Superhero movies have become big business for Hollywood, with movies like Avengers: Doomsday grabbing headlines even though it’s a year away from being released. Properties with a built-in fan base can be an easy sell, but there are still plenty of ways for film studios to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Whether it’s by misunderstanding what makes a particular hero compelling or rushing a film to theaters before it’s ready, a comic book movie can be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
The following films are the worst comic book movies to make it onto the big screen, ranked by how disastrous the final product was. This is only going to include movies with theatrical releases, so no matter how bad David Hasselhoff was in Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s not making the list.
20
‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (2014)
Some stories should never leave the sewer. The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles threw some creatin on the turtles’ pizza to produce bulkier crime-fighting mutant ninjas. An organized crime effort from the mysterious Foot Clan catches the attention of both the ninja turtles and reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox), leading to them joining forces. With the ninja turtles’ years of training and April’s investigative skills, they’ll have everything they need to defeat The Shredder (Tohoru Masamune) until it’s time for the next movie.
There’s an argument to be made that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 is the worst film in the franchise, but the 2014 adaptation is the one that most egregiously fumbles the source material. The movie weirdly doesn’t seem interested in the turtle brothers as the primary focus, which, when the character design is that bad, is possibly the right call.
With the future of the world at stake, a group of famous literary characters is handpicked to save the day in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Led by adventurer extraordinaire Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery), the motley crew of figures, including Tom Sawyer (Shane West) and Dr. Jekyll (Jason Flemyng), must learn to work together despite having massive differences and at least one killer alter ego.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the type of movie that discourages the next generation from reading the classics. Dismal reviews and opening the same weekend as a little movie called Pirates of the Caribbean put a dent into any momentum The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen hoped to have, but it wasn’t a total box-office disaster either. The source material is strong enough that there’s a good movie to be made from it, but when a film is so bad that it causes Connery to retire from acting, it deserves a public shaming.
18
‘Spawn’ (1997)
Adding a supernatural twist to the superhero formula, Spawn looked to capitalize on the indie comic book character’s wild success. The film tells the story of Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), a government assassin who is betrayed and murdered by his own organization. Sent to hell for his murderous actions, Al is tricked into taking the powers of a hellspawn before returning to Earth for his training to join Hell’s army.
In the 90s, Spawn was an uber-popular comic book, featuring mature storytelling and graphic visuals that set it apart from other superhero books on the shelf. So when the regrettable decision was made to tailor the movie for a PG-13 crowd not old enough to read the source material, the project was all but doomed. Without being able to fully embrace the character’s story, Spawn became a muddled mess designed to only disappoint the hardcore fans who showed up.
17
‘The Crow: City of Angels’ (1996)
After The Crow became a cult-classic, it was only a matter of time before a sequel was produced, and unfortunately, it came in the form of The Crow: City of Angels. This time, a crow guides the soul of Ashe Corven (Vincent Pérez), a mechanic who was murdered alongside his young son by a ruthless drug kingpin. Impervious to physical harm, Ashe receives help from a now adult Sarah (Mia Kirshner) to punish the criminals who hurt him and his boy.
Even though the story should generate immediate sympathy for Ashe, The Crow: City of Angels lacks the heart of the original. To its credit, The Crow: City of Angels is often visually impressive, but the plot, which tends to be important, holds the sequel back. Character motivation should be ridiculously simple to capture in a revenge story, and yet the hero, much like the audience, looks lost during the runtime.
16
‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
Supervillains are involuntarily forced to work together as the good guys in Suicide Squad. With a world-ending threat looming, ice-cold government director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles a task force of villains like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Deadshot (Will Smith) to suit up or have a bomb in their skull detonated. The group of villains aren’t accustomed to risking their lives for the greater good, but if they want to survive to see another day, they’ll have no choice but to play the temporary hero.
Suicide Squad overstuffs a film with interesting characters but is unable to use a majority of them in a meaningful way. Warner Bros. ordered reshoots along with excessive editing to lighten the tone of the movie, but that approach would ultimately create an incoherent final product. Warner Bros. learned no lesson from the fiasco and pulled the same stunt with Justice League a year later.
15
’Jonah Hex’ (2010)
Jonah Hex follows Josh Brolin as the titular Jonah Hex, a Confederate soldier turned bounty hunter with the ability to speak to the dead. When Jonah learns that the man who killed his family is still alive, he mounts a one-man mission to get revenge and inadvertently save millions of lives in the process.
Coming in at a lean 81 minutes, Jonah Hex’s choppy story would no doubt benefit from cut scenes being added back to the film, but it’s unlikely anyone cares enough to make the effort. The biggest sin of the movie is wasting a cast that includes John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, and Michael Shannon, in roles that lack even basic depth. Ideally, the memory of the 2010 Jonah Hex will fade away so the character can one day star in a horror western series on a streamer like Netflix, the final destination for all programming.
14
’Green Lantern’ (2011)
In Green Lantern, the irresponsible but skilled test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is given a cosmic ring by a dying alien, becoming the newest member of the Lantern Corps, a noble group of space police. Although Hal is overwhelmed with his new powers and the discipline it requires, he will need to learn how to use his ring quickly to prevent the deadly Parallax (Clancy Brown) from destroying Earth.
Green Lantern is one of the oldest and most beloved DC comic book characters, so initially, the prospect of a movie starring the hero was something to get excited about. While Green Lantern isn’t nearly as bad as its reputation implies, the movie often drags, leading it to feel longer than its roughly two-hour runtime. Without a strong enough villain to give the movie weight, Green Lantern was a high-profile disappointment that became a punchline.
13
‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)
Marvel’s First Family received an uncharacteristically grim reimagining in the 2015 bomb Fantastic Four. Starting the story when the teammates are still superpower-free young adults, Fantastic Four trades a space mission gone wrong for a trip to a parallel dimension with similar results. Bestowed with superpowers after a near-death experience, Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and his three friends will combine their powers to defeat their one-time partner, Dr. Doom (Toby Kebbell).
Fantastic Four is the type of movie that gets made when the director doesn’t like the source material. There’s no definitive way to adapt a character for the screen, but Fantastic Four is a largely gloomy, joyless film that fails to capture the essence of any of the characters. Ultimately, it was the behind-the-scenes drama of the movie that proved more interesting, leading to director Josh Trank disavowing the movie online before it was released.
12
‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ (2019)
The once iconic X-Men film franchise creatively stalled when it began to repeat itself with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The film revisits the Phoenix storyline, where the young Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) struggles to control her powers when she fuses with the cosmic phoenix force. As an alien race seeks to manipulate Jean, Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his team of X-Men will attempt to save Jean from herself.
X-Men: The Last Stand unsuccessfully used the Phoenix storyline for its plot, so it was surprising that the franchise returned to the saga when there was no shortage of other stories to draw from. If X-Men: Dark Phoenix feels disjointed, it’s largely due to a number of reshoots and adjustments that impacted key relationships and the ending of the movie. These changes only added to a bloated budget, leading to steep losses when the movie could lure in a disinterested audience.
11
‘Elektra’ (2005)
The Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil hasn’t aged with grace, but the spinoff film Elektra was doomed before it was ever released. Miraculously back from the dead after dying in Daredevil, Elektra (Jennifer Garner) uses her second chance at life to kill people for money. When she takes a contract for people she decides not to kill, Elektra will use ninja powers to hold off a team of assassins from finishing the job she started.
Extended action scenes take place in Elektra, but there’s also an absence of energy in the film. The major characters are all attempting to be the most serious person in the room with grave, somber faces, and after about 30 minutes of that, they all begin to look sleepy. Elektra is a character who could excel in a standalone movie, but the failure of the 2005 film will likely scare off anyone from trying.