2023 Superhero Movies Ranked
5. The Marvels
The one that never got off the ground.
Throwing Nia DaCosta under the bus for this not making the right impact really sucks, especially because she directed some of the most enjoyable character interplay in a Marvel movie in years. Maybe they were on to a loser from the start expecting this to rake in as much as the first Captain Marvel.
Cosmic shenanigans abound as Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is bound to Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) by their light-based powers, causing them to swap places across the galaxy each time they deploy their super-gifts fighting alien bad guys.
There’s no avoiding the fact that The Marvels is one of the biggest box office flops of the year and certainly the biggest financial disaster of the MCU so far, but it does still have a lot going for it. Despite being an intergalactic adventure, this feels smaller-scale than most recent MCU projects, which is no bad thing. This is a very personal story and dedicates a fair amount of its breezy runtime to the unconventional surrogate sister dynamic between the three leads (if they’re going to learn anything from this, Marvel need to cast Vellani in every upcoming project they can). Some coherency and dramatic weight has been lost in the edit, but it’s nice to have a sparky hangout movie with occasional surreal musical diversions and a good sense of humour.
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4. Merry Little Batman
The unexpected Christmas gift.
In a year where David Zaslav continued to strip the studio he runs for parts, one animated feature managed to escape and debut on a rival streaming service. Merry Little Batman skews a lot younger than the majority of the Dark Knight’s appearances, but its sweetness and gentle mockery of some of the wider comics mythology wins you over.
Eight year old Damian Wayne (Yonas Kibreab) gets the opportunity to save Gotham city at Christmas when his dad Batman (Luke Wilson) is tricked into leaving on a fake mission. But can Damian, with the help of the “Bat Dad” A.I. in his utility belt learn what it means to be a hero as Batman’s villains converge?
If you can get on board with the fairly crude animation style, some very different voices used to interpret these characters, and the fact that this is anything but dark, this could very well become a festive superhero treat to re-watch every year curled up with a cup of cocoa. It’s the tone of the ‘Harley Quinn’ animated series but without the sailor’s vocabulary and, though a lot of the humour is childish, it ends up teaching a worthwhile lesson about family and responsibility.
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review
The one that was a pleasant surprise.
Sony are currently making some of the most distinctive, game-changing animation out there, so it was a no-brainer to bring The Mitchells vs the Machines co-director Jeff Rowe on board to breathe new life into a franchise that has so often been mishandled by Hollywood.
Following a botched black ops assault on a mad scientist’s lab, toxic chemical ooze infects his animal test subjects and leaks into the New York sewers, where years later four teenage mutant turtle brothers must fight against a gang of fellow animal mutants with the help of aspiring high-school journalist April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri).
The Turtles haven’t had the best time on the big screen over the years. The original 1990s film was decent enough and holds a lot of nostalgia for many who grew up with it, but pretty much everything since has been a disappointment. Mutant Mayhem is one of the most distinctive-looking and sounding, energetic and unapologetically pre-teen-skewing animated movies in years that gives this tired old sort-of-superhero franchise a whole new attitude. The action is kinetic, the intentionally rough animation style and character designs really pop, and some of the more recognisable vocal performances from the likes of Ice Cube and Paul Rudd are a joy.
