Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung into theaters in December of 2018 and immediately captivated audiences with its revolutionary take on the beloved superhero genre and breathtaking animation style. Directed by the talented trio of Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, and Bob Persichetti, this animated masterpiece defied conventions and soared to unprecedented heights.

The film successfully introduces the concept of the multiverse and seamlessly weaves together the stories of various Spider-People from different dimensions. At its core, the film follows the journey of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a teenager grappling with newfound powers in the wake of the death of his universe’s Spider-Man. His world is spun even more out of control as he meets alternate universe heroes that make him question if he is ready for his new responsibilities.

Accolades poured in for the film, with the crowning achievement being the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This recognition affirmed not only the technical brilliance of the animation but also the emotional depth and storytelling prowess that elevated Into the Spider-Verse beyond the status of a mere superhero film.

As first time viewers delve into the intricate web of dimensions and the extraordinary journey of Miles, it becomes clear that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is more than a cinematic experience – it’s a groundbreaking achievement that redefined expectations for animated storytelling in the West and left an indelible mark on the superhero genre.

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we are highlighting the 10 best moments from the film that define why Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse continues to enthral audiences, and we will explore its legacy as one of the best comic book movies of all time.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

10. Welcome to the Spider-Verse

This is how you start a movie.

The rising intensity of the opening music. The glitching of the studio logos. The flashes of graffiti. Then blam: the intro fully kicks in and we are treated to the visual feast that is this movie. An explosion of colours and funky graphics inform us that Into the Spider-Verse is unlike any other comic book movie in that it is unashamed of its genre.

Following this is the opening monologue from Peter Parker (don’t get too attached), beginning the recurring “Alright, let’s do this one last time” gag. Peter, voiced by Chris Pine, gives a brief rundown of things most audiences will already know, narrating his life and the responsibilities that come with being Spider-Man. Yes, we’re technically seeing another screen Spider-Man origin story, but the writers make this one concise and fresh. This self-awareness lends itself nicely to some humorous moments, such as detailing the smaller Spider-Man duties, like having his own cereal or recording a Christmas album. 

Furthermore, there are plenty of references to Spider-Man in pop culture for fans to feast on. Did anyone expect them to reference the abominable Spider-Man popsicle? The animators even draw comparison to other Spidey iterations on screen, like the upside down kiss, the train scene in Spider-Man 2, and the legendary dance scene from Spider-Man 3.

It is the film’s thesis statement: funny, fast-paced and visually spectacular. The perfect introduction to one of the most unique comic book movies. Simultaneously, these opening 2 minutes are a celebration of all things Spider-Man, and a reminder why the iconic hero has endured for so long on page, on screen, and in wider popular culture.

Recommended for you: 10 Best Moments from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy

9. Meet Miles

A film is arguably only as good as its characters, and a film filled with fantastical Spider-people could have a hard time making its protagonist stand out. Within seconds of meeting Miles Morales, its clear audiences have a beloved hero to root for.

The first time we see Miles, he is caught up in his passions: artwork and music. His singing is gradually drowned out by his parents calling his name. He is pulled out of his daydream and into an all too relatable scenario – a teenager late for school. 

This quickly transitions to a high-energy montage showcasing Miles’ daily life, complete with the vibrant backdrop of Brooklyn. We are immersed in the sights and sounds of Miles’ world as they see a new side to him. As he walks through his neighbourhood, he is cool and approachable. His effortless charm makes him instantly likable. The dynamic animation, coupled with a hip-hop soundtrack, creates a sense of kinetic energy that mirrors the pulse of Miles’ urban environment. As Miles parades through the streets, leaving stickers of his artwork, he trips and is caught by his dad, a police officer. We are reminded that, despite his coolness, he’s still an awkward kid. These relatable struggles form the necessary strong connections between Miles and each of us.

These first moments with Miles do more for the film’s central character than a lot of comic book movies manage to do in their entire runtime. Miles’ humour and occasional awkwardness make him endearing. He embodies the youthful enthusiasm and idealism associated with adolescence, making him a perfect vessel for audiences diving into this larger than life story.

Movies discussed include The Godfather, Seven Samurai, Blade Runner, The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Pan’s Labyrinth, and many, many more.

The goal of our top 10 lists here at The Film Magazine was to help showcase our team’s personalities and spotlight movies that are important to film history and ourselves. Everyone’s lists are worth a read, as the different approaches, perspectives, and personal histories brought something unique that other writers had not seen before.

As Kieran noted in his list, these are not necessarily favorite films, though there is some crossover. Jacob’s list aims to cover Western film history from the silent era through 2016, the latest entry on his list. Kieran’s approach was to showcase “the peak of cinematic mastery,” and controversially includes a film trilogy as one entry (a fun topic of debate amongst the hosts). Sam’s list spans genre and history to find the films that impacted him the most throughout his life. Since there are 30 different films discussed, this episode is a bit longer than usual, and is the first of the new livestream episode format. Each approach yielded a list unique to the podcast, and we are proud to present the Second Cut episode on the Top 10 Best Films of All Time.

The Film Magazine’s Team page, with links to everyone’s Top 10 lists in their bio!

Jacob Davis: Jacob’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

Kieran Judge: Kieran’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

Sam Sewell-Peterson: Sam’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

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Join us for our next episode, where we go back to our roots and discuss famous film flops! Because who doesn’t love a box office bomb with a fun story? Elizabeth Taylor’s old Hollywood epic Cleopatra, the Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli musical New York, New York, and the Michael Cimino western Heaven’s Gate will all make an appearance.

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For requests, suggestions, and feedback, email the hosts at secondcutpod@gmail.com.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @poor_and_clean

10. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Starring the incredible Aubrey Plaza, and loveable goofs Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson, Safety Not Guaranteed is a heart-warming time travel jape. While it has big names attached – including director Colin Trevorrow, who went on to steer the wheel of the Jurassic World franchise, it has a real indie charm.

It begins with an intriguing want-ad in a local Washington newspaper. Jeff (Jake Johnson), a journalist at a different paper, assembles a motley crew to investigate. While everything is set up for us to believe Kenneth (Mark Duplass) is a weirdo, and delusional at the very least, he isn’t and the film’s beauty lies in how deftly it draws the viewer to his side.

It has heart, humour and Jake Johnson. I’m not sure you need much else in a film.

9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

As a rule, I don’t do superheroes. DC, Marvel, I don’t really care, they’re all the same, aren’t they?

I grew up in a strange era where Val Kilmer was Batman and Lois Lane was a Desperate Housewife and the genre just never really hooked me. Then along came Miles Morales and I fell hard. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a visually stunning and standout offering in (what I and seemingly I alone feel is) a saturated market.

The Spider-verse animation is just incredible – unusual and unique. The film is brimming with detail and flashes of brilliance. I could watch it 100 times (100 more times) and notice something new with each viewing. The characters are larger than life yet somehow completely grounded and believable, and who knew the match up of Nicholas Cage and John Mulaney is what we needed in our lives? The soundtrack is perfect and the message behind it is so important.

The first time my kid saw it, she said, ‘oh so I could be spiderman’ and for that reason alone it deserves a mention in my Best Films of All Time.

Recommended for you: Spider-Man Movies Ranked

Film gets me where I live like little else and has done ever since I was a teenager. It’s almost impossible to pick just 10 films to stand in for over a century of my favourite form of artistic expression, so what follows are a combination of groundbreaking, ageless films and the most personally impactful cinematic works for me, today. 

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @SSPThinksFilm

10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

This one’s a twofer. I love animation and I love superhero movies, and Spider-Verse is one of the finest examples of both to release in the last decade.

After being bitten by a radioactive spider, awkward teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is thrust into inter-dimensional superherodom when his universe’s Spider-Man is killed in action. Miles must overcome self-doubt and team up with the many very different spider-people from other realities to stop his, and all other worlds, from being destroyed. 

Animation is cinema, it has the potential to visualise anything you can imagine, and while I could have picked any number of films from Studio Ghibli, Laika, Disney or Pixar, nothing else was as revolutionary and influential to the medium’s aesthetic than Sony Picture Animation’s Spider-Verse in recent years. This didn’t look or feel quite like anything else, a living comic book packed with pleasing details and gags referring back to print mediums and constant movement and dynamism. 

Few adaptations of popular characters manage to sum up their very essence with a single perfect phrase, but this film distils it all with “anybody can wear the mask”. So many superhero movies get the basics fundamentally wrong, but this gets it just so right – Spider-Man has always had incredible powers but struggled to balance his superhero responsibilities with everyday ones, and the same goes if you’re a dual heritage teenager, a cartoon pig or a black-and-white detective voiced by Nicolas Cage.

Recommended for you: Spider-Man Movies Ranked

9. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The titanic cultural influence of the MGM fantasy musical The Wizard of Oz is often criminally overlooked. Musicals speak to me as a form of extroverted expression I could never hope to take part in myself, but Oz also stands for the whole fantasy genre.

This rough adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s fantasy novel follows young Dorothy Gale (instant star Judy Garland), a Kansas dreamer who is swept away to the magical land of Oz by a tornado where she is persecuted by the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton, still terrifying) as she quests to find her way home.

It wasn’t just the way film musicals were staged for decades it inspired, either. Next time you watch Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy and see the orc armies marching past the gates of Mordor, think about how similar the blocking and the aesthetic is to the patrols outside the Wicked Witch’s castle.  Speaking of the Wicked Witch, you know the classic green-skinned, warty-nosed, pointy-chinned default look for such characters at Halloween? That comes from this film as well. And Margaret Hamilton’s all-timer of a baddie performance in contrast to the uncomplicated good of Dorothy and her companions is still one to behold. 

The “it was all a dream, or was it?” story structure is clichéd now, but this helped start it all. Startling Technicolor fantasy is kept entirely separate from sepia reality (the moment one world becomes the other still takes your breath away), but there is always that playful, winking final scene for you to hope that Dorothy perhaps has further adventures on her horizon. 

Though at times critically divisive, Sony Pictures Animation’s films have regularly been box office hits, and can even claim to be Oscar-winning, 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earning the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2019.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are re-evaluating every Sony Pictures Animation feature release, judging each based on their qualities as individual pieces of art, places in our wider pop culture, their impact on animated film, and their popular appeal. These are the Sony Pictures Animation Movies Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

24. The Emoji Movie (2017)

Budget: $50million
Worldwide Box Office: $217.8million
Starring: T.J. Miller, James Corden, Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph, Anna Faris, Sofia Vergara, Christina Aguilera

Bland and uninspired, Sony Pictures Animation reached the bottom of the barrel with their 2017 shallow trend-following adAPPtation The Emoji Movie, and were rightly given the critical boot.

The height of emoji-culture was already over by the time this film came out. And, despite a great and varied voice cast, the contents of The Emoji Movie were so insipid that it even lacked that all-too-familiar quality: being so bad it’s good.

The Emoji Movie Review

23. Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

The fourth instalment in the widely popular box office franchise Hotel Transylvania wasn’t up to the standards of the previous three films, and perhaps that’s why it ended up going directly to Amazon Prime Video rather than finding a home on the big screen.

Transformania was, effectively, the Sony Pictures Animation equivalent of the straight-to-video releases Disney’s B-Team animation house used to produce in the 1990s: all the logos and designs of the widely successful thing we liked, only made for a fraction of the cost and thus featuring a fraction of the detail.

Dracula himself, Adam Sandler, didn’t even return to his leading role for this one (they replaced him with a voice-alike), which says it all.

Recommended for you: Blue Sky Studios Animated Movies Ranked

22. The Smurfs (2011)

Budget: $110million
Worldwide Box Office: $563.8million
Starring: Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, Anton Yelchin

Often, you’ll read that poor animated films “aimed too young”, and that is certainly a criticism to be levied at this ill-conceived studio animation adaptation of the popular 1980s Smurfs cartoon.

The Smurfs (2011) committed the cardinal sin of rewriting the lore of its universe, and perhaps worse seemed absent of all that made the original cartoon so beloved: witty comedy, educational messages regarding community, and heart.

At least this particular franchise got better from here on out.

Recommended for you: Warner Animation Group Movies Ranked

21. The Smurfs 2 (2013)

Budget: $105million
Worldwide Box Office: $347.5million
Starring: Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, Jayma Mays, Anton Yelchin

It’s not good, but it did at least patch up some of the issues of the original The Smurfs movie, albeit through reverting to the most simplistic and derivative of creative choices.

The Smurfs 2 was a film Sony Pictures Animation seemed to stuff with as many things as possible in the hope that at least some of them might land, and yet it never quite got to shake the image of being a plasticised, cheap and uncaring knock-off of a once better intellectual property.

Sony’s Spider-Man (2002) is unquestionably one of the forefathers of superhero cinema as we know and love it to be, and Sony’s further Spider-focused films (plus several major spin-offs) are some of the most popular and influential blockbusters of the 21st century.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are counting down each Spider-Man Universe feature-length theatrical release from worst to best, judging each inclusion by its own artistic merits, critical reception, and importance to its genre and cinema as a whole.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

13. Morbius (2022)

Morbius Review

Very little was expected of Sony’s Spider-villain-verse entry Morbius when it was revealed to be hitting our screens in 2020, but when it finally arrived after mass delays the low bar for “acceptable” superhero/villain cinema was… barely met.

Jared Leto worked hard to carve someone interesting out of a character with little by way of development, and the pacing was rapid (which is particularly impressive as a lesser Spider-Man entry), but Morbius ultimately felt like the best moments from other films thumb-tacked into a CGI mess that left said moments absent of meaning or purpose.

A lot seemed to happen in this 2022 film, yet very little gave us a reason to care for the characters, and the feature’s almost complete absence of threat only compounded this issue. It would be a stretch to claim that Morbius was trying to say anything about anything – it certainly wasn’t allegorical of past or present human issues like most vampire films, nor presenting a particularly obvious audience fantasy like other superhero movies – and it did little-to-nothing to make it look, sound or feel unique within its franchise.

Like Venom before it, Morbius was a film that seemed to be made for audiences of the mid-2000s, and yet unlike Venom it lacked all of the charisma needed to carry its more corny or less inspired moments. Even the post-credits’ mildly exciting previews of other films to come couldn’t save this one from the title of “worst Spider-Man movie”.

12. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was bad. The sad, grim reality is that this Marc Webb-directed film was so badly received critically and at the box office that Sony finally caved in and brought Marvel Studios back to the table, in effect admitting their own inadequacies as regards their treatment of the character and thus sacrificing some of their multi-million-dollar profits to rival studio Disney in an attempt to fix their mistakes.

The major issue with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is its woeful screenplay, written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci of Transformers, Star Trek and The Mummy (2017) fame. In this fifth live-action franchise entry, focus shifts from a sub-par, by-the-books plot surrounding Peter Parker (and particularly his on-and-off-again relationship) to the life of his hard-working Aunt May, the reason apparently being to ensure Sally Field got her share of the run-time, the amount of space given to prominent comic book characters elsewhere in the film sacrificed as a result, the run-time dragging on to a tiresome 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Despite featuring a stellar cast including star Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Felicity Jones and Paul Giamatti, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 features some of the most ridiculous cases of over-acting in the entire franchise, every highly paid professional seemingly acknowledging the standard of movie they were in even ahead of it being released. This, mixed with a woeful narrative, worse dialogue and a Spider-Man 3 level problem of filling up the movie with characters for an expected “Spider-verse”, make The Amazing Spider-Man 2 one of this beloved franchise’s certifiably lesser releases.

11. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

A considerable improvement on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the film that preceded it, The Amazing Spider-Man, a feature that made a new-look Spider-Man franchise feel viable once again; Marc Webb’s inexperienced but grounded take on the web-slinger being refreshing enough to earn the film a number of favourable reviews and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man a number of fans.

Inevitably, the creative decision to just re-do the Peter Parker Spider-Man origin story we’d seen just 10 years prior (that’s like seeing Iron Man rebooted in 2018…) was not the smartest idea, and even though director Marc Webb and company managed to effectively avoid revisiting a lot of the tropes established in Sam Raimi’s franchise, the dye was cast for what would come to be diminishing returns for the series.

A more sarcastic, some would say millennial, take on Peter Parker was the film’s shining beacon, but the studio’s obvious hesitation to try anything entirely new was evident, this 2012 release feeling every bit as much of a part of the preceding decade as its Sam Raimi-directed brethren, only with less charm and less to offer in terms of visual awe, unique scenarios and social commentary.

The Amazing Spider-Man makes for a good, although mostly irrelevant, watch; one that does just enough to keep you engaged but never once takes a stride towards creating something special.

The Spider-Man franchise has gone through more reboots than any other comic book character since Sam Raimi first brought him to the big screen in 2002. Over that time, whoever currently fills out the spandex has faced a variety of crazed scientists, criminals and rivals brought up to Spider-Man’s level by advanced technology, superpower-bestowing industrial accidents and cunning exploitation of the hero’s secret identity.

4 iterations of Spider-Man, 10 movies, many bad guys to fight, but which were the biggest threat to him and his nearest and dearest? A web of spoilers lies ahead in this edition of Ranked from The Film Magazine: Feature Film Spider-Man Villains Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

16. Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

“I am the Rhino! I told you I’d be back!”

A Russian mobster embarrassingly foiled by Spider-Man during a heist involving an armoured truck and a lot of plutonium, Aleksei is only too happy to don a rhinoceros-shaped mech suit (like you do) gifted by Oscorp’s Special Projects division to get his own back.

Aleksei is small-time, a wannabe tough gangster shown to be humiliatingly inept in his two fights against Spidey that bookend The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The usually-excellent Paul Giamatti is outshone by his forehead tattoo and is reduced to shouting in an outrageous accent straight out of a terrible Cold War action movie as he is webbed up and pantsed in his civilian clothes and then defeated in freeze-frame in his stupid robot rhino form.

15. Harry Osborn / Green Goblin – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

“You don’t give people hope, you take it away. I’m gonna take away yours.”

Peter Parker’s childhood friend returns to New York to say goodbye to his terminally ill father and discovers he carries the same genetic blood disease that makes you grow talons and turn green. Harry discovers that Spider-Man’s altered blood may somehow offer a cure but, when the hero refuses him, he takes an untested spider venom formula that warps his body and mind, leading him to take vengeance against the Wall-Crawler.

We’re told rather than shown that Peter and Harry have a history here and expected to buy Dane DeHaan’s twitchy take on the character’s rapid physical, mental and moral decline simply because we know a Green Goblin has got to show up in this Spider-Man universe some time, somehow.

In the race to set up a Sinister Six spin-off movie that never happened, all of Harry’s characterisation seems to have been excised so we’re left with a petty arch-nemesis who meets the Webslinger precisely twice and decides to kill his girlfriend on a whim because it took him a ridiculously long time to remember his company had made a battle suit with a bodily repair function and only used it after he’d already taken the uglifying spider-formula.

14. Eddie Brock / Venom – Spider-Man 3 (2007)

“Oh! My spider-sense is tingling… if you know what I’m talking about!”

A shady and arrogant photographer and rival to Peter Parker at the Daily Bugle who gets taken over by an alien symbiote and plans to take revenge on Parker for the part he played in Brock losing his job.

Before Tom Hardy took the role down the schizophrenic antihero route, Topher Grace brought a very different version of Eddie Brock to life. First he’s just a jerk competing with Peter for a staff photographer job before his faked photos get him blacklisted. Then, coincidence of coincidences, he goes to pray at the same cathedral where Peter is trying to separate himself from the personality-altering symbiote in the bell tower above. The symbiote jumps to Eddie and he immediately goes all the way bad and hatches a plan to make Peter/Spider-Man suffer.

Very obviously a late addition to Spider-Man 3’s plot by a reluctant Sam Raimi, Venom is only really in the film for the final action scene and is a very simplistic, weirdly camp take on the character who fails to leave any real impression.

Recommended for you: 10 Best Moments from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy

What follows in this edition of Ranked is The Film Magazine’s ranking from worst to best of every Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, analysing the merits of each in terms of artistic achievement, importance to the medium, societal relevance and lasting impression, plus a few mentions of the braver animated efforts from each year that for various reasons missed out on the big prize. These are the Best Animated Feature Oscar Winners Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

21. Happy Feet (2006)

A tone-deaf juvenile penguin discovers he has a very different talent to the rest of his musical colony: he’s really gifted at tap-dancing.

Amazingly George Miller, the man behind every Mad Max movie and the screenplay for Babe also directed this bouncy Antarctic jukebox musical. It’s all very detailed and visually appealing, having more in common with actual nature documentaries than most other animated films, but the story is pretty first-base and the songs are a real mixed bag. 

20. Toy Story 4 (2019)

Toy Story 4 Review

Woody, Buzz and the gang leave their new home to go on a road trip in order to help handmade toy Forky get over his identity crisis.

There aren’t many fourth movies in a franchise of higher quality, but Toy Story 4 had the misfortune of being compared to the near-perfect trilogy that preceded it. How and why would you try and follow that? But follow it they did, and it’s a decent effort with good (sometimes surprisingly dark) gags and all the usual heart you’ve come to expect from this series. 

19. Shrek (2001)

A solitary ogre and a tag-along talking donkey reluctantly go on a quest to rescue a princess in exchange for Shrek being left in peace in his swamp.

Shrek receives a lot of flak for moving animation away from the magical escapism of Disney to the more polished, snarky fare that dominates today, but it was absolutely revolutionary in its way. Every fantasy parody from the past two decades has borrowed something from its unique selling point and each of its characters, and it must be praised for its earnest message of self-acceptance (before it was recycled for the sequels) and its witty visuals (which still hold up). 

18. Brave (2012)

A Scottish princess shames her clan by breaking with marriage traditions and goes to a witch for a spell to change her fate, catastrophically changing the lives of her loved ones in the process.

One of Pixar’s less successful films still has a winning protagonist in Merida (sparkily voiced by Kelly Macdonald) and a refreshing (and far too unusually explored) dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship at its heart. The actual story structure is conventional and wobbles perilously close to a Disney Renaissance re-tread, but it’s still an emotionally honest and lively affair. 

Three stop-motion animated features, Laika’s Paranorman, Tim Burton’s Frankeneenie and Aardman’s The Pirates! were passed over in favour of Pixar this year.

Recommended for you: Disney Renaissance Movies Ranked

Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers and more have become the new Hollywood A-List, and the movies of Marvel, DC and so on, have proven to be greatly influential when it comes to the direction of Hollywood itself. Their importance is unquestioned, their power and dominance unrivalled; but what are the films that brought us here? Which comic book movies have been the most important in establishing the genre, shaping it, moulding it?

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we offer the 10 Most Important Comic Book Movies Ever. These films have been judged with regard to their importance to the landscape in which they were released, their lasting influence, and their roles in bringing about change and revolution to both the comic book genre and, further, cinema itself.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

1. Superman (1978)

There were superhero films released before Superman in 1978, but besides the TV movie Batman (1966) there was little by way of memorable fare or major productions. Richard Donner’s big budget studio-driven offering changed all that.

By 1978 Superman was already a cornerstone of American culture, a poster boy for the best of the best and the values we should all strive to uphold. He was America’s unproblematic hero in a time of great division, heightened paranoia, and conspiracy come to life. Warner Bros put an astonishing $55million behind bringing him to the big screen, which in relation to modern day $200-300million movies may not seem like a lot but in context to releases of the time was an astronomical amount: just a few years earlier The Godfather had been made for $6million, Jaws for $9million, and Star Wars for $11million; even 80s hits like E.T., Indiana Jones and Back to the Future were made for under $20million. But Superman embodied society’s need for escapism and, as such, the budget seemed well spent. Superman birthed the modern superhero’s position at the top of the box office, crowning its run with close to $300million in box office receipts at a time of great financial destitution, but perhaps most importantly it reminded the world that Hollywood could still offer the best form of fantastical escapism, the burgeoning television market left in the dust.

Clean cut, better-than-good heroes have rarely been so exceptional, and the superhero genre would not be what it is without Donner and star Christopher Reeve in particular. The themes, tropes and expectations founded in their work have since proven to be the backbone of every film on this list.

Recommended for you: Superman Movies Ranked

2. Blade (1998)

A studio actioner led by an African American was important even before the mainstream conversation caught up, and Blade was probably the first non-Batman comic book adaptation to look and feel like the superhero juggernauts to come.

Without Blade we would not have got the next film on this list, nor many of the comic book films released in the 2000s. Wesley Snipes’ vampire hunter was brought to life in a sub-par era headlined by Steel and Judge Dredd, and yet it burst through the narrow expectations set by other films in the genre to become something altogether more memorable. It was, in the midst of the late 90s’ boom of youth culture, embraced as the antithesis of the campy, family-orientated, (mostly) cheap movies that had made up the comic book adaptations of the decade, its R rating (18 in the UK) giving it an edge that the rebellious teens of Generation X ate up as readily as their hardcore wrestling and Nu metal. Blade all-but saved superhero cinema after its brief Batman bubble was brutally burst by Joel Schumacher and Warner Bros in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and set a new template for what comic book adaptations could be. The rest is history.

The proof of Blade’s importance as an early comic book film comes via this one simple fact: before Blade, Marvel had only ever allowed one of their properties to be adapted for film and released in cinemas, the box office dud Howard the Duck – after Blade, they partnered with studios on eighteen different releases in the next ten years, two Blade sequels included. This 1998 film was revolutionary for comic book IP licensing and thus the future of the blockbuster landscape, and Wesley Snipes’ on-screen presence helped to legitimise the comic book film adaptation as a concept whilst reinforcing the importance of representation on screen.

Clearly Lydia is wise beyond her years.

Film as an art form has long been dictated by a ruling class of middle aged to old white men, so we here at The Film Magazine thought that we would turn the homogeneity of this critics circle on its head by instead asking a mixed race, dual-nationality little girl what the best movies of all time are. Needless to say, Lydia’s tastes are eclectic.

If you have ever wondered what cinema is to a girl born in the year 2011, make sure to strap in for this exclusive Movie List of the best films of all time according to someone whose favourite daily activities include learning dance moves from YouTube, listening to child pop sensation JoJo and playing Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Switch.

These are the 10 Best Films of All Time (According to a 9 Year Old Girl).

Make sure to follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with more lists like this one.

10. The Muppets: Most Wanted (2014)

Though admittedly a little confused as to which Kermit is which (a drawn-on mole and slight change in accent really isn’t clear enough when you’re getting overwhelmed with excitement every few minutes), The Muppets: Most Wanted is a personal favourite of Lydia’s. “I’ll give you what you want” is usually the quote of choice, and the wall scene in the Russian Gulag is the moment that brings about the biggest laughs.

To adults, this iteration of The Muppets is a little gimmicky and not as original as a lot of the group’s other work, but this nine year old finds it hilarious.

9. Moana (2016)

Like just about any child born from 1930 onwards, Walt Disney Animation has had a profound effect on Lydia’s experience of film. One of her first great loves was Moana, the beautifully animated 2016 animation starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

As you may expect, Lydia went all-in on her fandom, asking Santa Claus for the toys at Christmas and pleading with her Mum for the Moana dress from the Disney Store. She even told people that Maui was her brother, though only because they each shared “a big belly”.