Freitag, 5. Januar 2018

Superhero Movies 2017 - Ranked



Beware of Spoilers!




So actually I wanted to review Star Wars Episode 8 but for two reasons I decided against it.

1) The Movie so packed with Content I have to see it a second time first.
2) There is so much negativity surrounding it I can't help but being annoyed by it and it doesn't help that it's mostly of the non-constructive kind.
That's a shame you know, because even though there were some flaws I loved the Movie and consider it the best entry in the Series (not counting Rogue One) since probably Episode 6.

But enough of that let's rank some Superhero Movies, shall we?
Again, I'll only rank what I've actually seen. That means there are no animated Movies except one and the Power Rangers didn't interest me enough to give them a go either.


7 - Justice League




Right so, no one is surprised that DC's answer to the Avengers is at the very bottom of this List, right?
After Man of Steel, Suicide Squad and the ever so loathed Dawn of Justice nobody expected much.
After endless re-shots, background troubles and way more years of Production than necessary expectations probably sunk even lower.

To the Movies credit there were some things that actually worked very well. The Characters had distinctive and likeable personalities, the interactions between them worked surprisingly well, there were some good jokes in there that legitimately made me laugh and the Action Scenes were mostly pretty good.
Sadly the tone drifted from gloomy to ridiculous without any rhyme or reason, Supermans return had been part of the marketing campaign so there was no surprise there and the plot itself was as a whole not terribly interesting.
It didn't help that the dialogues varied from alright to outright terrible and that Bruce Wayne was very tame in this. I know we all hate BvS and I am not a huge Batman Fan in general but the Intensity Affleck had brought to the table in that movie had been rather compelling.
Here he just comes off as someone who's too old for this shit.



6 - Thor - Ragnarok




Whoa! Put the forks and torches away I'll explain myself in a second. Remember that I rank those Movies in order of how much I enjoyed them not in Order of Quality.
I am not a professional Film Critic nor someone who earns his money by shouting stuff about Movies in a youtube Video so ranking stuff in quality is not something I am qualified for.

The Fact that Thor is this far down the list is actually not a knock on the Movie itself but rather a testament for 2017 as a Comic Book Movie year.
Last year this one would have been up rather high in my List since the transition from funny Action Movie to outright Comedy worked really well.
There were some cool Action scenes, dialogues, revelations, world building and character interactions the latter being ALWAYS right on the very top of my priority list. It's without a doubt Thor's best Solo Movie but there were some things I disliked a lot.
First things first: The beginning of the Movie flew by way too fast.
Thor beats Surtur, the one destined to destroy Asgaard, he fucks up Loki's plan, travels to Earth, meets Doctor Strange, finds their father Odin, Odin dies, Hela shows up, destroys his hammer, sends them off to a far away planet and takes over Asgaard in what feels like the first 5 minutes of the Film.
That is a lot of content of varying importance not getting it's due.

And secondly: The Warriors Three die and Lady Sif doesn't even show up.
Chances are that you don't even know who I am talking about: Well it's Thor's comrades and best friends since forever from the first two Movies.
But just because the Fans didn't seem to care about them doesn't mean the same should go for Thor himself.
I don't mind that they die (I mean I do but well...) but the fact that the main character of the Movie never even recognizes their deaths by asking Heimdall about them or seeing their corpses is just a really huge stain on the Movie  in my humble Opinion and the main reason I just didn't enjoy this entry as much as I probably would have otherwise.


5 - Spiderman Homecoming



Let's get that out of the way first: I still think the first two Raimi Spiderman Movies were better than Homecoming but we should consider that this Movie had not only the Job of being good (after those terrible "Amazing Spiderman" Movies) but it also had to be different enough for people to not get bored with it while also fitting into the MCU. And it worked in every way.
Additionally we got a really good Villain in Keaton as the Vulture and a really good bad father-figure in Robert Dawney Jr. as Iron Man.
The Humour was, obviously, on point, the teenage slice of life stuff was as compelling to wartch as the Super Hero stuff and... yeah. That's about all I feel the need to say.


4 - Lego Batman



As stated above I am not a huge Batman Fan in general for a number of reasons and when I say Batman I mean the brooding charismaless, Dark Knight kind of Batman that is so popular. But I'd never deny that there is some good to Wayne's corner of the DC Universe in fact it's probably the most exciting corner of said Universe. Just not thanks to Batman but rather because of the mans supportcast and Villains.
Now luckily Lego Batman addresses ALL OF IT.
The whole Movies is really about how stale and uninteresting everything Batman is weren't it for the colorful characters surrounding him. And to save the world this time he has to admit just that not only to those on his side but even his enemies including the Joker. You haven't seen a Batman with this much personality since Keaton played him. Do, check it out if you can stand Lego Humor.


3 - Logan



I already mentioned it when I posted last years list: Logan was a really cool Movie.
Set in... well actually no one really knows exactly in what X-Men Movie Timeline this one is set but since no one really cares anymore about these timelines why should I?

In any case: This Movie takes place in a near future where Mutants are all but extinct. The X-Men are gone, Charles Xavier is losing his mind and the former Wolverine James "Logan" Howlett is an alcoholic disillusioned Loser who only takes care of Charles and doesn't really do anything heroic anymore.
That is until he meets a little girl that is just like him whom he gets paid to get to safety.
Having fallen so far from Grace he actually doesn't want to do it at first and later is only in it for the money which is rather untypical for the selfless Man we used to know.
And the Movie takes its merry time to redeem him throughout a plot that is all in all secondary at best.
It's a really nice send off for two out of three characters/actors that actually remained memorable after a bunch of unmemorable films and yet Logans "daughter" X-23 aka Laura is the real Star of this Film. As a fan of her Comic Counter Part I am very much on board with her adaptation.



2 - Wonder Woman


THE Movie of 2017.
The first good DCEU Film,
the first good female fronted Superhero Film,
the icon for women and girls for generations to come.
The cultural impact of Wonder Woman is real and thats a good thing.
Fortunately the Movie itself was also a "good thing". Be it the Isle of the Amazonians themselves, Diana's interactions with people and objects from the "modern" world, the way War is portrayed or the way our Heroine inspires the people around her to be the best possible person they can be without any of it coming off as too cheesy.
It's a really good film with really good characters and a really good plot that makes it easy to ignore that the ending is... well. Not really good.
I for one can not wait for Wonder Woman 2, Gal Gadot has made the character her own in the same way Robert Dawney Jr and Chris Evans have made Iron Man and Captain America their own only that it kind off means more in her case for the reasons stated above.



1 - Guardians of the Galaxy 2



If you would have told me last year that a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy would be my top pick of the year 2017 I would have laughed in your face.
Because out of all the MCU franchises the Guardians were easily the one I cared the least for and all that thanks to the fact that I didn't enjoy the first Movie much.

For me the characters all had potential to be interesting with their diverse backstories and different abilities but when it came to delivering on that everyone but Peter Quill fell flat.

And the way everyone of those supposed lone wolfs reminded me way too much of playing textbased Roleplay back when I was sixteen or so were everyone I played with laid out his or her past and ambitions out after five minutes of ingame talking.
Two weeks later they'd marry and get children and then there was nothing left to play out.
Granted I wasn't much better well...

Erm... Anyway Guardians 2 actually is the opposite of that with characters being actually hesitant to open up and many of them revealing layers to their personality that hadn't been known before.
Even though the Movie is set in space, with a living Planet as the bad guy and raccoons and cyborgs being part of the team it is probably the most human feeling Superhero Movie I have seen all year and easily the most emotional one. All that while still being mostly a comedy no less.
That is some damn good writing and to top tings off: The Soundtrack was also better than in the first one. Having "The Chain" playing during the final battle is more than alright with me.



So thats my list. You are free to agree or disagree as much as you want.
See ya' whenever I feel like writing about something again. ;)