Long-time readers will know about my reticence to praise even the most popularly-lauded superhero movies. Hell, looking through my back pages, I've declared SPIDER-MAN 2 an affront to Steve Ditko, BATMAN BEGINS boring, SPIDER-MAN 3 dire, FANTASTIC FOUR: THE RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER a blasphemy, THE DARK KNIGHT overlong to the point of being a severe test of my kidney and liver functions, etc, etc.
Honestly, I'm not just a total contrarian, I really do think super-heroes work best in two dimensions. Okay, I'll give THE INCREDIBLES a pass for working in three computer-generated dimensions. Plus, it's the only one I've ever popped for on DVD, and that says a lot. I also reckon the movie industry can kill a comic book stone dead with their carelessness: bad adaptations have rendered several properties radioactive for years, from Fritz The Cat onwards, through The Punisher, Tank Girl, Judge Dredd, and Spawn.
So here's a poll that's right up my street (even if I'm probably not that qualified to judge, after all. I've refused point blank to watch nearly all the examples cited, for one reason or another - from plain good sense, right through to moral outrage): what was the worst superhero movie of all time?
There's plenty of contenders, but what the hell is BATMAN (1966) doing there? It's brilliant!
And if my old mucker Brendon Connelly is out there: spot on with your THE DARK KNIGHT review. And congrats on getting hitched.