Unbreakable (2000)

Genre: Thrillers, Superhero Films

Cast: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A brilliant original superhero origin movie from director M. Night Shyamalan during his prime years.  This movie was released right after "The Sixth Sense" became a monster hit. I liked this movie better than the other one though. It's a shame that this one didn't make as much in profits as the previous one due to poor marketing efforts.

It's about a superhero who doesn't know he is one. Bruce Willis plays the unbreakable guy- he cannot be hurt by anything. He survives during a train crash that kills every other passengers, but he thinks that he was just lucky to have survived till he meets Samuel Jackson who has a condition totally opposite- his bones are too fragile that it breaks often.

What I liked- The original plot and the acting of both the main characters. It had all the suspense initially and is believable.

Dislikes - As any other Shyamalan movie, this movie was slow but it had of course enough suspense and build up that i could sit through it.

Iron Man (2008)

Genre: Action, Superhero Films

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. , Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow,
          Terrence Howard

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

One of my favorite superhero movies. Everything seems to have worked well with this movie. But, a special mention should go to Robert Downey Jr. for making an arrogant and an egoistic character downright likeable. Even if he has gone a little overboard, his character would have attracted hatred. If you look at any other superhero movie, the lead character has some sort of a problem. For Batman, he sees his parents get killed in front of his eyes during his childhood, Spidey feels responsible for his uncle's death and Superman- well, he just doesn't belong to this world.Whereas, Tony Stark aka Iron man is a billionaire, genius, playboy and even his ladylove seems to be okay with him fooling around with other ladies and he has all he wants at his disposal. So, any moviemaker would have a problem making a character who does not connect with normal people or without any major problem as a hero. But luckily for Jon Favreau the director, he has got Downey. I just cannot imagine anyone else portraying Iron man other than Downey.

Tony Stark, who owns Stark Industries that produces weapons for U.S. military visits U.S. troops in Afghanistan for a presentation of his latest missile and gets captured by a terrorist group with severe injuries. A fellow prisoner builds an electromagnet that keeps him alive from the pieces piercing his heart. They secretly build an iron suit powered by an arc reactor and Tony escapes from the group with the help of it and returns to the troops and gets back to US but his inmate gets killed. Tony, having seen his company's weapons at the terrorists announces that he is shutting down the company but is stopped by his partner.

He secretly improves his iron suit at his house and fights against the terrorist group without revealing his identity. However, his partner who has been supplying the arms to the group comes to know about the suit and wants one for him. The rest of the movie is about how Tony succeeds against his partner and whether he reveals his identity to the public. What seems like a serious plot has its funny moments and is enjoyable by everyone.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Genre: Action, Action Comedies, Superhero Films

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz- Plasse

My Rating- 4 out of 5 stars

If you thought "Batman" is a realistic superhero who doesn't fly or spin a web or possess any supernatural powers except for gadgets, watch "Kick-Ass".

The hero is a regular teenager who gets inspired by the comic books and sets out to become a superhero by just wearing a masked bodysuit without any superpowers or skills. But of course, he learns it the hard way that it is not easy to become a superhero by getting beat up. But, he doesn't give up and goes on with it. He later comes to know that he is not alone and that there are others like "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and "Hit-Girl" who don the superhero suits and use cool gadgets to fight crime. He soon becomes a target of a mob boss for having intervened in his business.

This movie is also funny except for its portrayal of violence and gunfights. It is R-rated becasue of this compared to the other superhero movies which are mostly PG-13.