And to add, these are the non-superhero, non-animated comic book movies I've seen (though the distinction between superhero and pulp hero remains arbitrary).

34 in total, which are a lot less than I thought, but it could be that IMDB just didn't tag all comic book movies well. Anyway, it's a low enough number that I can rank them.


1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): One of the few cases where I like the movie better than the original graphic novel. It always makes me laugh when I see it, great music and lots of clever videogame bits.
2. Dredd (2012): A big improvement after the earlier attempt at Dredd. If they ever make a sequel, it can do with a bit more characterisation and the dark humor and political satire of Wagner, but for a low-budget standalone movie, this is as good as it gets.
3. Hellboy (2004): An impressive cast, great imagery. The plot lacks a little, but there are several powerful scenes that more than make up for it.
4. Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002): Making me laugh always gets points. This Asterix movie just gelled for me, while the other definitely did not.
5. Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010): Quirky, weird. Not exactly a perfect adaption of the comics, but strong enough to stand on its own. I like this more than I should probably (only have seen it once, though, so a rewatch my temper my enthusiasm).
6. A History of Violence (2005): A Cronenberg adaption of a John Wagner comic with Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and William Hurt. Goes very differently in the second half from the comic, but both are still worth checking out.
7. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008): Del Toro gets a little carried away with the visual imagery so it lacks a lot of the small things like the scenes between Hurt and Perlman that made me like 1 so much, but still entertaining.
8. Mystery Men (1999): Haven't read the original comic, but I liked this one a lot when I first saw it.
9. Sin City (2005): Probably the comicbook adaption that sticks the closest to the source.
10. The Shadow (1994): Again a long time ago that I saw it, but I remember liking it a lot at the time. Haven't read a lot of Shadow comics though, so purists may disagree or not.
11. 300 (2006): All my problems with this movie (most of it its subtext) are perfectly explained by its narrative framing: it's a propaganda piece for the Spartan military.
12. Men in Black (1997): Haven't read the original comics (from what I understand it's one of those rare cases where the movies is better than the original work) and it has a little too much Will Smith starring as Will Smith.
13. The Phantom (1996): Billy Zane seemed to have a lot of fun this movie.
14. 20th Century Boys (2008): Brave attempt at making a movie from an unfilmable manga.
15. Largo Winch (2008): An adaption that changes a lot of things for vague reasons. Some changes work, most do not. It did gain a few places on my list, because the first thing I saw on IMDB when this movie came out was somebody complaining that this was tagged "based on a comic book", but it didn't have any superheroes! (Guy may have been a parody. Poe's law applies.)
16. Ghost World (2001): Nothing wrong with it, just not something I usually like, so I can't really judge it. So it drifts to a neutral position on this chart.
17. Immortel (ad vitam) (2004): Adaption of a Bilal comic that suffers a lot from the decision to have half the cast be CGI. The CGI tends to be really, really bad, even for 2004 standars with some weird exceptions. Still like the movie despite all that.
18. The Losers (I) (2010): Pretty faithful adaption that loses the big thing that made the comic interesting: Jock's art. WIthout it its a by the numbers action movie in a sea of action movies. Its strong casts is a plus point though.
19. 30 Days of Night (2007): Didn't read the comic, the movie was a by numbers vampire movie. Premise was interesting though.
20. Blueberry (2004): Weird movie. Terrible at being a Blueberry adaption, but the movie we got still has its interesting points. Lot of it takes place in peyote-fueled hallucinations and it has some strong acting, so I'm hesitant were to put it on the list.
21. V for Vendetta (2005): Not a bad movie, but it misses a lot of the counterpoints that the comic had, so V comes off a lot more sympathetic here. I miss the debt of the comic (same with Watchmen).
22. Constantine (2005): Again a bad adaption and it has actual cannibal Shia LaBoeuf. On the upside, it has some great imagery and some fun small parts, but not enough to make up for the squandered potential. Weirdly enough I've seen 2 episodes of the TV-series and while it sticks closer to the original series, I like it even less (is there some uncanny valley at work where smaller deviations can be more annoying? I can't explain it yet).
23. From Hell (2001) : Hey look, it's a movie based on a Alan Moore comic that lacks the depth (and the artwork. It's not all about the writing.) of the original. Continued page 94.
24. Largo Winch II (2011): A sequel to the first Largo Winch movie. More changes, none for the better this time. The villain's plot is pretty nonsensical as well.
25. Heavy Metal (1981): Sacrilege, but I never liked the adaption, while I do like the actual magazine (at least I liked it, I haven't read it for ages now.)
26. Swamp Thing (1982): All I remember is a low-budget horror movie with bad acting.
27. Dick Tracy (1990): Again a long time ago that I saw it, but the movie never worked for me. Translating cartoon characters directly
28. Lucky Luke (1991): I usually like Terence Hill, but this movie lacked the humor of the comics (haven't seen the more recent adaption yet out of fear that it may be worse). None of the other cast seemed to want to be there.
29. Astérix & Obélix contre César (1999): Only thing I liked in this one (compared to Mission Cleopatra) was Gottfried John as Julius Caesar (remember, Caesar in Asterix always has his dignity, even when he's the source of jokes) and his role is really small.
30. The Spirit (2008): Frank Miller's ongoing quest to see how far he can push things? Or was he serious?
31. Judge Dredd (1995): Maybe it would rank a spot higher if it didn't have Rob Schneider in it. Even without him, I can't think of any redeeming qualities. Just go watch the 2012 version or read the comics.
32. Astérix aux jeux olympiques (2008): A 2 hour long comedy and I only smiled at Michael Schumacher's cameo as champion chariot driver. And the comic it was based on had so much going for it.
33. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003): Another unfilmable comic, another Alan Moore adaption that lacks all the depth of the original.
34. Howard the Duck (1986): Completely missing everything that was good and interesting about the comic.


And XIII: The Movie cheats by being a mini-series instead of a movie, so it doesn't get a place on the list.

Mmmm and now that I've finished it, it does seem to miss "The Mask" at least (would rank somewhere in the middle. Bad as an adaption, but not a bad movie.). May be others but that omission is pretty glaring. So I am now looking back at IMDB, they have the tags "Based on a graphic novel", "Based on a comic" and "Based on a comic book". Real logic there, IMDB. Well this is enough for 1 post.

There are so many at this point I won't even try to list all of my favourites in order. Some of the live action super hero/comic related flicks I love that spring to mind are the first 2 Reeve Superman films, Mystery Men, Incredibles, Captain America 1 and 2, Iron Man 1, Thor 1, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, 2nd Bale Batman, X-Men 1/2/First Class/Days of Future Past, 2nd Raimi Spider-Man, Rocketeer, Kick ass, Watchmen and V for Vendetta (sorry Mr Moore), 1st Matrix, Unbreakable, Chasing Amy, Condor Man, Meteor Man, G-men From Hell...I'm sure I'm leaving some out.

Well if you take the old one, multiply the budget by 100, and find a less talented director, you get the new ones.

I'd take LoEG over those never-ending ice puns any day...

GL has only 2 redeeming qualities: casting Mark Strong as Sinestro and Michael Clarke Duncan as Kilowog. Sadly neither got much to do with their parts, but those casting choices are good.

That's how I've always felt as well; it was a fun movie, but a bad adaptation and I can live with that.