(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
With malevolent, Lex Luthor-like glee, we’ve unmasked the worst superhero movies ever made! From misguided Marvel and DC blockbusters to Hollywood’s own original misfires, we’ve ranked over 30 superhero movies with less than 30% on the Tomatometer. You can see the full list on Rotten Tomatoes, and you can read on to see what our roundup of Rotten movies revealed.
First off, to keep this list spandex-tight, not only did we include superhero movies below 30%, but each had to have at least 20 reviews, guaranteeing enough critics witnessed these erratic efforts, franchise non-starters, and would-be blockbusters.
After looking through the list, if you’re wondering why you didn’t see the 1990 Captain America movie, a bunch of those sequels to The Crow, or Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher, they were cut out because they failed to accumulate at least 20 critics reviews. But don’t worry, still plenty of room for Frank in this castle of decrepitude, as the other two Punisher movies, the Thomas Jane one and War Zone, are represented. In fact, they both even currently have the same score at 29%, just squeezing into the list. Also doing the symbiote-slide to edge in at 29% is Tom Hardy’s Venom. There may be no love lost between Eddie Brock and the critics, but with an 81% Audience Score, this is one anti-hero who’s been embraced by the fans. Ditto Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Dark Phoenix: Both Rotten movies according to the critics, but which settled above 60% on the Audience Score.
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
Nic Cage appears twice on this list because he made two Ghost Rider movies. Ryan Reynolds also shows up twice but in two separate franchises, mucking it up in both the houses of Marvel and DC via Blade: Trinity and Green Lantern. And because who doesn’t like a comic book showdown, in the battle of Marvel vs DC over who’s made the most worst superhero movies, Marvel is “triumphant” with 10 listings, and DC at 9. We didn’t count The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the movie so bad it made Sean Connery quit acting, because though it was at the time produced at an imprint of an imprint of DC Comics (it’s imprint-ception, people), the comic was always wholly owned by its creator Alan Moore. Marvel’s worst movie is 2015’s Fantastic Four at 9% on the Tomatometer, while DC’s is Catwoman, which also scored 9%. But because Fan4stic has more reviews than Catwoman, it’s ranked higher, a tie-breaker method we used for the rest of the list.
And what’s the #1 worst superhero movie ever? That’s Max Steel, the 2016 box office bomb based on the toy line of the same name. To see all the other movies Max Steel had to outmaneuver in sheer awfulness to make it to the top, head to Rotten Tomatoes!
