You'll Believe a Man Can . . .

Lefty has posted his ten favorite superhero movies. I read his list and said, "self, I can totally steal that idea!"

Tosy and Cosh's Ten Favorite Superhero Movies*

1. Spider-Man 2
It amazes me that as a wee lad I would scan the channels on weekend afternoons in the vain hope that one of the stations would be rerunning one of those horrible 70s Spider-Man movies. It's hard to imagine what I would have thought if I could have seen this.

2. X-Men 2
A very engaging story well acted and with special effects that don't exist for their own edification. They nailed Nightcrawler, which I wouldn't have thought possible, managed to show us a credibly berserk Wolverine in a PG-13 universe, and begun exploring the greatest X-Men storyline of them all.

3. The Incredibles
The central scene in which the kids really discover the full use of their powers is astonishing superhero origin stuff. The look on Dash's face as he realizes he can punch the bad guy really fast made me smile when I saw it--sheed delight.

4. Spider-Man
Astonishing how perfectly they got Peter Parker--I had always assumed a big-budget Hollywood Spider-Man would be Clark Kent nerdy (a tall, strapping pretty boy faking at gawkiness) but they went with the real deal. Whatever Maguire may be, he's not imposing. Perfect.

5. Superman II
This would be so much higher if it weren't for the too-overt attempts at comedy and the infamous "random powers" at the end. I simply can't imagine the writers room or pitch meeting or producer's head where having Superman throw a cellophane version of his chest symbol at a bad guy was a good idea. Still, that moment at the end where Superman kneels to Zod, and Lois cries, and all is perfectly quiet, and a young Tosy and Cosh was absolutely convinced that Superman had been defeated, and then out of the stillness we hear a faint trumpet echoing that famous theme, and we see Zod's face begin to crumple, well, man, that was one hell of a moment.

6. X-Men
A bit under-budgeted, perhaps, but it could have had even less of a budget and worked if just for the masterly acting between McKellan and Stewart. I'd pay money to see a My Dinner with Andre-style movie of nothing but conversations between Magneto and Professor X if it weer made with these two written by the right person.

7. Hulk
Unfairly maligned, says I. The Hulk effects were great, even if I did get a trifle too big, and the stylization was wonderful. The story got a little lost, but that's one fault among some serious pluses.

8. Superman: The Movie
I keep meaning to show this to my seven-year old niece, but, man, that scene towards the end at Lois' car is intense.

9. Batman
The Prince stuff and the story kind of sucked, but the Joker was great if not definitive and Keaton proved everybody very wrong with easily the best Batman of the first four films (see below).

10. Captain America
Yes, it's a horrible movie. No, I don't really want to ever see it again. But seeing a live-action Captain America, even a crappy one, was cool for this fan of the good Captain.

Until Whenever

*Tosy and Cosh has not yet seen Batman Begins or The Fantastic Four