My 31 Favourite Superhero Movies: Part Three 25-22

The first X-Men movie was the first movie in a long while to make superhero movies feel worth taking seriously again. While the story was a bit flat in the first instalment and there were some severe third act problems, it set up the universe well and its opening in a concentration camp really left an impact. X2 is able to build on what the first film established and ramps up the action.

The tale of misfits and outcasts who demand to be taken seriously by a world that finds change threatening is given extra bite by Bryan Singer's very subtle gay rights angle, though the struggles of the X-Men are like a placeholder for any number of human rights issues. It's a pity Jean Gray's death at the end feels so pointless. (Comic book fans were pleased, but newcomers were mostly confused.)

Though widely panned, "Amazing Spider-Man 2"  features some of the most realistic and adorable relationship scenes between a superhero and his love interest that we've ever seen in a superhero film. Marc Webb's background with "(500) Days of Summer", a romantic comedy, actually made him very suitable for a Spider-Man film. So much of Spider-Man revolves around Peter Parker's relationship angst and frankly I found that element to be excruciating in all of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield are so charming and funny, their scenes that I often prefer those to the main action scenes. While not helped by the script, the performances and imagery are consistently excellent.

There was an audible gasp at the shocking event towards the end, even though most people were expecting it. Annoyingly the film pointed towards an action-packed follow-up which the upcoming reboot completely rules out, but I found the way the film wrapped up was very emotionally satisfying anyway.

Pixar's take on superheroes combines a fall from grace for superheroes as a whole (out of "Watchmen"), a superpowered family (whose abilities mostly come from "Fantastic Four" specifically) and a lot of James Bond references. The most original element here is probably Edna the fashion designer who creates the superhero outfits.



Still even while the concept isn't as creative as normal for Pixar, the execution is top notch. It's a pretty simple story, but endlessly entertaining.

B+

There's been a bit of a backlash against found footage movies (as if it were the genre, not the filmmakers to blame). However, Chronicle is one of the stand-outs of the found footage genre.

In this period in cinema we are overrun with low budget found footage films and ultra-budget superhero films. Yet this mid-budget film which straddles both genres does a pretty awesome feat by having stronger characters and greater originality than most entries in either.

Sure, in some ways this is the live-action American Akira remake the studios threatened us with, but it's a unique vision of super-powered teenage friends. The film is all the stronger for introducing general cinema audiences to Michael B. Jordan and Dane DeHaan.

Annoyingly Chronicle shares the over-blown third act common to most superhero films, but it's still funny, emotionally engaging and features some cool simple-but-highly-effective visuals.