The year 2019 had a record number of nine superhero and comic book movies hit the big screen in one sweet year. We had delivered unto us: Joker, Shazam!, Hellboy, Captain Marvel, Glass, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Joker, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and of course, Avengers: Endgame. So many films, but which was the worst of the bunch?
I asked some of my fellow TMS writers which films they thought were the worst. From those who saw them all, the response was a tie between Joker and Glass, while two brave souls said, of the ones they’ve actually seen, Endgame was the worst. I’m going to stand proudly and say that it is absolutely a tie between Hellboy and Dark Phoenix. Both these films rank at an equal “worst” listing for me because they are both poorly acted, poorly paced, and waste a lot of really talented people in their desire to flash through several interesting and complex storylines in a single movie.
Hellboy was really promising on paper, and despite my side-eye from a lack of del Toro, I was hoping that this new incarnation would use its more comic book-based storyline to make it more compelling. Instead, it was just a boring, seemingly unfinished slog of a film that did a disservice to everyone involved. The most joy it has ever given me is the most recent We Hate Movies podcast episode about the film.
What will also probably be an episode of the show was Dark Phoenix. Woof. I think what was so upsetting about this film was that it was the end of an entire era of X-Men as a film franchise. It was heartbreaking to see that it had assembled an almost perfect cast (sorry, not you, Storm) and then wasted it by putting it in the hands of the person who did The Last Stand. Having ended up re-reading the comics from Chris Claremont, it just made me feel even more disappointed that, after so many years, we only have two and a half good X-Men films.
Joker may not have been my favorite thing, but at least that was a movie with a script and not just throwing comic book Easter Eggs at the wall hoping that something—anything—would stick to it. After those two, the superhero movie I think that bored me the most was Spider-Man: Far From Home. I love Spider-Man and I’d heard so many good things, but it was a bit of a slog—not bad, but it is definitely meh for me.
What was your least favorite comic book/superhero film last year? Which one are you looking the most forward to in 2020?
(image: Lionsgate)
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