James Gunn reveals his favourite comic book movies of all time
James Gunn has revealed his favourite comic book movies of all time.
The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 director was appointed co-CEO of DC Studios alongside veteran executive Peter Safran in October last year and he is responsible for a host of forthcoming movie adaptations featuring comic book heroes his Superman: Legacy movie.
Speaking to GQ magazine he listed his top five film adaptations of comic books.
Coming in at five was 2016’s Deadpool. “The first Deadpool and the second Deadpool actually are two of my favourite comic book movies. They came on the heels of the Guardians film. They were so well made, so heartfelt and fun and Ryan Reynolds just kills it,” he said.
This was closely followed by Park Chan-wook’s 2003 cult classic which he described as “reinventing action” and ushered in “the new era of Korean cinema which has continued to this day”.
He added: “As a movie, its just incredibly cinematic, incredibly colourful, really kind of gross but also beautiful. And shocking at the end, it works on every level.”
This was closely by David Cronenburg’s 2005 action film, A History Of Violence which was adapted from Josh Wagner and Vince Locke’s 1997 graphic novel.
“When I saw A History of Violence, I also, like Oldboy, didn’t know this was based on anything. I didn’t know it was based on a novel and I definitely didn’t know it was based on comic books,” he said.
“I just saw it as a movie itself so it didn’t have to live up to anything, didn’t have to overcome anything. It was just an amazing movie in and of itself.”
At number two was Richard Donner’s original Superman The Movie in 1978, which he said was a movie that “changed my life”.
He continued: “This one is important to me historically, it’s a great movie but it was also a movie I saw as a kid that affected my life a lot.
“I remember when I was a child, I had seen Star Wars and that was such a big magical moment for me, and this was the next big magical movie.”
At number one was the animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018).
“This movie works from start to finish, it does not have a bad beat in it. The action is amazing, the emotion is amazing,” he said of the movie. “I just don’t think there’s been a better superhero movie.”
Meanwhile, Gunn recently received the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals’ (PETA) Not A Number award for his portrayal of animal testing cruelty in his latest Marvel film.
In a three star review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, NME wrote: “This is definitely one film made for the fans. If you’ve been paying close enough attention to clearly remember Peter’s last minutes on Earth, why Gamora is here despite dying, and when a talking dog joined the group, you will probably get more from this than the casual fan.”
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Damian Jones
NME
