Mark Millar isn’t just the creator of ‘Kick-Ass’ but was largely responsible for Marvel’s “Civil War” story arc and weighs in on many of the comic book films from 2016, needless to say, he wasn’t a fan of most of them. While ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ has been met with mixed reviews, overall critics and fans have enjoyed the film though Mark Millar clearly wasn’t one of these fans.
‘Civil War’ ended up in the portion of his Top 10 Movies of the year titled “Didn’t Really Dig” and explains why:
Civil War had a good opening twenty mins, but then I honestly can’t remember what the movie was about. It’s interesting the Russos have a background in comedy because it’s really missing in these otherwise well-made pictures and very, very missed. I really hope this bleakness doesn’t extend into their two Avengers pictures because what made that first Avengers work was the light as well as shade and I’ll be sad if that’s all lost like it was in this picture.
That being said, Millar wasn’t down on all Marvel Studios as ‘Doctor Strange‘ took the final spot in his Top 10 picks:
Just a nice, fun Marvel movie. The only comic-book flick to hit my top 10 this year, which feels weird, but the Marvel formula is a solid one and this was a nice hark back to before they went a little too dark and serious and had lots of nice jokes and asshole-learning-to-be-a-hero leads. Marvel’s genius is the casting and like Hemsworth and Downey Jr, Cumberbatch holds this movie together with his terrific presence. The American accent I think was a mistake in the same way giving Colin Firth a Kentucky accent would seem weird on film as it’s an actor we understand to be quintessentially English. But it’s a minor quibble and a nice film with a good third act (where Marvel’s origin movies in particular usually stumble a little).
Short of that he enjoyed both ‘Deadpool‘ and ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ though things went bad when he went into the DC films. He is a DC guy over a Marvel guy so it clearly pains him that DC has gone so dark with their films:
Batman Vs Superman I think we should just leave alone. Like Suicide Squad, WB has just decided to go a certain way with these movies and their logic is that they don’t want to look like Marvel films. It’s not how I feel these characters work best and sadly my DC-obsessed kids (I’m a DC guy way more than I’m a Marvel guy) can’t see their favourite characters in the cinema. Their TV and animation departments are working beautifully. I’d love to see some of that same light applied to their theatrical division.
Only ‘Doctor Strange’ made his top 10 when it comes to comic films though he did have a rather well-rounded list, even if his opinions to ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ weren’t quite as high as mine.
Still, for such a large influence on comics and cinema, it is always interesting to hear Millar’s opinions on the genre and the entire top 10 makes for quite a fun and interesting read!
Source: Millar World.
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!