2018 Superhero Movies Ranked
4. Deadpool 2
20th Century Fox
Director: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna
Now that the Deadpool live-action movie character is well and truly a part of the zeitgeist, his presence seems too often to be overlooked and/or forgotten, the almost invincible superhero’s endless gifts to us accepted as if the norm when in actuality it remains pretty damn special.
Ryan Reynolds and company have created a juggernaut of the genre (pun intended) and this year gifted us a 2nd instalment worthy of the original and all the hype we’d had for years in the build-up to its release.
Perhaps lost a little behind the cultural phenomenon that was Marvel’s largest ever team-up movie (which was released just 3 weeks earlier), Deadpool 2 actually made over $700million worldwide as an R-rated (15) film, continuing to prove the financial viability of films aimed at more adult audiences.
In the film itself, the X-Force team-up was perhaps the most fondly remembered of all of its major moments and could arguably be the funniest superhero movie sequence of all time because of how it subverted genre expectations and delivered laughs in the truck load. Let us cherish Mr. Deadpool, PG-13 Christmas specials and all.
Recommended for you: Every X-Men Movie Ranked
3. Black Panther
Marvel Studios
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis
The cultural phenomenon of superhero cinema in 2018 was without a doubt Black Panther, the first black person fronted superhero film from Marvel Studios and the introduction of one of the undisputed leaders of the studio’s output from here on out.
Coogler’s work behind the camera crafted a truly enticing and emotional story that was at once personal to the two central most characters and their opposing views, but also the plight of African Americans as a whole. Each character was identifiable, their actions believable, their viewpoints understandable, and the response was one of love and adoration; finally we had a movie with true representation, not just stereotypes.
It was indeed very tough to put an apparent Oscars front-runner at number 3, but with a few misdemeanours regarding CGI and sub-plots, Panther just didn’t quite reach the levels of the two all-time great superhero movies that top our list…
