6. Generation X (TV Movie, 1996)
The X-Men have had an interesting run in the movies. X-Men, the first film with Captain Picard as Charles Xavier, was a fairly well-received movie, pretty entertaining, and spawned a couple of sequels that seemed to get progressively worse until we got X-Men First Class, which was a great film, and an exceptional X-Men film. But the X-Men had a couple other happenings. As the X-Men Animated Series was winding down it’s run (it ended in 1997) Fox made an early attempt to cash in on comic book fans with a made-for-TV movie called Generation X. Most people don’t even know this little known piece-o-crap exists.
For those unfamiliar, Generation X is a storyline from the comics that focuses on a teenage faction of the X-Men who are not mentored by Xavier, but instead by Banshee and Emma Frost (see First Class). The story focuses on Emma Frost’s former evil partner and his trying to take over the world, with the added element of teen angst, teen problems, teen sexuality, and the other things Fox was pushing back then.
The “movie” was meant to serve as a pilot, but it was not good at all. Acting, story, look, feel, it all missed horribly. That said, some of the people we talk to about comic movies list this as a guilty pleasure. Want to find out for yourself? The whole this is on YouTube.
5. Green Lantern (2011)
I will never forget seeing the first trailer for Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds and a host of digital effects making the characters of the Green Lantern Corp look very cool and very big on a movie screen. This was it. We were finally going to get to Hal Jordan in a movie, and it was going to be awesome. Have you seen what they are able to make happen with computers these days in movies? It’s the perfect time for Green Lantern to arrive.
Nope.
This movie was a throwaway, and a bust. Why? Because it was bad. All accounts from superhero fans will tell you that the writing and Reynold’s acting were decidedly not Hal Jordan. The action was big and looked good, but there was absolutely no substance. A mediocre popcorn story, poor acting when at the very least the acting needed to be enough to keep up with the digital work. At the very least, Ryan met Blake Lively, and now they are probably the best looking couple on the planet. I know a few people who enjoy this movie, but as far as superhero flicks go, it is bottom of the barrel.