Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

[zornwil]

Out of those I had some expectations of:

 

Incredibles - this one I didn't really have particular expectations for but heard a bit of the hype; I went in figuring it might be okay, probably not fantastic, but was floored by just what a great film it was.

 

Unbreakable - heard bad stuff before, so was quite pleasantly surprised

 

Spiderman - each movie was better than I expected

 

Hulk - not being a character I care for or ever particularly understood the appeal for, I found the movie to be great

 

Batman Begins - horribly disappointed, I expected at least a consistently entertaining film, found it spotty and quite dumbed-down; and to be fair, I had heard it was similar to Year One, when I found out it was nothing really like that, this made for diappointment even if that really shouldn't have been the measure

 

Hellboy - quite a pleasant surprise, I never could get into the comic book but found the movie quite engaging and generally a cut above the average superhero films

 

I think the others mostly fell more or less into what I expected or I had no expectations and they weren't amazing or a bomb compared (or, in a few cases, they were as bad as I feared).

[Starlord]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Most of the recent supers movies not mentioned below I had high hopes for going in and they generally met or exceeded expectations.

 

- Batman Begins was way, way better than expected. Actually made me like Batman.

 

- Actually didn't think the FF movie would be that good, turned out decently.

 

- Thought Sky High had potential but didn't think it would impress me as much as it did.

 

- Was let down by Daredevil, although I really enjoyed Colin Farell's Bullseye.

 

- The Phantom was disappointing only because it came at a time when the only supers movies being put out were Batmans and they were starting to go downhill, so I was really wishing for this to be the start of something good. I guess I should have gotten some hints just from the fact that it was based off a guy in purple spandex who basically protected a jungle in the middle of nowhere.

 

Any other disappointments were widely considered to be bad movies in general such as Superman 3 & 4 or Batman and Robin.

[Starlord]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Hellboy - quite a pleasant surprise' date=' I never could get into the comic book but found the movie quite engaging and generally a cut above the average superhero films.[/quote']

 

Oh, forgot about this one! Pretty much ditto on your sentiments.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

I try hard to keep my expectations low going into comic book movies, because so many of them are so bad. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than let down. The first X-Men is the best example, just because for me it was the first superhero movie in SO long that didn't completely suck. Sometimes I'm still disappointed (ie - Daredevil).

 

Better than expected:

Batman Begins

Spiderman 1 & 2

Incredibles

X-Men 1 & 2

Mystery Men

Unbreakable

 

 

bigdamnhero

“As the days go by, we face the increasing inevitability that we are alone in a godless, uninhabited, hostile and meaningless universe. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?”

[Manchine]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

I seen pretty much every super hero movie that came out. Except for catwoman.

 

- Fantastic Four, tied for the best Super Hero movie to date. Just cant say anything bad about this movie. Other then Thing being to small. Great movie.

 

- Batman, thought it was decent. It entertained me but it was far from the best. One of the main things that was bad about it was the fight scenes were way to close to the camera. Gave me a headache.

 

- Sky High, pretty good. Just a fun movie.

 

- Elektra, decent again for what it was. It was not made to be a blockbuster movie. Its about the same as Batman in the terms of acting storyline and action.

 

- Incredible, better then I thought. It was a good movie.

 

- Hulk, to much story not enough HULK SMASH!

 

- Daredevil, decent better then people gave it credit for. I would put this solidly in the middle of all the movies. Its not the greatest its not the worst.

 

- Spiderman 2, Great movie Tied also for the best movie.

 

- Xmen 2, Its barely good if there were just to much Wolverine.

 

- Spiderman, Great Movie, plain and simple.

 

- Xmen, Just ok again just wish there was not so much Wolverine.

 

- Hellboy, Barely ok but something missing from it.

[Trained Chicken]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

You know, I've never found myself immediately disappointed by a superhero movie. Upon further reflection, I've become upset about losing time from my life after viewing such films as Batman & Robin and Superman IV.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Hellboy, FF and Daredevil were all pleasent surprises. I enjoyed those much more than I thought I would.

 

Spider-man was a huge disapointment. I actually went into it with fairly medium expectiations (I generally dislike the director - the only movie of his I could actually say I liked before SM II was Love of the Game). Parts were great, I like the Peter discovering powers sequences.... but the faults all overwhelmed the good parts of that movie for me* Watching it on DVD when I can scan over the parts I don't like, it is a much better movie.

 

* Why have an actor with one of the most expressive faces in hollywood behind that stupid mask - it ruined the goblin.

I got motion sick on a some of the swinging sequences - ruined those for me.

The whole "Shake the screen" thing/unsteadycam during the final bit of the fight - in the building- ruined that fight for me - and as that was nearly the last thing of the show, when I walked out of the theater it was in virtually complete digust.

And while it was ture to the source literature - way way to much pathos for a superhero movie for me.

[Blacktiger]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

A lot of people told me that Batman Begins was an amazing movie, so I was completely dissapointed. Although it was entertaining.

 

XMen 2 was AWESOME, if for no other reason than Nightcrawler. I always loved night crawler.

 

Mystery Men was really funny as I recall, its been awhile though.

 

The Fantastic Four was soooo boring... there was too much time spent on the whole 'we have super powers now what do we do?' thing.

 

Unbreakable, while not an amazing movie was fun and it had a cool twist.

[Trained Chicken]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

You know, I always hated Nightcrawler until the movie version.

[OddHat]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

More or less random here:

 

Spiderman 1 & 2: Hated the CGI, mostly liked the scripts and the acting. Somewhat disappointed, as I had been expecting to be blown away based on reviews.

 

Darkman: Surprised and pleased by this one. I thought it would be a nothing b-film, and it turned out to be a very solid Superhero movie. Darkman 2 did not live up to it.

 

Unbreakable: Very mixed feelings. It came close to being a great movie, but Shyamalan as usual doesn’t bother to keep his world coherent so long as his symbolism is in place. The ending in particular was annoying. “And then the police arrested a prominent artist on the basis of a security guard’s psychic vision.â€

 

Hulk: Hated this film. The CGI just did not work for me, the tone was uneven, and I didn’t like the editing. However, some of the performances were strong.

 

Heroic Trio: Introduced me to Chinese Superheroes, fantastic music, a real treat.

 

A Chinese Odyssey: The effects are dated, but a great period Superhero movie.

 

God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai: Great blend of a pulp setting, psychic powers and combat, and a touch of martial arts.

 

Shaolin Soccer: If you haven’t seen it, see it. Superhuman pro sports. Ubercool. But now I’m getting into films I expected to be good, so…

 

Kung Fu Hustle: A little disappointed in this one after Shaolin Soccer. The cast was excellent, the CGI was good, and it had some laughs. Unfortunately Chow was playing one of his least sympathetic characters, and I just didn’t accept him as the hero. Still worth seeing.

 

Batman Begins: Went in with low expectations and loved the film, in contrast to those who went in with high expectations and loathed it.

[HeroGM]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Enjoy more then I thought:

X-Men

Daredevil

 

Why did they bother?

X-Men 2 - Might as well have been "Wolverine the Sequel"

Spider-Man 2 - Lets hear the guy whine about secret identity and then rip off his mask in front of everyone

Fantasic Four - Good for one watch, not much more. The Incredibles did the FF better.

[zornwil]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

(snip)

The ending in particular was annoying. “And then the police arrested a prominent artist on the basis of a security guard’s psychic vision.â€

 

What do you mean by this? I didn't recall the movie ever spelling out the steps taken from the point of realizing about the bad guy to the point of his arrest?

[Hermit]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

I try not to get my hopes up too much. I still remember the multiple burnings I got years ago from the likes of Captain America (An Italian Red Skull? Miss the point much?) .. but still, geek that I am, it is hard not to get hyped.

 

I would have to say the ones that surprised me most were Sky High and Punisher. The first because let's say Disney often fails to impress, and the second because I don't like the character of the Punisher in the comics, but did in the movie. Maybe I saw it more as a really good vengeance flick rather than a super hero film.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

I don't like the character of the Punisher in the comics' date=' but did in the movie. Maybe I saw it more as a really good vengeance flick rather than a super hero film.[/quote']

 

Yeah.

 

In a comic book superhero world, the Punisher would have been put behind bars by Cap or Spidey years ago (or should have been). As a stand alone action hero he's wonderful.

[OddHat]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

What do you mean by this? I didn't recall the movie ever spelling out the steps taken from the point of realizing about the bad guy to the point of his arrest?

 

I'd have to watch the film again, but iirc that's how S. closed it. One phone call was all it took to undo Mr. Glass.

 

Must have been an interesting trial.

[ShinDangaioh]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

I bought the movie very, very cheap and watched it with incredibly low expectations. I was laughing like crazy after some of the songs in it.

 

Like 'The Bull**** Song'

 

A musical super-hero movie:

 

The Return of Captain Invincible

[Tom]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

The Incredilbles: All I had going in was the trailer of Mr Incredible trying to put his belt on -- and failing, and the guy snagging his cape flying up an elevator shaft. I went in expecting a comedy, and having a few laughs. I got James Bond meets spandex with a real movie behind it. One of the very few movies I've ever bought when it came to the video market, and the only one I bought the day it was released.

 

Sky High: It's Disney, and I hate Disney as a rule. But it was supers, and I've got young kids, so I was at least willing to sit through it. Maybe it was the fact it wasn't blatantly ripping off anything else (in my experience), or trying to re-do something I watched as a kid, but it wasn't bad. Which given my feelings towards Disney, is high praise.

 

Batman Begins: I'm not a big Batman fan, so the stuff which doesn't fit canon doesn't bother me so much (unless they're being blatantly stupid, ie: Batgirl as Alfred's neice...). After having watched the earlier Batman movies, my expectations were pretty low, but I found the movie to be quite watchable and a good source of gaming inspiration.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Out of those I had some expectations of:

 

Incredibles - this one I didn't really have particular expectations for but heard a bit of the hype; I went in figuring it might be okay, probably not fantastic, but was floored by just what a great film it was.

Expected it to be good and it was.

 

Hulk - not being a character I care for or ever particularly understood the appeal for, I found the movie to be great

Thought it stank on ice, but after reading a few pre-movie quotes from the director this is what I expected.

 

Batman Begins - horribly disappointed, I expected at least a consistently entertaining film, found it spotty and quite dumbed-down; and to be fair, I had heard it was similar to Year One, when I found out it was nothing really like that, this made for diappointment even if that really shouldn't have been the measure

Wanted it to be good, expected it to be bad, found it to be mediocre.

 

Hellboy - quite a pleasant surprise, I never could get into the comic book but found the movie quite engaging and generally a cut above the average superhero films

Silly, but visually impressive (the characters looked great).

 

Others....

 

The X-Men movies were better than I had expected them be. My expectations were really low for the first one, but it wasn't bad. I expected the second one to be a typical sequel and found I enjoyed it at least as much as the first.

 

Daredevil. When first announced I had high hopes. As more information was released my hopes faded. When I finally saw it in the theater I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

X-2 really amazed me as a solid, entertaining, dramatic piece of super-dom. I was dissappointed in the last half of the first X-men film, so this one was a pleasant surprised.

 

Spider-Man 2... I think I'm the only person on earth who loathed this picture. LOATHED IT. I really enjoyed the first one, so the level of crapitude in this second one drove me crazy.

 

Unbreakable: Had no idea what to expect, except that my friends told me to go see it. Still the most moving and powerful supers movie I've ever seen. (And to Oddhat's complaint... there was evidence all over Mr. Glass' office of the crimes he'd committed. It wouldn't require some kind of psychic "I know his is bad" stuff... it was Glass giving up and revealing himself because that is what a supervillain had to do in order to reveal his evil genius. The reason M.N.S.' symbolisim worked so well in this film, is that the character of Glass was purposefully living out and manipulating the symbolism in order to fulfill the comic book iconic story. Freakin' brilliant movie, IMO.)

 

Still think the Matrix is one of the all time great "origin stories" and superhero movies... with all the appropriate trappings in place. Just because the second and third movies were utter sh!te doesn't mean the first wasn't still utterly amazing on so many levels.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

On the note of the ending of "Unbreakable" the movie says that Bruce led the police to Mr. Glass's building, were they found evidence of numerous acts of terrorism. The guy had the blueprints pinned up on his walls in his office, for anyone to see.

 

Once he had found his "reason for being," I don't think he would have even attempted to stop the police. He had WON.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Better than expected -- The Incredibles, due to the fact that it was a Disney product.

 

Worse than expected -- Daredevil, though the special extended / director's cut makes it a passable movie on DVD.

 

Matt "Sitting-in-the-aisle-seat-because-I'm-short-for-my-age" Frisbee

[zornwil]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

X-2 really amazed me as a solid, entertaining, dramatic piece of super-dom. I was dissappointed in the last half of the first X-men film, so this one was a pleasant surprised.

 

Spider-Man 2... I think I'm the only person on earth who loathed this picture. LOATHED IT. I really enjoyed the first one, so the level of crapitude in this second one drove me crazy.

 

Unbreakable: Had no idea what to expect, except that my friends told me to go see it. Still the most moving and powerful supers movie I've ever seen. (And to Oddhat's complaint... there was evidence all over Mr. Glass' office of the crimes he'd committed. It wouldn't require some kind of psychic "I know his is bad" stuff... it was Glass giving up and revealing himself because that is what a supervillain had to do in order to reveal his evil genius. The reason M.N.S.' symbolisim worked so well in this film, is that the character of Glass was purposefully living out and manipulating the symbolism in order to fulfill the comic book iconic story. Freakin' brilliant movie, IMO.)

 

Still think the Matrix is one of the all time great "origin stories" and superhero movies... with all the appropriate trappings in place. Just because the second and third movies were utter sh!te doesn't mean the first wasn't still utterly amazing on so many levels.

I enjoyed the first Matrix but only as eye candy, I thought the dialogue was laughable and the story so-so, though the essential plot was quite good.

[zornwil]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Expected it to be good and it was.

 

Thought it stank on ice, but after reading a few pre-movie quotes from the director this is what I expected.

 

Wanted it to be good, expected it to be bad, found it to be mediocre.

 

Silly, but visually impressive (the characters looked great).

 

Others....

 

The X-Men movies were better than I had expected them be. My expectations were really low for the first one, but it wasn't bad. I expected the second one to be a typical sequel and found I enjoyed it at least as much as the first.

 

Daredevil. When first announced I had high hopes. As more information was released my hopes faded. When I finally saw it in the theater I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

I really enjoyed Daredevil though just as light entertainment. I thought it was interesting in its choices in many areas, even as in some things it was really stupid.

 

But it fell more or less into what I had expected, a bit better really but only because I heard so much criticism.

 

One thing, a small note, I really liked about Daredevil was the way in which his "flight" was portrayed, as compared to Spiderman's. I like how Daredevil's swinging looked very precarious and, as it would, that everything is done with last-minute timing and even a bit unbalanced, whereas Spiderman's was graceful and fluid.

[Ron]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Fantastic Four -- I went expecting a really lame movie, and it was somewhat decent.

 

Daredevil -- I thought it would be at least fair, but is rather poor indeed. The director's cut DVD version is significantly better.

 

Darkman -- I've little expectations and this movie turned to be rather good.

 

In most others I just got what I expected for.

[Solomon]

Re: Which supers movies were better than you expected, which were worse?

 

Rated by "Previous expectation" / "Actual score"

 

Spiderman I & II: Expected them to be good, liked them. 8/8

 

Hellboy: I had read ravish reviews - I still liked it but if fell a wee bit short of my expectations. 8/7

 

Punisher: I expected it to be bad, I found it to be utterly worthless, except for some (possibly unintentional) comedic value. 5/3

 

Incredibles: Everybody on this forum praised it highly. I had such high hopes for this one, I was almost afraid I would be disappointed. Instead, it was every bit as awesome as I had expected. 10/10

 

X-Men I & II: Found them to be better than I had expected. 6/7

 

Hulk: The Incredible Drek. Split screen was Ang Lee's idea of a comic-book feel, I assume? 7/4

 

Daredevil: The first ten minutes or so killed it for me. Eventually it got better, but by that time I coudn't care anymore. 6/5

 

Fantastic Four: I was afraid it would stink. I found it decent. 4/6

 

Unbreakable: I had no expectations, I'd never seen any other Shalayaman movie. I loved it. 6/8

 

Batman Begins: I was expecting no better than the Joel Schumaker bat-garbage. Instead, I found it enjoyable. 4/7

 

Shaolin Soccer. Does it count as a supers movie? Ah well. At first I didn't plan on seeing it. Then a friend showed me a clip with the final "Spinning-Dough-to-Flaming-Puma" attack... and what it did to the opposing goalpost and goalkeeper. We ran to the cinema. The movie was even better than that sequence implied. I hadn't laughed that hard in years. Too bad the dubbing was awful. 8/9