The Top 10 Superhero Films

6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Those of you who may be unaware of this brilliant film may think I'm including a direct-to-video movie here, but this beautifully animated film was actually released to theaters for a short while. Those who saw it were shocked to find a film that largely surpassed its live action contemporaries, despite being based on and set within the same continuity as the fantastic, Emmy-winning Batman: The Animated Series, and the filmmakers brought along that show’s high standards for this movie. The opening pan over Gotham City as Shirley Walker’s haunting score is enough to send chills down your spine. If you still haven't seen this film, then you are truly missing out. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both regretted not reviewing this movie in time to get the word out, and even said it rivaled the live action films as the best cinematic interpretation of the world’s greatest detective.

Long before Batman Begins valiantly took up the burden of psychoanalyzing the Dark Knight, Mask of the Phantasm set the high mark for cinematic Batman stories. By all means, this could've just ended up being a cheap cash-in riding on the popularity of the Tim Burton films, but, like the TV series, it's actually a far more mature and faithful portrayal than Burton managed to put out.

Kevin Conroy is iconic as the voice of a stern, serious Batman who actually does detective work alongside the butt kicking. The Phantasm is also a great original villain, a seemingly one-dimensional angel of death who is revealed to be a strong and disturbing parallel to Batman himself. Oddly, this animated film would remain the most mature superhero film released for quite some time, with Bryan Singer’s 2000 release, X-Men, being the next major film to come out of Hollywood that treated its subject matter with the same kind of reverence. One more thing must be said about his film: Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill makes for one memorably sadistic Joker!