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3. Elektra

Sorry, Jennifer Garner, but this is another disaster that many saw coming. Daredevil was a solid, enjoyable movie in the early days of the comic book apogee. But the Elektra character has never been that interesting to me and the movie proved me right: the plot was contrived and trite at the same time, an unimaginable feat. Part of the problem, of course, is that the Elektra character is so derivative in a sense from many action heroes of old (there are hints of Spiderman and Batman in her story that are impossible to ignore) and part of it was that the filmmakers decided to divorce the character from her Daredevil origins. Making the movie even worse is Jennifer’s horrific acting. She’s pretty good when she plays goody-two-shoes-slash-naïve debutant a la Juno, but she needs to leave super heroine acting to Angelina, Scarlett, or even Jennifer Lawrence. It’s an additional shame given that Daredevil was a good movie. But heck, at least Jennifer got her marriage to pretty boy Ben Affleck out of it, right?

2. The Hulk

It saddens me to have to include a movie by one of my favorite directors, Ang Lee, on this list, but fair is fair. Surprisingly, The Hulk is NOT one of the worst reviewed comic book movies out there. But, to me, the Eric Bana/Jennifer Connelly version of the movie just doesn’t work. Lee tried to get cute with the split screen action in the movie, but, at the risk of sounding simple, it was confusing and at times distracting. The reality probably is this: Lee is too good to make a comic book movie of this sort, and his artistic genius hurt rather than help in this case. And the effects are also to blame for The Hulk’s misfire - I don’t know if it was a Crouching Tiger hangover, but most of it seems almost fantastic rather than an attempt at reality, and the action is at times even cartoonish.

Fortunately for The Hulk, the franchise was revived by the Avengers with Mark Ruffalo (after another fail attempt with Ed Norton), so all’s well that ends well. Most of the other movies on this list cannot say the same thing, as the franchises have essentially disappeared due to the atrocity of the quality.

1. Catwoman

You’re not really surprised, are you? Famous for being Halle Berry’s first post-Oscar role, Catwoman is a dud at every level. The acting is simply horrendous; the plot line tries so hard to be different and inventive and fails miserably. The effects are atrocious. The villain is more sympathetic than the heroine, and the overall feel of the movie is long, boring and tedious. Not only is Catwoman likely the worst comic book based movie of all eternity, it is one of the worst movies of all-time, period. Berry’s career arguably never recovered from that, and neither did most of the viewers - the trauma of this movie was so great that I think the genre took a full two year hiatus to recover. Do not try this at home, kids.

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