My 2021 comic Book Movie Ranking & Reviews

All in all, 2021 was a mixed bag in a lot of areas but one thing that made me happy was the return of movie theaters after the mass closures in 2020. There were so many great movies I saw this year as well as so many ok movies thanks to my subscription to Regal Unlimited. One movie genre that returned in a big way was the comic book movie. With seven major movies coming from Marvel and DC, 2021 was a great year for superhero fans. Before starting my list of my personal reviews and ranking of those seven movies, I’ll give an honorable mention to Snake Eyes and The King’s Man. Two movies that are technically comic book movies, but were just okay enough to get this much of a mention on my list.

7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

As someone who quite enjoyed 2018’s Venom, I was looking forward to this sequel with expectations in check as the first one had a lot of issues despite being a fun time at the movies. Let There Be Carnage continued the story set up in the first movie by carrying over its very unique tone and adding in two subpar villains and little else. The Venom/Eddie dynamic is still what makes these movies fun and Tom Hardy absolutely carried this movie. Woody Harrelson was a good Carnage though he only had one or two stand out scenes and I found his interest in Eddie to be too underdeveloped and his romance was fine. The main flaw of this movie was its short run time. 97 minutes is not enough time for these things to be properly fleshed out and I’d be interested in a long cut if one exists. The post credits scene was very intriguing at the time but is much less so now after another recent movie followed up on it.

Rating: 5/10

6. Black Widow

I’m not the first to say this, but Black Widow really felt like a discount Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In addition to that, it also gave me a lot of Mission Impossible vibes which is a comparison that really hurts this movie for me as the stand out parts of the M:I movies is the realistic action which is usually done for real by Tom Cruise and the stunt crew. Here the action uses way too much overblown cgi that it loses a lot of the tension for me. The family dynamic here is what really stood out with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova being the breakout character from this movie. The villain’s were pretty weak though I did really like the scenes with Scarlett Johansen’s Natasha tricking Dreykov towards the end. Had Black Widow released around the time its set (2016-2018) then I think it would’ve improved its standing the larger scheme of the MCU.

Rating: 7/10

5. Eternals

Visually, Eternals is one of the most beautiful Marvel movies ever made. This is Chloe Zhao’s movie and it shows. The cast was very strong here, with Gemma Chan, Lauren Ridloff, and Barry Keoghan’s characters (Sersi, Makkari, and Druig, respectfully) being the stand-outs in my opinion. The personal scenes between characters were so well done and I found all the flashback scenes very compelling. The stakes were also unexpectedly high. So high in fact that this movie in particular feels odd that no other Avenger shows up even in the aftermath of the final act. Arishem was a great antagonist as more of a looming threat from high above and it could be even more interesting in the future. The Deviants, on the other hand, were mostly just there for the Eternals to have something to fight throughout the movie. While the cast was great, I definitely think they could’ve done with less characters in this movie as some get lost in the shuffle and are either written out of the third act (Kingo), don’t show up until very late (Makkari), or are clearly missing a large chunk of story the movie simply didn’t have time for (Phastos). That said, I really liked this movie and showed me that Chloe Zhao would make an amazing Superman or Justice League movie if DC is truly done with Zack Snyder.

Rating: 8/10

4. The Suicide Squad

The Suicide Squad was a film that I went in expecting to hate but was so surprised by how much I liked it. James Gunn as director was a big turn off for me as I did not like his style in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which I thought had a decent story which was completely covered up by constant toilet humor and quips to just become an overall irritating experience. I also haven’t forgotten all of Gunn’s sick tweets of which he has apologized for, but I still find repulsive. All that said, The Suicide Squad is an excellent film which compelling characters, great gruesome and realistic-looking action, a simple but interesting plot, and mostly well placed and genuinely funny humor. Some jokes were a bit much for me (which were all in the trailers) but they didn’t detract from the experience like in his previous film. The whole cast was great with Idris Elba, Daniela Melchior, Margot Robbie, and Joel Kinnaman being stand-outs. I also appreciated all the call-backs to the first film, though I would’ve liked a bit more to make this a true sequel rather than a soft-reboot/sequel as that puts it in a weird grey area that I definitely think affected its box office. I’d definitely recommend The Suicide Squad as it’s an action packed thrill ride that blew my low expectations away with only some nitpicks remaining (Captain Boomerang was done dirty by this movie).

Rating: 9/10

3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

After 24 movies it was great to see Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe still manage to be able to tell a fresh origin story as well as seeing them start to make efforts to tell more diverse stories. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings managed to introduce a brand new character into that universe that both connects with other movies but still stands on its own. All of the main cast was perfect with Simu Liu storming his way into becoming one of the best Marvel leads after he literally campaigned for the role, Awkwafina was great as the comic relief best friend who also had a character arc of her own, Meng’er Zhang killed it as Shang-chi’s sister Xialing and was bad-ass enough to warrant her own spin-off that I hope this movie set up, and Tony Leung redeemed the character of the Mandarin in the MCU quickly becoming one of their most compelling villains yet. The soundtrack, cinematography, and fight choreography is some of the best Marvel has done, though I do wish there was a bit more martial arts rather than a typical cgi battle in the end. Can’t wait for the sequel.

Rating: 9/10

2. Spider-Man No Way Home

A movie 20 years in the making which had insanely high exceptions due to numerous leaks and rumors and somehow met and exceeded many of the expectations. Debatably the best Spider-Man movie and even the best MCU movie, Spider-Man No Way Home managed to have Avengers Endgame Level stakes while also telling a small scale and personal story. This is easily the best Tom Holland performance I’ve ever seen him in and I so appreciated this movie for showing him stand on his own two feet without having the fallback of Iron Man or his tech to come in at the last minute like most of his other appearances. All of the other characters were great especially the some characters who were much more developed than I expected them to be as I was expecting small cameos or short action scenes but instead got so much more. As for the villains, I’ve always been a Doc Ock fan since Spider-Man 2 and thought he was very good here (though nothing tops that train fight from that movie), Electro’s character is much improved from his previous appearance, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin stands out as possibly the best MCU villain, and Sand-Man and the Lizard are there to fill out the villain team and that’s about it. This movie very much stands on its own out of this trilogy though it does have a lot of baggage including every other live action Spider-Man movie so if you’re a fan of the character then this movie should be amazing for you. If this is your first Marvel or Spider-Man movie, then get ready to deal with your theater crowd cheering a lot and not knowing why.

Rating: 9.5/10

1. Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Yeah, if you know me then you know this was coming. I’ve been hyping up this movie ever since that train wreck of a theatrical cut in 2017 which I thought was good for a couple weeks until some of the behind the scenes facts started coming out. Ever since then so much more info came out that led to me and many others starting an online movement asking Warner Bros to finish and release Zack Snyder’s original vision for the film before they brought on Joss Whedon to turn it into their version of the Avengers. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut became so popular on social media that in November of 2019 WB finally took notice and talked with Zack Snyder about what it would take to finish the film. Here we are now with this four hour epic showing the full formation of the Justice League featuring full character arcs, an epic score, gorgeous cinematography, and a tease at the end of what never was but could still be again if we’re loud enough. This movie totally met my high expectations and became the most rewatchable four hour film I’ve ever seen. It really is Lord of the Rings meets DC comics in more ways than one and I’m so happy this film exists. If this is the end of Zack Snyder’s time at DC its an amazing finale and I’m satisfied. If what I said here intrigued you, I’d recommend checking out Sean O’Connell’s book “Release The Snyder Cut” which gives an outside perspective on the whole situation from why the Snyder Cut exists all the way up to its release. Rating: 10/10