10 Great Superhero Movies

My list of 10 great superhero movies to watch when in the mood

1) Batman Begins – The movie that revitalized the Batman cinema franchise after the mess that was Batman and Robin.  Christian Bale is great as the deeply troubled Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Cillian Murphy is terrifying at Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, played so delightfully unassuming.

2) The Dark Knight – The sequel to Batman Begins.  Where the first movie is al Batman, The Dark Knight is the Joker’s movie.  This time out, Heath Ledger plays  a far darker Clown Prince of Crime, at times even darker than the comics (anyone who’s read Batman: The Killing Joke will know how hard that is to do).  Ledger’s Joker is tough to tell whether he’s a genius gone mad, or a genius acting mad.

3) Batman – Tim Burton manages to take the Dark Knight back down the path he started on, away from the 1960s “caped crusader” that began the era of cheesy heroes.

4) Iron Man – I have to admit, I’ve never really been a fan of Iron Man in the comics.  War Machine, yes, but not Iron Man.  And while I still am not a fan of the comic book hero, Robert Downey Jr. manages to make Tony Stark a likeable character, even with all his flaws.

5) The Incredibles – Pixar enters the world of superheroes with this entry.  Delightfully fun to watch.

6) Goldfinger - right now, there are some of you who are probably arguing that James Bond is not a superhero.  But, if you watch the any of the movies (Goldfinger is chosen because it is my favorite), he fights evil (like any superhero) with an array of skills and gadgets (like Batman), often facing off against colorful (and sometimes over the top) villains.

7) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – This movie snuck out and did not garner a lot of attention, but it is definitely worth checking out.  Very post-retro with its 1930s-40s movie serial feel recreated with 21st century know-how (nearly all of the movie was computer generated).

8) The Phantom – Another personal guilty pleasure movie.  I never was quite sure why, but I always find myself watching this movie whenever I stumble across it on television.

9) Spider-Man – the first one is the best one.  While Tobey Maguire could have wise cracked a bit more as the webslinger, it is still a fun movie to watch.

10) X-Men 2 - This is the movie that really let the X-Men shine as heroes.  The battle at the Institute alone makes the movie worth watching.

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