Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Who's the Best... Superhero Movie Fight Scene?










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21 comments:

Humanbelly said...

Oh my lord, a shill is the first comment?

Tsk-- he/she should be very ashamed. . .

HB

(Personally, I'd have to give this a LOT of thought, 'cause there are plenty of terrific superhero fight scenes out there, don'tcha know!)

November 18, 2014 at 6:40 AM
Edo Bosnar said...

Maybe it's because I've finally just seen it, but I'll go with that awesome elevator fight in Winter Soldier.

Another all-time favorite of mine is the fight between Superman and Non in Superman II, i.e., when they're fighting in the sewer main and all you see are the seismic effects on the street above: here's the best video I could find; it's near the end starting at about 5:40. Also, the scene of Supes flinging Zod into the Coke sign just after that is also pretty excellent.

November 18, 2014 at 6:42 AM
Anonymous said...

I'm surprised no one (so far) has mentioned the three-way fight of Iron Man / Thor / Captain America in "The Avengers". Not only a cool fight, but also includes the comic book trope of heroes fighting before teaming-up.

November 18, 2014 at 8:07 AM
MattComix said...

@Edo Bosnar. Glad I'm not the only one bringing some Superman II love today.

As a kid it really was the first time I ever saw a comicbook super powered brawl represented on the big screen. Gotta remember this is coming off the era of Six Million Dollar Man, Lynda Carer Wonder Woman, Bixby/Ferrigno Hulk, and Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man. About 90% of the time you just never really saw the heroes fighting anyone with power levels above your average cop-show thug.

Though admittedly Superman II is an odd beast since there's now both the Donner and Lester cuts. I've seen some fanmade "hybrid" clips of the Metropolis fight that do a remarkable job of capturing the best of both.

November 18, 2014 at 8:49 AM
Karen said...

I removed the first comment which was obviously spam, as HB noted. really, someone comes here to promote the new Hunger Games movie? Geez!!

November 18, 2014 at 8:57 AM
J.A. Morris said...

Edo beat me to picking the Superman II fight.

The first X-Men movie was the first Marvel movie to "get it right", the climactic battle at the Statue of Liberty will always be a favorite.

And it's not very long, but Hulk's decimation of "puny god" Loki will always be a favorite "battle" for me.

November 18, 2014 at 8:59 AM
Doug said...

Say what you will about the first Hulk movie, but that scene in the desert when the Army is hounding him took me right back to the Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons from 1966. Those cartoons were my entry point to the Tales to Astonish adventures of the Hulk and Namor, and that film got those elements right.

Doug

November 18, 2014 at 9:05 AM
Karen said...

About the only thing I can watch from the first Hulk is the desert scenes, but those are terrific. When Hulk rips the turret off a tank and then paces around it, rhythmically swinging the turret into his other hand, it was just perfect. His leaping in that film has yet to be matched.

The Hulk vs. Thor fight in Avengers was also one of the best -when Thor lays an uppercut on Hulk with Mjolnir, that was a real comic book moment.

Superman 2 is still a favorite. The battle in Metropolis is fantastic.

I'm still waiting for a really great Wolverine fight, although his attack on the soldiers invading the mansion in X2 is pretty good.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier had a lot of great fight scenes, but the elevator really made Cap look like the force we know he is.

How about the Iron Man-Thor fight in Avengers too? Pretty darn good. I especially love when Thor starts crushing Iron Man's gauntlets. Heh heh...

November 18, 2014 at 9:32 AM
Humanbelly said...

When the Hulk was fighting off the helicopters and everything, Doug? Yep, totally agree with you. Although it's not perfect (at all, by today's standards), that was a huge moment in giving us a realistic visualization of what a fight like that might possibly look like. There's a momentary lull in that battle where the Hulk absent-mindedly smacks a tank-turret or water-main or something against his palm a few times like a baseball bat-- and it's such a subtly "true" gesture that it contributes to putting everything else over. Boy, the GameCube game (Hulk: Ultimate Destruction) that the movie very, VERY loosely inspired really captures that sense of massive-fight-in-a-big-environment as well.

The Cap Elevator fight is truly a Jackie Chan-worthy piece of brilliantly thought-out and choreographed and edited piece of film combat. There are about a zillion little variables and complications in play. . . all of them taken into account.

HB

PS- Thanks for ousting the solicitor, Karen. Sheesh, that third Hunger Games books was such a massive disappointment that I can't imagine going to see the film regardless. . .

November 18, 2014 at 9:43 AM
Garett said...

I agree with Superman 2 and the fight vs the 3 villains, and also the Thor vs Hulk fight. Another that came to mind is Flash Gordon vs Prince Barin fighting on that flying disk in the 1980 film.

Here's something interesting: a list of American superhero films and their worldwide grosses, starting with Superman and the Mole Men in 1951: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_superhero_films
Also lists upcoming superhero movies to 2020.

November 18, 2014 at 9:44 AM
Anonymous said...

There have been many really good fights already mentioned that at most I can just say "Ditto" especially to the elevator scene.

A few I've pulled from looking through my action/Marvels movies:

Hit Girl V Mother Russia. You always think there is no way Hit Girl is gonna lose, but it's just so painful to watch.

Spider-Man V The Lizard in the school. That was, for me, one of those comic book moments. That fight came so darn close to being what you say in four colors on a paneled page.

I still have to say that my all time favorite, so far, is the Avengers V the Chitauri. From the moment that Tony says "You call it Cap" and Steve starts calling out the strategy, super hero movies don't get better than that. I think I had waited a life time for that.

The Prowler (Anybody’s got the power they don’t see it ‘cos they don’t understand spin around and round for hours You and me we got the world in our hands).

November 18, 2014 at 10:48 AM
William Preston said...

The fight in the second Hulk movie that involved not just that standard Hulk-comic trope of sonic weapons but that also showed us what a guy with Super Soldier Serum in his blood could do against such a force.

Great as the fight in the elevator is, the sequence that rang even more brilliantly for me was the highway attack, beginning with Sitwell being tossed out of the car. Things just go from bad to worse, there are obstacles galore, the Widow looks absolutely terrified (but then manages to come up with a way to use her environment and skills to get a momentary advantage over her foe), and you have no idea what will make the fight come to a stop. (I suppose that's true in the elevator fight as well, because it doesn't end with him just beating everyone, but with his dive through the glass.)

November 18, 2014 at 11:51 AM
Doug said...

And... speaking of Marvel films, most of you know that the next Thor flick will be called "Ragnarok". In Marvel's February solicitations they are soliciting a new trade in their "Epic Collection" line, which includes the classic Mangog story. Here are the details:

THOR EPIC COLLECTION: TO WAKE THE MANGOG TPB

Volume #4 in the Thor Epic Collections Written by STAN LEE Penciled by JACK KIRBY Cover by JACK KIRBY

From the darkened depths rises a peril greater than any Thor has ever before faced. Mangog threatens to unsheathe the Odinsword and bring Ragnarok upon the Norse gods in this collection of Asgardian classics! And that's just the beginning -- because in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Thor, there's always another cosmic adventure around the corner! Case in point: a cosmic battle between Galactus and Ego the Living Planet; the return of "Him," the man who would come to be known as Adam Warlock; and the universe-shaking origin of Galactus! Thor's adventures get personal, too, with a surprising revelation regarding Donald Blake, the return of Jane Foster, and the dramatic dance between Balder and the Norn queen Karnilla! Collecting THOR (1966) #154-174.

456 pages, $34.99.

I recently used some of the money from my comics sales to purchase the Thor Ominbus - volume 2 hardcover. But wouldn't you know that it ends at issue #152, and this new paperback picks up with #154. Ugh...

Doug

November 18, 2014 at 2:21 PM
William said...

I have to go with Spider-Man vs. Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. The scene after Ock nabs MJ, that starts at the clock tower and ends up on the elevated train. That whole fight was very well choreographed, and I thought it did a really good job of bringing the comics to life. It was a great all out slugfest between Spidey and Doc Ock, with all the bells and whistles.

The extended version on the Blu-Ray/DVD is even better than what was shown in theaters.

Too bad it had to end with Spider-Man unmasking in front of about 100 people (for no good reason) except maybe to show Toby Maguire's horrible "pain face" when he was attempting to stop the runaway train. Uhg! Still, that fight was worth the price of admission.

November 18, 2014 at 2:35 PM
Anonymous said...

I like Cap's elevator scene and the opening Nightcrawler scene in Xmen 2.

starfoxxx

November 18, 2014 at 3:08 PM
Anonymous said...

Yeah for good old hand to hand combat you can't beat the elevator scene in Winter Soldier. For more wide scale destruction the Avengers vs Chitauri battle was great too. Personally, I liked the Hulk battles too, especially against the Abomination. Man, wouldn't it be a real blast to see the Hulk do some real damage in a new standalone movie? As I recall, Dr. Banner said in the first Avengers movie the last time he was in New York he 'broke Harlem'. Now that I would love to see!

- Mike 'fighting - and losing - the battle of the bulge' from Trinidad & Tobago.

November 18, 2014 at 9:13 PM
Humanbelly said...

The Avengers/Chitauri battle probably gets my over-all, best-realization of a comic battle vote, too. That's a good call.

The first time we saw it, HBSon picked up on the fact that a beautiful, long sequence of it is presented as a "continuous" shot, going from hero to hero. Completely went over my head. That is brilliant choreo on the macro scale.

HB

PS- So. . . Karen & I are apparently the same person, living in different parts of the continent? Actually, we're disparate components of a dissipated Madrox the Multiple Man. . . just waitin' for our chance to recombine and rule the world. . .

November 19, 2014 at 5:21 AM
Karen said...

HB, that's the first time I've been accused of being part of a multi-clone...but I do think we have great taste. Here's a link to that Hulk vs. tank scene for anyone who wants to watch it. I really like the physicality and overall look of the Hulk in the first film -didn't like the fact that he kept growing and at one point seemed 20 feet tall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wrNMPRriwc

November 19, 2014 at 8:22 AM
Doug said...

Any love or hate for the Hulk vs. dogs fight scene in that first movie?

Man, I thought, and still do think, that it's pretty intense.

Doug

November 19, 2014 at 8:29 AM
Anonymous said...

For me, it's when Batman came back and clobbered Bane. Nothing fancy, just a slug-fest.

November 19, 2014 at 4:09 PM
Robert L. said...

Being an Incredible Hulk fan, my favorite battle in a comics movie was the Ed Norton Hulk vs. The Abomination. Although Abomination didn't look anything like he did in the comics.

The scene where the Hulk tears the police car in two and uses it to pound the Abomination was just classic Hulk from the comics. The ferocious intensity of that fight was something out of a Kirby era Hulk comic.

November 19, 2014 at 11:49 PM

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