War Journal Entry number 744 - A big, long list

[zodarzone]

Here's a list of the comic book based movies that I've got on DVD.

Rule #1 - They have to have originated from comics.

I am including straight to DVD animated movies because if I didn't, then how could I include straight to DVD live-action movies? I'll put the tiles of the animated ones in italics to make it clearer.

I am leaving out anime based on manga mainly because most of you don't care.

I try to notate which version of the release when there have been multiple versions. So just because I don't say something is the two disc version doesn't mean it doesn't have two discs, just that there weren't multiple versions.

1. Alien vs. Predator - The Unrated Edition. I seem to have broken rule #1 right off the bat for those of you familiar with the trophy room in Predator 2, but the fact is that the comic series came out first (Dark Horse Comics had the license to both properties) and the makers of the Predator 2 film liked the idea so much that they included an Alien skull in the Predators' trophy room.

2. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem - Extreme Unrated Set. Continuing right off the heels of the first movie, I enjoyed this one more. Not that it's a good movie, mind you. Neither one really falls into that category, but I enjoy them both. Then again, I also like Alien Resurrection and Predator 2, so my taste is suspect.

3. Batman: The Movie - Holy Special Edition, Batman! The real treat of this Adam West/Burt Ward fest of camp is the commentary that the pair provide.

4. Batman - 2-Disc Special Edition. The first Michael Keaton Batman film, but you knew that already.

5. Batman Returns - 2-Disc Special Edition.

6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The theatrical film from the makers of Batman: The Animated Series.

7. Batman Begins. Frills-free single disc edition.

8. Batman: Gotham Knight. An animated anthology set in the Christopher Nolan continuity, from many of the same people that worked on the AniMatrix.

9. The Dark Knight. Again, the frills-free single disc edition.

10. Blade. Responsible for igniting Marvel's surge into the film industry.

11. Blade II.

12. Blade Trinity - Unrated Version. Seriously, I love this movie thanks in large part to Ryan Reynolds and Parker Posey. Contains an original comic book by Jimmy Palmiotti/Justin Gray and Amanda Conner.

13. Bulletproof Monk. Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott. I kid you not.

14. Constantine - 2-Disc Deluxe Edition. Keanu Reeves is somehow not as bad as you'd expect, mainly because the creators kept with the idea of Constantine being a major bastard. But it's really the supporting cast, who are all superb, that save this movie and keep me coming back to it.

15. The Crow. The first release, which has zero special features.

16. The Crow: Salvation. The third Crow film was a straight to DVD owing to how poorly the the second film did. Stars Eric Mabius and Kirsten Dunst.

17. Daredevil. Features a great commentary, mainly due to the fact that the director realized the movie wasn't great and actually talked about that.

18. Daredevil - The Directors Cut. A full 30 minutes longer than the regular version, this one expands upon the lawyer part of Daredevil's life, features more Jon Favreau as Foggie Nelson, and actually ties the plot all together. In an rare twist, the Director's Cut has the sex scene removed... which is more true to the character and the story.

19. Elektra - Director's Cut. Not so great, but I knew it wouldn't be going into it. Can't tell if there was much of a difference between the regular cut and this one, mainly bought for the special features. And even then, it was bought cheap.

20. Fantastic Four. As a really long time reader of the FF, I thought this movie nailed them and am still pretty surprised by how poorly it is regarded. And let's be honest, folks, Michael Chiklis was born to play Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin' blue eyed Thing.

21. Fantastic Four - Extended Edition. A very poorly done cut of the movie with deleted scenes haphazardly stuck into it. But the special features were worth the cheap price I paid for the DVD.

22. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - The Power Cosmic Edition. The ending was hampered by the hopes of having a Silver Surfer solo film, but still mostly enjoyable. Back to what I said about the first movie, I thought the chemistry between the four worked really well, and it continued to be evident here.

23. Gen13. Unfortunately due to legal crisscrosses, and Disney not wanting to help their competitor, Warner Brothers, this may never get a legitimate North American release. Not that it's that great of a film anyway. Worthwhile for fans of Gen13, but not good enough for anyone that isn't.

24. Ghost Rider - 2-Disc Extended Cut. This works much better once you realize that the director meant it to be funny.

25. Ghost World. Based on the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. Stars Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi.

26. Green Lantern: First Flight - 2-Disc Special Edition. Pretty darn good, actually. Surprisingly. Contains some nice bonus features, including an episode of Duck Dodgers where he joins the Green Lantern Corps.

27. Hellboy - 3-Disc Director's Cut. A whole day's worth of special features.

28. Hellboy Animated: Sword of Stones. Quite good, and almost directly adapts a couple of Mike Mignola's stories. Voices are provided by the cast of the live action film... except for Abe Sapien who is voiced by Doug Jones, the man that only did Abe's physical performance in the first film.

29. Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron. Not nearly as strong as the first one, it's only OK.

That's right, I'm still missing Hellboy 2. The 2 disc edition disappeared from the stores, so I'm going to have to break down and buy it online at some point.

30. Return of the Incredible Hulk. A TV movie from the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno series. Features the first live-action appearance of Thor.

31. Hulk - 2-Disc Special Edition. The Eric Bana starring, Ang Lee directed flop. The best I can say about it is that it has really great editing. All that and a climax that makes you scratch your head in confusion at its pathetic metaphysicality.

32. The Incredible Hulk - 3-Disc Target Exclusive. Now this right here is a Hulk movie, and Ed Norton is a fantastic Bruce banner. The film starts with the fear and tension of being discovered and hunted, and then builds up with a series of explosions into a brutal finale worthy of the Hulk.

33. Hulk vs. - 2-Disc Special Edition. A pair of animated films too short to be offered individually. Hulk vs. Wolverine is my favorite of the two with a fantastic adaptation of scenes from Barry Windsor-Smith's Weapon X story, as well as some brilliant Deadpool action. That's not to say Hulk vs. Thor isn't enjoyable, because it is. Though the Wolverine one is the shorter of the two, I think there is more story to it.

34. Planet Hulk - 2-Disc Special Edition. Bursting with the awesome. Not as good as the comics it is based on, but certainly the best of Marvel's animated films.

35. Iron Man - Ultimate 2-Disc Edition. You know it's good.

36. Josie and the Pussycats. A guilty pleasure.

37. Judge Dredd. Reading some of the old JD comics actually made me like this Sylvester Stallone feature better. I think it's a lot closer to the truth than most Judge Dredd fans are comfortable with. Remember, folks, JD is not only satire, but is also supposed to be funny. Don't take it too seriously.

38. Justice League: The New Frontier - 2-Disc Special Edition. And the best of DC's various animated features is also the one most closely following its source material. A really fantastic piece that features an all-star cast of actors providing the voices.

39. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Making Alan Moore cry. And I like it. (It's up to you to decide whether I mean that I like the movie, or I like that something makes Alan Moore cry.)

40. Man-Thing. Yes, Man-Thing. Because everyone had forgotten about Swamp Thing by now. (The release of the two comics was so close together that it is generally regarded as one of those weird coincidences that happen fairly often.)

41. Mystery Men. While bearing little resemblance to the original comics (these guys, in all their bumbling, are still far too competent), it is chock full of fun... and a crazy amount of of people everyone recognizes.

42. Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. A TV movie starring David Hasselhoff. It's as bad as that implies. Hilariously bad.

43. The Punisher. The Dolph Lundgren film from 1989 isn't too far from most other action films of the eighties. Another one of those movies so bad that you either love it... or drill a hole in your own head to get away from the hurting.

44. The Punisher. The Thomas Jane film from 2004 has some major points against it, highest amongst them being John Travolta as the big bad, but features enough elements from Garth Ennis's Welcome Back, Frank storyline to make it worthwhile. Also notable for eschewing computer effects in favor of practical ones. Has a pretty good commentary and some nice special features. Includes an exclusive comic written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Steve Dillon.

45. The Punisher - Extended Cut. Fills out the story a little more, but its 17 additional minutes are hardly noticed because the good stuff was already in the film. Glad I got it super cheap.

46. Punisher War Zone - 2-Disc Special Edition. The Ray Stevenson film is my favorite of the three, and is certainly the funniest. It's also the closest to the character seen in the comics. Well worth watching at least once, but you might want to do it after a couple of drinks.

Wow, this is taking a lot longer than I expected.

47. Sin City - Recut, Extended, Unrated. This 2-disc edition not only features a verison of the film broken up into the individual stories that were blended together, but also has a digest-sized copy of the first graphic novel. Truth be told, I still haven't watched the extended edition.

48. Spider-Man - 2-Disc Special Edition. 'Nuff said.

49. Spider-Man 2 - 2-Disc Special Edition. The best of the three.

50. Spider-Man 3 - 3-Disc Deluxe Edition. Yeah, I know it mostly sucks.

51. 300 - 2-Disc Special Edition. Dammit, I'm a sucker for the special feature editions. It's an illness.

52. The Tick - The Entire Series! At only nine episodes long, the live-action Tick series can easily be seen as an admittedly episodic film... thus I'm including it in this list. Honestly, it's just really great and I highly recommend a helping to everyone. Patrick Warburton is delightfully awesome!

53. Ultimate Avengers: The Movie. A strangely compressed and toned-down version of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's first volume of The Ultimates. Still, it was a PG-13 animated film that paved the way for both Marvel and DC's current crop of straight to DVD animated films.

54. Vampirella. With Roger Daltrey as the big bad. It's seriously as bad as you expect it to be.

55. V For Vendetta - 2-Disc Special Edition. A different animal than the original tale, but still good.

56. Virus. Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, and William Baldwin, with some other folks, stuck on an ocean vessel battling machines granted sentience by a beam from space. A good example of pre-CG effects.

57. Watchmen - Director's Cut. A strikingly faithful adaptation, most of the changes made to the story are ones I agree with, and make it work better for me. Others obviously don't see it that way, but that's OK.

58. Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter. Contains the animated adaptation of the comic story within the comic, as well as an in-universe TV special about Hollis Mason, his tell-all book Under The Hood, and the Watchmen.

59. Wonder Woman - 2-Disc Special Edition. Pretty good, though the main things I like have little to do with Wonder Woman. First, you've got Alfred Molina doing the voice of Ares. Awesome. Then you have... wait for it... Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor. Squee!

60. X-Men.

61. X2: X-Men United.

62. X-Men: The Last Stand - Collector's Edition. Includes an exclusive comic with an original Stan Lee story, as yet still not printed anywhere else. Despite more than a couple missteps, I don't think the movie is as bad as many people have made it out to be.

64. X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 2-Disc Special Edition.

You thought I was done because I reached X? Not yet, we've got some honorable mentions to go out.

1. The Specials, for being closer to the Mystery Men comic than the Mystery Men movie was.

2. Unbreakable, for being the most serious take on superheroes that wasn't actually derived from a comic.

And 3. Orgazmo, for being awesome.

Lastly, we've got, well, I guess you'd call it a dishonorable mention.

Hancock, for not knowing whether it was eschewing superhero stereotypes, or embracing them wholeheartedly.

This list doesn't even include all the documentaries, mockumentaries, and other such things somehow related to comics that I also have. But I'm done for the night, I'd already worked in front of a computer for 12 and a 1/2 hours today, and then I came home and did this, taking long enough to get through a disc and a half of Batman The Animated Series.

Next time I'll have to go through the movies I have that are based on video games. Not a single Uwe Boll flick amongst them.