The 50 Worst Superhero Movies Ever Made

In what might be the most egregious adaptation betrayal in cinema history, Dragonball Evolution takes everything beloved about Akira Toriyama's manga masterpiece and transforms it into an unrecognizable mess. Director James Wong's 2009 attempt to bring Goku to life features Justin Chatwin in a performance that seems to fundamentally misunderstand the source material. While films like The Last Airbender at least maintained some visual similarity to their source material, this Fox production manages to strip away both the martial arts spectacle and the charming character dynamics that made the original anime a global phenomenon.

Jamie Kennedy's attempt to fill Jim Carrey's shoes in Son of the Mask stands as a testament to why some sequels should remain unmade. This 2005 follow-up to the hit film The Mask abandons the original's adult-oriented humor for baby-focused slapstick that even its target audience found difficult to endure. Director Lawrence Guterman, fresh off Cats & Dogs, delivers a CGI nightmare that makes the special effects in direct-to-video films look revolutionary by comparison.

Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot marked a stunning fall from grace following his impressive debut with Chronicle. The 2015 film transforms Marvel's first family into brooding millennials trapped in a body horror story that never finds its footing. Despite talented leads including Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller, the film collapses under the weight of studio interference and a screenplay that seems ashamed of its comic book origins.

Few superhero films have managed to squander talent quite like Catwoman. Oscar winner Halle Berry, fresh off the X-Men franchise, found herself trapped in a 2004 disaster that bears little resemblance to the iconic DC Comics character. Instead of Selina Kyle's complex antihero, we got Patience Phillips in a story more focused on evil cosmetics than compelling character development.

Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal's foray into superhero cinema, Steel, proves that not all DC Comics characters deserve the big-screen treatment. This 1997 adaptation strips away everything interesting about the comic book character John Henry Irons, replacing it with bargain-basement effects and dialogue that would make even the most forgiving comic fan cringe.

Before Marvel's successful cinematic universe, there was Roger Corman's notoriously unreleased The Fantastic Four. This 1994 production, made solely to retain film rights, features effects that wouldn't pass muster in a high school theater production. While never officially released, bootleg copies reveal a fascinating disaster that makes later adaptations look Oscar-worthy by comparison.