Top 5 Comic Book Movie Fight Scenes

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Comic book fans will agree that the artwork within comic books, varying on the story and character(s), needs to be something special. Whether it’s the classic look from Jack Kirby, the He-Man look from Jim Lee, the eccentric look from Todd McFarlane, the gritty look from Frank Miller, or the life-like painted look from Alex Ross the artwork is one of the main reasons most comic book fans prefer this style of story telling to regular text novels (that and perhaps laziness).One thing constant within the majority of comic books, mainly super hero / sci-fi / fantasy based comic books, are the fight scenes. Normally, it isn’t long before the panels display a fight scene and it’s probably 80% (if not more) of the comic book. With the traditional format of comic books being out for almost 80+ years now, we’ve had time to perfect the fight scenes within comic books. From the cartoon-ish under developed swinging blow of Dick Tracy to the over the top crushing blow of Jim Lee’s Batman run, we’ve seen the evolution of comic book fight scenes come a long way.

That stated; comic book enthusiasts expect a lot from the films that adapt their beloved comic books into live action major motion pictures. I hear and read lots about how as long as they get the feel or theme right, fans are satisfied. Bull crap! The true fans want to see the good smack downs just as much as the theme or feel.

Few movies have nailed it. When I mean “it,” I mean the pulse pounding scenes I see the comic versions are presenting. Why haven’t they nailed “it” yet? In the past the scenes and shots displayed in the comic books are probably too expensive to translate it over OR they just can’t figure it out.

But what constitutes a good fight scene in general within a movie? Outside of comic book movies, tons of movies have them, but how come few comic book movies have them? A good fight scene, in my mind, has (a) believable weight and physics, (b) hard and heavy hits, and (c) having the reaction of the audiences yelling out “damn, did you see that?” Or a simple “Wow!”

First (A) believable weight and physics: not that it has to be a real looking fight, but that it has to look believable, is what I am asking. A guy jumping around like Spider-man looks fun, but if you can see that it is a fake CGI figure, then it is ruined. A super hero like Spider-man should be able to move like he does, but when stops short after from jumping across the room to upper punching a villain, we should witness two things: we should see his knee and body hitting the ground with tremendous force (knees pounding to the point any normal man’s joint would burst from the impact) and then the actual hit to the villain should display a clear punch (let’s say) to his jaw breaking or at least deforming his jaw in a way that let’s us know Spider-man actually made a powerful smack to the bad guy. Wire works can’t really do it because you can tell he’s being pulled around and CGI can’t always do it right because, well, it looks fake a lot of times.

Second (B) hard and heavy hits: as explained above with the example of Spider-man hitting the villain, it not only has to be believable, but it looks like it has to hurt and the person receiving the blow should react in way a powerful hit like that should deliver. I think movie makers should create life-sized rag dolls resembling a normal human, stand them up, and have a person swing a sledge hammer at the doll’s head to see the effect a true super hero punch would deliver.

Finally (C) the wow factor: simplistic explanation and expectations. If we actually say wow, damn, or holy s#it during the film, movie makers got it right.

So, after all of that, my pick for top 5 best fight scenes within a comic book adapted feature film are (in ranking order):

# 5: Tie between Mark Johnson’s Daredevil (2003) and Jonathan Hensleigh’s Punisher (2004)

The reason for only 5th place and a tie is because I feel there are scenes within these two movies that allow them to take the 5th position. In Daredevil, the bar fight scene was impressive. I didn’t think Ben Affleck could pull it off, but go ahead and watch that scene alone, you’ll be impressed. The rest of the movie is a ho-hum comic book movie. The scene in the Punisher has to be the fight between the Punisher and the Russian. Drop down brutal. If you made a movie combining these two characters and had these two scenes in this one movie, it would have done twice as good at the box office as their original movies.

# 4: Sam Raimi’s Spider-man 3 (2007)

I won’t get into how disappointed I was with this movie. Spider-man is and always will be one of my favorite comic book characters, but this movie was utter crap. That said; the fight scenes were probably the best we could expect (to date) from a Spider-man movie. It ranked #4 only because I feel 3 other movies did a memorable job better than this one. That and I’m desensitized and less impressed with fight scenes from any movie that doesn’t have a R rating (for the most part).

# 3: Bryan Singer’s X-men 2 (2003)

The fight scene between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike was impressive, but I am speaking of the fight scene between Wolverine and the soldiers. If you’ve seen it, you’d agree. It was Wolverine at his finest and I am anticipating the Wolverine movie; as long as they have fight scenes close to this, if not better, I’ll enjoy it.

# 2: Zach Snyder’s 300 (2007)

Not your conventional comic book (over-sized comic book = graphic novel in geek language), but let’s give it up to 300’s fight scenes! I think Mr. Snyder took Frank Miller’s artwork and made it better than Frank’s original vision. The tone, the color, the presence carried over, but Mr. Snyder took it to the next level. It got the “wow” factor the entire time. It is one constant war of a film, but the fight scene that comes to mind is when the Spartans first break formation to advance and each slaughter the enemy one at a time (the leg chopping scene and spear chucking is where I yelped the words, “Sick, very sick!”).

#1: Stephen Norrington’s Blade (1998)

Even though Zach Snyder had almost 10 years to perfect the fight scene in 300 over Norrington’s work on Blade, Blade (to me) has the best fighting scenes in any comic book movie (perhaps any action movie if we do the comparison). I have yet to see a comic book movie capture the ABCs of a good fight scene (explained above) like Blade has done. Whether it was Blade spiking a vampire into the ceiling or him going one on one with Deacon Frost, I still believe to date, Blade has some of the best fighting scenes you will ever see in a comic book movie. The impacts, the camera movements, the pace pounding punches and kicks, its all there (they nailed it). And all Blade movies after have not been able to capture the look and feel of the original film; mostly due to Mr. Norrington not directing the other 2 movies (he brought the true magic to the movie).

So, there you have it! Argue, rant, commend, de-zone, agree, whatever; I have spoken! Let me know your thoughts. Did I miss a movie?

Sin City perhaps? Spider-man 1? Batman Begins? All great comic book movies, but I had to pick my top 5 (6 given the tie) and there you have it.

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