Superhero films have been the dominant force at the box office since Iron Man flew onto the scene in 2008. The armored Avenger’s hit film birthed not only the mega-successful MCU but a slew of competitors like the DCEU, SSU, and countless other non-franchise superhero films. Of course, the history of the genre begins way before 2008 and some of the greatest superhero films of all time came out well before the MCU’s infancy. With any popular genre though, just as many entries sink straight to the bottom as rise to the top.
Superhero movies especially are perhaps eclipsed in their number of poor entries only by video game films, and the reasons they lack quality may be just as numerous. Costumed heroes demand a level of suspension of disbelief most films don’t have to deal with, and superhero films have managed to fail by leaning too far into their campy origins, trying too hard to overwrite them with intense seriousness, or, worst of all, failed to walk the tight rope and wound up utterly boring. While the superhero boom of the 2010’s brought a lot of recent disasters with it, time has showed that great films are remembered longer than poor ones. Still, some truly awful superhero films continue to be remembered, even if as warnings.
‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
Directed by David Ayer
Oscar winner Suicide Squad was the DCEU’s first big foray outside the worlds of Superman and Batman, and failed to not only drum up interest in new characters but became a black stain on the franchise as a whole. Starring the admittedly well-cast lineup of Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, and others, Suicide Squad issues stem primarily from a fraught production, inconsistent tone, and one of the most glaringly obvious over edits in cinema history.
After director David Ayer fought with producers throughout shooting Suicide Squad was chopped to bits in post-production and resurrected by a trailer house, with the final product barely resembling a film. Characters are introduced only to immediately disappear, dialogue references scenes that have not yet happened, needle drops are used and forgotten on a dime, and the film’s minimal point a to b plot is stretched out for over two hours. Despite the bright spots of a few performances, Suicide Squad, is a headache-inducing nightmare that was thankfully overwritten by the team’s much more concise second outing.

Suicide Squad
- Release Date
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August 5, 2016
- Runtime
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123 minutes
‘Captain America’ (1990)
Directed by Alber Pyun
Before Chris Evans’ iconic portrayal of the Avengers leader and moral center, there had been three other film appearances of Captain America. The first two were delightfully cheesy tv films released in 1979, and the third was a regrettable, boring television film from 1990. Matt Salinger adorns the iconic costume in this flick, complete with tacked-on rubber wings, and a garish, out of place color scheme matched only by Cap’s The Avengers look.
The plot of this adventure sees Red Skull (re-imagined as an Italian mobster) kidnap the President of the United States and…actually that is kind of it. The Red Skull kidnaps the president, Captain America throws his shield a few times and the movie quietly ends, leaving the audience with neither the laughable fun of the 70’s films nor the genuine joy of the modern trilogy. The most notable thing about Captain America is Steve Roger’s strange penchant for stealing cars by faking an illness along the side of the road, a feat he accomplishes twice in the film, both to people who were already willing to drive him.
‘Zoom’ (2006)
Directed by Peter Hewitt
2006’s Zoom is an uninspired Tim Allen vehicle focusing on an academy that trains young superpowered individuals how to control their unique gifts and utilize them for good. It’s a very similar premise to the preceding years’ Sky High, however where that film is somewhat charming and nostalgically remembered, Zoom is more often viewed as a punchline and regrettable combination of superhero movies and family comedies.
The film’s plot stars Tim Allen as an ex-superhero tasked with training a new generation of heroes to defeat his long lost evil brother. The film makes it known that this has grave and life-threatening stakes and yet simultaneously fills itself with pop needle drops, toilet humor, and light fluff, creating a wildly inconsistent tone. The bulk of Zoom wants to be seen as a contemporary of Cheaper by the Dozen, and The Pacifier, but will interrupt its many musical montages to remind you that the incoming threat killed Tim Allen’s entire team in the past. A clumsy passing of the torch between two genres, Zoom is a tonally in consistent fair that works as neither a family comedy or superhero film.
- Release Date
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August 11, 2006
- Director
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Peter Hewitt
‘Steel’ (1997)
Directed by Kenneth Johnson
“Diesel”, “The Big Aristotle”, “Shaq Fu”, Shaquille O’Neil is fond of his self-given nicknames. His favorite by all accounts however is, “Superman“. At the height of his fame in the 1990’s the top 10 all-time basketball player, flexed multiple Superman tattoos, collectible memorabilia, and the passion project to end all passion projects: his very own Superman spin-off movie Steel. Shaq took on the title role as the superhero Steel aka John Henry Irons, in the 1997 film, and despite the excitement and passion of the Big Aristotle and lead producer Quincy Jones, the film was decidedly less than ‘super’.
More than just a fun dig, the above description accurately describes one of the major problems with Steel. In development, the film and character were stripped of their Superman affiliation and, in doing so became much more watered down and generic. Steel‘s action and production values are incredibly low-budget and uninspired (the super suit, in particular, being one of the worst of all time), and the re-imagined Superman-less plot is a bland story which audiences have seen thousands of times over. Perhaps most disappointing about Steel however, is that despite his apparent passion for the role, Shaq himself is easily the worst part of the film. Like in fellow acting foray Kazaam, the Diesel is an unskilled and uninspired actor, unable to carry the weight of a feature film.

Steel
- Release Date
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August 15, 1997
- Director
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Kenneth Johnson
- Runtime
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97 Minutes
‘Catwoman’ (2004)
Directed by Pitof
The rare woman to win an Oscar and Razie in the same year, Halle Berry accepted her worst actress award for Catwoman in person and apologized for the maligned superhero film. Given over two decades of hindsight, however, Berry is far from the worst thing about the Batman spinoff film. Yes, the actress’ performance is far from good, but given the film’s paper-thin plot, misguided directing, and some of the sloppiest editing to ever grace a big-budget film (two words; basketball scene), Halle Berry is low on the list of Catwoman‘s ills.
Removing all connections to the Batman universe and featuring Berry as Patience Phillips rather than Selina Kyle, Catwoman tells the flimsy story of a woman resurrected by cats who seeks revenge on her killers. The film stretches this plot out to nearly 2 hours, padding itself with a romance subplot lacking in chemistry, vague feline-themed mysticism, and a non-stop train of cat puns. Frequently listed as one of the worst superhero outings of all time, Catwoman, is regretted not only by Halle Berry, but nearly every one of its viewers.

- Release Date
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July 22, 2004
- Director
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Pitof
- Runtime
-
104 minutes
‘The Fantastic Four’ (1994)
Directed by Roger Corman
Actors, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson, directors James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese, and many other Hollywood success stories list Roger Corman as a mentor. The famed director of such b movie classics as Piranha, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes and-Star-Wars esque Battle Beyond the Stars, was unafraid of cheese, camp, and earned a legend as an innovator of visual effects, and cultivator of the new Hollywood era. All these qualities would seemingly make him a perfect fit for Fox’s low-budget adaptation of Marvel’s First Family, but 1994’s The Fantastic Four exists as a stain and punchline on the director’s storied history.
Created solely to keep the film rights to the franchise from reverting back to Marvel, The Fantastic Four was created on a tight schedule with an even tighter budget. The result is a film composed of incredibly cheap sound stages, often featuring just a few actors at a time, and a plot so rushed and nonsensical that it is best for most audiences to not even try and follow it. While featuring Doctor Doom, the film largely revolves around the original villain, “the Jewler” a man who is in fierce competition with the thing for cheapest and laziest costume. Corman attempts his usual level of ambition, not shying away from utilizing the Fantastic Four’s sensational powers, but the miniscule budget and phoned-in performances make these endeavors cringe-inducing rather than the director’s usual charming.
‘Man-Thing’ (2005)
Directed by Brett Leonard
Before the character appeared in the MCU’s Halloween special Werewolf by Night, the niche character Man-Thing starred in his own feature film…only it was so poorly received, no one at Marvel would fault you for not knowing about it. Existing in the regrettable space between a low-budget cheesy b movie and an attempt at serious drama 2005’s Man-Thing was originally intended to be a theatrical release, but was buried due to terrible test screenings. It was eventually released as a straight-to-dvd affair, and Marvel was proven justified in pulling it from theaters.
Man-Thing takes a direct horror approach to the swamp-based monster, a seemingly wise decision at first, until a viewer watches the film and realizes that the potentially novel concept is reduced to a simple slasher film, only now featuring a monster too goofy to be taken seriously. Man-Thing attempts to mesh practical and digital effects to create a compelling monster but neither the practical or digital effects have enough budget to be believable, and somehow make each other look even worse when used in concert. Too poor of a creature to be a creature flick, and too generic a slasher to be a slasher flick, Man-Thing’s 15 year dormancy between his own film and Werewolf by Night was well deserved and necessary.
‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)
Directed by Josh Trank
After the smash success of Chronicle Josh Trank, was tapped to bring Marvel’s first family into the 2010’s and to update them for an era where superheroes were taken more seriously. and perhaps as a response to the campy and lighthearted legacy of the original 1994 film and the mid-2000’s Tim Story Fantastic Four duology, Trank’s 2015 remake of the famous team opted to be and overbearingly grim, deathly serious, and deeply mean-spirited. The result is not only a film that repeats the issues of previous Fantastic Four interpretations but one that seems actively adverse to warmth or fun.
In addition to this massive tonal over-correction, Fantastic Four is filled with rushed plot, under developed characters, and a complete waste of its otherwise talented cast (Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell). The film is ashamed to bear the name Fantastic Four and it compensates by portraying its characters as bitter and wounded, portraying intense scenes of torture for purely edgy purposes, and grossly recontextualizing character details such as Ben Grimm’s famous catchphrase as trauma responses. Whereas the previous Fantastic Four films are also severely lacking in quality, they at least want to provide an audience with joy. It is more important for Fantastic Four that a viewer sees it as a real movie than it is to be a good movie.

Fantastic Four
- Release Date
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August 5, 2015
- Director
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Josh Trank
- Runtime
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100 minutes
‘The Crow: Wicked Prayer’ (2005)
Directed by Lance Mungia
Over the course of 30 years there have been 5 films and a television series in the Crow franchise, Of these 6 pieces of media, only the original film is fondly remembered (and for good reason). For three decades society has been trying to resurrect the un-killable superhero and each time the result has been met with complete and utter failure. The lowest point in one of the lowest franchises is the Crow’s fourth cinematic outing, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, the rare film to earn a flat 0% on rotten tomatoes.
Starring, Edward Furlong as Jimmy Cuervo, the newest incarnation of the goth superhero, The Crow: Wicked Prayer is an R-rated adventure which recaptures neither the action or atmosphere of the iconic original. Simultaneously indebted to previous Crow lore and yet completely willing to rewrite it, Wicked Prayer‘s plot sees a biker gang leader murder Jimmy and his girlfriend in an attempt to summon the anti-christ. From here a cliched and formulaic revenge story plays out only with cheaper effects and more boring action than any Crow outing before or since.

- Release Date
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May 4, 2024
- Director
-
Lance Mungia
- Cast
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Yuji Okumoto
, Marcus Chong
, Tito Ortiz
, Tara Reid
, David Boreanaz
, Rosemberg Salgado - Runtime
-
99 minutes
‘Max Steel’ (2016)
Directed by Stewart Hendler
Combining the most formulaic elements of a superhero film, a mid-2010s young adult movie, and a standard coming-of-age flick, Max Steel becomes one of the most generic and neutral movies of all time. Created to advertise the Mattel toyline, the film stars Ben Winchell as a teenager gifted alien superpowers. Boasting a 0% on rotten tomatoes, in appealing to the lowest common denominator, Max Steel becomes an unwatchable mess that failed to make an impression on either the box office or a single viewer’s mind.
The film shows a laughable lack of, not only quality but understanding of filmmaking principles. One particularly egregious scene sees Max wrestle with his newly discovered powers by googling the phrase “WHAT AM I????????????”, representing a lack of knowledge and/or care in screenwriting, subtlety, or even how Google works. Combining the worst elements of Power Rangers (2016), Iron Man 2, and the franchise it itself is based on Max Steel, is a failure on a storytelling, technical, and emotional level. With Mattel planning on franchising more of their IP in the near future, viewers can only hope the resulting projects are given the thought and care of Barbie, rather than Max Steel.

- Release Date
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October 14, 2016
- Director
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Stewart Hendler
- Runtime
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92 minutes