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Home / Entertainment

Five hero films worse than Suicide Squad

NZ Herald
8 Aug, 2016 06:00 AM4 mins to read

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Suicide Squad might have tanked with critics, but it didn't tank as bad as these films. Photo / Supplied

Suicide Squad might have tanked with critics, but it didn't tank as bad as these films. Photo / Supplied

Despite releasing to a host of negative reviews, Suicide Squad is killing it at the box office, raking in hundreds of millions in its opening weekend.

In New Zealand, it took more than $2.2 million, becoming the second highest opening film of the year, behind Batman v Superman.

Fans have been so defensive of the film they started a petition to shut down review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes in protest to the harsh criticism.

But while the ensemble anti-hero film might be sitting on a par with some of fans' (and critics') most-hated hero films - like Green Lantern, Batman v Superman, Ghost Rider and Blade: Trinity - it's still not as bad as these six films.

These films all scored less than 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and still no one petitioned to have the site shut down:

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Batman & Robin (1997)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 11%

This film is largely considered to be the worst of all the Batman movies, featuring George Clooney as the Bat, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the unforgettably awful Mister Freeze.

Critics said it was "as bad as anything on screen this year" with Poison Ivy being "the only relief from the onslaught of spoofy humour, special effects and meaningless comic book mayhem".

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One critic said hopefully: "Batman & Robin won't kill the popular series, but it ought to slow it down a tad". (Don't tell that guy about Batman v Superman).

Elektra (2005)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 10%

The movie no one wanted or asked for got made anyway, because...well, Marvel.

Jennifer Garner played heroine Elektra, showing off her action chops in a film which was ultimately ridiculed by fans and critics alike.

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Critics called it "insipid", saying "even the action scenes flirt with tedium", which is bad news since one critic said: "The problem is Elektra is not among the most compelling of characters. She doesn't have enough humanity and the story not enough depth to sustain us between fight scenes".

Fantastic Four (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 9%

Much like the spin-off no one asked for, here's the reboot no one wanted either.

It was so bad it was hailed as the beginning of the end for hero flicks, with critics calling it "a lightweight and basically unnecessary attempt to once again bring some cinematic life to one of the lesser teams in the Marvel Universe".

They said it was "profoundly uninteresting", "laughably cheesy" and "strangely gloomy" with the general consensus landing on "depressingly mediocre".

Catwoman (2004)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 9%

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Perhaps one of the most widely hated hero films to date,

Catwoman

took everything you love about the

Batman

villain, got rid of it all and hoped to coast by on Halle Berry's beauty.

Critics said the film was soulless, and "essentially an excuse to pose Berry in ever-skimpier outfits. It's all too pre-fab to register as sexy, though, and even the fight scenes look like fashion shoots".

One critic said "it's worse than bad - it's boring. So boring it's not even laughable".

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And another referred viewers back to a "real Catwoman" - Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns - before advising them leave Berry's Catwoman "in the alley where it belongs".

Supergirl (1984)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 7%

A 7 percent score seems harsh, even to us.

But Supergirl evidently earned it, with critics coming down hard on its "ridiculous plot" and "disregard of narrative considerations".

One called it a "festering dump of bad ideas, corny lines and Hollywood excess", and another summed it up by saying: "Why even go to the trouble of making a movie that feels like it's laughing at itself?"

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