Top 10 Worst Superhero Movies Of The 21st Century (So Far)
#10: “Dark Phoenix” (2019)
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Since “Dark Phoenix” had a stacked cast and was adapting a great comic book story, it seemed like it couldn’t fail. But all that goodwill was wasted on a film with badly written characters. During the movie, the typically stoic Professor gets obsessed with fame, the intelligent Beast becomes a one note revenge monster and Jean Grey changes her motivations at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t help that the Jessica’s Chastain’s main villain is so bland that the actress said she didn’t even know the character’s name. Outside of the bad characterization, the film’s odd pacing and uninspired action scenes made it more painful to sit through. Many X-men fans definitely got burned by this lame mutant movie.
#9: “Jonah Hex” (2010)
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What could’ve been a straightforward western revenge tale set in the 1800s became convoluted when unnecessary sci-fi and mystical elements were added in. The narrative begins with Jonah getting injured and left for dead after standing up to his bad boss. After he recovers, the hero has to stop the man who nearly killed him from unleashing a “superweapon” on America. This already ridiculous plot also includes scenes where Hex talks to dead people. The hard to follow story and bizarre direction makes actors like Michael Fassbender and Josh Brolin look awful. Thankfully, both of them went on to star in iconic superhero roles. At the same time, the rough “Jonah Hex” live-action story faded into obscurity.
#8: “Morbius” (2022)
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It’s Morbin’ time to talk about this anti-hero misfire. After Dr. Morbius accidentally turns himself into a vampire, he struggles with his thirst for blood. His story could’ve been compelling…if the title hero was unique or interesting. The unlikeable Morbius is surrounded by paper thin characters that don’t seem to have any goals outside of hanging around the dull doctor. And whenever the movie tries to add some action, the poor CGI makes the fight scenes impossible to follow. Audiences had more fun sharing memes about how bad the movie was then actually watching it. And when Sony decided to re-release the film because of its online infamy, everyone was too busy that weekend to see this bomb.
#7: “Elektra” (2005)
Although Daredevil’s melodramatic tone and odd fight scenes made the picture into a bit of a joke, at least it had a few good ideas and some box office success. The same cannot be said about its spin-off movie Elektra. A plot about an assassin defending people from ninjas should be fun. However, the story gets bogged down by convoluted backstories and way too much exposition. Whenever Elektra demonstrates her deadly skills, her duels are either poorly choreographed or anticlimactic. And the action gets even worse every time the filmmakers incorporate the awfully made special effects. Elektra was ultimately received so badly that it killed any chances of seeing this heroine in live-action for over a decade.
#6: “Suicide Squad” (2016)
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Surprisingly, the dreadful dialogue isn’t this team up film’s biggest issue. What truly made “Suicide Squad” into a terrible viewing experience was its bizarre structure. The movie begins with three separate sequences solely devoted to introducing characters. And just when it seems like we’ve met everyone, we’re asked to keep up with even more new faces. The absurdly high number of people onscreen made it impossible for most of the characters to get any development. Even if we spent extra time with Killer Croc or Jared Leto’s bizarre Joker, we’d still be left with a by the numbers plot where a team stops a villain from destroying the world for vague reasons. This “Suicide Squad” outing just seemed doomed to fail.
#5: “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009)
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Wolverine’s first attempt at leading an X-Men film wasn’t very nice. The story promised to detail how he lost his memories and why he was experimented on. But to get those answers, you must sit through a boring romance, nonsensical betrayals and awful versions of popular characters. Although it was already bad enough that they made cool heroes like Gambit come off as lame, the choice to take away the wisecracking Deadpool’s ability to speak angered fans. His presence was more offensive than Wolverine's poorly rendered CGI claws. The weapons single handedly ruined the action breaks in between the increasingly confusing narrative. The uneven plot and lack of respect for beloved characters made us wish Wolverine’s origins were still a mystery.
#4: “Green Lantern” (2011)
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Abysmal special effects ruined Ryan Reynolds’ flight as the heroic Green Lantern before he said a single word. Since the hero mainly fights by making colorful constructs, the lackluster CGI was front and center throughout. The bad effects made intimidating villains like Parallax look just about as scary as a weirdly shaped cloud. But a higher CGI budget still wouldn’t have saved audiences from a hurricane of cliches. While Reynolds is normally entertaining, he can’t make the story of a cocky guy who learns how to be a responsible hero feel fresh or exciting. And the supporting characters have less personality than the awful looking constructs. The only silver lining to this green tinted failure is that Reynolds keeps making fun of it.
#3: “Hellboy” (2019)
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While some reboots gradually introduce characters and slowly build the world, the writers decided to go the complete opposite direction for 2019’s “Hellboy”. During the span of one story we get the hero’s origins, an apocalyptic prophecy and the appearance of the wizard Merlin. And all of those storylines don’t even cover half of the movie. Whenever you feel like you’re keeping up, the writers confuse matters by introducing another story thread or major character. What makes this entire experience more hellish is the fact that the movie isn’t pretty to look at. Solid practical make-up effects can’t balance out how atrocious some of the CGI scenes look. At the end of the day, trying to sit through 2019’s “Hellboy” feels like a divine punishment.
#2: “Fantastic Four” (2015)
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Marvel’s first family reached a new low in 2015. This reimagining of the “Fantastic Four” promised to be a gritty and gripping adventure. Although the visuals were certainly dark, there was nothing compelling to latch onto. None of the great actors chosen to play the main heroes managed to make their characters interesting. If their dry dialogue didn’t put you to sleep, the incredibly slow pacing would do the trick. It feels like it takes years for the main characters to even get powers. And we barely see their abilities because the action scenes are so brief and rare. As of July 2022, “Fantastic Four” is the lowest rated Marvel movie on Rotten Tomatoes. They might be stuck with that dubious honor for a while. Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable, or in this case, dishonorable mentions.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2014)
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“Blade: Trinity” (2004)
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“Bloodshot” (2020)
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“The Spirit” (2008)
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“The New Mutants” (2020)
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#1: “Catwoman” (2004)
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How do you make a terrible superhero movie? First, replace a confident comic icon with a shy and withdrawn original character. Then, place her in an absurd plot where she stops a generic evil business person from selling a harmful product. Add lackluster special effects and cringeworthy dialogue and you might make a bomb as big as “Catwoman.”. Outside of those issues, the actors lack chemistry and the editing is jarring. Halle Berry’s attempts to salvage this disaster are ruined by questionable directing. The film’s faults led it to share a 9 percent Rotten Tomatoes score with other superhero movies. But “Catwoman’s” failure to even include the original character that inspired the film puts it at the bottom of the 21st century litter box.
