Our list of Superhero movies that we feel are often overlooked.
The Ten Most Underrated Superhero Movies
Superhero movies have been around for quite some time but in the last decade or so they have become a staple. Not two days pass without one being announced or two months without one being released.
Here I have compiled a list of ten movies from the ‘Superhero’ genre which I feel are at times criminally underrated/under-appreciated or have simply been forgotten. Not all of them follow the classic superhero structure nor are all of them adaptations from already present material.
So in descending order here they are; 10. Dick Tracy (1990):
Dick Tracy was a character who did not have any real superpowers other than his wits & fast fists; much like Batman without the costume or the gravelly voice. Based on a long running comic-strip the 1990 movie (another version had been done in 1945) starred the charismatic Warren Betty in the titular role & he also took care of directing duties. Al Pacino literally chewed & spat out the scenery as Big Boy Caprice & Madonna was never this sultry on screen.
The seedy faux-pass noir setting, the brilliant character make-up & prosthetics, the colorful backgrounds (before Joel Schumacher would make the style ugly in 1995 with Batman Forever) all made the movie look like the comic strip had come alive, much before Rodriguez made a similar style cooler with ‘Sin City’.
While I did mildly enjoy, Tim Burton’s first adaptation ‘Batman’ (1989), I always felt he nailed it head-on with the sequel. While this wasn’t the first superhero movie to feature multiple villains, it surely got the roles right & the character devices perfect to the entire plot. Michelle Pfeiffer as ‘Catwoman’ embodied the term sexy & feisty at the same time & it was her character when thrown into the mix that created the perfect x-factor for the movie. You never really knew where things were headed with her.
The overall tone was much darker & more mature than the straight-forward first part. Burton also improved upon his handling of the action sequences though they were still a bit clunky. The colder gothic setting worked far better in this movie than the first one & Christopher Walken had a brilliant but small role as Max Shreck. Danny DeVito was a little too over the top as ‘The Penguin’, but was still enjoyable in a campy fashion. This was the last decent Batman movie for me till Christopher Nolan rocked my world with ‘Batman Begins’ (2003).
Sam Raimi fresh of the success of his ‘Evil Dead’ movies (and way before his ‘Spider Man’ days) wanted to direct a superhero movie of his own & tried unsuccessfully to secure the rights to adapt ‘The Shadow’ & ‘Batman’. He did the next best thing; create a superhero of his own. Thus ‘Darkman’ was born. A scientist (Liam Neeson) who is attacked & left for dead returns heavily scarred to extract revenge. His weapon; thanks to a surgery he can neutralize his physical pain & increase his emotional output thus making him half-crazy. He also develops a synthetic skin that he can place on his face & disguise himself as anyone he wants, but the effect in sunlight can last for 99 minutes only after which the skin disintegrates. The other time his face remains covered in bandages & he wears a trench coat to conceal his identity.
‘Darkman’ was a precursor to many “realistic” superhero movies we see today & considering it was built from scratch was quite a marvel. The movie had quite a deliciously menacing villain in actor Larry Drake playing Durant a crime boss with a penchant for collecting fingers of his victims. Liam Neeson was pitch-perfect in his portrayal of the tormented man seeking justice. Raimi’s dark humor only added gravitas to the proceedings. Two direct to video sequels followed but none came close to this little gem.
Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) & his girlfriend are killed by a group of thugs. Exactly a year later a crow taps on the gravestone of Eric & he is resurrected to extract revenge. Eric dons a trench-coat & some white make-up looking all gothic & creepy (not much unlike the Joker or even anyone from K.I.S.S.) & goes on a vengeance spree.
A highly stylish noir tale of resurrection & revenge adapted from James O’Barr’s comic book was a visual delight. Director Alex Proyas crafted a conventional tale using an unconventional style reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ (1982). The murky, brooding & glum imagery created a world of decadence screaming out for a saviour & Brandon Lee’s undead ‘Crow’ perfectly fit into that world. The look of movie captured the resurgence of the darker tone that had dominated comics during the 80s. The villains, lead by the creepy Michael Wincott, are more than a match for the protagonist. The background score had a haunting melody that has been later used in countless movie trailers. Unfortunately this also happened to be Brandon Lee’s last film as he died while shooting the movie in an accident.
While I found Ang Lee’s ‘Hulk’ (2003) an amusing diversion at times, it mostly played out like a Greek tragedy with far too little action for a guy called the Hulk. ‘The Incredible Hulk’ on the other hand balanced out it’s action & plot to give a truly enjoyable version of the angry green guy. The story felt far more personal plus Bruce Banner & Betty Ross’s relationship too was more heartfelt. The plot gave enough time for the characters to develop while moving at an engaging pace & even teased us with some future villains.
Edward Norton was the biggest boon & most importantly he understood that this was primarily a fugitive movie about a man trying to get rid of his internal demons while being on the run from others. Tim Roth’s unhinged portrayal was arresting to say the least & the Hulk got a worthy opponent in the end with the Abomination. Fans wanted to see the Hulk run amok & smash things up & the movie gave them just that. Too bad the movie was only a modest hit & the franchise’s future remains uncertain; though Tony Stark’s cameo in the movie did give hope that it’s not curtains yet for this series of the Hulk movies. This was by far one of the best comic-book movie adaptations of a well known superhero in the past decade. HULK SMASH!!!
A rocket-pack designed by Howard Hughes is stolen by the mafia & it falls into the hands of a test pilot, Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) who along with some help from a mechanic, Peevy Peabody (Alan Arkin) uses it to become the high-flying crime-fighter, ‘The Rocketeer’. Add to the mix a slimy film-star Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton), Cliff’s girlfriend, Valentine (Jennifer Connelly), the mob, G-Men & crazy Nazis; & you have the perfect recipe for an exhilarating adventure.
The 1930s & 40s were a golden era for pulpy action-adventure movies & literature. The world was moving forward at a blistering pace & people were wildly imagining what the future might hold. ‘The Rocketeer’ was based on a comic that paid homage to the larger-than-life pulpy heroes of the 30s & 40s. The movie played along in the same vein became homage of sorts to the adventures which Errol Flynn & Douglas Fairbanks enjoyed while keeping a pseudo retro Sci-Fi tone while also maintaining a strong campy atmosphere in abundance. Timothy Dalton hammed it up as a 40’s era actor clearly based on Errol Flynn but was one of the most enjoyable performances of the movie & his career. Unfortunately the movie bombed at the box-office & the series never went ahead inspite of a sequel being hinted at the end. However Joe Johnston surely impressed many with the skill with which he crafted the movie, since he’s been given the reigns of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ (2012).
Guillermo del Toro never hid love for Mike Mignola’s ‘Hellboy’ character & when he got an opportunity to make the first movie in 2004 he grabbed it like his life depended on it. While the original ‘Hellboy’ was good, it wasn’t until the second part came out that the character got a true blue story to kick around with on an epic scale & del Toro’s imagination was simply unleashed in the most incorrigible fashion ever to create a visually dazzling & at the same time a very heartfelt movie. The movie’s ecological message felt earnest & the relationships it built though simplistic in nature still had enough emotional gravitas to make us feel involved. Oh and the set design & character make-up was stupendous to say the least, the troll market literally made you feel transported to another world. Ron Pearlman, unrecognizable under heavy make up, was born to play the lead character.
The movie though well received by critics failed to generate much interest in the audience (also thanks to ‘The Dark Knight’ releasing a week after it’s release) ultimately leading to a strictly mediocre box-office performance. Though everyone involved has shown enough interest to return for a third part, it looks unlikely anytime in the near future, especially with del Toro directing the two ‘Hobbit’ movies back to back.
A police officer brutally gunned down in the line of duty is brought back as a law enforcement cyborg. Things do not go as planned & while he is wired to follow orders; his brain keeps on fluctuating between his past self & his current rigid programming. He starts to go after those who killed him & does so in true Paul Verhoeven ‘bloody-as-hell’ style.
Yes, while most of you might not regard RoboCop as a superhero movie; I strongly feel it perfectly fits the template incorporating many themes of the genre. An innocent weaker man is reborn as a stronger entity with a new identity while he still struggles with his previous one. The armor clearly looks like a suit/costume & his new found abilities as RoboCop are the superpowers he’s been granted. The entire journey has superhero story written all over it. Add to that the over-the-top graphic violence & truly despicable villains straight out of a 80s comic book. Basil Poleduris’s iconic theme has remained in my memory till date.
The movie’s taut action sequences combined with its acidic sense of humor & social commentary about materialistic attitudes & corporatization along with urban decay really gave the movie a lethal edge. Too bad inspite of two sequels & countless direct-to-TV/Video movies, not one movie has come close to capturing the essence of the original. There was hope recently that the remake would turn out well with Darren Aronofsky directing but the movie’s been put on indefinite hold.
Alright I know this is a cheat but packing two movies in one was the only way I could do justice to both. Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a “daywalker” (half-vampire/half-human) who along with help from his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) hunts down Vampires. The Vampires aren’t the old fashioned ‘Darcula’ types but rather sophisticated individuals who regard their condition as a medical one & live in a parallel world to that of the humans. They have also infiltrated every human organization right from the government to banks & even seem to own almost every nightclub in town. Honestly vampires & vampire hunting were never this cool before.
Marvel lived long under the shadow of DC for a long time before ‘Blade’ came along. The movie adaptations of DC viz. Batman & Superman were well know to all but when director Stephen Norrington decided to pick up a comic book character out of obscurity & stray from his roots to combine various neo elements already present in movies & update the vampire mythology, ‘Blade’ was born. It really laid the foundation for future comic book adaptations where characters & their stories were placed in a less campy & more contemporary setting. The action quotient was raised a few notches so stylishly that even before ‘The Matrix’ came along, ‘Blade’ already had used the first ‘bullet-time’ effect. In the second movie came out Guillermo del Toro created an even more visceral experience purely crackling with energy. In the second part just watch the opening sequence, or the reapers, slow-mo shot of the blood-pack lead by Blade walking into a night club while Mos Def’s ‘I Against I’ plays in the background or Donnie Yen’s sword fight, or Ron Pearlman’s death; all are magnificent beyond belief. But the biggest ace which the Blade movies held was Wesley Snipes as ‘Blade’. Snipes redefined the term ‘bad-ass’, here was one guy you’d not want to mess with. Too bad the third movie turned out to be such a downer & Snipes legal tangles have held up any further movies, but recently its been rumored that a fourth movie is being looked at.
Security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is only survivor of a horrific train accident that leaves 131 passengers dead & the most bewildering thing is that, he doesn’t even have a scratch on him. Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) a comic book art connoisseur comes to David with a theory. Due to his childhood fascination with comic books, Elijah theorizes that David must be some kind of superhero who can’t get hurt physically. He also says how David has to find the truth out for himself & pushes him to find his place in the universe as what he was born to be. David soon starts to believe in his powers, takes up the mantle as a mysterious stranger helping people & even looks back into his past but a horrific twist awaits him at the end of the tunnel.
“Wow!” this was exactly what I thought after having watched the movie. Truth be told I had predicted the twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Sixth Sense’ long before it came. The twist in ‘Unbreakable’ was literally like being struck by a freight train. Just did not know where it came from & suddenly the entire movie made perfect sense. David’s journey reflected a slow realization about oneself & when combined with the superhero themes, makes such a fascinating watch. The way the mythos of a superhero was constructed & deconstructed at the same time could only be enjoyed if you gave it time & absorbed in the details. Even David’s first attempt at being a caped crusader wasn’t a smooth one & showed his struggle to understand who he is & what he can or can’t do. James Newton Howard’s hauntingly beautiful score proved to be apt for the movie. Even the way scenes were composed echoed frames & panels from a comic book.
Though the movie did pretty well box-office wise (mostly thanks to the then M. Night Shyamalan hoopla) it wasn’t considered good enough to warrant sequels. Shyamalan has gone on record saying how he’s envisaged the movie as the first in a trilogy & I hope he gets his wish.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): The turtles were a blast when I was a kid. One of the original superhero teams, too bad ineffectual sequels & time have made them redundant.
Orgazmo (1997): A superhero who’s a devout Mormon & a porn-star by day! (WTF?) But by night he’s “Orrrggaazzzmo!”, who’s superpower is basically giving the bad guys orgasms & destabilizing them. Only Trey Parker & Matt Stone (The guys who made Southpark) could have come up with something this crazy.
Do let us know what do you think of the list & if you have some superhero movie which you think is UNDERRATED (remember Underrated) then leave a comment below.
- List compiled by Danish Bagdadi
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Our list of Superhero movies that we feel are often overlooked.
10. Dick Tracy (1990): 
9. Batman Returns (1992):
8. Darkman (1990):
7. The Crow (1994):
6. The Incredible Hulk (2008):
5. The Rocketeer (1991):
4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008):
3. RoboCop (1987): 
2. Blade (1998) & Blade II (2002):
1. Unbreakable (2000):
The Mask of Zorro (1998):
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): 
Orgazmo (1997): 
