Favorite Comic based movies

AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004) - It was alright. Better than Predetor 2... but pails in comparrison to the first two Alien movies!

Barb Wire (1996) - Guilty pleasure movie. Bad on all fronts... but DANM did Pam look good!

Batman (1989) - Should have been called the joker. While I liked it (it's better than nothing!) I was one of the few that was truely disappointed in it.

Batman Returns (1992) - BETTER than the first! Michelle Pfieffer is just SO HOT!

Batman Forever (1995) - Val was an alright Batman... played it looser than Keaton.

Batman & Robin (1997) - wow. So bad on so many levels. Uma looked great though!

Batman Begins (2005) - The best Batman movie yet. Nuff said.

Blade (1998) - Loved it. Snipes was perfect and Traci Lords has a cameo. What's not to like?

Blade II (2002) - Relied more heavily on special effects but still fun.

Blade: Trinity (2004) - I liked this one too. not as good as the first but the story was really enjoyable and HHH is in it!

Casper (1995) - I'll be honest. I loved the movie. OK? Happy?

Catwoman (2004) - Next.

Constantine (2005) - Better than I thought it was going to be. Reeves played it fairly straight and after a while you forgot he was suppose to be blonde and British.

The Crow (1994) - Awesome. RIP Brandon. IMO one of the best comic to film adaptations ever. If you haven't seen it rent it.

Daredevil (2003) - I liked it. Garner was awesome (and looked great) as Elektra and I thought Ben did a good job as well.

Elektra (2005) - Not bad. Again, Garner looked awesome. Is a little thin on plot though.

Fantastic Four (2005) - Colour me surprised! The trailors looks good and Alba is incredibly hot... but the movie was fun! Better than I thought it would be. Can't wait for the sequel.

From Hell (2001) - Hmmmmmm... a bit long, played too loose with the Ripper facts (Abberline dies at the end? Is it a metaphorical death?) but well acted by Depp and Heather Graham.

Hellboy (2004) - I wasn't too familiar with the comics other than a couple of crossovers with Batman... but I liked the movie enough to grab the graphic novel the movie was based on. Great effects too.

Howard the Duck (1986) - I bet Lea Thompson wishes should could go back in time and NOT sign the contract.

Hulk (2003) - Jennifer Connelly is one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Even she couldn't save this dud. It took over an hour before we saw the Hulk... and it looked fake.

Josie and the Pussycats (2001) - This is another guilty pleasure movie. The songs are catchy and the girls are cute.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - Not as good as the comics, but if you haven't read them it's a good action/adventure flick. And it has Sean Connery in it kicking serious ass!

Men in Black (1997) - When I first saw this I didn't know it was based on a comic. It's lot of fun, especially Smith and Jones' banter.

Men in Black II (2002) - See above.

Mystery Men (1999) - A fun if really stupid movie that Ben Stiller steals whenever he gets FURIOUS!

The Phantom (1996) - A truely underappreciated comic adaptation. Zane is PERFECT as the Phantom and the Indiana Jones feel of the 1930's makes it a fun flick worth seeing.

The Punisher (2003) - Hammered by critics (are they even comic fans?) The Punisher is a slightly tweaked movie (Frank's not a Nam vet anymore) that is only slightly knocked down by the addition of Travolta as a bad guy.

The Rocketeer (1991) - EASILY one of my favorite comic movies. Jen Connelly steals the show as Betty (as in Page) and like the Phantom, the 1930's pulp feel is great taking you back to a simpler time in movies.

The Shadow (1994) - I didn't mind this one, but it's on the lower end of the comic adaptations.

Sin City (2005) - An almost panel for panel translation of Frank Liller's comics. Easily one of the best comic adaptations ever. It sticks to the story and doesn't tweak anything for a gentler rating. See it. Now.

Spider-Man (2002) - $800 million in box office reciepts can't be wrong. And they're not. A blast of a movie. Only the armour Goblin hinders it.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) - Better than the first and arguably the best comic adaptation yet!

Supergirl (1984) - Good at 13 (when I had a crush on Supergirl) bad at 30 (despite still having the crush)

Superman (1978) - Along with the Crow this is my personal favorite comic movie. Simply awesome. I still get goosebumps when Superman shows up for the first time.

Superman II (1980) - A direct sequel to the first and arguably better (despite the kiss/memory crap).

Superman III (1983) - Hitting that well a bit too often. It's still fun to see Reeve up there.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) - The well is dry. Go home people... nothing to see here.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) - I really wanted to hate this... but the "Wayne Gretzky" comment won me over and I still watch this whenever it plays on TV.

X-Men (2000) - I never thought they could do it... but MAN was this awesome.

X2 (2003) - Battles Spider-Man 2 as the best comic movie of all time. New villains, new heroes and the death of Jean Grey!

I'm looking forward to the new Superman movie, the upcoming Wonder Woman (by Joss Whedon!), Sin City 2 and Fantastic Four 2.

The JLA jobbed for Deathstroke in Identity Crisis

In one of the worst moments in a horrible mini series Deathstroke took on the JLA and knocked many of them around like they were rank amateurs.

How did Slade KNOW who to plan his fight against? You'd plan differently for Superman or Hal Jordan than you would Hawkman or Green Arrow... so how did he know who to plan for?

And this is the JL freakin A! NOT the Teen Titans. These guys (and especially Hawkman that has CENTURIES of experience to call on) shouldn't have been beat by one guy.

The way Deathstroke took out Flash and Green Lantern was BEYOND ridiculous. Slade somehow calculated when and where Flash was going to attack him and pulls out his knife and puts it the perfect position to stab Flash (yes STAB the FLASH!!!!!). Deathstroke has only got enhanced human reflexes and while he may be smarter than the average guy the Flash has speed of light reflexes. Flash could be on top of Deathstroke and punched him in the head so often Slade would wake up and not know what happened... all this before Slade could even pull his knife out.

Then Green Lantern for some absurd reason flies over to Deathstroke and tries to punch him. WHY??? When it would have made much more sense to simply enclose Deathstroke in an energy construct. That would have ended the fight instantly. ( I know the comics can't end THAT quickly but at least have him ATTEMPT it... it's like Meltzer read Green Lantern 50-60 and still thinks Kyle is a rookie.)

In just those 2 instances Deathstroke does something he really shouldn't have been able to do, while Green Lantern arcts like a rookie again and not someone who has some experience under his belt by doing something incredibly dumb and play into Deathstroke's plan.
Why didn't Zatanna get out of range of Slade? One spell and he's down.

So many wrongs... not made right.

All Star Superman... OVER RATED!

All-Star Superman is one of the most over-praised comic book in recent memory.

I didn't hate but it was only... okay. I'm basing my opinions on having a collection of over 20,000 books and as someone who started reading Superman with regularity in 1983... so I have over 22 years of reading along with a substancial collection of Superman comics.

There were other Superman stories this year that were better and it doesn't go near the best of the Superman stories like Byrne's reboot or Moore's What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Maybe my expectations were too high (as in not reachable) but it seemed.... pedestrian. A lot happened but when it was over it felt like nothing did and I was hard pressed to remember SOMETHING that blew me away... or even made me say "wow that was awesome..." or ANYTHING. It felt like a bottle of beer that is half empty... when you want a full one.

I also go the "been there, done that" feel when I was reading it. From Superman revealing his identity to Lois to squaring off against Lex Luthor... Been there. Morrison is working with an icon and can't stray TOO far from what makes Superman super... but it just didn't awe or wow me like I was expecting.

The art wasn't too shabby... in fact I think it's Quitley's best work. But now I'm wondering about him keeping a regular schedule... and I don't think he can do it.

I find Morrison is best when he's working on something TOTALLY different and original (WE3) or something so unusual he makes it his own (Doom Patrol). I thought the potential was there for it to be GREAT, but with all great fiction you have to CARE for the star or the book (comic, novel or whatever) and though Superman was diagnosed with radiation poisoning I didn't care.

That Luthor was "serious" now about killing Superman didn't seem to threatening because we only have his word that he's tried before Granted it IS only 1 issue in, I think they should have had flashbacks inserted to fill in somne back story... so in that regard I feel the execution was off slightly. We were thrown in the middle of a story with no idea HOW we got to that pooint or why. I think a story like that can be done, and quite well, but it should have been done AFTER we got to know the characters first.

I was hoping for some serious ORIGINALITY from Morrison. This is a chance to do RADICAL and off the wall things with Superman (while still maintaing the CORE of the character) without offending the purists. Instead we got Superman bating a bad guy, revealing his identity to Lois, Lex threatening to beat Superman... all done before.

Morrison's Doom Patrol (using 40 year old characters) was a TOTAL change from the original concept. Really the only simplarities were the names and the BASIC core of the character. The stories were fantastic and (again) ORIGINAL.

Random Thoughts

This blog is just a place of my random thoughts.

Most will be on comic books, movies, books or music.

Please feel free to comment!