Entertainment
8 Superhero Movies That Are Terrible From Start to Finish
Superhero movies are not a product of the 21st century, by any means, but they have become particularly popular over the past couple of decades. X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) were big in that regard, for helping elevate the genre, and then both those movies had sequels that were even better. And that’s before getting to 2008, which saw the release of The Dark Knight (maybe one of the best movies, superhero or otherwise, of the past few decades) and Iron Man, which kicked off the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But enough about good superhero movies. What about the bad ones? Actually, not the bad ones, but the genuinely terrible ones? Here are eight that are all-out awful. They are not the only awful ones, and they might not even technically be the eight worst, but they are eight that are consistently very bad, and most don’t even have the decency to be bad in fun ways, either.
8
‘Supergirl’ (1984)
At the time of writing, 2026’s Supergirl movie is not yet out, but even if it’s bad, it’s unlikely to be as bad as the 1984 film of the same name. This one just does not work on any level, not at all doing justice to its titular character the way Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) did justice to their titular character. It’s also probably a little worse than the divisive Superman III (1983), but as to how it stacks up against that fourth film… well, the fourth movie will be gotten to. You’re not off the hook yet, man who is super.
As for girl who is super, movie about girl who is super is anything but super. It wastes an impressive supporting cast that includes Faye Dunaway, Peter O’Toole, and Mia Farrow, while it’s hard not to feel bad for Helen Slater in the central role, because it was her first proper movie, and it was not good enough to kickstart a career the same way Christopher Reeve’s role in the first Superman movie did.
7
‘Blade: Trinity’ (2004)
For a few pleasant years, the Blade series was going pretty well. The first movie was honestly somewhat groundbreaking, in hindsight, doing the whole R-rated superhero thing long before it was cool (unless you count The Crow, but that’s a little different), and then Blade II was arguably even better, or at least it felt a bit more cinematic and stylish, thanks to it being an early Guillermo del Toro movie.
All of it came crashing down, though, with the release of Blade: Trinity. The good times lasted from 1998 to 2004, as far as the Blade film series was concerned. 2004’s Blade: Trinity was bad enough to make the whole trilogy feel kind of shoddy, and not worth engaging with as a trilogy. You’re better off treating the first two movies like a duology, and then when Wesley Snipes shows up again in Deadpool & Wolverine… eh, do what you want with that movie. This writer can take or leave it, but at least it’s not as bad a third movie in an overall trilogy as Blade: Trinity.
6
‘Guardians’ (2017)
If you get Guardians (2017) mixed up with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and pick the former to watch when you wanted the latter, you’re probably going to be disappointed, unless you really like schlock. Guardians is pure schlock, and schlock that looked like it cost about $500 to produce, being a very generic superhero team-up movie that’s not really anything more than a mockbuster.
Even if it’s possibly technically even worse than Suicide Squad (2016), it is at least a lot more entertaining than Suicide Squad, because of how amateurish it is.
Despite the title, it feels most like a riff on The Avengers, just without anything very good. Still, even if it’s possibly technically even worse than Suicide Squad (2016), it is at least a lot more entertaining than Suicide Squad, because of how amateurish it is. In fact, if you’re going to subject yourself to any movie in this ranking, you’re best off making it Guardians. It’s the shortest of the bunch, the most chaotic, and possibly the one that comes closest to situating itself in that fabled “so-bad-it’s-good” territory.
5
‘Justice League’ (2017)
Since Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) exists, there is no reason to watch Justice League (2017) anymore. Basically, Zack Snyder was the original director, but stepped away from the project for personal reasons late in production, and there were extensive reshoots and re-editing that led to an absolutely butchered final product, which was devoid of pacing, fun, and anything even remotely engaging.
2017’s Justice League is one of the most baffling and shoddily put-together movies in recent memory, occupying the same award territory as The Mummy from that same year, in terms of movies that really tried to speed-run the process of establishing a Marvel-level cinematic universe. The DC movies before Justice League, though flawed, were doing a slightly better job of establishing things, but this one really tripped the whole thing up. Even if the Snyder cut is twice as long, and technically not perfect, it’s still so much more worthy of your time than the 2017 version.
4
‘Catwoman’ (2004)
Talking about Catwoman (2004) is like beating a dead cat, and people aren’t used to that saying, compared to the somehow more gentle-sounding “beating a dead horse,” so it feels bad drilling into it like that, but it deserves the scorn. Horse or cat, you have to beat it, and the thing’s dead, because there isn’t anything all that nice that can be said about Catwoman, beyond it maybe sometimes having laughable moments.
There aren’t as many funny-bad moments as there were in Guardians, though. Again, you should watch that, if you really have to watch a movie in this ranking. But if you somehow have to watch two movies in this ranking, make the second one Catwoman. It’s a hell of a time capsule for the mid-2000s, that’s for sure, for better or worse (mostly worse).
3
‘Venom: The Last Dance’ (2024)
Like with the Blade movies, you can sort of defend the first two Venom films if you’re feeling generous, but the trilogy ends with something beyond a whimper, with Venom: The Last Dance. This is a feeble, lazy, abysmally edited, and genuinely disrespectful movie. This movie thinks you’re an idiot. This movie does not like you. This movie nakedly wants your money and literally nothing else to an honestly ghastly extent.
And yeah, it’s the closest thing to a hot take this ranking has. People don’t detest Venom: The Last Dance enough, though there is some comfort to be taken from the fact that, in place of hatred, it has been forgotten. It’s basically dropped off the face of the Earth, in that no one really talks about it anymore. That’s saying quite a bit, actually, considering late October 2024 was not all that long ago, in the overall scheme of things. Still, a month to live on in infamy, as it marked the first time Tom Hardy looked genuinely checked out and not even remotely committed to a role (and you can usually rely on him to at least try, even in the overall less-than-great movies he’s appeared in).
2
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (2022)
Whatever the opposite of a magnum opus is, that’s what Thor: Love and Thunder stands as, within Taika Waititi’s filmography. An agnum mopus? Yeah. It’s his agnum mopus. It is the fourth of the Thor movies, and it’s somehow a good deal worse than the second one, because its crime was being perhaps the most forgettable movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while Love and Thunder stands out as the franchise’s single most annoying movie.
It also sours Thor: Ragnarok, in hindsight, because that was also directed by Waititi and had a similarly anarchic tone, and was fun back in 2017, but now feels like a warning/omen for further escalation into nonsense, come 2022. If this one killed your interest in the MCU as a whole, that’s fair enough. Thor: Love and Thunder is that bad, and landed Waititi a very brief but deserved stint in director’s jail (2023’s Next Goal Wins was mostly filmed before, and he’s since been paroled for long enough to direct the upcoming Klara and the Sun, so we’ll see).
1
‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace’ (1987)
As promised/threatened before, when talking about Supergirl (1984), here’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which could well be the most joyless, lazy, and generally disheartening superhero movie ever made. Everyone in this film looks some combination of tired and painfully aware of how bad the material is that they’ve been given, and it’s easy to feel empathetic, because you’ll feel like you want it to be over as soon as possible, too, just like all the people on-screen.
Probably. This was a movie that people probably hated working on. It has an abysmal reputation that it more than earns, and it’s saddening to watch nowadays, knowing it was the final Superman-related movie Christopher Reeve appeared in during his lifetime (though his likeness being used in 2023’s The Flash might not be much better). It’s just a miserable time all around, and anyone who’s not seen it is best off staying away, even if you’re making your way through all the Superman movies and want to be a completionist. Seriously, just rewatch the 1978 film, or its 1980 sequel, instead.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
- Release Date
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July 24, 1987
- Runtime
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90 minutes
- Director
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Sidney J. Furie
- Writers
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Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
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Christopher Reeve
Clark Kent / Superman
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