The Most Disappointing Comic Book Movie Sequels of the Last 10 Years

[sonofspam1972]

I really liked Dark Knight Rises (well except for Bane sounding like Sean Connery for some reason) and i really loved Spirit of Vengeance ! it was crazy and fun and had amazing visuals and a good plot.

[Paulo]

"Brett Ratner stepped in for Matthew Vaughn to deliver a part 3 to one of the best part 2s ever."

Erm... No. Ratner stepped in for Brian Singer.

[master of read]

i liked thor 2. it was better than the first one. (not saying that the first thor was terrible. just enjoyed the sequel more.)

and i also love entire iron man trilogy. i can see why people would hate 2 and 3 but i can watch those movies all day.

[Geralt of Rivia]

To me, Iron Man 2, Thor 2 and Dark Knight Rises are all good movies.

Green Lantern, Iron Man 3, and both Wolverine movies on the other hand...

This list doesnt make much sense

[Shark]

This article was the clincher that got me to finally join the CBR forums to throw in my two cents.

I disagree with a few of the choices here, to an extent. I agree that IM2 and TDKR were "disappointments" in the sense that they may not have quite lived up to their predecessors, but the commentary as to why they are on this list is rather harsh, in my opinion. They may have been somewhat flawed, but I think they are still rather entertaining, good movies, undeserving of the lashings this article gives them.

Likewise, "Thor: The Dark World" is in my top 3 Marvel Studios films, and that's saying a lot for someone who wasn't a big fan of the character's solo outings until that movie came out. I love, love, love that film -- a lot of fun, and while the twists with Loki weren't entirely unpredictable, they set up for what should be a fantastic threequel. I agree with some of the complaints regarding the main villain - they could have given him more to say or do to make him a little more menacing, but in the end I give two thumbs way up for this flick. At the very least it's better than its predecessor, which I also enjoyed, but which had a character arc that felt a little rushed and unmotivated.

[Mormel]

I think it stands as a testament to the quality work put into these superhero action movies that about 75% of the sequel films listed here aren't terrible per se. There's no Batman & Robin madness or 1990 Captain America campiness for the most part. The worst of the bunch is probably Blade Trinity, and that's mostly because of what great films the previous 2 were, and Trinity just being cluttered with characters who aren't Blade, and being hindered by a ludicrous plot.

[peckinpah]

"Brett Ratner stepped in for Matthew Vaughn to deliver a part 3 to one of the best part 2s ever."

Erm... No. Ratner stepped in for Brian Singer.

No, he stepped in for Bryan Singer.

[WillieMorgan]

This article was the clincher that got me to finally join the CBR forums to throw in my two cents.

I disagree with a few of the choices here, to an extent. I agree that IM2 and TDKR were "disappointments" in the sense that they may not have quite lived up to their predecessors, but the commentary as to why they are on this list is rather harsh, in my opinion. They may have been somewhat flawed, but I think they are still rather entertaining, good movies, undeserving of the lashings this article gives them.

Likewise, "Thor: The Dark World" is in my top 3 Marvel Studios films, and that's saying a lot for someone who wasn't a big fan of the character's solo outings until that movie came out. I love, love, love that film -- a lot of fun, and while the twists with Loki weren't entirely unpredictable, they set up for what should be a fantastic threequel. I agree with some of the complaints regarding the main villain - they could have given him more to say or do to make him a little more menacing, but in the end I give two thumbs way up for this flick. At the very least it's better than its predecessor, which I also enjoyed, but which had a character arc that felt a little rushed and unmotivated.

Thank you Shark.

20 years ago we'd have given anything for super-hero movies to be so popular & entrenched in Hollywood. Here we are and some people are still picking holes.

[Smart]

The second punisher movie should be on there before the dark knight rises for sure.

[lancerman]

I honestly believe people need to revisit Dark Knight Rises, because a lot of the plotholes that people claim to be plotholes dissolve with multiple viewings. Some need the other 2 movies in the trilogy to properly connect to. That said, there are things in the film that are not anywhere close to perfect and do disappoint, but to have it on the list over iron man 3 is a misstep.

TDKR biggest flaw over the other 2 movies is that it simply does not work on its own, and for that reason, it cant be viewed on its own. You really need to be familiar with begins and dark knight to fully understand whats going on in Rises with the character stuff and the league of shadows stuff. But the one big plus nobody ever brings up, is that its written in a way that bends Batman Begins and the Dark Knight into 2 acts of a 3 act structure. Which, for an unintentional trilogy capper to do that, I honestly think is impressive. The flaws are there, but its not without merit. Lets not pretend Dark Knight is perfect either.

I agree with this. Because honestly a huge accomplishment it had was that it did something to a franchise that it probably didn't intend to begin with (lets be honest most people thought the 3rd Nolan film would be a standard business as usual Batman film with the Riddler, and the cops on Batman's tail for awhile) and not only made it work and make perfect sense, BUT it actually made the other films better.

It made the ending to The Dark Knight more important because it added meaning to the sacrifice. It made Ra's legend grow more from the first film. It tied everything together really well.

It's flawed, like nearly any film, but it's really overblown on here.

[peckinpah]

The second punisher movie should be on there before the dark knight rises for sure.

Yes, yes, yes.

[master of read]

I agree with this. Because honestly a huge accomplishment it had was that it did something to a franchise that it probably didn't intend to begin with (lets be honest most people thought the 3rd Nolan film would be a standard business as usual Batman film with the Riddler, and the cops on Batman's tail for awhile) and not only made it work and make perfect sense, BUT it actually made the other films better.

It made the ending to The Dark Knight more important because it added meaning to the sacrifice. It made Ra's legend grow more from the first film. It tied everything together really well.

It's flawed, like nearly any film, but it's really overblown on here.

i dont really get why its on the list either. sure its not as great as TDR but its still a good movie that was a great cap off to the trilogy.

[Raderman12]

I agree with this. Because honestly a huge accomplishment it had was that it did something to a franchise that it probably didn't intend to begin with (lets be honest most people thought the 3rd Nolan film would be a standard business as usual Batman film with the Riddler, and the cops on Batman's tail for awhile) and not only made it work and make perfect sense, BUT it actually made the other films better.

It made the ending to The Dark Knight more important because it added meaning to the sacrifice. It made Ra's legend grow more from the first film. It tied everything together really well.

It's flawed, like nearly any film, but it's really overblown on here.

Couldnt have put it better. I firmly believe expectations got in peoples way of seeing what the film is actually doing, versus what the people wanted it to be. People wanted another Dark Knight, and that would have been so easy for nolan to do. But instead we got a film that (more than I dare say a lot of comics) elementally humanizes the Bruce Wayne character to a very realistic degree.

SPOILERS: Nolan having Bruce let go of all the hate and anguish by stepping down from being batman in turn, completes the character arc of Batman in such a way that just kind of makes sense, but nobody ever thought it would ever be done. And it fulfills Alfreds long awaited wish to see his adopted son not let what happened to Bruce as a boy, effect his life for the worse by still being Batman. Its the Batman ending the comics can never do, and It should be championed for having being done.

Its an elseworlds tale for sure in that Batman never quits, but so was The Dark Knight Returns.

[Darrell D.]

I'm a fan of the entire Iron Man movie series so far, but I can certainly see why people disliked Iron Man 2. It had a couple of pacing issues, and it made the mistake of playing up Justin Hammer as much as Anton Vanko, instead of putting the main focus on Vanko.

Yeah, the pacing in the flick was off, but when you have guys like Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle and RDJ just riffing, it's hard to hate.

[Darrell D.]

No, he stepped in for Bryan Singer.

Right, Vaughn was originally slated as the director for X3 when Singer left.
Vaughn left the project and Ratner was tapped.