The 10 most disastrous adaptations of DC comics – review

This crazy year is far from over, but some applicants for the title of the main film show of 2023 can be called right now. Among them long-suffering “Predator birds”who barely recaptured their not-so-high budget. Some viewers are gloating about this: they say it’s the DC movie universe, it’s originally defective, what good can you expect from it? And there is some truth to this – the matter with building the answer to the cinema universe Marvel at Warner bros and indeed they go neither shakily nor roll. However, some successes, like Aquamena or The Jokerstill meet. Well, if you look into the past, it becomes obvious that everything was worse before. Much worse. To prove this, we remembered the ten most disastrous adaptations of DC comics.

10. The Return of Superman (2006)

“Superman” Richard Donner forever changed the cinema and influenced many directors. Sam Raimi referred to him in the first Spider-ManChristopher Nolan was inspired by him when filming Batman: The Beginning. But more than others, Brian Singer was in love with the 1978 picture. And when after the success of the first two X-Men he had a chance to take on a new film about Man of Steel, he immediately left the mutants to their own devices. And it cannot be said that it was not worth it.

Today they somehow forgot about it, but in the year of the premiere “Superman Returns” received quite warm reviews from both critics and viewers. On the whole, everyone liked the old-fashioned, optimistic and pathos superhero movie, and even surpassed Batman: The Beginning in fees. Only now, nearly 400 million dollars with a colossal budget of 270 million was clearly not enough. From a financial point of view, it was a clear failure.

Yes, and the film passed the test of time foully: “Superman Returns” and is indeed an overly old-fashioned film. Singer was so fanatically imitating Richard Donner that he tore out dialogues, scenes, and plot moves from his picture, offering almost nothing of his own. Even the lead actor Brandon Routh was approved solely because of the resemblance to Christopher Reeve, the star of the original Superman. The result is a very expensive and very long homage. It has almost no action, no fascinating plot, and among the actors only the magnificent Kevin Spacey shines in the role of Lex Luthor. However, with all the shortcomings, this is not the worst movie about a hero in a red coat – we will get to him.

9. John Hex (2010)

In the seventies, the fashion for superheroes began to decline, which prompted DC Comics to experiment in other genres. This is how John Hex appeared – a stern bounty hunter, clearly written off from Clint Eastwood from the “dollar trilogy” by Sergio Leone. Not to say that the character was so popular, but it turned out to be tenacious enough to go through several restarts and light up in the animated series about Batman and the Justice League. In zero, Hex was even going to give a solo show with live actors, but something did not grow together. But in the 2010s, an anti-hero from the Wild West got a personalized picture … Nobody seems to have noticed an exit.

What u “John Hex” not take away, so it’s an impressive cast. Starring Josh “Thanos” Brolin, his girlfriend is portrayed by Megan Fox, and the villains are played by Michael Fassbender and John Malkovich. If the film were put into production five years later, he would definitely get both a budget and a normal advertising campaign. But ten years ago, few people heard about some Fassbender, and Brolin was known mainly by lovers of auteur cinema. That’s why only 47 million dollars were allocated for the project, and Jimmy Hayward, who had only a cartoon behind him, was put in the director’s chair Horton.

The result is something from the same breed as Solomon Kane or say “Shepherd” with Paul Bettany – a passing and inexpressive film of category B, which disappears from the memory an hour after watching. But at the box office, “John Hex” earned a humiliating 11 million. It is not surprising that none of those involved once again recalls this failure.

8. Suicide Squad (2016)

The DC movie universe really was born in hellish torment, which is why it is still not firmly standing on its feet. “Man of Steel” performed well, but Warner Bros., of course, made the main bet on Batman vs. Superman. And when the film was met at least ambiguously, the studio management clearly panicked.

The main victim of this panic was “Suicide Squad”. They began to remake the finished film in a hurry in order to take away from pathos and gloom “At the dawn of justice”. Something was finished, something was re-shot, but even more simply cut out. And the director David Eyre was generally quietly removed from the final editing of the picture – usually such decisions indicate the approach of a catastrophe. It was to her that the “Suicide Squad” became. No, at the box office the tape performed very well: the trailer for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was painfully good. But critics deservedly smashed the picture to pieces. For a holey scenario, for a disgusting ending, for an action that can hardly be seen in pitch darkness, and, in the end, for false marketing, because the film was sold as the new Joker’s performance. He is on every poster, all the promotional materials are on his palette, and Jared Leto is giving interviews to the right and left, telling how scrupulously he prepared for the role and how he entered the image. And as a result, the audience got five minutes of something slurred and completely not impressive. It is clear that much remained on the floor in the editing room, but already on the screen was enough to scare the audience away.

Having collected the money, the “Suicide Squad”, however, spoiled the soil for the “Justice League” and “Birds of Prey”. The frustrated audience behind the scenes concluded that DC did not work out command films, and therefore they can be safely ignored. But to some extent, because of this, we got “The Joker” – the film is as far from the picture of David Eyre as possible.

7. Batman and Robin (1997)

The first Batman Tim Burton was an undisputed hit, but already the second brought Warner Bros. a lot of problems. The gloomy and creepy film frightened young viewers, outraged their parents and caused a lot of questions from advertisers. Say, McDonald’s here released a thematic series of happy mils, and no one understands them, because the kids have psychological trauma. In general, after this Burton politely, but persistently asked to leave the director’s chair. Instead, they took Joel Schumacher, and on the set “Batman forever” He proved himself to be competent, and most importantly, an executive director. And therefore, the next part of the site was almost captured by the producers together with the advertisers, and Schumacher could only assent. Add more characters? As you say. More costumes and equipment for toys? Will be done. More jokes? Every whim for your money. According to the stories of the actors, the director told everyone that they were shooting an advertising cartoon, and therefore in no case should you win back everything in all seriousness. What happened in the end, every fan of the Dark Knight knows.

“Batman and Robin” to this day remains one of the most hated film comics in the history of cinema. He was nominated for eleven Golden Raspberries, although he won only one – she went to the unhappy Alicia Silverstone for her role as Batgirl. Years later, almost everyone who was involved in the project publicly regretted their participation, and Joel Schumacher even apologized to the fans of the character.

But is this the worst superhero movie ever made and the worst movie adaptation of DC comics? Hell no. “Batman and Robin” – a movie unique in every way. If you tune in to the desired wave, then it looks amazing. Scenery, lighting, tricks – everything is as if made for the most expensive and colorful show Cirque du soleil. This is a crazy mix from the cartoon of the nineties and the cult series of the sixties – blatantly stupid, banter and excessive. Well, how is it not to love?

6. Swamp creature (1982)

It’s hard to believe, but once the creator of Freddy Krueger and director Scream Wes Craven directed the DC comics film. True, this happened two years before the appearance of “Nightmare on Elm Street”. The director already had hit horror on his account. “The last house on the left” and “The hills have eyes”but he wanted to break out of the genre, to film something more mainstream and light in mood. And when Craven was asked to make a movie about the monster superhero Swamp critter, he quickly agreed.

Unfortunately, only three million dollars were allocated for production – even by the standards of 1982 it was a very modest amount. Budgetary restrictions left a noticeable imprint on the entire film. The “Swamp creature” turned out to be too leisurely: it has a meager event series, very little action, and the one that is set is bad, because Craven had no experience in stunt cinema. The atmosphere of foggy swamps slightly saves the situation, but it collapses, it is worth the main character to appear: his suit looks very cheap. And it’s better not to remember the final fight with the villain at all – a ridiculous sight.

However, despite all the problems, “Swamp creature” turned out to be successful enough to create a small franchise – in the 89th the sequel was released, and in the 90th the television series started, which lasted for three seasons.

5. Green Lantern (2011)

In the late 90s, director Martin Campbell made one of the coolest superhero films in history – The Mask of Zorro. And therefore it is especially unfortunate that his last contribution to the genre and the last major project, in principle, was such a misunderstanding as “Green torch”.

First of all, the visual of the film openly hurts the eye. The tape is overloaded with graphics, which even by the standards of almost a decade ago look frankly so-so, especially with a budget of 200 million. Everything is kind of plastic, cartoony and causes involuntary associations with 3D Spy Kids. For comparison, just a year later came out The Avengerswhose budget was only 20 million more.

But alright, the visual – in the storyline, “Green Lantern” was also wretched. This is the most banal superhero origin that you can imagine: as if from Spider-Man and “Iron Man” deflated all working jokes, sincerity and drama. Unhappy Ryan Reynolds has been trying to revive the script for two hours, but one actor’s charisma doesn’t cover either the wooden character or the nasty dialogs.

Critics gladly trampled the film into the mud, and in the world box office “Green Lantern” scraped a little less than 220 million dollars, becoming a huge collapse. After this, Reynolds’ career rapidly declined, and if not Deadpool, the actor could finally go into circulation. As for the Lantern, it is still waiting for a decent restart.

4. Mr. Steel (1997)

Basketball player Shaquille O’Neill is a bright person. The nineties giant of Nba actively tried to break out of the site and prove himself in all possible areas: in music, game industry, cinema. And everything turned out to a varying degree disgusting. If critics called Shack’s rap albums simply mediocre, then here’s the game Shaq-fu received from many publications the title of the worst fighting game in history. But deserves special mention Mr. Steel – The picture that tried to turn O’Neill into a real superhero.

Well … formally self-sufficient: like “The Green Lantern”, the film collected all the possible cliches of a superhero origin. Only African-American color gives it originality, because the action takes place mainly in the poor neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Well, Shaquille O’Neill himself makes Mr. Steel a unique sight. The film was clearly created specifically for him, but because there are a lot of jokes about basketball and several scenes filmed in order to emphasize what the main character is huge and powerful. In addition to this, it is obvious that Shak is completely unable to play, and his supposedly steel armor is literally falling apart on the go.

Mr. Steel did not raise even two million dollars around the world, and his main star received her second nomination for Golden Raspberry. Luckily, critics hated Kevin Costner much more that year The Postman.

3. Supergirl (1984)

And now the time has come for the “magnificent” three. In it, the distribution of places is very conditional, because the films presented are equally terrible. For years, comic book fans, and lovers of good cinema, and even those who starred in these films, have ridiculed them. Let’s go in chronological order.

As already mentioned, the original “Superman” of 1978 is a landmark film not only for film comics, but for cinema in general. On a par with “New hope” George Lucas, he became one of the first blockbusters in the usual sense of the word. But somehow he didn’t succeed in growing a successful franchise from it. Already in the sequel, problems began when, due to some creative differences, the producers fired director Richard Donner right in the middle of the shoot. This move hit both the reputation and the quality of the film. As a result, the second part performed worse at the box office than the first, and the third – worse than the second. Then the studio decided to change course and release a spin-off about Superman’s cousin. So the first full-length film about a woman superhero appeared – and part-time one of the worst movie comics.

Supergirl It looks like a product of the hippie era, although it was filmed fifteen years after its sunset. The main character, Kara Zor-El, behaves like a gracious fool, which is not surprising, because her hometown on Krypton is more like a community of “flower children”. Arriving on Earth, she enjoys flying over meadows, accelerates the flowering of plants with her thermal vision, and for some reason, under the guise of a student, enters a local school. And this is at a time when the lives of all her relatives depend on whether Kara has time to find the missing Krypton artifact in time. And the heroine is opposed not by an evil tycoon or aliens from outer space, but by a real fantasy witch. In the DC universe, of course, there is magic, but throwing it into a sci-fi franchise so abruptly is somehow too much. Although everything is too much at Supergirl: it seems that the creators didn’t read the comics, but they watched films about Superman in an altered state of consciousness. But to hell with her franchise – as an independent work, the tape also does not work. There is no storyline as such, the episodes are barely interconnected, the characters create the devil knows that, and the special effects are simply miserable. Against this background, even the Sidab circus tent looks like an exemplary film adaptation.

2. Superman IV: In Search of the World (1987)

Of course, Supergirl failed at the box office – could it be otherwise? With a budget of $ 35 million, she raised just over $ 14 million. After such a fiasco, anyone could buy the rights to the superfamily for almost a nominal fee. The company took advantage of this Cannon films, which built its capital on horror films, sex comedies and cheap action films. And for the fourth part of Superman, she allocated only 17 million dollars, despite the fact that the budget of the first amounted to 55 million.

Of course, a miracle did not happen. “In search of peace” It looks not just bad, but unacceptable. Special effects and production remind of second-rate movie series of the forties. However, the creators did not give up and went to the wildest tricks in order to somehow get out in the absence of money. The same frame with the flying Christopher Reeve is used in the film at least six times, and Superman’s arsenal has the ability to restore damaged objects with a glance, for example, the Great Wall of China. For the sake of economy, the film was shot in Britain, and in order to disguise the old woman England under the American Metropolis, red fire hydrants and carts with hot dogs were placed on the streets. It turned out so-so.

But, of course, the main attraction of the film is a villain named Nuclear Man. In the story, Lex Luthor launched a rocket on the Sun with Superman’s genetic material. And as a result, a pumped-up blond with silver claws was born right in open space, and even in a wrestler suit. Примечательно, что изначально злодеем должен был быть вполне каноничный Бизарро — неудавшийся клон Супса с интеллектом трёхлетнего ребёнка и повадками Халка. Но создатели решили блеснуть креативом, сделав антагониста эдаким воплощением ядерной войны. Претенциозная идея при отвратительной реализации.

«В поисках мира» — это оскорбление персонажу, оскорбление зрителям и оскорбление оригинальному фильму Ричарда Доннера.

1. Женщина-кошка (2004)

А вот и она — «Комната» Томми Вайсо от мира супергероики. Фильм, который частенько занимает верхние строчки в топах грандиознейших кинокатастроф в истории. А заодно одна из самых смешных незапланированных комедий, которые вы можете отыскать.

«Женщину-кошку» задумали ещё в девяностые, и предполагалось, что главную роль опять исполнит Мишель Пфайфер, а режиссёром выступит лично Тим Бёртон. Но препродакшн затянулся, ключевые участники разошлись по другим картинам, и вспомнили о проекте лишь в нулевых, когда с «Человека-паука» и «Людей Икс» началась новая волна супергеройского кино. Фильм поручили французу Питофу, у которого на тот момент было лишь одно, но действительно значимое достижение — «Видок», первый в истории фильм, полностью снятый на цифровую камеру. Постановщик зачем-то решил максимально дистанцироваться как от картин про Бэтмена, так и от комиксов вообще — и снял ленту, опираясь только на собственные ассоциации со словосочетанием «женщина-кошка». То есть он поступил примерно как Тодд Филлипс с «Джокером», только при этом всё запорол.

В «Женщине-кошке» не работает ничего, а если работает, то не так, как задумано. Режиссура, сценарий, монтаж, актёрская игра, спецэффекты — про каждый из этих пунктов можно писать гигантские абзацы издевательств. Этим, собственно, и занимались критики в 2004 году. В результате стомиллионное недоразумение провалилось в прокате и получило четыре «Золотых малины».

«Женщина-кошка» навсегда останется клеймом на карьере всех, кто принимал участие в её создании, и худшей экранизацией комиксов DC. Даже среди самых бездарных фильмов она ярко светит тлетворной звездой.

Вот, в общем-то, все картины, которые когда-либо позорили логотип DC. Посмотрим, не пополнится ли этот список в ближайшие годы. А какие кинокомиксы вы считаете однозначными провалами? Пишите в комментариях!