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The 10 Best Superhero Movies of All Time Blog Relay
I’ve always been a fan of blogathons and there’s one type of blogathon that has really captured my imagination as far as ways to make it a bit more interesting for me. Some may say that I like to overcomplicate things, but when it comes to these relays there is the idea that it becomes this ever-changing list, but there are some items that stick around for a long time, and others that come in a go out a bit more often. I wanted to take this concept of a blog relay and twist it in such a way that it has a definitive ending. That when all is said and done, there is a single top 10 list that is agreed upon by the most members. But before I get into the rules and what not, I will start out with my own list that’s not specifically just my favorites, but what I think are the best superhero movies of all time.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014
There are a few things that I don’t do lightly, one of them is to go to the movie theater not just on opening weekend, but on opening night. Of course, it does help that these days opening night isn’t the midnight showing, I was able to catch a nice early 8pm showing and it wasn’t even the first one. But the reason why I ventured out to do this is because I was really excited to see this movie and my usual time to go on Saturday morning wasn’t nearly as early as I would have liked. But that’s all beside the point, I’ve been excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy from the first teaser and the fact that it’s directed by James Gunn. While he doesn’t have a perfect track record, I could really get behind what he’s trying to sell here. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Specials, but Tromeo and Juliet was my first Troma film, I enjoyed the live action Scooby-Doo movie for what it was, and I’m a big fan of his Super. It’s still crazy to think how Gunn was chosen for this movie in the first place, but I’m glad he was. The humor hit in all the right places for me, the soundtrack was amazing, and the ecclectic cast somehow managed to mesh in just the right ways. I don’t think it’s the Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Universe as I’ve heard it called, but it’s another well placed entry in the universe.
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Pizza Man
Pizza Man 2011
This is another one of those lesser known, indie superhero movies that flew under the radar for me. And to be honest, I don’t often go digging for these gems, but I always keep an eye out for them to cross my path and this one did through one of my favorite movie sites to read Today I Watched a Movie who picked this up at Wal-Mart and gave it such high praise that I had to check it out, and so I picked it up for myself a few days later and it sat on my DVD shelf for a couple months before my wife finally put it in our DVD player for us to watch. I’m not as fully sold as TIWAM was, but it’s still a solid superhero send-up with a fun plot and quite a few recognizable characters.
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Filmwhys #33 The Graduate and All-Star Superman
Episode 33 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Bruce Leslie from the Heroes and Villains Podcast and the Hero Movie Podcast who asks me why I haven’t seen the Graduate, the classic comedy that gave Dustin Hoffman his breakout role and made the name Mrs. Robinson famous. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen All-Star Superman, the DC Animation adaptation from a well known comic book story arc about Superman’s last days on Earth from writer Grant Morrison.
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1993
This is one of the very few superhero movies left that I had not yet seen before that I really felt like I was missing out on an important and/or great movie. There’s still plenty out there for me to watch, but most of the rest of them are more obscure and/or pretty bad. When I ask the question “What’s your favorite superhero movie?” this movie has come up on more than one occasion so it’s got to be a pretty good movie, and it’s more or less a spin-off of the amazing 90’s Batman: The Animated Series which I watched and loved back when it was coming out with new episodes, and I’ve also seen and enjoyed every one of DC Animation’s home video Batman movies so I was looking forward to finally watching this one and I’m pleased to say that for the most part it didn’t disappoint. My only qualms come from the fact that I did watch this one out of chronological order and so many story elements that were used in this movie were done as well if not better in later movies that I was already familiar with. But aside from that, it was great to finally see this movie and the nostalgia from the animation and music style from the animated series.
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Filmwhys #32: The Big Lebowski and Flash Gordon
Episode 32 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Nolahn as the last member of Your Face! to be a guest on this show and he asks me why I haven’t seen The Big Lebowski, the classic slacker/bowler/stoner comedy from the Coen Brothers starring the Dude. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen Flash Gordon, the campy sci-fi movie starring the music from Queen and star quarterback from the New York Jets Flash Gordon which was recently referenced heavily in Seth MacFarlane’s Ted.
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Edge of Tomorrow
Edge of Tomorrow 2014
It may come as no surprise to you that I am a fan of sci-fi movies. Yes, technically most superhero movies can also be lumped into the catch-all science fiction category as the very idea of a person with superhuman abilities whether alien, mutation, or technological is in its very essence science fiction. But I am just as much a fan of the general aliens & technology versions of sci-fi that I don’t nearly as often get to cover on this site. In fact, I didn’t catch any of the sci-fi movies that came out last year even though many were considered to be bad-to-mediocre. But I had heard a lot of great things about Edge of Tomorrow, and I am also a huge fan of the concept of a time loop, so much so that I even wrote a player-created mission for the now defunct City of Heroes MMO based around the time loop concept. And since this was based on an illustrated novel which was also adapted into a manga both under the title All You Need is Kill I thought it was a perfect excuse to actually watch it, albeit quite a bit later than most who actually gave it a chance. And you know what? Everyone was right about this movie. It takes the concept of the time loop and really gets the chance to explore things in a way that it hasn’t exactly been done before, while still covering all the usual bases in an entertaining fashion. It’s an excellent movie and it’s a shame that it didn’t translate as well into box office dollars.
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Filmwhys Extra #11 Superheroes and Our Kids
Episode #11 of Filmwhys Extra where my guest is Julz Hendricks who contributes to many sites including Bleeding Cool, Chickcast, but you can probably best find her on Twitter. Both of us have young children who love superheroes and love to watch them on TV and in movies. But this is a world full of PG-13 superhero movies that often have more death and violence than R-rated movies with only the blood removed. She has a 3 year old and a 9 year old while I have a 7 year old and we discuss what they enjoy and how we decide what’s appropriate for them to watch.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – Indie Comics
I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. I’ve made a few different lists from Marvel and DC comics, but those aren’t the only two companies out there that make superhero comics, and now it’s finally time to take a look at some of the other superhero movies that come from comics outside of the big two.
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Filmwhys #31: To Kill a Mockingbird and Unbreakable
Episode 31 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Jess from French Toast Sunday who asks me why I haven’t seen To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the great classic movies about prejudice through the eyes of a child. And in return I ask her why she hasn’t seen Unbreakable, the great superhero origin story set in the real world by the man who used to be the master of the twist ending M. Night Shyamalan.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 