatively tame here in comparison to the sequels to Begins. Yes, Begins is a good movie… it’s just too bad that there are three Batman movies I like better than it, and there just isn’t room for four Batman movies in the top ten.


Wonder Woman
(2017)



There was a lot riding on this movie prior to release- the future of DC in film, the viability of female-led superhero movies, and just plain doing justice to the character. Thankfully, I think Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, and DC succeeded with this film… although perhaps not to the extent its more rabid fans like to proclaim. This movie has one of the best superhero action sequences ever filmed (Diana crossing No Man’s Land and liberating the village, of course) and then… nothing else that follows in this movie tops that.

The ending was clearly rewritten and re-shot for a tad more intrigue and drama, and the main villains are all kind of uninspired and off-the-shelf. That said, Gal Gadot absolutely shines as Diana, radiating decency, compassion, and courage (even if her natural accent needed a smidge more polish for English audiences), and Chris Pine is perfect as Steve Trevor. If I didn’t have a tendency to tune out after the village sequence, this might have even made it into the top ten… but alas, it didn’t stick the landing.

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And now... the list.
 
10. Dredd
(2012)

 
I feel a little disingenuous putting this on the list, because I am otherwise 100% unfamiliar with Judge Dredd in all forms. I know I saw most of the Stallone Dredd on TV long ago, but it didn’t really leave a mark on me one way or another. I’ve never read any of the comics, and this movie was first thing with the Dredd name on it that I ever put money down for. All that said… this movie rules. It feels to me like an eighties action movie, but shot in 2012. The premise is easy to understand, the rules are clear, and the violence is oh-so gloriously excessive.

Karl Urban usually elevates anything he’s in and I’ve read that he was a big fan of the Dredd comics, so the love and faithfulness that went into this project certainly shows on-screen. I kind of wish the same attitude and energy went into making a new Punisher movie, actually. It’s just too bad that this franchise didn’t take off again with the general audience and it’ll just have to remain a cult hit. However, if you wanna see Cersei get her comeuppance before Game of Thrones concludes on TV this year, check Dredd out. It won’t disappoint you.


9. Watchmen 
(2009)



This is what was once known as the “unfilmable” comic book movie. Not just because of its content, but also because Alan Moore claims its story is not meant to be told anywhere other than within the confines of a comic book. There’s an argument to be made for his point of view, but I think “Watchmen through the lens of Zack Snyder” is a good description of this movie. That’s not to say it isn’t faithful, on the contrary… you could also make the argument that this is one of the MOST faithful adaptations of a comic book on the big screen ever. There are some changes and trimming done to make it more accessible for a general audience, but I think the sheer volume of material and the mythology presented in the comic is mostly preserved in this adaptation. There’s a denseness to this movie (in a good way) that makes it feel like you’ve gotten a full experience when it ends.

Some of the plot nuances and character subtleties from the comic are lost (particularly in regards to Ozymandias) and some things are “Hollywood-ed”-up (like the fight scenes and Nite Owl being “out of shape”) but I think Snyder largely preserved the original's tone and themes. Even if there was still some comic book “shame” involved (where’s my giant alien squid, dammit?), I felt like I wasn’t let down after seeing it for the first time. Snyder’s a highly-visual and dynamic filmmaker when he’s given the right material, and he was certainly a better fit for Watchmen then he was for Superman. One last thing… AMAZING opening credits sequence.


8. Aquaman
(2018)



A latecomer but well-deserved in my opinion, after re-watching it on Bluray a few times. Aquaman isn’t the most original, or faithful, or even well-acted comic book movie out there, but it’d be on a shortlist for both “funnest” and most visually-stunning. This isn’t a movie to make you think, but to make you feel, and it succeeds wholeheartedly in that regard. In fact, I’d say this is almost like if Michael Bay had made an Aquaman movie, but possessing more class, restraint, heart, and basic film-making principles than he’s usually capable of. There’s even a pee joke in there, but thankfully James Wan doesn’t have Aquaman actually pee on anyone. When I saw this in theaters, the audience erupted in spontaneous cheers when Arthur comes out of the waterfall in his classic (some would say “lame”) orange and green costume. Can you imagine telling someone that would happen ten, even five years ago? What an age for comic book movies we live in!

Jason Momoa can coast on his own charisma if he wanted, but he manages to make “Aquabro” deeper than that. Like I said, the cast aren’t all the greatest actors in the world, but they are all pretty memorable and stand-out regardless. This movie has Julie Andrews- Mary friggin’ Poppins voicing a giant undersea kraken-like tentacle monster. She didn’t deign to cameo in the new Mary Poppins sequel movie that debuted in the same month! What the hell even IS this bonkers movie and how does it exist in the form that it does?? I dunno, but whatever Atlantian magic happened to conjure this up, it was certainly wildly successful. So go watch Aquaman and eat some flowers and hopefully a wall won’t unexpectedly explode while you’re doing so, as this movie taught me happens around every twenty minutes. 


7. Deadpool
(2016)



Ah yes, Deadpool. Originator of an exhausting amount of unfunny memes and movie that only got made because Ryan Reynolds couldn’t let X-Men Origins: Wolverine be the character’s on-screen legacy. Really, the guy basically willed this film into existence through sheer perseverance, fanboy love, and of course... some conveniently-leaked test footage. It certainly shows on-screen; Reynolds IS Wade Wilson and would be on any fan’s list of “Most Perfectly-Cast Comic Book Characters In Film”.

The movie itself takes some liberties with the character… some might say EXCESSIVE liberties in regards to his use of expletives. Comic Deadpool didn’t actually have to swear all the time to be funny, but that’s become a staple of his character in the eyes of the general public in the last few years thanks to the poorly-written video game and these movies. Reynolds does at least know how to wield the F-strikes skillfully, his insults are usually pretty creatively colorful, and his fourth-wall breaking and pop culture referencing are on-point. This movie absolutely works thanks to him (and in spite of the excess in all areas), and thankfully skews more towards Nicieza/Kelly-written Deadpool than Daniel Way-written Deadpool. I guess I’d rather have an overflow than be half-empty, y’know? Heh, Deadpool would make a dirty joke in response to that notion.


6. Batman: The Movie
(1966)



My introduction to Batman was in reruns of the Adam West/Burt Ward series and as a small child I took the show quite seriously. Once I hit around eight and Batman: The Animated Series debuted on TV, I “realized” that the Adam West show was “dumb” and Kevin Conroy’s more mature, animated Dark Knight was the real deal. Fast-forward to about when I’m sixteen or seventeen, and on some lazy afternoon at a good friend’s house, we come across Batman: The Movie on TV. Nothing else on, so why not- we decided to watch it and try to recall what we found so enthralling about it as kids. What we discovered was the not-so-hidden genius of the Adam West Batman and as I began laughing to the point of tears, I realized that it wasn’t this show that was dumb, but eight year-old me.

Nowadays I consider Adam West to be as legitimate a Batman as Kevin Conroy, Christian Bale, or any of the others… perhaps MORE legit in some cases. It’s all really a matter of perspective, and this show is pretty much the genesis of what fans like to term “Bat Prep Time.” To me, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Batman having secret methods to defeat every member of the Justice League at any given time and possessing Shark-Repellent Bat-Spray. Taking the rules of this show’s universe into consideration, West’s Batman is as much of a multi-talented and ultra-prepared badass as any other.

This movie is a celebration of this incarnation of Batman and never fails to make me smile with its unrestrained camp and joyful sense of humor whenever I rewatch it. I just hope that one day, if there’s ever a torpedo headed for me, some noble porpoise will jump in the way and save my life. Thanks to this film, I firmly believe in that possibility and some days… you just can’t get rid of a bomb.


5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2014)



To me, most of the X-Men movies (at least until this point) had been somewhat scaled-down, low-rent affairs in comparison to the comic stories they were lifting ideas from. That’s not to say some weren’t good, in fact the majority are good despite their flaws, but they’ve also always felt a little unbalanced too. Part of that is the heavy focus on Wolverine to the determent of anyone not named Xavier, Magneto, or Mystique, and this movie is certainly guilty of that as well. However, Days of the Future Past is the first adaptation of a popular and classic story that I felt actually lived up to or at least captured the same level of “epic” as the original comic. The stakes are high, the cast is huge, and the future itself is at stake.

This is a complicated and involved movie that rewards you for being “in the know” and that honestly feels very true to the X-Men comics, but it’s also not so complicated that it’s impenetrable. Sure, Kitty’s random new abilities to phase people through time are a bit of a stretch and sure, the very end with Mystique impersonating Stryker makes little sense (especially in regards to what came after), but with all the juggling and heavy lifting this movie had to do, I’m amazed it came out as well as it did.

  
4. The Dark Knight
(2008)



I think Christian Bale’s Batman is fine… I mean, there’s some notable things to make fun of about him- the Scruff McGruff Bat-Voice and all, but he’s generally above-average. However, this is a movie where you barely give a crap about him because Heath Ledger’s Joker completely and totally steals the show. Ledger literally poured his life and soul into the role and it’s impossible not to be captivated whenever his Joker is on-screen. Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent is compelling in his own right and the returning players are all as good as ever but it is really Ledger that makes this film what it is in the end. His tragic and untimely death prior to the film’s release enshrined him in cinematic legend and every incarnation of the Joker that followed Ledger’s was stuck in his shadow.

I must admit- it’s been awhile since I’ve seen this movie the full way through, and that’s mostly because whenever I need a fix of it, I just Youtube “All Joker scenes in The Dark Knight” and I’m usually good. Still, this movie is a pretty great Batman film as a whole, even if it gets a tad pretentious in places. At a time when superhero sequels were a crapshoot, it was certainly the movie we needed, if perhaps not deserved.


3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
(2018)



Another latecomer like Aquaman, but again… completely deserving of this spot. This is my favorite Spider-Man movie, and Peter Parker isn’t even the main character in it! It took me awhile to warm up to Miles Morales as a character in the comics. When he was first introduced, he seemed more like a publicity stunt on Marvel’s part than something that came about naturally or because there was a need for him. He became the new Spider-Man in the alternate Ultimate universe after that Peter Parker had died. I wasn’t really looking for a replacement for any Peter Parker, least of all one from the Ultimate universe, so Miles didn’t really fill any specific want of mine.

After he was transferred from the Ultimate to the 616 (or main) Marvel universe, Miles existed alongside Peter Parker and slowly but surely, I began to like the idea of Peter having a protégé or potential successor of sorts. However, we never really got that “ground zero” story of both Peter and Miles existing together and relating to each other from the start. This movie does that and does it well, also managing to further distinguish Miles from Peter as characters, rather than just by the color of their skin. Miles doesn’t have to supplant Peter as Spider-Man, but rather to supplement him and this movie takes that notion to its logical extension by opening a literal “Spider-Verse” of characters to a larger audience.

It doesn’t hurt that this is a fantastic film, with smart, snappy dialogue, heart-stopping dramatics, well-handled and memorable characters, great music, and the animation… good lord, the animation! This is one of the most uniquely-stylish animated movies I’ve ever seen, and it “moves” like no other on-screen. There’s so much color and detail crammed into every frame that it demands to be re-watched over and over just to catch everything hidden in the lushly-furnished backgrounds. The Spider-Verse runs deep, and Sony’s now got themselves every reason to hang onto that Spider-Man license for as long as they possibly can.


2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(1990)

This is the first comic book movie I saw in a theater and I remember the outing rather fondly. Turtlemania was gripping the nation, and I was a huge fan of the cartoon, toys, and whatever comics I could get my grubby kid hands on. I was nearing the end of a “playdate” with a couple kids from around the neighborhood when the father of one of my friends offered to take us to see the movie that night. My parents had just arrived and I had to beg, but they ultimately relented and we all walked down the street to the local theater and saw it. I was pretty enthralled by it and made sure someone got it for me when it was released on VHS later that year. I think my copy mysteriously vanished after my mom heard Raphael screaming “DAMN!!!” after a few watches, but I don’t think that bothered me too much as something new was always capturing my attention at that age anyhow.

This movie attempts to merge the original Mirage comics' grit and the more lighthearted antics of the cartoon Turtles with reasonable success. Rewatching it over the years, I can admit it’s pretty cheesy and “of its time”… but nostalgic fondness overpowers all in the end. I remain impressed with Splinter and the Turtles’ costumes, created by the legendary Jim Henson himself (they were some of his last works before his death) and Elias Koteas as Casey Jones is always a scene-stealer. I think I still default to his delivery whenever a sarcastic “OOPS” is required! This remains my favorite Ninja Turtles movie released in theaters, although the competition isn’t really that stiff.


1. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
(1993)



I think I skipped a developmental step in my Batman fandom… I went straight from Adam West and Olan Soule to Kevin Conroy, pretty much skipping Michael Keaton entirely. I saw Batman ‘89 and Batman Returns many years later, and while I have some appreciation for them, they don’t hold a lot of nostalgic value for me. “Mask of the Phantasm” was the first Batman movie I ever saw in theaters during its admittedly-unsuccessful engagement and would forever become the gold standard to which I hold all Batman movies. I was of course a fan of Batman: The Animated Series at the time, and my aunt took nine year-old me and my slightly-younger cousin to see “Phantasm.” I think she was a little unprepared with how mature it was, as my cousin was really excited coming out of the theater to get it on home video, and she was like “we’ll see.”

This movie makes full use of its PG rating to tell a story the creators probably couldn’t tell with such starkness on a Saturday morning cartoon. I remember being pretty unsettled myself seeing the corpse of mobster Sal Valestra propped-up in his armchair after the Joker had murdered him in the film, but continued to watch with a white-knuckled grip on my seat. The darker subject matter is thankfully held up and justified by the excellent script, and this film has some great dramatic moments, thrilling action, and wonderful dialogue. The cast from the TV series are pitch-perfect as ever, with Mark Hamill in particular turning in one of his best Joker performances atop a mountain of great Joker performances, and Dana Delany’s Andrea Beaumont is probably the best romantic lead a Batman movie has ever had.

I also thankfully wasn’t spoiled beforehand about the twist in the movie, which the accompanying Kenner toyline failed to keep under wraps, and that obviously helped make my first viewing memorable. The animation is a step up from the TV show, and the late great Shirley Walker’s score grants every scene a sense of (sometimes admittedly-overblown) grandeur, especially any reprise of the Batman theme. All told, this is my favorite Batman movie, one of my favorite comic book movies, and even one of my favorite animated movies of all time.     

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And that's that!  Thanks for reading!