The eerie parallel of Brandon Lee dying while shooting a film, like his famous father did, brought the film notoriety, but it could have done well on its own merits. Unlike most adaptations, many readers of the comic were pleased with the film, thanks to both Lee and writer/director Alex Proyas, who also did Dark City. The sequels to The Crow weren't as successful, because neither man was involved.

What looked like a really trashy, campy romp of gore and silliness turned out to be a well-made, exciting ride, again, due mostly to its star and director. Fans of the movie will tell you that this is among Snipes' best roles, which has a lot to do with the camera work of director Norrington, who also happens to be making Ghost Rider and the Alan Moore story "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

After over a decade of trying to get this film off the ground, it seems like everyone is happy with the final release. While I, for one, still would have loved to have seen Wes Bentley as the webhead, Maguire did an excellent job in the lead. And this is looking like a trend: give a lot of credit to director Sam Raimi, whose brilliance with a shot made almost every scene visceral. When James Cameron signed on to do this movie in the early 1990's, the villain he wanted to see most was Dr. Octopus, since CG had just matured through T2 -- let's hope he'll make an appearance soon.

Another project that took years to get going, the film accomplished the very difficult task of telling the group's origin, which dates back to the 1960's, in a modern setting. Most X-Men fans were afraid to see how terribly the franchise could be messed up, but a tight script, great visuals, and especially a great debut from Hugh Jackman made X-Men the best (yet) of the Marvel titles.

It's hard to remember how much fun the first Bats movie was, with the steaming pile of monkey dung that followed it. No, the second one wasn't that bad, but as soon as Joel Schumacher took the helm, the movies went to hell. Still, the first remains so good, because it was so dark. Inspired by Frank Miller's brilliant "The Dark Knight Returns", the movie made Michael Keaton believable as a tough guy. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that The Miller/Aronofsky project, "Batman: Year One" gets made!

More than any of the others, this was a film about the director's vision. On the heels of the smash that The Sixth Sense was, Shyamalan indulged in his love of comic books, and produced the best superhero movie in 22 years. The casting was perfect, and the story is the best vicarious superpower living you'll find on the screen. Perhaps more than any of the others, Unbreakable is begging for a sequel, that the makers say will never happen