The comic book and superhero movie arms race has been fueling Hollywood for almost three decades at this point. Not only did the runaway success of Blade and then X-Men in 1999 and 2000 trigger a massive response in getting superheroes on the big screen in a push that hadn’t been seen since the aftermath of 1989’s Batman, but it was far from the end. By 2008, two movies arrived that changed things even more: Iron Man kicked off the MCU and started an obsession with shared universes, while The Dark Knight made everyone consider that “grounded and gritty” were the best ways to reboot every property.
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Every year since the late ’90s has been inundated with superhero movies and comic book adaptations, but there’s one year that may very well be the best one in the history of both Marvel and DC, and it’s not even close. The case can be made for a few different years thanks to the output that arrived, but in 2005, Warner Bros. Pictures may have released the best slate of superhero and comic book movies in one calendar year. To be clear, though, it’s not because these 2005 movies were all runaway box office hits, but rather they’ve all stood the test of time and proven themselves as key pillars in the genre. They were great when they premiered 21 years ago, but now they have historic standing.
DC’s 2005 Is the Best in Comic Book Movie History
On February 18, 2005, Warner Bros. released Constantine, the Keanu Reeves-starring film from director Francis Lawrence that would go on to bring in over $230 million. At the time, superhero adaptations weren’t big enough for the controversy of the dark-haired, American Reeves playing the Liverpool-born sorcerer designed to look like ’80s Sting to be a major issue. In fact, the little-known footprint that Hellblazer comics had in mainstream circles served to the movie’s advantage, as the team was able to take the larger supernatural ideas and cynical exorcist angle to create a blockbuster.
At the time of its release, Constantine had a mixed reception, holding a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes even now (Roger Ebert gave it 1.5 stars out of 4), but time tells a different story. Not only did Constantine become a focal point for the character in becoming marginally more well-known and well-liked beyond just comic book readers. Before the movie, John Constantine only had comic book appearances; now he’s been in multiple TV shows (live-action AND animation), on top of video games. The Reeves-starring Constantine has also been so well received upon reevaluation that they’re still considering a sequel decades later.
Four months later, Warner Bros. would roll out their second DC hit of the year, and arguably their most important, with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins on June 15, 2005. When it was announced that the studio was rebooting Batman entirely with a new movie series that wouldn’t acknowledge what came before it, it was seen by many as moving too fast despite seven years since the dismal Batman & Robin. Armed with a take on the material that brought Batman to life in a realistic fashion, one inspired by the grim noir of Blade Runner, Nolan’s plan for the character reached deep into comic book lore to change the game entirely.
A modest success at the time, Batman Begins brought in $375 million globally, but it laid the groundwork for what came next when Nolan was allowed the chance to make a sequel, 2008’s The Dark Knight, and fundamentally alter Hollywood’s perception of what a “reboot” should look like. Time has proven that even though The Dark Knightgot credit for films taking on a grounded and gritty approach with varying success (EG: Godzilla, The Amazing Spider-Man, Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel), the truth is that it’s well acknowledged that Batman Begins is the real reason for it all now.
WB was still not done. After a successful premiere at Cannes in May (where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or), on September 30, 2005, they released David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, based on the Vertigo comic series by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Not only did the film’s compelling storyline delight critics, but it proved just two years after Return of the King that actor Viggo Mortensen would not be fully defined by hisLord of the Rings role. To cement its place even further, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, just the second ever Oscar nomination for a script based on comic books (2003’s American Splendor was the first).
To recap, in 2005, Warner Bros. released three DC adaptations: Constantine, Batman Begins, and A History of Violence. Though far from the biggest hits of the year (only Batman Begins was in the Top 10 at the global box office, sitting at #9), these movies became building blocks not only for what it meant to be a comic book movie, but how superheroes could be adapted for the big screen. To put it into perspective, we don’t get to Spider-Man: No Way Home and its three Spider-Men sharing hte screen if we don’t have The Amazing Spider-Man taking cues from Batman Begins. On top of that, A History of Violence has been named among “The 21st Century’s 100 greatest films” by an international BBC poll.
What Other Comic Book Movie Years Come Close?
Now it wouldn’t be fair to simply christen DC’s 2005 roster the best ever without giving some of the other years a fair shake as well, on top of looking at how Marvel has contributed to things through superhero movie history. Three years before 2005, Marvel very nearly could claim the title with what arrived in 2002, not only did we see the release of Blade 2, but Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Men in Black also arrived. In truth, these are three masterpieces, but the reality is these are divided between two different studios, so the success cannot land all in one place.
In recent years, 2014 seems like a great candidate for Best Year Ever, as it saw Marvel Studios release Captain America: The Winter Soldier (often among the Top 5 for MCU fans) and Guardians of the Galaxy. The same year also saw 20th Century Fox debut X-Men: Days of Future Past and Walt Disney Animation debut Big Hero 6. Again, another great “Marvel” year, but one where three studios can claim the success, not just one.
2017 is the same way. Fox released the Oscar-nominated Logan while Marvel Studios rolled out Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok. All told, a great roster, but time has not been kind to Thor: Ragnarok thanks to various follow-ups, and even the Guardians sequel is considered the bottom of the trilogy. The next year is another great example, and could very well be the closest to DC’s 2005, as Marvel Studios released the one-two punch of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War; that said, they followed up both of those with Ant-Man and The Wasp, a movie that not only doesn’t exist, but which got an even worse sequel in Quantumania.
It also wouldn’t be fair to simply crown DC’s 2005 the best without acknowledging what may very well be the worst year in comic book movie history, a distinction that also lands at Warner Bros.: 1997. Maybe it’s not fair to point to a year when the comic book and superhero movie world hadn’t been fully figured out the way it has now, but that year saw WB release both Batman & Robin and Steel, the Shaq-starring Superman spinoff. The two films boast an 11% and 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.0
There’s good news for these other years that we’ve considered that could very well be in contention for the best years ever. In theory, time will be on their side in the same way that WB’s trio of movies from 2005 have been allowed to age like fine wine. Maybe one day the success of Black Panther and Infinity War and their influence will determine that Marvel’s 2018 is totally unbeatable, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, the three DC movies that Warner Bros. gave us 21 years ago look like an anomaly in a sea of adaptations that sometimes arrive as total misfires.
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