While the Rotten Tomatoes tool for aggregating critical reviews doesn’t always fairly assess with technical precision just how good or bad a film is – since that is ultimately a subjective conclusion – its scores certainly give us a general sense of when a movie is a must-see or just not that great. Also, the Tomatometer is a pretty useful tool for comparing two or more films, which is always fun and worth discussing.
While the DC Extended Universe, and other superhero-related franchises have been enjoying great success with their properties in the past few years, it is definitely not true that every superhero movie out there is worth making for the sake of profits or to serve an overall continuity. There are certainly superhero films that are just plain bad and should’ve never been released without going through some quite significant changes.
Some of these films are old, and others are very recent. Some of these heroes are from Marvel, some are from DC, and others are independent. Budgets fluctuate, reasons differ, and contexts vary… But all of these projects have one thing in common: they are not good.
These are the 20 Worst Superhero Movies Ever (According To Rotten Tomatoes).
GREEN LANTERN – 26%
2011’s Green Lantern was not good, and that is a notion that even the most voracious DC Comics fans can agree on. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 26%.
Starring Ryan Reynolds (who had already played a different hero – Batman.
While Green Lantern was perceived by many as a career-killer, Ryan Reynolds certainly redeemed himself when he returned to his X-Men Origins character in 2016’s solo Deadpool movie.
GHOST RIDER – 26%
Even though it has Ghost Rider made some decent money in 2007, grossing at least two times its budget and being considered a box office success.
Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who wrote Jack Frost, wrote and directed 2003’s Elektra, Ghost Rider was not received well by most film reviewers and was even criticized by religious groups who claimed that it had satanic references.
The movie featured actor Nicolas Cage (who, also in 2007, starred in the very successful Hitch).
Curiously, Nic Cage has a Ghost Rider tattoo, which had to be covered during the movie’s shoot.
SUICIDE SQUAD – 25%
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – which also came out in 2016 – it was liked by some fans but not well-received by most critics.
There was a lot riding in the hands of Suicide Squad. For one, the movie featured Jared Leto’s Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang, El Diablo, Killer Croc, and Katana – and one villain who was the actual antagonist of the story (The Enchantress). Last but not least, there were several production missteps reportedly attached to the project, such as rumors that the final cut of the movie was conducted by a marketing team.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Suicide Squad has a score of 25%.
BLADE: TRINITY – 25%
The Blade trilogy is considered a huge commercial success, a defining franchise for actor Wesley Snipes, and a breakout opportunity for David S. Goyer (who wrote the first installment and directed the third) and Guillermo del Toro (who directed the second film).
But unlike Blade (Blade: Trinity did not have it easy with critics, earning it a very low 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming the least profitable film of the trilogy.
Based on Marvel’s Blade comic book series created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, this franchise is apparently nearing a reboot, and actor Anthony Mackie has Captain America: Civil War.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – 22%
2014’s reboot of Transformers-like tone and introduce them to children who might not be familiar with their stories. According to the film’s 22% score on Rotten Tomatoes, that attempt did not work.
Starring Megan Fox (who seemed to have given up on action movies after The Lego Batman Movie), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on to make a lot of money, but failed to make a lasting impression on fans.
While the sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows made a lot less money than the first installment, it did slightly pick up the franchise’s score, earning a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III – 21%
Of course, low Rotten Tomatoes scores are not something new to the TMNT franchise, but things really hit an all-time low back in 1993 with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III’s score of 21%.
After the beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (1990) and its The Secret of the Ooze (1991) sequel, III was meant to give a proper ending to this classic franchise, but failed to impress critics and fans alike. It was the only film of that trilogy that wasn’t written by Todd W. Langen, but other than that, there was no particular explanation as to why the third installment failed.
It took 21 years for the TMNT franchise to recover from III and reboot those characters on the big screen, and it’s unfortunate that two TMNT films have made this list.
JUDGE DREDD – 18%
After 1976’s Judge Dredd was actor Sylvester Stallone’s attempt in the 1990s to create yet another successful action franchise through a title character brought to life by him. However, it didn’t work as well as expected this time.
Judge Dredd was criticized for lacking originality and being unfaithful to its source material, which was John Wagner’s comic book series of the same name. On Rotten Tomatoes, this movie has a score of 18%, making it one of the lowest-rated films of Sylvester Stallone’s career.
Fortunately, however, this franchise moved on from the Stallone film. In 2012, the movie is currently in the works.
SPAWN – 18%
Also at Spawn, a 1997 live-action adaptation of the Image Comics character of the same name.
Spawn was an origin story for a devilish antihero character originally known as Al Simmons (and then resurrected as Spawn), which was created by Todd McFarlane, known for his writing in comic book series such as The Amazing Spider-Man.
The movie featured Michael Jai White (who officially became the first African-American actor to portray a major superhero in a live-action film), John Leguizamo (fresh off his Carlito’s Way success), and the legendary Martin Sheen.
Curiously, Spawn was directed by visual effects artist Mark A. Z. Dippé, who hasn’t done much mainstream work since, but is credited as the director of CBS’s 2017 Halloween animated special Michael Jackson’s Halloween.
GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE – 17%
Aside from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Ghost Rider franchise unfortunately also has two of its properties included on this list, as the 2012 sequel Spirit of Vengeance scored a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes.
This sequel had Nicolas Cage once again in the title role, but also featured actors like Idris Elba (who starred in this film in between 2011’s Thor: The Dark World), Ciarán Hinds (replacing Peter Fonda as the Devil), and Johnny Whitworth (as Blackout, the movie’s villain). Eva Mendes, who was a love interest in the first installment, did not return for Spirit of Vengeance.
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the duo that directed the Gerard Butler star vehicle Gamer, were responsible for directing Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN – 17%
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, released in 2003, also has a score of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sir Sean Connery, Academy Award winner for The Untouchables and immortalized as the 1960s-1980s version of The Lord of the Rings, it was curious that he decided to give a chance to something like League.
The film was directed by Stephen Norrington – who directed the first Blade installment – and written by James Robinson, a comic books veteran who has done work for both DC Comics and Marvel. During its opening weekend, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen opened at #2, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
