If you’re holding out for a (super) hero, then you are in luck. Today is National Superhero Day – a totally not made-up event that celebrates “real heroes” and also the fictional kind who leap buildings in a single bound and never leave the house without their trusty cape.
But while some superhero films are a spectacular reminder of the magic of cinema, the genre has seen its share of turbo-charged turkeys, too. Grab on to your spandex as I bring you the sheer box-office kryptonite that are the worst superhero movies ever.
12. Superman (2025)
This was a cartoonish and twee take on Superman (Photo: Warner Bros/PA)
James Gunn’s heart was in the right place as he began his much-anticipated reboot of the troubled DC Comics cinematic universe by directing a long-awaited new Superman movie. Gunn set out to restore Superman’s image as a chisel-jawed good guy who reflects the best in humanity. In other words, the precise opposite of the emo alien with pecs of steel as played by a frowning Henry Cavill during Zack Snyder’s years running the DCU.
Sadly, he errs too far in the opposite direction with a cartoonish and twee take on Superman, who at one stage breaks off from a climactic battle to rescue a squirrel. Further marks are deducted for the thumping lack of chemistry between new Man of Steel David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane.
11. Batman Forever
‘Batman Forever’ is bludgeoningly boring (Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment)
They could have called it Batman, Whatever, so dreary is Joel Schumacher’s take on the brooding anti-hero. In a well-intentioned attempt to reverse course following Tim Burton’s bonkers Batman Returns (complete with penguins firing rocket launchers), Schumacher tries to conjure the camp “gee-whiz” Batman of the 60s. He even gives us Chris O’Donnell’s Robin as a foil to the frowning Val Kilmer, Dark Knight.
But Schumacher has no passion for the material – and while he would later hand George Clooney the worst role of his career by casting him as Batman in Batman & Robin, that film was at least uproariously awful. Batman Forever, by contrast, is merely bludgeoningly boring – despite the best efforts of Jim Carrey as an over-the-top Riddler.
10. The Amazing Spider-Man
Garfield said he felt ‘too old’ to play Spider-Man (Photo: Sony)
During his audition to replace Tobey Maguire as cinema’s friendly neighbourhood teenage superhero, Andrew Garfield felt far too geriatric for the part. “I felt I was too old,” Garfield would recall. “I was like, ‘I am 25 or 26 and playing a high schooler.’” He bagged the job, but his instincts were correct. A great actor when cast in the right role, as Spider-Man, he lacks the impish energy that is a defining quality of the character.
As a result, his first foray as Spidey ricochets between the intensity that is Garfield’s default on screen and a try-too-hard cheeriness clearly not natural to the actor.
9. Eternals
‘Eternals’ was directed by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (Photo: Sophie Mutevelian/Marvel Studios via AP)
Chloé Zhao is one of the great chroniclers of loneliness and angst in modern cinema – as underlined by the Oscar-winning turn she coaxed from Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare’s grieving wife in Hamnet. But her arthouse instincts are a terrible fit for a Marvel film that introduces half a dozen new heroes while trying to breathe new life into a franchise that had already peaked with the Avengers saga.
8. Watchmen
‘Watchmen’ is both slow and hard to follow (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
Zack Snyder’s DC movies have all the subtlety of an articulated lorry reversing into a portaloo. But the signs were already there with his thunderously drab pre-DC adaptation of Alan Moore’s cult comic book about a league of cynical, amoral superheroes. All of Snyder’s weaknesses are on show in a project that is both plodding yet hard to follow, with a cast visibly confused as to the tone they are supposed to strike. That said, the fault is not Snyder’s alone. The graphic novel itself isn’t half as taboo-shattering as it thinks.
7. Justice League: The Snyder Cut
Zac Snyder’s version was released after an online campaign (Photo: HBO Max via AP)
If Watchmen represents rock bottom for Snyder, the four-hour director’s cut of Justice League is where the director disappears into the earth’s crust. He had exited the original Justice League early due to a death in his family. In a panic, DC owners Warner Bros parachuted in quip-master supreme Joss Whedon, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with orders to punch up Snyder’s Wagnerian script with zany banter.
Years later, an online campaign by Snyder mega-fans convinced Warner to release Snyder’s humourless original. Bleak, boring and barkers, the 240-minute slog is a reminder that sometimes Hollywood studios do, in fact, know best and that the original was revamped for a reason.
6. The Crow
This remake isn’t a patch on the 1994 original (Photo: Larry Horricks/Lionsgate via AP)
The original 1994 Crow is one of the greatest superhero films ever – though it is overshadowed by the on-set tragic shooting accident that claimed the life of its star, Brandon Lee. The 2024 remake replaces Lee with a scowling, tattooed Bill Skarsgård, who seems to think he is playing a cross between comedian Pete Davidson and late rapper Mac Miller. Even worse is pop star FKA Twigs, whose turn as the Crow’s doomed love interest is as wooden as her stage name.
5. Spawn
‘Spawn’ is a cobbled-together film (Photo: IMDB)
When Todd McFarlane walked away from Marvel Comics to go independent with his devilish anti-hero Spawn in the early 90s, he was striking a historic blow on behalf of the independent comic scene. Sadly, the 1997 adaptation of the strip failed to live up to that promise – though it earns bonus points as a rare superhero movie from that period with a non-white protagonist (played by former martial arts champion Michael Jai White).
This cobbled-together film featured a charmless turn by John Leguizamo as a flatulent demon-clown and computer FX that were hopeless even by 90s standards. “Ugly, fun-free, not full of laughs” was the response – and that was just McFarlane, understandably upset at the humiliations heaped upon his creation.
4. Catwoman
Halle Berry’s stab at being a superhero is atrocious (Photo: Doane Gregory/Warner Bros)
Some terrible films are awful in a dull, forgettable way; others live up to the cliché of so bad, they are good. Then there is Catwoman, Halle Berry’s stab at superhero stardom that is so atrocious it makes the viewer fear for both their sanity and Berry’s. Bizarre shifts in tone mean Catwoman is difficult to sit through on a minute-by-minute basis. One moment it’s zany, the next doomy and portentous. Then there is the headache-inducing editing – as demonstrated in the notorious scene in which Catwoman plays basketball and which features more fast cuts than a butchers on Christmas Eve.
3. Suicide Squad
Suicide Squad is close to unwatchable (Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment/Ratpac-Dune Entertainment)
Much of the bad publicity around the atrocious Suicide Squad has centred on allegations of Jared Leto’s unsettling on-set behaviour – such as posting prophylactics and dead rats to cast members. Leto aside, however, this confused film is close to unwatchable. Much of the story has obviously been excised from the cutting room floor, Will Smith is miscast as anti-hero Deadshot, and no words can describe how dire Cara Delevingne is as amoral magic-user Enchantress.
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The third Ant-Man film pushed the MCU over the edge (Photo: Disney/Marvel Studios via AP)
The mighty Marvel Universe had been teetering for some time – but it took the spectacularly atrocious third Ant-Man to push it over the edge. Rushed special effects – unfinished the night of the premiere in Los Angeles – were evidence of how much Marvel had overextended itself. Tonally, it is all over the place, too, with Paul Rudd trying to replicate his wry turn in a gloopy CGI onslaught, while Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer are simply wasted as Ant-Man’s veteran mentors. This was so bad that one of its stars, Evangeline Lilly, announced a step back from acting soon afterwards.
1. Daredevil
Ben Affleck is wildly miscast (Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
Ben Affleck is an Oscar winner and a staple of the gossip mags. He’s even graced the occasional decent film. However, when he is in a bad movie, he can be counted on to amplify the awfulness with his sheer lack of awareness of the disaster unfolding all around. That was never truer than in the case of the pre-Batfleck tilt at superhero stardom that was Daredevil.
Wildly miscast as the titular, tortured lawyer and crime fighter, he stomps through the fray as if he’s just discovered a sharp object in his shoe but doesn’t have time to remove it. Oddly, the most glaring flaw is the lack of on-screen chemistry with co-star Jennifer Garner (Elektra), whom he would later marry and divorce.