TalonsOfFire
Benjamin Kuettel
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Last Active 01-12-23 5:14 pm
Joined 08-27-12

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03.04.22 Being Emeritus and Fav Songs ♦02.23.22 Top 100 Opeth Songs ♦
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01.15.19 50th Anniversary of King Crimson ♦12.20.18 Top 25 Records of 2018 ♦
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08.26.17 Talons' 5 Year Sputversary ♦03.30.17 Concerts I've Attended ♦
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Top 20 Superhero Films

Superhero movies aren't going anywhere, and opinions on them get more divisive with each big release. As far as the big studios go, DC has been a disaster thanks to Zack Snyder and Marvel has been mostly successful. I've seen nearly every major superhero film that's ever been made, and while there's been plenty of bombs, many of them have been among the most creative and colorful blockbusters of modern filmmaking. Feel free to share your opinions below. I've decided to update this list for March 2022.
21Soundtrack (Film)
Avengers Assemble

Honorable mentions: Batman 1989, Superman, Unbreakable, Chronicle, Thor: Ragnarok, X-Men, and Spider-Man: No Way Home
20Soundtrack (Film)
The Crow

A dark vigilante revenge thriller with stylish cinematography.
19Ramin Djawadi
Iron Man

Iron Man is the beginning of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Iron Man 3 is almost as good, this acts as a fantastic origin story for the modern Avengers, as well as for their most charismatic and humorous character, Tony Stark. Like other origin films Batman Begins and Captain America: The First Avenger, the first half is fantastic while the second half unfortunately delves into a hackneyed villain battle plot that feels tacked on and pointless. However the charisma of Tony Stark and triumphant tone of this pushes it to the top 20.
18Henry Jackman
Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War is essentially another Avengers movie with Tony Stark being in it just as much as Cap. There are also the notable introductions of Black Panther and Spider-Man. While not as strong as Winter Soldier and has too much punching, Civil War is a wonderfully dark and morally complex superhero film.
17Hildur Gudnadottir
Joker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Joker is a more character-driven psychological drama with an amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix. Perhaps the first pure villain origin story.
16Michael Giacchino
The Batman

Great movie with excellent cinematography. My full review can be read here: https://boxd.it/2DIAZJ
15Tyler Bates
Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is the other side of the coin to The Avengers. The characters start out as antiheroes and misfits, but they learn to be heroes by the end. The humor, writing, and acting are the major assets here. It parallels, perhaps even succeeds The Avengers for colorful, visual creativity and wittiness. As this film ended, I was excited to see these characters go on further adventures now that they've come together. Overall one of the strongest superhero origin stories out there.
14John Ottman
X2

X2 subverts superhero film tropes before many of them were even made, especially with the ending. The storyline in general is bizarre, and each X-Man has interesting and relevant things to do that impact the story. There's no big fight at the end with a super-powered villain, aside from the female wolverine, being too complex and interesting to fall into that kind of trope. This was also the best film version of a Wolverine origin story until Logan.
13John Ottman
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Unlike many time travel movies, X-Men: Days of Future Past has a plot that actually feels sensical and easy to follow. Wolverine's place is appropriate, barely a main character and just part of a larger conflict, as he should be. His meeting at the end with Xavier is one of the most poignant scenes of the X-Men film series, and all the apocalypse scenes were fantastic and appropriately dark. The performances were also excellent, especially Magneto and Xavier as always.
12Soundtrack (Film)
Avengers Assemble

The Avengers is comparatively restrained and well paced, focusing on characters to drive the plot forward, which is how these movies should be done. The humor throughout is welcome, especially involving Tony Stark and Thor. The big action scene at the end feels earned as a result of how the whole movie had been building toward it. Avengers: Age of Ultron, while still pretty good, is more uneven and busy by comparison.
11Paul Leonard-Morgan
Dredd: Original Film Soundtrack

Dredd is a fantastic, stylish, ultra-violent dystopian action movie with stunning visuals. Karl Urban plays the character perfectly. Maybe I’m weird but I detect some very dark humor in this movie too.
10Tyler Bates
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

A colorful, improved sequel that emphasizes character development and humor.
9Alan Silvestri
Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame feels like the real end to the MCU, a massive celebration of the characters and a poignant farewell to Iron Man and Captain America. This movie is so good that I find myself hardly caring about anything that comes after, and Phase 4 has paled in comparison to 3 and even 2 so far.
8Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Batman Begins

Batman Begins is the perfect origin story for the character, taking a very psychological angle and showing everything about how he came to be Batman. As great as this is, the two sequels would prove to be even better. There’s too much shaky cam and quick cutting during the action scenes, especially during Batman’s first appearance at the docks.
7Soundtrack (Film)
Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2 was the most emotional and poignant superhero movie made up to that point. I saw this in the theater when I was only nine years old, and it blew my mind, sticking with me to this day. The train sequence was especially amazing, as was the villain, Doc Oc. This film also nailed the romance angle perfectly, with Parker and Mary Jane finally getting together at the very end in one of the most satisfying resolutions found in a superhero love storyline. Spider-Man 3 sort of ruins all that, but at this point it's nice to just consider this the end of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, with her accepting that he needs to do what he needs to do as the masked superhero. That’s essentially how 3 ends between them anyway.
6Michael Giacchino
The Incredibles

The Incredibles is one of the best Pixar movies and one of the best superhero films, despite the characters' powers essentially being lifted from the Fantastic Four and X-Men. The globetrotting story is intriguing and the characters have plenty of fun, humorous moments. This is a children's film that, in my opinion, hearkens back to the way they were in the 80s and 90s with the kid characters being put in real danger and making an impact on the story, as opposed to films like Madagascar or Minions that have very little depth. The cave scene with the mom character and her two children is one of the best in the movie, but you really can't go wrong with any of this.
5Alan Silvestri
Avengers: Infinity War

A dark, amazing first half to the Infinity gems saga with Thanos as basically the main character, Marvel finally overcoming the stereotype of always having lame one-dimensional villains. The ending has to be the most depressing and haunting of all blockbusters films.
4Henry Jackman
Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier brings an intensity not previously seen in the MCU. The best film Marvel has made for a number of reasons, one being the heightened threat presence involving conspiracies/government surveillance throughout. It's a very timely and relevant storyline, with half the film feeling more like a Bourne movie than a comic book one; the action is intense and highly violent in a way that previous Marvel films really haven't been. This is not for little kids the way that The Avengers and Guardians could be. The two big highway battles involving Bucky are my favorite action sequences I've seen in I don't know how long. The sympathetic Bucky character was amazingly developed throughout as well. These elements make the ending surprisingly emotional, especially with how all the characters are left.
3Marco Beltrami
Logan

Logan is a major departure in the Marvel world, being a hard R-rated post-apocalypse/western type deal and effectively ending the current iteration of X-Men that's been going on for 20 years now. There's brutal, bloody violence, at times reminding me of a zombie film and especially my favorite video game The Last of Us. It's also hugely emotional, and exploring Wolverine's, or Logan's, character in the most intimate way yet. This is a must see for X-Men fans, a sad but also amazing conclusion of a series that started all the way back in 2000.
2Hans Zimmer
The Dark Knight Rises

An epic conclusion to the Nolan trilogy, where Batman is at his most interesting and has to once again overcome personal struggles and huge obstacles to save Gotham from the menacing Bane. The action scenes are filmed very well, with no shaky cam or quick cutting that was present in Batman Begins. It’s visually stunning, feels like a lot is at stake, and Anne Hathaway is an excellent Catwoman. It was great to see the character actually get a satisfying ending with emotional resonance, cementing this as one of the very best movie trilogies. Really the only flaw this has is the underwhelming, sort of comical way Bane is finally defeated.
1Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
The Dark Knight

What can be said about The Dark Knight that hasn’t been said already? An incredible action crime thriller with Heath Ledger stealing the show as one of the best movie villains in cinematic history. An insane, endlessly exciting and suspenseful superhero movie that is without question the best of them all.
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