So here's a quick rundown of my personal opinions on a bunch of WB/DC and Marvel superhero movies, going back about 10 years. Let's see where I really stand:
| MOVIE | RATING / 10 | MICROREVIEW |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor Strange (Marvel, 2016) | 6.0 | Visuals pretty but not meaningful; Too formulaic, especially at the beginning; Humor in the wrong spots; Secondary characters too flat. |
| Suicide Squad (WB/DC, 2016) | 7.5 | Good characters and style; Enchantress a good choice but not well executed; Action a bit run-of-the-mill. |
| Captain America: Civil War (Marvel, 2016) | 6.5 | Strong thematic set-up but does not follow through; Action is fun but tone is inconsistent and motivations are contradictory or absent; Cinematography is weak. |
| Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (WB/DC, 2016) | 9.8 | Deep, coherent character arcs; Rich in societal, philosophical themes; Strong use of visual imagery; Great music. |
| Ant-Man (Marvel, 2015) | 5.5 | Humor did not land well for me; Character arcs were too obvious and sometimes pushed aside in favor of plot beats; Not much to discuss afterward. |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel, 2015) | 6.5 | Important theme but addressed in a surface-level way; Ultron always seemed like James Spader to me; Action was contradictingly flat and chaotic. |
| Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel, 2014) | 7.0 | Entertaining movie but I am not as infatuated with Rocket Raccoon or Drax as others are; Ronan’s role in the plot was contrived; Chris Pratt is Chris Pratt. |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Marvel, 2014) | 8.0 | Cap, Bucky have good characterizations; Plot is intriguing though themes are under-developed; Fury’s “death” was bad, Helicarriers unrealistic. |
| Thor: The Dark World (Marvel, 2013) | 4.5 | I did not really enjoy the characters, the humor, or the plot; it looked like TV. |
| Man of Steel (WB/DC, 2013) | 9.5 | Realistic world building; Deep characterization of Clark/Kal-El; Great link between origin and villain; Compelling action and music; Drawback is a few bad lines of dialogue. |
| Iron Man 3 (Marvel, 2013) | 6.0 | Some good Iron Man / Tony personality but I did not really get into it and it was quickly forgettable. |
| The Dark Knight Rises (WB/DC, 2012) | 8.0 | A logical conclusion to the character arcs and themes of the trilogy, though a bit of a letdown from the stellar TDK; some plot contrivances but a good story for Bane; Great action in parts but poor fight scenes in other parts. |
| The Avengers (Marvel, 2012) | 7.5 | Good multi-character story but lack of deep themes; Exciting action but disrespect to real heroes, first responders; Humor gets in the way at times. |
| Captain America: The First Avenger (Marvel, 2011) | 7.0 | A pretty straightforward, pretty decent origin story but not great; period settings were cool; a bit cheesy and safe in its approach, at times. |
| Green Lantern (WB/DC, 2011) | 6.5 | To me it’s not as bad as most people say; Humor good in most spots, not all; Effects and production design were hit and miss; Villain didn’t reach potential. |
| Thor (Marvel, 2011) | 6.0 | Personally don’t like the Thor character that much and didn’t buy his relationships on Earth; Predictable or formulaic in parts. |
| Jonah Hex (WB/DC, 2010) | 6.0 | Not a great movie but I liked the thorough setting and tone, and Brolin’s portrayal of Hex; other performances not as good; some really good scenes even if the whole thing was undercooked. |
| Iron Man 2 (Marvel, 2010) | 7.0 | Step down in cinematography, story from the first installment; some action scenes are pretty good but they are sometimes convoluted; Didn’t like the villain. |
| The Dark Knight (WB/DC, 2008) | 9.6 | Great villains; Good story and characters that all feed into themes; Memorable scenes and music; Discussion starter. |
| The Incredible Hulk (Marvel, 2008) | 6.5 | Not a big fan of Edward Norton; Some good action sequences but the story was pretty pedestrian. |
| Iron Man (Marvel, 2008) | 8.5 | Compelling character; Good cinematography, settings; strong action scenes; right amount of humor. |
| Superman Returns (WB/DC, 2006) | 7.5 | As others have said – pretty good drama, not a great superhero movie; Nods to classic Superman are nice but also hold it back from greatness. |
| Batman Begins (WB/DC, 2005) | 8.5 | Refreshing and serious new take on Bruce Wayne and Batman; Good settings and music; Smart choice of villains. |
Looking across the whole table, my rating averages 8.1 for the 9 WB/DC films and only 6.6 for the 14 Marvel films. So as expected, my tastes align more with the WB/DC side of things. But to answer the main question -- is it true that I like most of the Marvel movies? -- I tend to consider anything above a 6/10 as me "liking it" and so the Marvel average is above 6 and so is in the "like" range. Also, going film by film, there are 9 out of the 14 that I've rated higher than 6, so yes, it is true that I like most of the Marvel films. But...
I like WB/DC a lot more. What this compilation has really revealed for me is how substantially the WB/DC movies stand above the Marvel movies. Only 2
WB/DC films – Green Lantern and Jonah
Hex – were rated lower than my average rating for Marvel, and I didn't even hate those two movies. In recent years, even my least favorite WB/DC movie – Suicide
Squad – rates higher for me than the last five Marvel movies. And overall, there is just one Marvel film – Iron Man – that I have rated higher than the WB/DC average. That leaves 13 Marvel films (!) lower than my average rating for WB/DC.
Here are my ratings in graphical form:
2016 Rankings
While I'm on the topic of personal favorites, here is my ranking of superhero films in 2016:
- Batman v Superman (way ahead!)
- Suicide Squad
- X-Men: Apocalypse
- Captain America: Civil War
- And quite a bit below (but still decent)...
- TMNT: Out of the Shadows tied with Doctor Strange
- Deadpool (just not my style, though I can see why others liked it)
Movies with famous stars and large budgets (lots of money), are designed to have a wide appeal, so that hopefully millions of people will pay to see them. These most expensive movies are called blockbusters. Special effects can add a huge amount to the cost of a movie, especially the newest CGI effects, but people have come to expect them and every blockbuster movie tries to out-do the last. movie ratings
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