WEIRDO Ranks: Every Live-Action Superman Movie 🦸🏻‍♂️ (Part 7 of 8)
40+ years of truth and justice!
After many years of superhero cinema, numerous properties have received a plethora of adaptations, more so with Superman. With an abundance of sequels, remakes, and reboots nowadays, it’s difficult to decide which ones deserve a spot among the upper echelons of the comic book world.
Though every movie provides its own significance toward the Kryptonian’s mythos, this series of articles will stamp my official ranking of each Superman film I’ve seen, from 1978's Superman: The Movie to 2021's Zack Snyder’s Justice League. I hope you all enjoy and remember to hit that clap button as well as comment where you would rank each flick on your personal list.
Disclaimer: You might not agree with most of my picks, but that is why I love writing these articles — for amicable debate. Without further ado, let’s get to it! Oh, and spoilers ahead…just in case.
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
It’s opening night… again. My brother and I meet up at the theater, literally dressed from the feet up in our Superman and Batman onesies, respectively. As we settle in our seats with our big bucket of popcorn and fountain drinks, the lights dim, and the movie commences.
Ben Affleck’s perfectly casted Bruce Wayne’s origin plays out over a few minutes, then the screen whitens. Suddenly, we’re thrust into the billionaire’s viewpoint as he witnesses firsthand Superman and Zod’s destructive battle from Man of Steel. After running through a cloud of smoke from fallen debris, Bruce looks up into the sky at the falling Kryptonians, vowing revenge against the alien threat. His dark theme plays. DUN, DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN! Chills. The screen goes black.
Fast forward a year and a half to the present, and a majority of the world has fallen in love with Superman while the minority questions what it really means to have him around. Jesse Eisenberg’s nefarious Lex Luthor desires to destroy the “fraudulent” Kal-El using the Dark Knight’s fixation for vengeance against him. Whatever your gripes about the critically ostracized Batman v Superman, there’s no denying that the big screen clash between the two is one of the most epic and tension-filled “disputes” in comic book movie history.
The movie’s ambition far outweighs its faults as viewers are treated to not only the coolest Alfred Pennyworth yet, but also the introduction of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman (with the most epic theme to boot) and a rather unique approach to franchise-building in the form of a flash drive with some juicy information on it. If that wasn’t enough, Batman also fights a multitude of goons in arguably the best cinematic fight scene in history before he, Superman, and Wonder Woman take on the ultimate threat in Doomsday, inevitably leading to the sacrificial death of the Man of Steel himself.
Hot take, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is not as bad as some may remember, case in point with its non-theatrically released Ultimate Edition — which is by far the superior version. Generally overstuffed, the theatrical cut of the film left much to be desired with its glaring potholes and rushing of the source material. The Ultimate Edition, however, undoes most of the original’s mistakes by fleshing out its world, providing a whole thirty minutes’ worth of intricate details and character development while bringing the film to a crisp three hours of epic storytelling.
