A Geeky Viewpoint

Iron Man 2

Released: 2014
Final Score: 13/32
Jeff's Score: 10/32

With the world now aware of his identity as Iron Man, Tony Stark must contend with both his declining health and a vengeful mad man with ties to his father's legacy.

What the Critics Said: It isn't quite the breath of fresh air that Iron Man was, but this sequel comes close with solid performances and an action-packed plot.

What I Said: Welcome to the larger Marvel Universe

The original Iron Man movie was a origin story, the second is a creation story of an entire universe. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Released: 2014
Final Score: 12/32
Jeff's Score: 17/32

Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him, impacting on his life.

What the Critics Said: While the cast is outstanding and the special effects are top-notch, the latest installment of the Spidey saga suffers from an unfocused narrative and an overabundance of characters.

What I Said: Did I pay money to go see this?

I am going to be honest and say this movie just came out and I have to depend on what I saw in the theater for this ranking.   The music and background noise were too loud, the movie plodded along and never built any momentum.  

Blade II

Released: 2002
Final Score: 12/32
Jeff's Score: 14/32

Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.

What the Critics Said: Blade 2 takes what works in the original and gives us more. Unfortunately, plot and character development appear to have been left on the cutting room floor.

What I Said: This movie cries out for a director's extended cut, too much detail is left out pertaining to character motivation and choppy editing.

Blade II is a movie whose placement was consistent across critics (14/32), Audience (14/32) and myself (14/32) however the move falls a couple of spots due to the financials (6/32) as the movie cost almost double the first installment and sold a million fewer tickets.  

Fantastic Four

The Punisher

Released: 2004
Final Score: 10/32
Jeff's Score 13/32

An undercover FBI agent becomes a vigilante assassin and sets out to unleash vengeance upon the corrupt businessman who slew his family.

What the Critics Said: A good cast fails to elevate this overly violent and by-the-numbers revenge flick.

What I said: How is this not a rated R film for the violence and other stupidity?

I chided Daredevil because it didn't know whether it was a campy or serious comic book movie, here I am chiding The Punisher because it pretends to not be a comic book movie at all.     I should point out The Punisher is middle slotted group of nine films within tenths of a point of one another.   This film has its supporters as it is the third most ranked film is correlation of ticket sales to scoring in places like rottentomtatoes and imdb.com.  

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Released: 2009
Final Score: 9/32
Jeff's Score: 7/32

A look at Wolverine's early life, in particular his time with the government squad Weapon and the impact it will have on his later years

What the Critics Said: Though Hugh Jackman gives his all, he can't help X-Men Origins: Wolverine overcome a cliche-ridden script and familiar narrative.

What I said: It had an awesome trailer.  

One of two movies fans claim they hate until they realize there are worse films in the Marvel Universe than they hate it worse.  The story isn't bad the script is, the cinematography isn't bad and the sound track isn't bad, however the execution on the film itself is god awful, cliché, and redundant.   And let us not mention this rendition of Deadpool again. 

We have reached the quarter pole of my ratings of the Marvel Universe on film.   From 33 to 26 my list is:

33 - Elektra
32 - Punisher: War Zone
31 - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
30 - Daredevil
29 - Blade Trinity
28 - Ghost Rider
27 - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
26 - Hulk

There are a couple of disagreements between my ratings and the fans, usually slight in nature however Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk is one the fans and I disagree on most from this list.  There may be some small arguments about a movie or two not in this group or not in this group, but we are talking semantics and tenths of points on the list.

When I did my first review of the data I was surprised at how neatly all of the movies fell into a bell curve, the bottom four on my list were clearly the bottom four and virtually everyone agreed, except for the fans ratings of the Hulk.  The next group of 9 films are also clustered together and a change of a point or two in any category would totally rearrange the slotting of the films in the ratings. 

The other differences are: I have the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer at 27, the average audience placement is the Fantastic Four at 27.   The average audience and I also swap places for Ghost Rider and Daredevil in slots 28 and 30.   

Each of these movies is clearly on the list because it didn't work for the audiences and or the critics, usually and.   A common thread amongst six of the films is that "they were just going through the motions" and "how could they not have known these films were not good".

On to the next group starting tomorrow.

Courtesy of impawards.com

Hulk

Released: 2003
Final Score: 8/32
Jeff's Score: 5/32

Bruce Banner, a genetics researcher with a tragic past, suffers an accident that causes him to transform into a raging green monster when he gets angry.

What the Critics Said: While Ang Lee's ambitious film earns marks for style and an attempt at dramatic depth, there's ultimately too much talking and not enough smashing.

What I Said: I totally appreciate the effort that Ang Lee put into creating a "Comic Book" movie, including the transition sequences; however it was all for not with the terrible decision to recreate the backstory.

The hulk is one of those movies that just doesn't work for the Audience and is rated last in terms of audience ratings (1/32), however the Critics liked the movie (17/32), the movie was not a huge financial success (6/32) but it didn't lose money either.  
To me the big problem was the change in the backstory of Bruce Banner, dare I say Mutant DNA, which really brings nothing to the story but length.   Had Ang Lee simply gone with the standarad backstory and added one more Hulk smash scene this movie would have scored a lot higher.  

Courtesy: impawards.com

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Released: 2007
Final Score: 7/32
Jeff's Score: 5/32

The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus.

What the Critics Said: While an improvement on its predecessor, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is nevertheless a juvenile, simplistic picture that has little benefit beyond its special effects.

What I Said: Never realized Galactus was blob in space, I always thought he was a 40 foot tall giant with a purple outfit.   And the movie goes down hill from there.

It is tough to say whether or not this movie is rated too high or too low, in general the audience, critics and I had the movie rated roughly the same, however it sold more tickets than over half the movies on the list and had a decent run in the theater, wasn't just the opening weekend.   I honestly think had Galactus appeared as a Giant we would have gotten the third movie in the Trilogy rather than ending at the sequel.

While much of the special effects were eye popping at the time they were quickly surpassed in later movies.

Image courtesy impawards.com

Ghost Rider

Released: 2007
Final Rating - 6/32
Jeff Rating - 12/32

Stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze gives up his soul to become a hellblazing vigilante, to fight against power hungry Blackheart, the son of the devil himself.

What the Critic said: Ghost Rider is a sour mix of morose, glum histrionics amidst jokey puns and hammy dialogue.

What I said: The over the top acting and special effects are more in line with expectations for a film aimed at 9 year olds rather than an adult audience. 

Another movie where the three reviewing parties disagree on the placement.   The Audience factors placed this movie at 7/32, the critics and box office results a little lower, yet I had it six places higher.   In my mind this movie was better than the next few on the list, but it ends up right where the critics and audience have it placed. 

Image Courtesy of IMP Awards

Blade Trinity

Released: 2004
Final Score: 5/32
Jeff Score 9/32

Blade, now a wanted man by the FBI, must join forces with the Nightstalkers to face his most challenging enemy yet: Dracula

What the Critics said: The latest Blade flick is getting a little long in the tooth; critics call it bloodless, dull, rusty, and an assortment of other puns.

What I said: Blade Trinity felt rushed to the screen while the audience still had decent feelings for the first two films.  There was no character development and many characters failed to have personality to begin with.

Blade Trinity is the first of a small hand full of movies that while given a higher audience and Jeff approval rating sank due to low numbers from the critics (1/32) and low Box Office result (5/32).  

Like The Punisher: War Zone this movie does have it supporters and they are a very vocal minority.   The movie was released just as the Vampire crazy was starting on TV. 

Daredevil
Released: 2003
Final Score: 4/32
Jeff: 3/32

A man blinded by toxic waste which also enhanced his remaining senses fights crime as an acrobatic martial arts superhero.

What the Critics Said: Passable if derivative as entertainment, Ben Affleck fits the role but the film is not up to par with recent superhero films.

What I said: To bad it isn't better.

When watching Daredevil I kept telling myself "this really isn't a bad movie" yet once the film is done and the popcorn is all gone it becomes "that was a bad movie."

Daredevil is a movie that audiences should like but don't, critics should hate but don't, should be better but isn't, while you get he idea.  It near impossible to say what is wrong with Daredevil as it is a really long list of minor issues.   However to me the question of whether Daredevil was a violent vigilante or a campy superhero story really is the deciding factor.

This is also the first movie on the list that has an Extended Director's Cut with approximately 30 minutes of additional footage. 

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Released 2011
Final Rating 4/32
Jeff Rating 6/32

What the critics said: With a weak script, uneven CG work, and a Nic Cage performance so predictably loony it's no longer amusing, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance aims to be trashy fun but ends up as plain trash.

What I said: A movie that is probably worse than it feels, it felt incomplete, the CGI and the action sequences were very uneven in terms of finished quality.

Clearly I liked this movie slightly better than the audience (3/32) which is not really saying much considering it's company at this level.   Half-a-dozen of one six of the other.     This is a film where it is clear you can see where they started running out of money during production and a few dollars more would have helped its quality, but probably not it's bottom line. 

Punisher: War Zone
Released: 2008
Final Score: 2/32
Jeff: 1/32

After hunting down and killing hundreds of violent criminals, Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, faces his most deadly foe yet: Jigsaw.

What the critics said: Punisher: War Zone recalls the excessively violent, dialogue-challenged actioners of the 1980s, and coincidentally feels two decades out of date.

What I said: Punisher: War Zone is grotesquely violent film with little character development and even less dialogue.

I was expecting Punisher: War Zone to finish dead last in my ratings, so being it didn't that is a minor surprise, it missed the overall last place by a 1/2 a point.     

Released as a rated R movie, with a $35 million budget this film earned approximately 22% of that amount back in the theater, clearly the worst performer in terms of the box office.   Clearly what kept Punisher: War Zone from the last spot was it wasn't the least liked of the Marvel Movies, it came in at number 5, and for the few fans that actually liked this movie it held in high regard, don't ask me why I cannot explain it. 

This was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  I wanted to make sure my personal biases were some what tempered by the statistical data, yet not over powered. 

Before I ran the numbers I had notions of where movies were going to land, just not the exact order and generally for the most part the movies placement is fairly solid.

These Ratings include the following criteria.

• My Personal Placement
• Box Office -  Adjusting for inflation - 2014 Box Office Comparison - World Wide
• The Amount of Money Made and Percentage over Budget
• Critics Ratings (three sources composited together)
• Audience Ratings (three sources composited together)
• Over All Critics/Audience Rating weighting the Audience rating by Audience Response

My own personal placement of the movies was given 50% of the total score while the other 50% was a composite of the rest of the categories, all fourteen of them. 

However without going into detail some of the things I found.
My ratings vs. the other criteria, 9 movies were slotted more than 5 slots apart, 16 were slotted no more than 2 slots apart.  The Average difference between me and the composite score was under 1, so in general my list agrees with what "the average" person would say.   The exceptions are The Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Iron Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Wolverine, and Iron Man.   In most of those case I totally understand the difference.

I was slightly shocked when comparing budgets and profits that only two movies failed to recoup their budget costs in the theatrical release.  Punisher: War Zone and Elektra, with Elektra most likely breaking even with the DVD/Blu-Ray releases.   After listening/reading some much about how many of these movies bombed at the box office, it appears to be a myth since the average movie made 210% of what was invested into it by the studios.

The importance of the premium tickets is on the rise, at least for one franchise.

Critics vs. Audience Ratings.
Using a composite of three critics ratings and comparing them to three composite of audience ratings I found a real bell curve of scores.   50% differed by 3 places, 70% were within 5 places of each other.  
The three movies liked far more by the Audience than the Critics: Blade Trinity, X-Men, and Blade.   Interesting that for the most part its the older movies the Audience and Critics disagree with most at this end of the scale.   I suppose that with more technical savvy people involved in ratings with newer movies this drives up the score.
The five movies liked far more by the Critics than the Audience: Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Wolverine, Daredevil and Hulk.
Out of the ten movies on the Fringe (5 on either side) there were a couple of surprises, The Wolverine for example when you look at the numbers make sense, as it finished n the high side of the bubble with critics and low side of the same bubble with audiences, however I was totally shocked to see Spider-Man 2 finish so far apart between the audience and critics reviews, the fact it is the top Critical review and on the bottom of the audience top bubble, in other words both groups liked the movie, just the critics liked it more then the audience.

I was caught off guard by the total number of reviews, responses, and personal ratings for Spider-Man 3.   In looking at the three groups of audience ratings there are nearly 2 1/2 times the number of responses for Spider-Man 3 as the second most audience rated movie, which was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Elektra
Released 2005
Final Score: 1.5/32
Jeff: 2/32
Rating 1/32

Elektra the warrior survives a near-death experience, becomes an assassin-for-hire, and tries to protect her two latest targets, a single father and his young daughter, from a group of supernatural assassins.

What the critics said: This comic book movie is an inert muddle that takes itself much too seriously.

What I said: No Story, Bad Action, Bad CGI, Bad...

I was actually expecting Punisher: War Zone to come up in this spot, so I am a little surprised, I know I shouldn't be.

Elektra is one of two movies in the Marvel Universe that did not turn a profit in its theatrical release.   It is amazing that the critics didn't universally pan this film, a few actually like Jennifer Garner's portrayal of Elektra, however they almost all agree that the rest of the movie is rubbish.  Michael Vartan, Jennifer Garner's boyfriend at the time, is on record saying "Jennifer was contractually obligated to make Elektra, if she could have gotten out of it she would have."