The Cinekin Blog

Comic book movies seem to be the haute couture of the film world over the last few years, from the really excellent (The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Road to Perdition) to the abyssmally bad (The Punisher, Catwoman). Frank Miller seems to be the go-to guy for movies at the moment, with 300 and Sin City under his belt and The Spirit coming out on Christmas Day. I grew up reading comic books, which means that when I see a comic-book based movie I have the same arrogance/quasi-religious obsession with “accuracy” and “faithfulness to the original” that fans of novels tend to have when their favorites are turned into flicks. Most initial reviews of comic books movies tend to fall into one of the following categories:

1) That was great! It was true to the spirit of the comic book, followed the hallowed plot line, and was a fun movie to boot. (e.g., Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2, X-Men and X2 (X-Men 2), Batman Begins and The Dark Knight)

2) That was ok, but it diverged/screwed up/bastardized the original in the following ways: [list über-nerdy list of gripes]. (e.g.,  Batman by Tim Burton, Spider-Man 3)

3) That was awful to watch. They butchered the comic book and didn’t even try to make it enjoyable. (see, e.g.,The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Incredible Hulk)

4) Wait, they made a movie of THAT comic? Why? Why? Why would you do that? I’m not even going to watch that. (e.g. Catwoman, Fantastic Four)

What are your favorite comic book movies? Which ones are the worst? Which ones are the worst relative to the comic they’re based on?