It took about 40 years from Superman first gracing the pages of a comic book to finally getting his own, full-fledged live-action blockbuster. In the 40 years since that, the Man of Steel has appeared on the big screen nine times, if you include this week’s latest iteration by James Gunn. By that math, we may be in for many, many more Superman movies over the next few decades. So, before that does or doesn’t happen, we thought it would be time to put them up against each other.
Below, we have our ranking of the nine modern, live-action Superman films, as well as the extended version of one that debuted on streaming. We’re skipping a few of the extended serials from the 1950s because, frankly, we haven’t seen them, but our friends at Screencrush say they’re pretty good. Do you agree with these rankings? Let us know below.
More Than Honorable Mention—Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Just so we can all start this list on a happy note, I didn’t rank—but absolutely love—this incredible 2024 documentary about Superman actor Christopher Reeve. It’s not only poignant and heartwarming; it captures everything magical about Superman happening in real life. It’s wonderful and, probably, the best Superman movie ever. I’m not going to count it here just because we’re focusing on the fictional versions, but I did want to give it a shout-out. Watch it here.
10. Superman III
I recently wrote about this at length, but I detest this movie. It’s a Richard Pryor movie with Superman in it that does no favors to either. At least some of the lesser movies on this list after this actually respected the character of Superman. Superman III does not. Read more here.
9. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Imagine telling your 8-year-old self that Hollywood would make a movie where Batman fought Superman but that it would be bad. Seems wild, but it happened. The biggest issue with Batman v Superman is that it’s just trying to do too much. We introduce Batman, reintroduce Superman, there’s Wonder Woman for some reason, Lex Luthor, Doomsday—it’s like 15 movies in one, something director Zack Snyder would get a grasp on later in his career, but not with this movie.
8. Justice League
Sticking in the Snyderverse, I’m one of the few people around who does not hate Justice League. Yes, it’s a mess. And yes, when we got to see Snyder’s full vision years later (more on that in a few), it was much, much better. But even though the theatrical Justice League is a little too goofy and underbaked, it has a certain power about it just because we get to see all these characters—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—on screen together at once. It’s kind of fun, but not fun enough.
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