Top Ten Comic Book Movies Part 2

Last week, we started our Top Ten Comic Book Movies List with the flicks that didn't quite make the cut.  This week we are going to get into the meat of the list and count down movies 6 through 10.  Let's do this:

• 10) The Avengers - I know, it seems kind of premature to be putting this movie on a Top 10 list so soon after its release, but I really thought Joss Whedon did an incredible job with such a tough concept to pull off on film.  It probably helped that the actors playing all of those superheros ended up forming a tight group off-camera and the feel on set was always playful and fun, which carried-over to the movie itself.
• 9) V for Vendetta - an extremely underrated movie even if it was the first movie the Wachowski's had anything to do with after The Matrix Trilogy.  Hugo Weaving was awesome as the anarchist V and Natalie Portman did a pretty good job despite her terrible British accent.  Like I said, I feel like this movie was under-appreciated and deserves more praise than it received.
• 8) Batman Returns - while the first Tim Burton Batman starring Jack Nicholson as The Joker was great, this one was better in my book.  It had a still-in-her-prime Michelle Pfeiffer in tight leather, it had the perfect actor to play The Penguin, it had Christopher Walken doing what Christopher Walken does, and it had the perfect amount of comic book world mixed in with reality.  Plus it was definitely better than the two sequels that came out immediately after it.
• 7) X2 - they unleashed Wolverine in this a little more than in the original and I think that helped.  Plus the opening scene of Nightcrawler infiltrating the White House was incredible.  Of the five or how ever many X-Men movies there are, this one was definitely the best and the only one that will be making this list.
• 6) The Dark Knight - what, The Dark Knight isn't in the top 5, Sambo?  No it is not and I have two words for you - Maggie Gyllenhaal.  She was so terrible in this movie that I am still convinced she is the reason that the film didn't receive any sort of Oscar buzz (other than Heath Ledger of course).  Go back and watch The Dark Knight.  It is still a great movie, but it is probably about 20 to 30 minutes too long and having to watch Maggie Gyllenhaal butcher the part of Rachel Dawes knocked it out of the Top 5 for me.

"It still makes me laugh picturing Elrond/Agent Smith under that mask."