I incorporated Rottentomatoes and Metacritic. The list is in no particular order but these are the top 10 rated comic book films critically.
Superman the movie
Spider-man 2
Iron Man
The Dark Knight
The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Logan
Black Panther
Spider-man into the Spider-verse
Avengers Endgame
Now the question is do you agree with the top ten? Disagree what would be your list if not any of these. I will give you mine.
Superman the movie: This one has got to be on my top ten and should be respected. I mean after all this is where it all started. A movie which was made with a ton of ambition. Think it must have taken guts to convince a studio to hire such veteran big name actors for a blockbuster they were not even sure would make money especially after Star Wars. The music theme as well as the cast hold up great. Sure it dated in the technical ways but I have no issue watching a dated film as long as the characters and script is great. Donner killed it with this.
Spider-man 2: Raimi channeled Donner's magic beautifully. He emulated many plot points while still bringing his own flair to it. The visual effects were jaw dropping it won an Oscar for visuals in fact. The ending still to this day gives me goosebumps. It has everything you need in a superhero film, amazing action, great humor, a magical love story, as well as showcasing the true weight of being a hero. I love this one.
Batman Begins: Honestly I am baffled Iron Man was rated over this one critically. I am not shading Iron Man in anyway I love that movie. Thing is I saw so much it lifted from this film. The mentor turned evil, the story being told out of order, the rich boy who gets an entirely new outlook on life after going somewhere far off in the world, everyone thinking the hero was dead etc. Batman Begins was the first origin story of a superhero to introduce these things. Iron man emulated it and so did Man of Steel albeit poorly in Man of Steel's case. No one knew who the villain was of this picture it was quite fresh and unique the way it told the story.
Sin City: Sigh here is one for the life of me I can not understand why it gets overlooked so much. The sequel is not good but this one literally did something I still do not feel has been done. It literally put the comic book on the screen. This was not an adaption it was a translation. Only other I can think that came close was Scott Pilgrim vs the world. In terms of translating.
The Dark Knight: Yeah I know a cliche one to put on my list but hey it is cliche for a reason. The Joker is the best comic book villain ever. I never thought the pretty boy from a Knight's tale could be so terrifying. I was dead wrong. Aside from that though this movie was so well done. The minimal use of cgi and how it is done so practically make it age like fine whine. Seeing the hero truly fail by losing his love interest was awesome. I loved that they broke that cliche. Finally the guts to show the hero actually fail and lose something. Also the fact that this pushed the envelope for superhero movies to considered for best picture was awesome. This movie should have been nominated for best picture period.
The Avengers: Seeing these characters all be already established in their own solo movies and then come together was flat out fun. I do not like this as much as most people but it was fun that you could just showcase the heroes display their power since their stories had already been fleshed out in their origin films.
The Dark Knight Rises: Now this one is not as good as The Dark Knight. There is no shame in that though it still had an amazing villain and gave the hero a great sendoff. A bit overlong but I love Hans Zimmer's music and I must say I love the fact that it ends bittersweet. Also the cinematography as well as practical use of vehicle chases is always eye candy. Hathaway is a great Selina Kyle as well.
X-men Days of Future Past: I feel this one gets overlooked as well. I love the time travel Terminator parallels and the visual effects here are quite strong. McAvoy I feel gives an overlooked performance here. I personally think he is just as good as Patrick Stuart as Charles Xavier. This one feels you full of hope. I love it.
Logan: The best sendoff for a superhero I have ever seen. I personally think this movie has the most personal story for a superhero. Hugh Jackman should have gotten a nomination for this one.
Spider-man into the Spider-verse: This has a great new art design it brings into the fold. It also has quite unique things brought to Spider-man which is tough to do since he has so many movies now.
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