The Best Superhero Movie of ALL TIME Tournament! Round #1!
Filed under: Fandom, Contests, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Wow! The pre-show voting turned out to be a powerfully popular little piece here at Cinematical, and now we're ready to kick the tournament off in grand fashion! But first a few words about how we seeded the brackets: Well, we had a nerdly superhero movie "draft," essentially. In order to field four "regional" brackets, I sat down with three Austin movie geeks. We each drafted a 16-movie roster, and that's how we decided the field. The seedings were based directly on where the movie was drafted. (Example: My pal Luke picked Batman Begins with his first-round pick, and therefore that film is a #1 seed.)
We're going to start with eight matchups: Four "#1 vs. #16" pairings and four "#8 vs. #9" choices. We'll share the full bracket later, but for now I think the element of surprise is more fun.
Bracket A
#1 Superman (1978) vs. #16 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
#8 Punisher: War Zone (2008) vs. #9 The Crow (1994)
Bracket B
#1 The Dark Knight (2008) vs. #16 The Spirit (2008)
#8 The Phantom (1996) vs. #9 Batman: The Movie (1966)
Bracket C
#1 Batman Begins (2005) vs. #16 The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
#8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) vs. #9 Batman Forever (1995)
Bracket D
#1 Superman 2 (1980) vs. #16 Blankman (1994)
#8 Hulk (2003) vs. #9 Daredevil (2003)
New matchups next week!
Big thanks to Will Goss, Erik Davis, and Peter Hall for the technical stuff. And more thanks to Luke Mullen, Brian Salisbury, and John Gholson for helping me seed the full bracket of 64 films!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-28-2009 @ 12:27AM
Gholson said...
This is exciting!
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 12:36AM
William Goss said...
"You think that's exciting? Feel these nipples!"
7-28-2009 @ 1:01AM
steveo said...
It was much too easy for almost all the films to move forward. The only brackets that offered more than a milli-second pause to consider which to pick were Hulk/Daredevil and TMNT/Batman Forever.
Superman II vs. Blankman? Batman Begins vs. Crow: City of Angels?? Seriously???
Hope the next series has better match-ups. Let's see some brackets that get blood flowing in the comments!
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 3:37AM
Chet said...
That's the way seeding is supposed to work.
It wouldn't exactly be reasonable if Superman II went up against Batman Begins in the first round, knocking one of them out, while the likes of Crow: City of Angels moved ahead against weaker competition.
The final four should be the best four.
7-28-2009 @ 9:56AM
Fargus said...
Clearly you dont watch much sports. This is the first round of the tournament and you want the big boys to go head to head?
7-28-2009 @ 10:08AM
joe said...
chet speaks the truth
7-28-2009 @ 5:16PM
danmac said...
will smith is the man
has to be the brother
word
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 7:36AM
Michael Byng said...
I'm genuinely surprised Hulk is beating Daredevil.
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 10:33AM
ElevatorHappyFun said...
i assumed it was theatrical DD and not the unrated/extended.
i wish they would have clarified which version is going up...
7-28-2009 @ 8:26AM
Drewbacca said...
What about Howard the Duck?
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 8:30AM
Drewbacca said...
In all seriousness, the choices are pretty one-sided. For example, The Dark Knight Vs. The Spirit? (IE: The 2nd highest grossing movie of all time Vs. one of the biggest flops in 2008)
SERIOUSLY?
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 8:50AM
Erik Davis said...
Dude, it's the first round. In the first round, the last seed always goes up against the first. Dark Knight will have tougher competition as we move along, don't worry.
7-28-2009 @ 9:22AM
Kevin said...
This is pretty amazing. Two ridiculous comments about the seeding? Seriously? Have any of you ever heard of a "Tournament"? You seed the contenders so that the stronger competitors are rewarded with easier match ups at the start, but as the tournament goes on the competition gets stiffer and stiffer. I think people may not be reading the description, and are assuming that this is a one time deal. Otherwise I can't think of a way to explain these comments without getting pretty nasty.
7-28-2009 @ 8:29AM
Wexler said...
Come on TMNT, go all the way!
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 9:38AM
deheor said...
Good arrangement of flicks. I am a little surprised that the cheesy 'Batman' film is beating the underrated 'Phantom' but the rest seem to be going as expected.
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 9:47AM
Drewbacca said...
Erik & Kevin - Thanks for the explanations. (I'm actually not familiar with how tournaments work) ;-)
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 11:23AM
Jeremy said...
I know... I totally thought The Spirit would win that one! /sarcasm
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 1:16PM
E-Rock said...
Wow, some people are taking this way too seriously. Anyway, hopefully "Watchmen" or "Hellboy" will be thrown in this tournament somewhere down the line, oh, and the masterpiece that is "Steel".
Final Round:
Spider-Man 2 vs The Dark Knight
Reply
7-28-2009 @ 2:09PM
benbligh said...
Final Four: Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight...
The Incredibles?
7-28-2009 @ 2:07PM
benbligh said...
I want to see The Rocketeer go all the way!
But seriously, Hulk vs. Daredevil going to Hulk?? That film is unwatchable! Daredevil can at least be played in the background on mute. Can't say the same about Hulk, the film where no one even smiles.
Reply