Best Movies of 2016 – Ranking All The Comic Book Movies

As 2016 comes to a close, it is time to start counting down the best movies of 2016.  This will be a number of lists looking at the best movies and performances of the year, as well as looking at the best of specific genres.

I am going to kick this off with looking at the comic book movies of 2016.  Once again, we got a number of comic book films this year.  Six to be exact.  We were introduced to new characters as well as given sequels to characters we had already seen.  I would say comic book films had an overall good year, though not without a couple of duds along the way.  So without further ado, here is my ranking of all the comic book movies of 2016.

6 – SUICIDE SQUAD (David Ayer)

Calling Suicide Squad a dud is being polite.  Suicide Squad is a dumpster fire.  A film with immense potential and a unique idea that fails on every level.  Overcrowded with characters and so weak in story, the movie never knows what it is exactly doing.  Jared Leto’s Joker is the absolute worst, in both performance and character, the action is lame, and the villain of the movie is utterly useless and reminded me of the inflatable, arm-flaling tube guys they have outside car dealerships.  The only redeeming qualities of the movie are Margot Robbie rocking it as Harley Quinn and Will Smith actually giving a shit and trying as Deadshot.  Otherwise, this ranks as one of the worst comic book movies ever.

5 – BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (Zach Snyder)

Arguably the two biggest, most infamous comic book heroes of all-time and you put out this?  Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is too many movies jammed into one.  It’s a Man of Steel sequel, a Batman intro movie, a Batman v. Superman movie, and a Justice League intro movie.  The result is like four people attempting to walk through the same doorway at the same time; a little bit of each thing gets in, yet nothing fully succeeds.  Ben Affleck was badass as the old, angry Batman, Gal Gadot was the best part of the whole movie as Wonder Woman, and the Doomsday fight at the end, though incredibly pointless, was a spectacle.  But the movie itself is a bloated mess and a disservice to these comic book titans.

4 – X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (Bryan Singer)

I’ve always said it is almost impossible to follow-up a perfect or near perfect film.  For me, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) is a perfect comic book movie and one of the five greatest ever made, so its follow-up had a tough act to follow.  X-Men: Apocalypse is far from a terrible more, but it isn’t great either.  It does have a lot of cool action set pieces and offers some great performances, especially by Michael Fassbender as Magneto, who has the most emotional and powerful scene in any X-Men movie ever.  The problem with the movie is one of the big problems I had with Batman v. Superman and that is it has too many characters and director Bryan Singer doesn’t know how to balance them all, which is disappointing when you have characters like Apocalypse, Psylocke, and Cyclops added to this world.  Still, this was a fun, entertaining, enjoyable summer blockbuster.

3 – DOCTOR STRANGE (Scott Derrickson)

Marvel had a hell of 2016, as you’ll see in these final picks.  Doctor Strange may not be the best Marvel movie, but it is their most ambitious and their weirdest.  It follows the basic Marvel intro movie plot; an arrogant man (this time, Benedict Cumberbatch, who is outstanding) goes through a traumatic life event that forces him to rethink his life priorities and become a hero to save the world.  However, Doctor Strange takes us to other dimensions, bending time and space to give us a visual marvel.  Watching New York City and London turn upside down and then be split into steps is a wild experience.  Marvel’s most ambitious film turned into one of its best feats yet.

2 – DEADPOOL (Tim Miller)

The battle for number one was real tough.  But, I ended up with Deadpool at number two, though I would consider it more of a 1B.  The last time we saw the Merc with the Mouth on screen, his mouth was closed shut and he had swords growing out of his hands in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).  This time, however, he was done to perfection, and a lot of that is because of star Ryan Reynolds.  This was a passion project for Reynolds, who wanted to make this movie since the the now infamous sizzle reel dropped a few years back, and you can see they wanted to do everything right and they did.  This is a vulgar, funny, bloody, rousing time that holds up on repeated viewings.  Reynolds was born to play our masked vigilante as he gives one of the best performances of 2016.  I loved every minute of this movie and most years, this would easily land at the number one spot.

1 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (The Russo Brothers)

Unfortunately for Deadpool, this is not one of those years, as Marvel came through with the most epic comic book film in years.  Captain America: Civil War is a true comic book masterpiece.  It brings everything that had been building up in the previous films to a head, raising the stakes and pitting our heroes against each other, while they also attempt to save the world.  It brings back familiar heroes in Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow, while adding in new ones like Black Panther and Spider-Man, to culminate into an epic showdown of the ages.  The airport fight is one of the best scenes in all of 2016 and in any comic book movie.  This is as big and entertaining as comic book movies get.  Captain America: Civil War is one of the greatest comic book movies ever and one of the very best movies of 2016.

What was your favorite comic book movie of 2016?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.