Elecktra

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

an intersting side note, apparently she was hospitalized recently and they determined that she had done some serious nerve damage to herself during the filming of the movie... and she might not fully recover.

[42]

well, the initial reviews aren't good. Something along the lines that this movie will kill the super-hero genre. But things are early still and the first reviewers could just be bitter opponents to comic book adaptations.

[EUOL]

11 reviews on RT, all bad.  I'm with 42 on this one--doesn't look good.  

I doubt it will kill the superhero genre; it would take a more high-profile, summer flop to do any serious damage.  Late winter, like early fall, is when studios generally release their long-shots.  So, I doubt anyone is expecting too much from this one.

[Eagle Prince]

Who's that guy with the wolf tattoo and a wolf jumps out of it, he looked cool.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

i'll still watch it. becuase she's hot

(and also because I feel obligated to watch all comic book movies that aren't rated R)

[Dex1138]

it would take a more high-profile, summer flop to do any serious damage.  

(see also: Batman & Robin)
Thanks to X-Men & Spidey, we're being bombarded by comic movies. That being a blessing or curse...well, IMO there haven't been any great ones yet, but I'm hoping. Most have been so-so at best, I hear Iron Man is on the slate though...
I will be seeing Elektra at some point for the fight scenes and that crazy tatoo guy...and Jennifer Garner.

[Nicadymus]

The only reason I will see E is for Garner.  I hated the DD movie, and that doesn't have anything to do with my dislike for Bennifer.  I thought the whole thing was poor.

Because of that I am not expecting much from E, either, but who can argue with Garner in that red outfit.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I dunno. The Spideys are among my fav movies of any genre. The X-Men were really good. The Incredibles also pretty darn good. Hulk (and many will disagree) pretty solid (not the best admittedly). Then we have a bunch of average ones, like MIB and the Blades, which people enjoy watching, but don't break any new ground or aren't especially brilliant. Every genre has it's weak points. If you're looking at Daredevil and Catwoman and Elecktra as saying the genre is suffering, I think you have the wrong perspective. Here's how I break it up For the last 20-25 years. I'm sticking with Superhero ones, so films like The Ring and what's it's bucket about the hitman with Tom Hanks aren't on it. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I'll be reminded.

Very Good
Batman
Superman
Superman II
X-Men
X2
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Hulk
Mystery Men
Hellboy
The Incredibles

Average to Good
MIB
Blade
Blade II
Batman Returns
(I haven't seen Blade III, but I hear it belongs on this list)
Flash Gordon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
Dick Tracy
The Phantom
The Mask

Bad or Worse
Punisher
1980's Punisher
1980's Captain America
Supergirl
Superman III
Superman IV
Daredevil (though I thought it average, I thought I'd grade tough)
MIB II
Catwoman
Batman and Robin
Batman Forever
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II
The Shadow
The Mask II (come on, I don't even have to see it to know this sucks)

In the near future, I'm thinking we'll be adding Elektra to this last list if we're grading tough, but that Batman Begins will be added to the first or second lists (I'm being optimistic). Likewise, most people are still hopefull that Fantastic Four will be at least average.

By this reckoning we have a dozen bad movies. Two of which were straight to video (the 1980's Marvel flicks), so the producers recognized how bad it was before it was even released. And three of which (MIB II, Punisher, and Daredevil) could be argued up to the next level by some fans (I personally would only argue Daredevil up to average).

By this same reckoning we have 11 movies that are very good  or better. I can see two of them being argued down to average (Hulk and Mystery Men) but I'm inclined to leave them where they are. Even if we do down grade them, then we're still, even being tough on the genre, looking at 14 bad to 9 very good. with between 11-13 on the average or so list (depending on how harsh we are with the very good ones, that means that there are almost twice as many average or better superhero flicks than there are bad ones.

I dunno, I think that's pretty darn good for comics translated to the silver screen. Most genres, I would argue, have much bigger percentages in the average or bad sections.

edit: fixed the name of Batman returns and a bunch of new movies I suddenly remembered. I also want to mention (once again) that I would pay big bucks if liscencing deals could be worked out for a Maximum Carnage adaptation with Spidey, Venom, and Carnage duking it out, with a preceding movies explaining Venom's origin somehow.

Does anyone know whether "Dark Man" was originally a comic and how many of those movies there were?

[Fellfrosch]

I would move Mystery Men down and MIB up--I thought it was one of the better movies of the genre. Other than that, I agree with most of your placings here. (I used to love Batman Forever, but I think I was on a sugar rush or something. I haven't been able to watch it without gagging in about seven years.)

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

you left out the 80's FF movie that was so bad it wasnt even released to video... its just bootlegged and sold at Cons..

Remember Vicki the punk from Greensboro, She and I bought it when we were dating, man that was a bad bad movie...

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, I should get around to adding that. Thank goodness Marvel stopped making movies for 20 years.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Mystery Men is awesome.

And I also liked Supergirl...

Where would you put Spawn? Hmm...was Darkman a comic?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh. Spawn. You know, I've never actually watched it. I'll need group opinion on that.

[Spriggan]

I'd put Spawn in the adverage section.  It had good fx for it's time and decent acting, except by John Leguizamo, who was realy good.  The plotting and some of the minor acting was a little on the bad side.    Though I think the Spawn Cartoon (from HBO) should be on the realy good list.  Though I think most of the comic cartoons, especialy the Bruce Timm ones, have been good to realy good.  Heck I even liked the Arche TMNT, though I account that to age.

Also, I like Batman Returns better then the first batman.  Though I'd move MIB, Shadow, and MIB 2 up one slot each.

[Spriggan]

As for Darkman, IMDB has 3 movies (only one was done by Rami) and it's not based off of a Comic book.  In the Trivia section for the movie it has:

Director Sam Raimi originally wanted to base this movie on "The Shadow" and had to create the character of "Darkman" when he couldn't obtain the rights.

Guess Liam was Raimi's second choice for Darkman, he wanted Bruce Campble and the studio wouldn't let him.  Though Campble did fill in for Neilson for a few reshots.