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No trend has been more prominent within the 21st century than the popularity of the superhero movie, as Hollywood has been determined to bring every single character from the Marvel and DC comics to life on either the big or small screen. Although there have always been an interest in these beloved characters, the burgeoning success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy indicates that superhero films could be taken seriously as a form of art.
Unfortunately, not every superhero movie lives up to the hype, and there have been several highly anticipated films that have fallen short. What’s shocking is that these films tend to have strong casts, but simply failed due to poor writing, visual effects, tonal consistency, and dramatic execution. Here are the ten worst superhero movies that squandered their incredible casts.
10 ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)
Directed by Zack Snyder
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was a major disappointment that signaled a rough road for the DCEU, as the film attempted to speed towards a crossover event way before the audience had grown an affection for the characters. While Henry Cavill was able to capture the strength and size of Superman, he had a hard time being believable as the kind-hearted, charming Clark Kent that became idolized as a hero.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice wasted a truly excellent performance by Ben Affleck, whose performance as Bruce Wayne was certainly one of the best onscreen depictions of an older, more grizzled version of Batman. Even worse was the treatment of Lex Luthor, as not even an excellent actor like Jesse Eisenberg could work with an interpretation of the character that had no basis in any of the established source material.
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Batman is manipulated by Lex Luthor to fear Superman. Superman´s existence is meanwhile dividing the world and he is framed for murder during an international crisis. The heroes clash and force the neutral Wonder Woman to reemerge.
Release Date March 24, 2016
Director Zack Snyder
Runtime 152 minutes
Writers Chris Terrio , David S. Goyer
Studio Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget $250 million
Studio(s) DC , Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Prequel(s) Man of Steel
9 ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ (2020)
Directed by Patty Jenkins
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Wonder Woman 1984 was a rather shocking disappointment, as the first Wonder Woman film directed by Patty Jenkins had been one of the most well-received installments in the DCEU. Although the romantic chemistry between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine had been excellent in the first film, Wonder Woman 1984 took their dynamic in a very strange direction that actually felt like a creepy piece of body horror.
Wonder Woman 1984 failed to come up with interesting villains, as Kristen Wiig’s performance as the new villain “Cheetah” was laughable at best; however, Wiig can’t really be blamed, as her character is almost a complete ripoff of Jim Carrey’s The Riddler in Batman Forever. Although Pedro Pascal does deserve some credit for understanding what the tone of the film probably should have been, his fun performance was not enough to make the rest of Wonder Woman 1984 any more watchable.
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Wonder Woman 1984
Diana must contend with a work colleague, and with a businessman whose desire for extreme wealth sends the world down a path of destruction, after an ancient artifact that grants wishes goes missing.
Release Date December 25, 2020
Runtime 115 Minutes
Tagline
Budget $200 Million
Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Sequel(s) Wonder Woman 3
Prequel(s) Wonder Woman
8 ‘The New Mutants’ (2020)
Directed by Josh Boone
The New Mutants became the laughingstock of the X-Men universe, as the film was pushed back multiple times due to re-edits, poor test screenings, and the COVID-19 virus related shutdowns that closed theaters nationwide. When it finally debuted in select theaters in the summer of 2020, The New Mutants was released with so little fanfare that comic book fans wouldn't have been blamed if they forgot that it existed entirely.
The New Mutants was clearly meant to be a coming-of-age horror story in the vein of The Lost Boys or The Faculty, but the characters were so thinly written that it never really worked. This was a great shame, as young actors like Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and Charlie Heaton all had the potential to do something very interesting within the genre, and hopefully will get more chances down the line.
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Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.
Release Date August 26, 2020
Runtime 99 minutes
Character(s) Rahne Sinclair , Dani Moonstar , Illyana Rasputin , Samuel Guthrie , Roberto da Costa , Dr. Reyes , Dani's Father , Reverend Craig , Smiling Man , Smiling Man (voice) , Sam's Father , Young Illyana , Frozen Cheyenne , Coal Miner (uncredited)
Producers Lauren Shuler Donner , Michele Imperato Stabile , Stan Lee , Karen Rosenfelt
Studio
Tagline
7 ‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)
Directed by Josh Trank
Image via 20th Century Studios
Fantastic Four has been a franchise that has struggled since the beginning. A 1994 film was made purely to hold on to the rights to the characters (despite never actually being released in theaters), and the two films directed by Tim Story were met with negative reviews by fans.
However, the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four completely misunderstood the characters, as Marvel’s “First Family” came off as a group of grouchy, self centered individuals that showed no affection for each other, and didn’t seem to have any interest in being superheroes. Although Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Michael B. Jordan are all great actors who could have theoretically done something interesting with the material had the writing been sharper, the film is such a reworked mess that there was no consistency to the way in which their origin story was conceived.
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Fantastic Four
A group of astronauts gain superpowers after a cosmic radiation exposure and must use them to oppose the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom.
Release Date August 5, 2015
Director Josh Trank
Runtime 100 minutes
Writers Simon Kinberg , Jeremy Slater , Josh Trank , Stan Lee , Jack Kirby
6 ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (2022)
Directed by Taika Waititi
Image via Marvel Studios
Thor: Love and Thunder was a huge step down for its franchise, as everything that had made Taika Waititi’s work on Thor: Ragnorak fun and entertaining now felt tired, irritating, and sloppy. Although it was evident that Chris Hemsworth enjoyed playing a more comedic side of the God of Thunder, Thor: Love and Thunder essentially turned its titular protagonist into a parody of himself.
Thor: Love and Thunder wasted an incredible performance by Christian Bale, whose work as Gorr the God Butcher could have gone down in history as one of the greatest comic book screen villains of all-time had the film not undercut any serious moment with awkward and unfunny humor. Although it was nice to see Natalie Portman return to her role, Jane Foster’s cancer storyline felt far too serious for a film that essentially treated itself like a live-action cartoon.
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Thor's quest for inner peace is interrupted by the arrival of Gorr the God Butcher, a vengeful enemy targeting deities across the cosmos. Teaming up with King Valkyrie, Korg, and his former love Jane Foster, who now possesses the power of Thor, they must confront this formidable threat.
Release Date July 8, 2022
Runtime 118 minutes
Budget $250 million
Distributor(s) Disney
Sequel(s) Thor 5
Prequel(s) Thor: The Dark World , Thor, Thor: Ragnarok
Franchise(s) Thor , Marvel Cinematic Universe
5 ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
Directed by David Ayer
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Suicide Squad assembled one of the best casts in the history of comic book cinema, but the film was so poorly edited that none of the performers had the chance to shine. It was evident that whatever David Ayer had originally intended the film to be had been completely reshaped, as the theatrically released version of Suicide Squad was stuck between being a dark crime thriller and a comedic adventure in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Suicide Squad did feature an excellent performance by Margot Robbie, who was thankfully able to do better work in both Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Sadly, the same could not be said for Will Smith, whose charms are wasted in a film that doesn’t seem at all interested in exploring the complexities of Deadshot as an anti-hero and father.
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Suicide Squad
A secret government agency recruits some of the most dangerous incarcerated super-villains to form a defensive task force. Their first mission: save the world from the apocalypse.
Release Date August 5, 2016
Runtime 123 minutes
Studio
Tagline
Website
Budget $175 million
Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Franchise(s) Suicide Squad
4 ‘The Marvels’ (2023)
Directed by Nia DeCosta
Image via Marvel Studios
The Marvels may be the single worst installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, which is no small statement considering how disastrous films like Iron Man 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have been.
The Marvels has three great actresses in search of a better movie, as the ridiculous plot wastes the solid chemistry between Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, and Lashana Lynch. Also wasted in the film is Samuel L. Jackson, whose performance as Nick Fury is actually one of his worst; while Jackson was able to give a lot of depth to Fury in films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Marvels turned the beloved leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. into a wrangler of chaos who served no other purpose in the story than to deliver exposition to the audience in the most boring ways imaginable.
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Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, forcing them to work together to save the universe.
Release Date November 10, 2023
Runtime 105 minutes
Studio Marvel Studios
3 ‘Kraven the Hunter’ (2024)
Directed by J.C. Chandor
Image Via Sony
Kraven the Hunter is a genuinely disastrous attempt at bringing one of the most iconic Spider-Man villains to life on the big screen, and not just because Peter Parker is not in the film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has the physicality and dark demeanor necessary to play the titular anti-hero, but the dialogue in Kraven the Hunter is so cheesy that it becomes very challenging to take him seriously.
Kraven the Hunter features some of the most embarrassing villains in comic book history, as Christopher Abbott’s performance as The Foreigner and Alessandro Nivola’s work as Rhino are simply disastrous on every imaginable level. Also wasted are Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose, whose characters are so thinly written that it’s almost impressive that Kraven the Hunter was not able to give them anything that was even remotely compelling to work with.
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Kraven the Hunter explores the origin story of Sergei Kravinoff, known as Kraven, as he navigates his tumultuous relationship with his father, Nikolai. This path of vengeance sets Kraven on a journey to become a formidable hunter with a reputation for fearsome brutality.
Release Date December 13, 2024
Director J.C. Chandor
Runtime 127 Minutes
Character(s) Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven , Nikolai Kravinoff , Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon , Calypso , The Foreigner , Aleksei Sytsevich aka The Rhino , Young Sergei , Big Rhino , Young Dmitri , Passerby , André , Oleksander , Guard , Law Firm Receptionist , Restaurant Diner , Sniper 2 , Russian Captain , Cora's Mum , Prison Officer , Ömer Aksoy , Russian Prisoner
Writers Art Marcum , Richard Wenk , Matt Holloway
Budget 110 million
Studio(s) Sony
Distributor(s) Sony
Franchise(s) Marvel Comics , Marvel Cinematic Universe
2 ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ (2014)
Directed by Marc Webb
Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 eroded all of the good will that audiences had for its predecessor, as the excellent romantic chemistry between Andrew Garfiled and Emma Stone was completely wasted in a sequel that was more interested in developing potential spinoffs for Sony’s larger Spider-Man cinematic universe than it was telling a story that was compelling on its own merits.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 completely fumbled its approach to the villains, as the great Paul Giamatti is reduced to little more than a cameo with his role as Rhino. However, that can’t even compare to how shockingly terrible Jamie Foxx is as Electro; even though Foxx is among the best actors working today, he was handed a script that seemed to insist on making Electro into the most irritating, erratic, and unconvincing character imaginable. Thankfully, Foxx was able to redeem himself when he reprised his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Release Date May 2, 2014
Runtime 142 minutes
Writers Jeff Pinkner , James Vanderbilt , Alex Kurtzman , Roberto Orci
Prequel The Amazing Spider-Man
Budget 230 million
Studio(s) Sony
Distributor(s) Sony
Prequel(s) The Amazing Spider-Man
1 ‘Dark Phoenix’ (2019)
Directed by Simon Kinberg
Image via 20th Century Studios
Dark Phoenix was a very disappointing conclusion to the X-Men franchise, not least of all because it was the second attempt at capturing one of the most famous comic book storylines of all-time after it had been butchered in X-Men: The Last Stand.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender can always be trusted to do great work as Charles Xavier and Magneto, respectively, but Dark Phoenix does not take advantage of the significant development within their relationship that has been made since they first appeared together back in X-Men: First Class. The film also does not take advantage of Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops or Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, as they are not given nearly enough screen time or character development to stand out when compared to the depictions by James Marsden and Famke Janssen, respectively, in the original trilogy of X-Men films.
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In this continuation of the rebooted X-Men movie series, Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now, the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world.
Release Date June 7, 2019
Director Simon Kinberg
Runtime 113 Minutes
Writers Simon Kinberg
Studio 20th Century Fox
Prequel X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class
Budget $200 million
Studio(s) 20th Century
Distributor(s) 20th Century
Prequel(s) X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: The Last Stand
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