Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey
In 480BC, around 300 Spartans (plus countless doomed slaves, but let’s not quibble) really did hold off the entire Persian army – so adapting the incident into an action movie should’ve been a doddle. Sadly, barely a performance in 300 isn’t hamstrung by a one-note declamatory style or can overcome the limitations of a script that struggles to develop the source material. Amid the almost constant clash and thunder of battle/weather/man-hugging those faults are barely apparent, but in the film’s few quiet moments, actors, writers and director are left awkwardly exposed. PF
Over the last decade and a half or so, it’s often seemed like comic book movies are the only movies being made anymore. And while it always made sense from a mega-studio business perspective, for a lot of film fans, that level of oversaturation (from both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe) has bred exhaustion and more than a little cynicism – and there are signs that it’s finally starting to happen to mainstream movie audiences as well.
It’s a shame, really. Because when done right – and for reasons that aren’t just about keeping a cinematic cash-cow well fed – comic book movies rank among the most spectacular forms of escapist entertainment. But let’s not paint with a broad ink pen here. Sure, those that have dominated the box office across the last 10 years have frequently involved high-powered superheroes with IPs going back to the mid-20th century scrambling to save the world from the latest high-powered mega-villain. And many of them are totally awesome. But ‘comic book movie’ and ‘superhero movie’ aren’t always synonymous. Some deal with complex, real-world issues and emotions, with nary a cape in sight. Others use superhero mythology as a jumping off point for looking for the problems that plague modern society – or simply deconstruct that mythology all together.
In any case, comic book movies can do a lot more than just make millions of dollars. Here are 50 of the best, as selected by Time Out writers – with an assist from a guy who has made a few great ones himself, director Edgar Wright.
Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, David Jenkins, Andy P. Kryza, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer
Recommended:
🦸 All the Marvel movies ranked from worst to best
🦄 The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time
💣 The best action movies of all-time
✍ The 100 best animated movies of all-time