Mark Millar, the comic book writer behind the Captain America: Civil War Marvel comic book event and creator of Kick-Ass and Kingsman, took to his website to offer this thoughts on this year's slate of movies.
Millar included his top ten list where only one comic book movie comes into play with Doctor Strange.
10/ DR STRANGE – Just a nice, fun Marvel movie. The only comic-book flick to hit my top 10 this year, which feels weird, but the Marvel formula is a solid one and this was a nice hark back to before they went a little too dark and serious and had lots of nice jokes and asshole-learning-to-be-a-hero leads. Marvel's genius is the casting and like Hemsworth and Downey Jr, Cumberbatch holds this movie together with his terrific presence. The American accent I think was a mistake in the same way giving Colin Firth a Kentucky accent would seem weird on film as it's an actor we understand to be quintessentially English. But it's a minor quibble and a nice film with a good third act (where Marvel's origin movies in particular usually stumble a little).
While they weren't on his top ten list, Mark Millar notes both Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalyse are "bubbling under":
I liked Deadpool and it had some really nice action sequences, the third act especially impressive give they had about 10p to make this movie. X-Men: Apocalypse was also good. After 16 years and 8 pictures, we've seen a lot of these characters, but I'm still invested and after a lot of comic-book flicks that just feel part of a wider, not that interesting story that never ends I kind of liked the sense of completeness this movie had. The Prof X turning on Apocalypse stuff at the end was pretty good and overall it had some good moments. Not up there with DOFP, but still enjoyable.
Under the "Didn't Really Dig" category, Mark Millar states he wasn't a big fan of the Captain America: Civil War movie, as he pretty much agrees with my own thoughts in that not much happened.
Civil War had a good opening twenty mins, but then I honestly can't remember what the movie was about. It's interesting the Russos have a background in comedy because it's really missing in these otherwise well-made pictures and very, very missed. I really hope this bleakness doesn't extend into their two Avengers pictures because what made that first Avengers work was the light as well as shade and I'll be sad if that's all lost like it was in this picture.
Regarding the DC films, they, too, were a part of the "Really Didn't Dig" category:
Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad:
Batman Vs Superman I think we should just leave alone. Like Suicide Squad, WB has just decided to go a certain way with these movies and their logic is that they don't want to look like Marvel films. It's not how I feel these characters work best and sadly my DC-obsessed kids (I'm a DC guy way more than I'm a Marvel guy) can't see their favourite characters in the cinema. Their TV and animation departments are working beautifully. I'd love to see some of that same light applied to their theatrical division.
Millar also wasn't a big fan of Ghostbusters, Star Wars: Rogue One, and his worst movie of the year was Independence Day: Resurgence. Read more on Millarworld.
