The 20 most forgettable comic book movies

In the wake of the success of "Batman Returns," Warner Bros immediately began developing a spinoff for the film’s breakout star, Catwoman. Initially, the studio wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to reprise the role she’d flat-out nailed in the 1992 sequel but turned away from the dark tone of Burton’s Batman movies when Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” was a smash in 1995. The project went through different iterations (Ashley Judd was once in talks to star) before the studio went with Halle Berry in the title role. The 2004 film was directed by an idiosyncratic French director named Pitof and is now considered one of the worst comic book movies ever made.

Todd McFarlane’s “Spawn” was all the rage with cool-kid comic book consumers in the 1990s, and, given the number of issues sold over that period, hardly qualifies as forgettable. The film, however, is best left to the scrap heap of failed adaptations, even if it actually performed solidly at the box office. Unfortunately, fans and critics alike hated it; the script is dopey, the direction amateurish and the CG effects primitive.

The comic-strip adventures of ace reporter Brenda Starr seemed ripe for a feature film spinoff in 1986, with Brooke Shields handpicked to star in the title role. The film, alas, was shelved due to distribution disputes until 1989, when it received a quiet release in France. The film finally trickled out to U.S. theaters in 1992. Reviews were savage, and no one turned out to see it. Maybe now, 28 years later, it’s time for another go.

Damon Wayans co-wrote and starred in this goofy update on the nerd-turned-superhero narrative. The idea was to present Blankman as a scrappy, somewhat clumsy version of Batman, but Wayans couldn’t muster enough laughs to put the concept across. The highlight of the film is David Alan Grier as Blankman’s sidekick, “Other Guy.”

Jennifer Garner was a big deal in the mid-2000s thanks to “Alias” and her scene-stealing work as Elektra in 2003’s “Daredevil.” 20th Century Fox was hot to make a spinoff movie starring the lethal assassin, and the results were not pretty. “Elektra” bombed so hideously, it actually managed to make less at the box office than one of the all-time comic book disasters, “Howard the Duck.”

Based on the Dark Horse comic book, “Barb Wire” might’ve been something had the producers cast a reasonably talented actress in the lead role. Instead, they went for pin-up sensation Pamela Anderson, who struggles with pretty much every aspect of her performance. Curiously, the film is a quasi-remake of “Casablanca.” You might remember this if you were one of the dozens of people who paid to see “Barb Wire” in the theater.

Director Terry Zwigoff had a huge critical hit with his adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ alternative comic book “Ghost World” in 2000, but the duo whiffed with this comedy-drama about a young artist’s introduction to art school. Whereas “Ghost World” had a haunting, darkly comedic vibe, “Art School Confidential” comes off as mean. The film always keeps you at a distance.

Comedian Robert Townsend had his heart in the right place when he made this superhero yarn targeted at young urban viewers. He wanted to present a vision of hope and goodness to counter the myriad gang movies that began popping up in the wake of “Boyz N The Hood.” Unfortunately, the movie just didn’t work. Townsend couldn’t merge the comedic and fantastical tones, and the finished film fell flat with audiences and critics.

Josh Brolin’s take on the scarred bounty hunter "Jonah Hex" was an unmitigated disaster in every way. The film was plagued by production troubles and the fairly significant issue that no one outside of DC Comic fandom had ever heard of the character. Westerns are a tough enough sell nowadays. Why WB and DC decided to waste time on an unpopular character is utterly baffling.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Conan the Barbarian” is one of the great he-man epics of the 1980s. The 2011 reboot starring Jason Momoa (best known as Khal Drogo) from “Game of Thrones” was a listless, CG-heavy bore that only made you want to go home and watch the original.

The star of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s sci-fi anthology “2000 AD,” Judge Dredd is a “street judge” who serves as judge, jury and executioner. He’s a troubling character. So it’s not surprising that the Disney-owned Hollywood Pictures sanded down the fascist edges for this 1995 flop starring Sylvester Stallone. “Ex Machina” director gave the character another go in 2012, and the reaction from fans and critics was much more enthusiastic.

Long before The CW revived the character for its hit television show, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind attempted to spin off "Supergirl" into a film that was supposed to tie into their ongoing (if struggling) Superman franchise. Helen Slater was chosen to play the Kryptonian hero, but she never stood a chance with this dumpster of a screenplay. The film was dumped in the crowded summer of 1984 and was trashed by critics. It was the beginning of the end for the Salkind’s Superman series.

Lee Falk first published his comic strip in 1936, which created quite a marketing challenge for Paramount Pictures. The comic’s popularity had waned over the decades and was probably best remembered by fathers, who had a rough time convincing their kids to see an adventure flick about a guy in purple tights. The movie is actually quite fun, but it couldn’t find an audience in the summer of 1996. It’s more of a cult favorite nowadays. 

In the early 1990s, when writer Chuck Pfarrer came up with the idea of a “Thing”-like horror film set on a research vessel, he wrote a comic book as a sort of proof-of-concept pitch. In 1999, CG effects were finally ready to handle the gruesome creatures, so Pfarrer and producer Gale Anne Hurd turned it into a movie. What felt novel on the page turned out to be highly derivative and dull on the screen.

This DC Comics character was envisioned as a Superman substitute after the publisher killed off its second-most popular character in the early 1990s. When it came time to make a Steel movie, Warner Bros. turned to the biggest Superman fan on the planet: Shaquille O’Neal. The result isn’t quite as screamingly awful as Shaq’s “Kazaam.” It’s just a really cheap-looking kids movie that should’ve never made it past the development stage. 

Based on the London Evening Standard comic strip, this Joseph Losey-directed spy flick is the first English-language showcase for Italian beauty Monica Vitti. It’s episodic, and rather flat as satire, but Vitti is always stunning in a variety of imaginative costumes. If some of that design inventiveness went into the writing of the script, this might’ve been more than a curiosity.  

Warner Bros had high, franchise-building hopes for this $200 million tentpole release, but the film left comic book fans cold. It’s a shame when a film this pricey (led by a star with as much charm as Ryan Reynolds) fails to connect, but the mixture wasn’t right here. It was just a great big bore. Still, The Green Lantern universe is vast and varied and really ought to be explored again.

The indie comic book hit created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin missed the riot grrrl heyday by a couple of years, but even if it had been delivered on time, it’s unlikely “Tank Girl” would’ve found much of an audience. Though it’s got a rowdy punk-rock energy (largely supplied by star Lori Petty), it’s ultimately a sloppy movie that’s nowhere near as clever as its comic book inspiration.

The Punisher is a one-dimensional killing machine with a cool skull insignia. That’s it. That’s his appeal. There have been three Punisher movies (starring, in chronological order, Dolph Lundgren, Tom Jane and Ray Stevenson), and none has caught on with critics or audiences. Perhaps Lexi Alexander’s “Punisher: War Zone” (2008) comes closest to getting the appeal of the character, if only because the film is hysterically, graphically violent.

A labor of love for legendary comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, this adaptation of Will Eisner’s beloved comic strip leaned heavily on the largely monochromatic style pioneered by Miller and Robert Rodriguez for “Sin City.” As such, it looked like a knockoff, even though Miller had a hand in its development. Audiences unfamiliar with the cult character couldn’t be bothered, and the film bombed despite fun villain turns from Samuel L. Jackson, Paz Vega and Scarlett Johansson.