My son is currently in a superheroes phase. He loves comic books and superhero stories. His last birthday party was a superhero party where all his friends dressed up as their favorite hero. My son was THOR. THOR (all caps required) is his absolute favorite. I like the fact that he picked a hero a little less ubiquitous than the usual Spiderman, Superman and Batman. It's a bit more of an original choice.
But he's still too young to watch many of the superhero movies. He definitely can't watch any of the Batman movies. Even THOR we rented, previewed, made note of the questionable scenes and showed him our edited version. We caved and let him watch The Avengers (after previewing it ourselves) which he loved...but not in 3D...we thought that might be too intense.
So I pulled out my DVD of 1978's Superman this week. And we watched it as a family. He loved it although he did get a bit bored during the talky parts. I had forgotten how good the Christopher Reeve version is. I had seen it at the old Glenwood Theater in Overland Park as a kid when I was about my son's age. It has aged very well. It still has the best opening credits ever of any movie of any genre.
Sure, some of the special effects are a bit dusty, especially the scene when a high school Clark Kent runs alongside a train. But most of the FX hold up very nicely and in some ways are superior to the cheap CG effects used today. CG gets overused and overblown these days. The first half of Superman is fantastic. The scenes on Krypton are some of the best true sci-fi scenes you'll ever see depicted on screen. Gene Hackman is the best Lex Luthor ever. The new Superman made a few years ago just doesn't compare. Hopefully next year's Man of Steel will do it some justice.
So it got me thinking. What are my favorite superhero films of all time? So I've composed a top five list of my personal faves. The list is negotiable and certainly not set in stone. But as of today here's my list:
1.) Ironman (If I could be a superhero...this is who I would be.)
2.) Superman (1978's version with Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and Marlon Brando.)
3.) The Avengers (My son calls me Hawkeye for some reason. I don't even own a bow.)
4.) The Dark Knight Rises (I could easily change this to Batman Begins. The Dark Knight although very good was too long and a bit pedantic. TDKR closed the series very nicely. I also really liked Michael Keaton's Batman.)
5.) The Amazing Spider-Man (The new one with Andrew Garfield. I can't stand Tobey Maguire but I will admit that Spider-Man 2 is an excellent superhero movie. If Garfield had played Peter Parker in that one that would be in the list. Spider-Man was my favorite superhero as a kid.)
You'll notice (or maybe you wouldn't) there's no X-Men. I just have never been able to get into that series. I like Patrick Stewart as Xavier and Ian McKellen as Magneto but I can never take Hugh Jackman seriously as Wolverine. In fact, his casting may be the reason I never got into the series.) Captain America also gets an honorable mention. I thought it would be cheesy. I was pleasantly surprised and it's very good. Anything with Hugo Weaving is worth watching.
Also, a shout out to one of the so-bad-it's-good superhero movies of all time...1980's Flash Gordon with Sam Jones, Timothy Dalton and Max von Sydow. Bizarre special effects and weird characters make this flick a trippy experience. I can't imagine watching this under the influence of "medicinal" properties. But the thing that takes it over the top is the awesome Queen soundtrack: FLASH! Ahh Ahh!
