Here are our rankings for the top superhero movies of 2019 – from Marvel to DC, from Brightburn to Glass. It’s been a big year for the superhero genre, with global box office takings exceeding $7 billion. Incredibly, over $5 billion of that was from just three Marvel Studios movies.
Pleasingly, a close look at 2019’s superhero slate demonstrates its increasing diversity. Marvel Studios’ successes included their first ever solo female superhero movie, which proved needlessly controversial but struck gold regardless. Warner Bros., for their part, broke records with Joker – the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, and the most profitable superhero film ever made. It all sets the scene for 2020, a year where female superheroes are the norm rather than the exception, and where diversity is becoming far more mainstream in the genre.
Related: Best Movie Endings Of 2019
So let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the superhero genre in 2019, and rank all these films – from the ones that bombed, to the ones that broke box office records.
9. Hellboy
In theory, Hellboy could have been a hit, especially given it starred David Harbour of Stranger Things fame. Unfortunately, it was a surprisingly dull flick with a few moments of fantasy spectacle. The main plot was an alliance between Hellboy and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense in order to stop Milla Jovovich’s Blood Queen from wiping out all mankind. The waters were muddied with countless side quests and tangents, and Harbour later admitted the movie was flawed, suggesting there were too many people trying to pull the film in different directions. Hellboy didn’t even make back its budget, and the franchise is officially dead.
8. X-Men: Dark Phoenix
So this is how Fox’s X-Men franchise ends; not with a bang, but a whimper. Fox’s X-Men movies had always been of varying quality, but X-Men: Dark Phoenix was undeniably one of the worst. In part, this seems to have been a result of last-second rewrites and reshoots, with writer-director Simon Kinberg hurriedly adapting when he realized his third act was almost identical to Captain Marvel‘s. The end result is a film that lacks any real sense of identity, and gave absolutely none of its stars a chance to shine. Actors of the caliber of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, and Jennifer Lawrence deserved better than this.
7. Brightburn
David Yarovesky’s Brightburn, which is produced by James Gunn and Kenneth Huang, is a twisted version of Superman’s iconic origin. The core concept is a simple one; what if Kal-El was a psychopath rather than a saint, destined to become the world’s greatest super-villain? The idea proves more interesting in concept than in realization, and even the commentary on parenting felt derivative. Still, there are plenty of thrills, and Brightburn more than earns its R-rating with a generous helping of gore and violence. Brightburn‘s special effects are actually quite impressive given the production’s low budget.
6. Glass
M. Night Shyamalan’s career has included as many misses as it has hits, and unfortunately for every Split there is a Glass. On paper, this is another project that should have been a surefire win, combining the stars of two popular Shyamalan movies in a loose cinematic universe. The all-star cast includes the likes of Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sarah Paulson. Any Shyamalan film rests upon its third act surprises, however, and the plot twists in Glass are both bewildering and poorly executed. The concepts are interesting enough, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
5. Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel is one of the MCU’s more unusual origin stories, introducing viewers to Brie Larson as the titular superhero. Marvel Studios is aware that they’ve become known for by-the-numbers origins, so for Captain Marvel they switched things up, with Carol Danvers brainwashed as a Kree agent and spending much of the film discovering her own backstory as a human being. The humor is effective, the storyline works well, and the effects are good, but in truth there’s precious little to make it stand out from the crowd of MCU movies. Captain Marvel became needlessly controversial, in large part because Brie Larson is a noted feminist; but frankly, that means she was perfectly cast, given the comic book version of Captain Marvel was supposed to be a feminist as well. Still, for all its flaws, Captain Marvel broke $1 billion in the global box office and helped blaze the trail for Avengers: Endgame.
4. Spider-Man: Far From Home
By now, Tom Holland has pretty much cemented his place as the definitive big-screen incarnation of Spider-Man. Spider-Man: Far From Home sees the wall-crawler head on a summer vacation with his schoolfriends, essentially a coping mechanism as they struggle to deal with the chaos of the last few years. The emotional center of the movie is the dynamic between Spider-Man and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, who offers Peter Parker the father figure he so desperately needs. It leads to a stunning sequence in which the wall-crawler battles against Mysterio’s illusions, a scene that frankly feels like a love letter to the comics themselves. The post-credits scene is the best in the MCU to date, with Mysterio’s agents revealing Spider-Man’s secret identity to the entire world. It will be fascinating to explore the repercussions in 2021’s Spider-Man: Homecoming 3.
3. Shazam!
David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! may not have grossed anywhere near as much as some of 2019’s MCU movies, but it still deserves a high ranking on this list. It’s a wildly fun superhero adventure, and it strikes a masterful balance between coming-of-age comedy and dark, supernatural drama. The central theme is one of family, and it runs through the entire script like a rich vein of gold, finally breaking to the surface in a superb third act where the young Billy Batson shares his powers with his foster-siblings. There’s something tremendously heart-warming about Shazam!, and it truly deserves the recently-announced sequel.
2. Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame was the cinematic event of the year – so much so that it made history, breaking Avatar‘s record and becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. This was essentially a celebration of the last decade’s worth of MCU adventures, with the OG Avengers working to undo Thanos’ victory and bring back half the life in the universe. The central time travel plot was a little muddled, leading to a meandering second act, and it’s amusing to note that even the writers and directors don’t seem to agree on Endgame‘s quantum mechanics. For all that’s the case, though, it all came to a head in the most remarkable sequence in the MCU to date, as the assembled Avengers waged war on the armies of Thanos. It’s entirely possible even a studio like Marvel will never be able to equal the sheer scale of this.
1. Joker
The top spot can only go to Todd Phillips’ Joker, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime. This R-rated origin story was generally seen as a risk, but it paid off in spades when Joker grossed over $1 billion against a budget of less than $70 million. The plot is intense and cerebral, weaving the Joker into the backstory of the Wayne family in a fascinating way. By the end, though, viewers are left reeling with the possibility that none of this happened in the first place; it could all have been in the Joker’s head, as his mind fragmented and he became increasingly lost in his delusions. Joker is a cut above the rest of the competition in 2019, with absolutely none of its runtime wasted, and a portrayal of a classic supervillain that leaves a disturbing taste in the mouth.
