Best superhero movie of all time? (Nominations thread)

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would say it's an absolutely midnight dark comedy about mental illness.

I think one can make a credible argument about mental illness and trauma around a lot of superhero fiction.

 

[Ryujin]

I think one can make a credible argument about mental illness and trauma around a lot of superhero fiction.

Sure, but "Super" involves delusion, not powers. If I snapped and started killing Orcs in a shopping mall, with someone following me around with a camera, it wouldn't be a fantasy movie.

 

[overgeeked]

I think one can make a credible argument about mental illness and trauma around a lot of superhero fiction.

I still think the best take on Batman is that his superpower is massive wealth and white privilege and he uses both to go around beating up mentally ill people. If he wanted to solve crime in Gotham he could invest some of his wealth into job programs, drug rehab, and mental health services. That would do far more good than beating up a rotating cast of thousands of unstable people in goofy pajamas.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That would do far more good than beating up a rotating cast of thousands of unstable people in goofy pajamas.

Men will do anything to avoid going to therapy.

 

[Tonguez]

I still think the best take on Batman is that his superpower is massive wealth and white privilege and he uses both to go around beating up mentally ill people. If he wanted to solve crime in Gotham he could invest some of his wealth into job programs, drug rehab, and mental health services. That would do far more good than beating up a rotating cast of thousands of unstable people in goofy pajamas.

Well Bruce Wayne is a major sponsor of the Arkham Asylum so he does invest in mental health services and research as well Wayne Investments employing a good percentage of Gothams population.
The villains he targets are those who have shown themselves to be beyond the reach of the law or rehab - at least thats the rationale

 

[Ryujin]

I still think the best take on Batman is that his superpower is massive wealth and white privilege and he uses both to go around beating up mentally ill people. If he wanted to solve crime in Gotham he could invest some of his wealth into job programs, drug rehab, and mental health services. That would do far more good than beating up a rotating cast of thousands of unstable people in goofy pajamas.

One of the biggest disconnects is how many people with doctorates are on his crap list. Mr. Freeze is trying to save his terminally ill wife. Poison Ivy is trying to save the planet.

 

[Elvish Lore]

Love original Superman movie for the pure romanticism of it.

Infinity War has my vote as the best supers action flick. The whole thing is a masterpiece of propulsive storytelling, spectacular sequences, and emotional payoff. Plus it ends with the greatest cliffhanger in supers history.

 

[overgeeked]

One of the biggest disconnects is how many people with doctorates are on his crap list. Mr. Freeze is trying to save his terminally ill wife. Poison Ivy is trying to save the planet.

Right? Having a decent healthcare system in the US and reasonable economic policies re: the environment and neither villain would exist. Like Breaking Bad, it could only happen in the US.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Like Breaking Bad, it could only happen in the US.

Maybe I'm thinking too much of the BtaS portrayals of the characters but I'm not sure that's actually right.

Doesn't Dr Freeze's wife have a condition that science, worldwide, in general, doesn't yet have a cure for? He's fairly wealthy and powerful and a doctor, it's not that he can't access healthcare, it's that the healthcare doesn't exist. If he's stealing it's probably something unique for a device, or because he needs huge money to build a special device.

Poison Ivy on the other hand is powered by a mystical forced called the Green, which compels her towards her actions (to a degree depending on the source), and I think could have existed in any industrialized nation.

I think those are actually bad examples of Batman villains who couldn't have existed outside the US/Gotham - the ones who are better examples are those who are mentally ill and would have had huge difficulty accessing treatment or recognition, especially historically (but also in the present day).

I don't disagree with @overgeeked's general take on Batman - I think that's about right, and he seems to get the villains sent to what he perfectly well knows is a completely dysfunctional mental health system (Arkham Asylum), which frankly, he could probably buy or intervene with and fix, as Bruce Wayne. It all works a bit better in a faux-1950s deal like BtaS.

Well Bruce Wayne is a major sponsor of the Arkham Asylum

I mean, his is in some versions, not all, but that kind of makes it worse, because Arkham Asylum is universally, through all Batman Mythos I'm aware of (which is a fair bit), to be totally ineffectual, even at helping/rehabilitating the least-crazed and most reasonable people Bats sends there.

 

[Ryujin]

I mean, his is in some versions, not all, but that kind of makes it worse, because Arkham Asylum is universally, through all Batman Mythos I'm aware of (which is a fair bit), to be totally ineffectual, even at helping/rehabilitating the least-crazed and most reasonable people Bats sends there.

In most of the versions that I'm aware of, Arkham is more about storage, than it is about any sort of healing. It's Victorian, if not outright Medieval.