The 25 Best Superhero Movies of All Time
Thunderbolts* reinvigorated the once-dominant Marvel franchise, even if only for a little while. Anchored by Florence Pugh, who reprises her role as Yelena Belova from 2021's Black Widow, Thunderbolts* follows an ensemble of B-tier anti-heroes (and one Winter Soldier, played by Sebastian Stan) who form a new team to stop the one person who got them together in the first place. Time will ultimately tell what legacy Thunderbolts* leaves behind, but this found family picture is not just shockingly good—it's great.
Once upon a time, Shazam comics were even more popular than Superman. Decades later, the Big Red Cheese finally got his big budget movie in David F. Sandberg's Shazam!—and to the surprise of everyone, it was truly superb.
Essentially a comic book riff on Big with Tom Hanks, Shazam! tells the story of an orphaned teen named Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who is gifted godlike powers by a wizard (Djimon Honsou). With just one word, Billy transforms into the adult superhero, Shazam (Zachary Levi). Hilarious, heartfelt, and surprisingly mature without sacrificing any boyhood whimsy, Shazam! feels like a bolt of lightning that hits you right on the chest. It's one hell of a Christmas movie, too.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Before James Gunn made his mark on both the Marvel and DC universes, he unleashed his own masked punisher in Super. Released in 2010, this pitch-black dark comedy follows a fry cook (Rainn Wilson) who tries to rescue his estranged wife (Liv Tyler) from a charismatic criminal (Kevin Bacon). His plan? Don the mask and wield the scarlet tools of the Crimson Bolt! A portrait of doomed marriages and men in crisis, Super foreshadows Gunn's capacity to tell stories of deeply flawed people whose costumes can't hide their open wounds.
During the apex of Marvel's dominance, arguably the least interesting of the MCU's character roster—Chris Hemsworth's Thor—took on a new tone in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok. The movie sees Hemsworth's Strongest Avenger reunite with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Together, they must stop an ancient menace from Asgard: Hela (Cate Blanchett).
Both a loving homage to Thor's cosmic comics from the 1980s and an inventive buddy action with deadpan Waititi humor, Thor: Ragnarok electrifies with an onslaught of color, comedy, and sick Led Zeppelin needle-drops.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Arguing that Watchmen is a great superhero movie feels like saying Rorschach is your favorite superhero. There's just something dark and seedy about the sentiment that feels like it's missing the point. Even so, there's no denying that Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' celebrated saga is a sight to behold.
A mostly faithful retelling of the award-winning graphic novel, Watchmen takes place in an alternate 1986—where superheroes are lawfully outlawed by a fifth-term Nixon presidency. Meanwhile, the "Watchmen" race to track down who's killing former superheroes before they're killed too. Much like looking into Rorschach's mask, everyone has a different opinion about what they saw in Watchmen.
Kneel before Superman II! In the canon of sequels that are maybe better than the original, Superman II stands tall. While Christopher Reeve still shines as the Man of Steel, his showdown against a trio of Kryptonian criminals—led by General Zod (Terence Stamp)—is either pretty good or excellent, depending on which cut you're watching.
For most people, 2006's Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut that reigns supreme over its 1980 theatrical release, which was completed by Richard Lester after original director Richard Donner left production.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
One year before the Covid-19 pandemic, audiences everywhere jammed into theaters to witness history in Avengers: Endgame. The culmination of Marvel's years-long Infinity Saga, Avengers: Endgame sees the fallen heroes pick themselves up five years after their battle with Thanos. Their plan? Travel back in time and retrieve the scattered Infinity Stones. Avengers: Endgame might not make a lick of sense to anyone who didn't follow its saga from the start, but the film was a rewarding finale for the truest of Marvel's believers. It was the end of the beginning for the MCU—and, perhaps, the beginning of the end.
In 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy got everyone hooked on a feeling. James Gunn's first big budget tentpole for Marvel Studios made everyone fall for Chris Pratt's abs and a talking tree voiced by Vin Diesel. But as good as Guardians was, the 2017 sequel was even better. Picking up with the Guardians entrenched in their roles as heroes-for-hire, the group begins to fracture when they meet the strange being Ego (Kurt Russell), who turns out to be Star-Lord's genetic father.
Brimming with color on its slick sci-fi surface, Vol. 2 packs a harder punch than its predecessor with a comparatively darker story about the real meaning of family—never mind the adorable Baby Groot paving the way for Grogu in The Mandalorian.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Imagine if David Cronenberg directed Spider-Man. That's the vibe of Shin Kamen Rider, written and directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno.
A reboot of the 1971 television series from Japan, Shin Kamen Rider follows college student and motorcyclist Takeshi Hongo (The Last Samurai's Sosuke Ikematsu) after he's kidnapped by a terrorist group named SHOCKER and transformed into a half-dead cyborg with superhuman powers. Aided by SHOCKER defectors, Takeshi uses his powers to stop his creators from world domination.
Shin Kamen Rider is not only a worthwhile intro to Japan's superheroes; it's a welcome change of pace from Marvel and DC's hegemonic movies.
Hellboy was not Guillermo del Toro's first dance with superhero movies. In 2002, he helmed Blade II, which we can all agree is tons of fun. But his 2004 film adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book series Hellboy is on another level, better suiting del Toro's gothic voice and storybook vision.
Based on the comics by Mike Mignola, Hellboy stars Ron Perlman as a demon from Hell adopted by a kind scientist (John Hurt) during World War II. Decades later, he grows into "Hellboy," a swole government agent whose work investigating the paranormal gets personal when a sorcerer tries to trigger the apocalypse. Hellboy is a sinfully great superhero movie—one that survives the test of time thanks to its practical effects and the eye of a true auteur.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
The Russo Brothers' first outing with Marvel Studios set a high bar. A direct sequel to the 2011 hit Captain America: The First Avenger and a follow-up to The Avengers, The Winter Soldier marks the return of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to the screen. America's hero goes on the run after his S.H.I.E.L.D.organization is unmasked as a puppet group for the evil HYRDA. Along the way, Steve confronts an old face: Bucky (Sebastian Stan), now weaponized as the brainwashed Winter Soldier.
Easily one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The Winter Soldier wears its '70s political thriller cosplay with gusto, right down to Robert Redford as the villainous Alexander Pierce.
While haunted by the loss of Brandon Lee, who died during its production, The Crow endures as a gothic tour de force that feels unlike any superhero flick before.
Based on the James O'Barr comic books, The Crow sees the resurrection of a rock star (Lee) who is afforded a shot at revenge against the men who killed him and his wife on Halloween night. Dimly lit but bright in its heart and soul—with a magnetic lead tragically taken too soon—The Crow is a superhero for all the lost and lonely. Even for them, it can't rain all the time.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
20th Century Fox billed Logan as a farewell to Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart's famous X-Men roles—and for a few beautiful years, it was. After helming 2013's The Wolverine, writer/director James Mangold returned to help Jackman walk into the sunset in Logan, a sci-fi neo-Western that took many of its cues from the comic book Old Man Logan and the 1953 classic Western Shane.
Set in a distant future after the extinction of mutants, Jackman returns as the grizzled Wolverine—now dying from adamantium poisoning. Hoping to wither in obscurity, Logan is tasked with one last mission: escort his genetic "daughter" Laura (Dafne Keen) to safety.
Even though Deadpool & Wolverine make a joke out of desecrating the corpse of Wolverine (and even brought back Dafne Keen), Logan remains pure. It's a true masterpiece of genre cinema for a generation practically raised on Jackman's scowling ferocity.
During a transitional moment for the DC franchise, filmmaker Matt Reeves proved that audiences don't need cameos and Easter eggs to flock to a good superhero movie. All viewers really want is vision, and The Batman has it in spades.
A standalone movie set in a whole new universe, The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader in his early years as he is challenged by a criminal mastermind, Riddler (Paul Dano). In this grimy Gotham City teeming with nocturnal animals, the Batman is just as treacherous as the villains who stand in his way.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
"All right, let's do this one last time..." So begins Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a system shock to all our Spidey senses when it hit theaters in 2018. Co-directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teenager whose bite from a radioactive spider kicks off a dimensions-spanning adventure under the tutelage of Spider-Man (Jake Johnson).
A landmark release in animation, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earned its place in the multiverse with its arresting comic book-inspired visuals, freewheeling sensibilities, and refreshing reinvention of an icon.
Superman more or less birthed the superhero movie in 1978, but Tim Burton's 1989 take on Batman matured it. Michael Keaton (once a controversial choice) stars as billionaire Bruce Wayne, who leads a double life as the caped crusader. His war on crime heats up with the arrival of the Joker (Jack Nicholson), a crazed lunatic with a rictus grin. Stylistically inspired by Miller's The Dark Knight Returns with unexpected touches of the 1966 television series, Batman may not be a perfect movie, but Keaton's a downright perfect Batman.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
When X-Men struck box office gold in 2000, Hollywood became enamored by comic book IP. As studios got to scooping up whatever rights they could get, Fox wasted no time releasing X2: X-Men United in 2003, a sequel that only gets better with time. In this politically-minded second outing, the X-Men are chased out of Professor Xavier's school by the genocidal Colonel William Stryker (Succession's Brian Cox). They reluctantly team up with their enemies, Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, for the survival of all their kind.
Before the cultural ascendancy of superheroes in the new millennium, horror director M. Night Shyamalan looked to comic books for his cerebral psychological thriller, Unbreakable. Bruce Willis plays a security guard in a failing marriage who discovers he wields near superhuman strength and invincibility. He is mentored on his journey of self-discovery by the enigmatic yet untrustworthy fine art dealer, Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson).
While Unbreakable eventually expanded into a trilogy alongside Split (2017) and Glass (2019), the movie is powerful enough to stand on its own.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Gal Gadot's first onscreen appearance as Wonder Woman sadly arrived in the oppressively dark Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Thankfully, her 2017 solo Wonder Woman film—which chronicles her origin story—is the true heart and soul of the DC trinity. Set in World War I, Wonder Woman sees Diana of Themyscira enter the world of men for the first time in an attempt to stop Ares, the God of War, from destroying the planet. Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman proved at last that women can not only lead superhero movies, but also lead Hollywood to box office success.
Spinning off from 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the seismic Black Panther elevated Marvel Studios and superhero movies of all stripes to a new level of prominence. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, the movie follows the new king of Wakanda, T'Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman), as he wrestles with his royal responsibilities in the face of a dangerous outsider (Michael B. Jordan). A seminal work of Afrofuturism in mainstream Hollywood, Black Panther was a game-changer in every way possible.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
esquire
