Is Batman Begins the best comic book movie of all time?

[jcb193]

As a person who has been reading comics for the last 20 years (From Sandman To Daniel Clowes to X-Men), i personally think that Batman Begins might be the best comic book movie i've ever seen.  Granted, comic book movies have come a long way in the last few years (Spider-Man, X-men), but i think Batman Begins is the best.  For the following reasons:

- Plausibility- Of all the super-heroes, this one requires the least imagination
- Coolness- ninjas, architecture, action, mythos
- Dialogue- i don't recall one "groaner" in this movie.  Except for some of the Batmobile scenes, this movie is very tight.
- Origin- Batman's history, development, and present are very interesting, well thought out, and fun.

Is there another comic book movie that comes close?

[jpmeyer]

Does History of Violence count?  Or is that a "graphic novel"?

[vartemis]

I thought the exact same thing myself, and by the end I was actually content with the tumbler.  I was in walmart and saw a remote control tumler that was 1/16 scale. it was huge.  I ended up buying a Hotwheels 1/24 scale to go with my batmobile collection.  Other great adaptations were A History of Violence, From Hell, Sin City (very true to the books), American Splendor... Spiderman is cool, but I do  have problems with a few things in it. 

The biggest flops would be The Craptastic 4 and League of Extraordinary Gentleman.  What really peeved me about the latter is the addition of Tom Sawyer because it was a US produced movie.

j

[SpencerForHire]

Sin City gets my vote but, I haven't seen Begins yet.  I haven't had time to buy it.

[Royal Ass.]

I just saw batman begins last weekend.  I didn't like it. I personally thought it was boring, the plot and action sucked. Of course this is just my opinion.  I was dissapointed cause i heard it was supposed to be good. 

 I think sin city is probably the best comic book movie I have seen so far. 

I also like The Punnisher a lot.  I read the punnisher max series by garth ennis.  Pretty good. 

The first Ninja turtles is also a good comic book to movie transition.

[Matt]

Sin City by far, though I haven't seen A History of Violence.

Worst: mmm...the Punisher.

[vartemis]

Did anyone see "Nick Fury" with David Hasselhoff?  Best movie ever.... /sarcasm.

j

[Royal Ass.]

Worst: mmm...the Punisher.

No way.  Best line of the move:

Crazy fisherman: "Vai con Dios"... "Go with God"

The Punnisher:  "God's gonna sit this one out"


It doesnt get any better than that

[cssamerican]

It was without a doubt the best Batman movie; however, there are a few other comic based movies I have really enjoyed. I would say Batman Begins would be in my top 5 with the following:

Superman - The effects are a little dated but it is still a great movie. Chris Reeves was Superman, and the Otis character was done extremely well.
The Crow - I loved this movie, it was the first comic book adaptation that had a really dark feel to it that I had seen and the action it was top notch.
X-Men - I think both of those movies are really entertaining, but I might be somewhat bias since I always liked the X-men comics more than other comic books.

Worst: League of Extraordinary Gentleman was absolute junk...Punisher was better.

Honorable Mention: If Mr. Pink, Mr. White, and the others were comic book characters Reservoir Dogs would win hands down. But obviously they are not, they just all have comic book sounding alias

[jpmeyer]

Worst: mmm...the Punisher.

Which one?  The new one or the Dolph Lundgren one?  Also, isn't Howard the Duck based on a comic?  Fantastic Four was terrible too, but it was at least watchable in an MST3K way.

Also, I'm looking forward to the Ex Machina movie, although it's a long way off.

[Joblin Velder]

My vote on worst goes to Captain America.

[nataz]

Sin City gets my vote

[knickers]

I'm wondering how many folks here actually realize that he's talking about comics?

I haven't read Batman Begins, or Sin City ...
However, my fiance's brother has Sin City and he's  bringing it home for xmas .. (yes I'm that cheap) ...

[jcb193]

I am talking pretty much about movies that are based on comic books.  Obviously super heroes are easier to discuss, since they are so easily lifted, whereas something like Road to Perdition is a little less obvious. 

I haven't seen Sin City, and to be honest i didn't like the comic book when it first came out, but the masses have spoken.  I'll check it out. 

I just thought Batman Begins is about as good as it is ever going to get for Hollywood comic book movies (no cheesy dialogue, believeable scenarios, true origins, fun to watch, fun to rewatch).

[vartemis]

Also, isn't Howard the Duck based on a comic? 

I totally forgot about that movie... its a total crapfest, but nonetheless one of my guilty pleasures.  The comics are hilarious.

j

[cosineme]

V is for vendetta should be pretty good...just wait for the watchmen on big screens, i could see that being some good.

[forests failed you]

I'd have to side with Sin City as well. Although the new Batman was pretty good as well.

[Anusien]

Spiderman 2, Batman Begins, Sin City, Spiderman, X-2.

Of course, they're all very very close.

[Summit]

My vote goes towards Sin City and possibly Hell Boy.  Batman Begins is right up there though.  Anyone want to put up a poll?

[Limbo]

This must be the first topic that includes Batman in it somewhere that didn't get a reply from Bram within 24 hours. Actually, make that 24 minutes

On topic, Batman Begins and Sin City are great movies based on comics that incorporate an actual story line. As for the "be blasted away by visual experiences and the occasional laughter"-category, Hell Boy, X-man, X-2 and Spiderman are all cool.

The Punisher scores very high on the "Bad Attitude"-list, together with the Crow, although neither even gets near the bad-assery from Porter in Payback (yes, I know this is not a comic-book, but I can't compliment Punisher without saying Payback is even better).

In the Raspberry-award section are League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (boy did this suck, still can't figure out why Connery cooperated with this mess) and the craptastic four both are high up on the list. Also, the Hulk was not that great (read : quite boring).

At the moment, I am really curious how the "Transformer"-movie is gonna turn out. Any other movies on wishlists?

PS: I don't read the comic books from any of these heroes, so I don't know much about the "authenticity" of the movies compared to the comics.

[Matt]

I want a Sandman movie, but that might be better as an adult-oriented animated series, a la HBO's Spawn.

[vartemis]

I want a Sandman movie, but that might be better as an adult-oriented animated series, a la HBO's Spawn.

I would love to see any of the original homage/vertigo line as an adult animated series.  Sandman, Preacher, and especially Transmet.

Swampthing was a movie too, now that i think about it.

j

[Royal Ass.]

Also, the Hulk was not that great (read : quite boring).

I dissagree.  Yeah it was too long and could have been edited down a bit.  It was differient than your average comic movie and that made it interesting.  The sceen at the end with nick nolte going crazy was the best part of the movie.

[xthexpunisherx]

I want a Sandman movie, but that might be better as an adult-oriented animated series, a la HBO's Spawn.

Only if its like the first season of spawn (the Billy Kidman story was excellent).

As for the best comic movie its got to be Sin City.  The books itself were amazing and the movie did a good job in chosing the actors/actresses for each part.  However I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of non comic book readers were a bit confused on the Marv section.  Honorable mention to the Spiderman movies (that do a good job to show the inner struggle of peter parker which I feel could have been easily lost to random action adventure garbage)

I would personally love to see a movie adaptation of Last (the last man on earth) I've been reading the trades and they are unbelievable and would make an interesting movie.  I always watned a monkey named Amprasand.

And for the worst comic movie... Daredevil, I may be biased (please see my name) but that movie was god awful.  It would be nice to know how one goes from scared little boy to superhero in one scene.  Its pretty bad when movies with Electra and an Excellent Kingpin can be that horrid, I guess thats credit to Mr. Affleck.

[Jacob Orlove]

I want a Sandman movie, but that might be better as an adult-oriented animated series, a la HBO's Spawn.

I would love to see any of the original homage/vertigo line as an adult animated series.  Sandman, Preacher, and especially Transmet.

I doubt any of those could successfully turn into a movie, but it would be neat to see then in a new format.

Also, I'm assuming the worst comic book movie is Catwoman, although the only comic book movies that I have actually seen are Spider Man 2 and, um, one of the old Batman movies. I think.

[Machinus]

I thought Spiderman 2 was terrible. I liked the first one a lot more.

I really liked Batman Begins though. Katie Holmes sucks, and there was some bad dialogue, but there were a lot of things that I did like. It's certainly a canditate for best movie in this category, although I haven't seen all of the American comic book movies (catwoman, daredevil, etc).

[xthexpunisherx]

I doubt any of those could successfully turn into a movie, but it would be neat to see then in a new format.

Also, I'm assuming the worst comic book movie is Catwoman, although the only comic book movies that I have actually seen are Spider Man 2 and, um, one of the old Batman movies. I think.

The big problem with Catwoman was the "OMFG I Died, Oh sweet cats somehow magicly brought me back to life! Now i'm going to be bad.  Wait I'm going to be good".  I'm not too big into the catwoman books but I'm pretty sure thats not anywhere close to anything that could be considered a correct origin.  I don't care if its changed a bit (read: spiderman's webbing) but they really should have renamed her panter girl or somthing and not wasted the cash on the licence for the movie.  Hell call it "See Halle Berry in leather movie"!

[vartemis]

I doubt any of those could successfully turn into a movie, but it would be neat to see then in a new format.

Also, I'm assuming the worst comic book movie is Catwoman, although the only comic book movies that I have actually seen are Spider Man 2 and, um, one of the old Batman movies. I think.

The big problem with Catwoman was the "OMFG I Died, Oh sweet cats somehow magicly brought me back to life! Now i'm going to be bad.  Wait I'm going to be good".  I'm not too big into the catwoman books but I'm pretty sure thats not anywhere close to anything that could be considered a correct origin.  I don't care if its changed a bit (read: spiderman's webbing) but they really should have renamed her panter girl or somthing and not wasted the cash on the licence for the movie.  Hell call it "See Halle Berry in leather movie"!

Catwoman is a complex character.  She isnt good and she isnt bad.  She has her own motivations and tries to accomplish whatever she wants by any means nessessary.  Sure she is a cat burglar, but she steals from the rich, and it is usually some animal related item, like a pelt, a jade sphynx etc.  She also uses these goods to fund things like animal conservation areas.  She's definitely a grey character.

j

[xthexpunisherx]

Catwoman is a complex character.  She isnt good and she isnt bad.  She has her own motivations and tries to accomplish whatever she wants by any means nessessary.  Sure she is a cat burglar, but she steals from the rich, and it is usually some animal related item, like a pelt, a jade sphynx etc.  She also uses these goods to fund things like animal conservation areas.  She's definitely a grey character.

j

I get the basic catwoman idea.  I've read enough seen enough to know of her struggle etc etc.  i wasn't really confused by that.  It was the died and given life by cats angle that I didn't understand.  I never thought that was her origin I don't think it is

[Klep]

Hellboy was pretty bad.  Sin City is far and above the best comic book movie made, and Batman Begins is next.  I love the Spidey movies, but Batman is just such an amazing character, and the cast in the movie is simply incredible.  Anything with Morgan Freeman in it automatically gets a leg up on the competition.