Preface

• With the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron later this week, I wanted to do a list of my 10 favorite superhero movies!
• As of April 2015 that is.
• Cuz I know we have like 17 dozen coming out over the next five years.
  • That being said, every couple of years maybe I’ll do an updated list?
  • But here it is as of 2015!
• And my typical disclaimer: this is my subjective list. These may not be the movies you guys all love, maybe there’s a movie on this list that you hate, you could be all: pfffft! Or, you could be cool and hear me out, then post your favorites in the comments down below!
• I’ll do two or three honorable mentions at the end too.
• Without further ado, let’s go into some of my favorite movies from one of my favorite genres right now! Starting it off with number 10!

10. Spider-Man

• It’s so hard to perfect an origin story. There are only like three movies that have really nailed it (more on the other two later), but Spider-Man (2002) is the definitive way to tell an origin story.
• Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel superhero, and movies like Spider-Man 3 and the first Amazing Spider-Man disappointed me. Amazing Spider-Man 2 I did think was pretty good, but when you watch the original, 2002 Sam Raimi Spider-Man origin, that is the way, not just a Spider-Man movie should have been done the first time around, but really any origin story should be done.
• I do think Marvel will give Raimi a run for his money in 2017 though…

 

9. The Incredibles

• Number 9.
• So many superhero movies nowadays are dark and dreary, but they don’t have to be.
• The Incredibles shows us that you can take superhero movies and incorporate them into other family-friendly genres.
• Pixar is a maker of SO many great movies over the past twenty years, but I would still put The Incredibles up there with Toy Story 3 and Up as my trio of favorites.
• The Incredibles was fun, but it had great action, and was all around a great time. It’ll be one of those classics that we’ll be talking about 70 years from now, kinda like we talk about Snow White now.

 

8. The Avengers

• Number 8.
• I’m gonna get some hate for not putting this further up on the list, but it’s my list!
• And originally it was higher up but, hey it is still on the list!
• The Avengers is the definition of a comic book/superhero movie.
• You’ve built up all these different personalities of heroes across their own movies, but now they’ve actual come together in one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had at the movies.
• The action was great, the dialogue was witty, Loki was a great villain to cap off Phase 1.
• This was also the first Marvel movie I saw in the theaters. I had seen Iron Man 1 on DVD, but Avengers was the one that made me go back and re-watch all the Phase 1 movies. If you haven’t gotten into Marvel really, but you want to, and you’re not sure where to start, start with Avengers.
• And I’m hearing that Age of Ultron could be even better.

 

7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

• Earlier I referenced my three favorite Pixar movies, well here it is friends: we’re moving now into my three favorite Marvel movies. All in a row, the trifecta of Marvel up to April 2015!
• And starting off this trio is Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• Winter Soldier is a prime example of how re-watching a movie matters.
• The first time I saw it I was like, man that was really, really good.
• Watched it again On Demand a few months later and I’m like yeah, that was great. THEN I saw it again after buying it on Blu-Ray, and I loved it even more.
• Winter Soldier brought credibility to all its characters in a very real way. The action felt real, the stakes felt real. I said this before, it felt like what Agents of Shield tried to be, it was a political movie about how Shield worked.
• There’s this kid I’m friends, and he’d be dumping all over Captain America and Black Widow and I’m like, have you seen Winter Soldier?
• And he’d say no. And eventually, I forced him to take my Blu-Ray copy and watch it, and he says, “umm… I’m sorry for making fun of those two.”
• This was the third movie I saw last year, it was my favorite of the year when I saw it, and it stayed in my Top Ten all the way through the end of the year.

 

6. Iron Man 3

• Now, my choice for number six may raise some eyebrows.
• Iron Man 3.
• The first Iron Man was phenomenal, second one I still thought was alright, but not great. Third one was my favorite Marvel movie for a WHILE.
• I liked seeing how Tony Stark is reacting to the events of The Avengers, but that was only part of it. I liked the feeling of Tony having to beat the odds and go through a lot of loss.
• I won’t spoil if you haven’t seen this movie, but some people felt betrayed by how the Mandarin was handled.
• I was fine by it, and maybe that’s part of why I liked the movie so much.
• Overall, this would be a perfectly functional end to the Iron Man standalones, I personally think that we are still going to get an Iron Man 4 (I thought that’s what would be on May 3^rd, 2019 instead of Infinity War Part 2), and I think that this was a perfect chapter in the story of Tony Stark.

 

5. Guardians of the Galaxy

• Now at Number 5, here is what I think is the best Marvel movie so far.
• Guardians of the Galaxy.
• After I saw this and did my review I said, I loved it, it was great, but I don’t know if it’s Marvel’s best…
• Then yeah, I saw it three more times in the theater and twice at home after buying it on Blu-Ray.
• James Gunn created this rich, expansive universe for the characters to play around in, more so than any of the Marvel directors had in the past.
• His style was so different from anything we’d seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and just nailed it in every sense of the word.
• Guardians of the Galaxy was hilarious, it had its sad moments, the action was crazy, and all the characters were insanely likable. Except maybe Ronan…
• I bought one of these little bobble head Groot things not too long ago, and yeah, he’s adorable too.
• As I’ve said, as long as 20 years from now they don’t make three prequel movies about Star-Lord’s father, we could have a sick trilogy on our hands.

 

4. X-Men: First Class

• There are points where I’ll say: that was a great superhero movie, and that was a great movie.
• At number 4, we have something that flips that on its head because X-Men: First Class is FIRST a great movie, and then a good superhero movie.
• Something I’ve noticed upon multiple re-plays of this movie is that Matthew Vaughn directed this as a concise, clear, and tidy film, not as a superhero movie.
• The directing style makes it feel very realistic, but not in terms of “oh, gritty realism!” This is something that is painted as having potential to happen. Not much theme music is used, and the directing paints these characters almost as people, and people of history making them all the more fascinating to watch.
• Prequels are insanely hard to do, but Matthew Vaughn and the whole crew slam-dunked it on this one.

 

3. Chronicle

• Now I’m gonna cheat a little bit on this one.
• Number Three is much more of a supervillain origin story than it is a superhero origin story.
• Chronicle is still one of my favorite films ever.
• Found footage is not dead friends!
• Chronicle welded superhero origin into found footage, and even on a low-budget made everything look extremely impressive.
• All the actors in this movie were great, there wasn’t a single character I didn’t care about.
• The directing was phenomenal, I can’t wait to see what Josh Trank does with Fantastic Four.
• Chronicle is how you can change up the formula and still make a great superhero movie. It’s dark, it’s creative, it’s inventive, and if you haven’t checked out Chronicle pause this video and go do it now.

 

2. X-Men: Days of Future Past

• At Number 2 we have a movie that I have still not forgotten about, and I still reference almost every day.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past.
• There was a news story circulating around last year that Disney wanted to campaign Captain America: The Winter Soldier for a Best Picture nomination, but I think Days of Future Past was a lot more likely to get one.
• You can take a look at my Best of 2014, this took the whole year for me.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past took the realistic elements of First Class, but made the people in the movie relatable.
• This movie was very dark at times, but it blended time travel with superheroes with politics with emotion and it is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my life. I’m serious!
• I’ve talked endlessly about the themes and morals that drive this movie, but they really are something special.
• In terms of box office, a movie wins one weekend and maybe the next but is eventually beat out by the movie that makes more money.
• In terms of quality, there still hasn’t been that movie that has beat out Days of Future Past in nearly a year for me!
• I go to the movies hoping for an experience, and I got that. I will never forget how I felt watching Days of Future Past for the first time.
• Last September I actually got a Days of Future Past poster for my room. Yep. Beautiful.

 

1. The Dark Knight Trilogy

• So then what could possibly beat out such an experience at number one?
• Well I cheated again.
• I didn’t want these movies to take up slots one, two, and three so I combined them all into one experience because The Dark Trilogy was just that: an experience.
• Batman Begins is the best origin story ever told, sorry Chronicle and Spider-Man, thanks for playing.
• It has influenced countless films in the ten years since it’s come out, and in terms of themes establishes really what it means to be alive.
• The Dark Knight is my second favorite film ever, and is not only the best superhero movie ever but the best crime thriller movie ever in my opinion.
• Heath Ledger as the Joker is just iconic at this point, and the dude beyond deserves all the praise he gets.
• The Dark Knight Rises was pretty close behind that with extraordinary setup of characters, escalating into a perfect second action of tension, and escalating even further into the final hour being one of the most tense I’ve ever spent in a theater.
• I got to take the Warner Brothers VIP Studio Tour just last week and see all the props from the trilogy, which I will never forget!
• The action in these movie are great, these stories feel like they have happened, the Dark Knight Trilogy will be remembered as three movies that just defined the early 21^st centuries in terms of film, and they’re three of my favorite films ever.

***

Quick honorable mentions throwing out there to Man of Steel and Iron Man, both of which I think are also great but just missed the cut!  And like I said at the beginning of this video, those are my thoughts, what are yours? Tell me all your favorites and least favorites in the comments down below! And as always, thanks for reading guys!