I hate to do this, I truly do.  Unfortunately though folks, some super hero movies have fallen short of the fan's expectations.  They may have been written poorly, the acting may have been a bit rough or the subject matter may have simply not interested the folks that paid the price of admission.

Some were decent flicks that did pretty well with their box office numbers, but you wouldn't voluntarily choose to watch them again.  There are others that are so bad they have become fodder for jokes and ridicule.  The list that follows contains all of the above, and we think you will be able to tell which is which.

10. X-Men III: Last Stand

The X-Men movies all did very well at the box office, but that may have had more to do with Wolverine's fan following than the plot and the writing.  Of all the X-Men movies, this one went the farthest off the rails.  

Jean Grey rips Xavier to shreds with her mind, Angel makes an appearance for no apparent reason and there are more unknown, unnamed mutants running around on the screen than anyone can possibly keep up with.  The president of the United States decides to commit genocide without much thought and Magneto turns on Mystique.  Wow.

That is just a sampling of the disjointed affair that becomes the third installment of the X-Men's first go around. The final scene in which Wolverine somehow stands up to the Phoenix is dramatic and heartfelt, but only if you have totally abandoned yourself to the experience and forgotten all about any comic book storylines.  I'm a fan, but the movie simply should have been better.

 

9. Blade: Trinity

The first "Blade" was a masterpiece that defined the term, "Cult Classic." It was fresh, it was vibrant and it was actually pretty original in a lot of ways. At the time, we hadn't yet been smothered in the "Twilight" genre and the idea of a vampire walking around in the daytime was still a little unique.

The second movie in the series was more action packed and pounded more special effects into each scene than the first installment, but some of the martial arts fighting scenes were lost in the shuffle. The story was good enough to pull it through however, so it managed to stay off of this list.

The third one though, well, it was just bad. Ryan Reynolds brought some comic relief to a movie that was already laughable, and Snipes sleepwalked when he should have "daywalked" throughout the movie. The villain that was Dracula, the original vampire, was never developed and barely explained through the story and the audience left the theatre scratching their heads and wondering what the heck they had just watched.

8. The Shadow

Alec Baldwin as a superhero should have tipped us all off that this one was going to be one to forget.  For those of you who haven't yet seen this epic failure of a film, the plot is about a guy who learns to cloud the minds of men using ancient mystical techniques, which make him appear to be only a shadow to them.  

He of course uses this power to beat the crap out of them without being seen. The movie is based on the very popular radio show which used as its catch phrase, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows"¦"  Folks who had a frame of reference flocked to the movie, only to leave extremely disappointed.  

Unlike the great superhero push today, the producers of "The Shadow" forgot to aim their efforts at their target market.  Males in the 18-35 age group didn't even know who the heck the Shadow was from back in the old days.  The most interesting part of the movie involves a knife with sharp teeth, and believe me, that isn't any big deal.

7. Superman III

Yes, the one with Richard Pryor, the stand-up comedian who decided to be an actor.  The series with Christopher Reeves had basically run its course prior to this one, and the fact that they needed a gimmick like Pryor to try to attract fans to the theaters was laughable.

The idea is that Richard Pryor is a scientist who is looking for a payday.  He quickly decides that he hates Superman and endeavors to destroy him.  So how do you kill the Man of Steel?  Kryptonite is the first thought that pops into your head of course. But what do you do when there isn't any Kryptonite lying around?

You create a synthetic Kryptonite from Earthly elements and you lace it with tobacco tar for a little added potency.  This causes Superman to split into two separate beings; the Superman persona on one side vs the Clark Kent side.  I'm bored just writing this. The movie was awful. If you missed it, consider yourself lucky.

6. Spider-Man III

This one is listed at number six on the list because of the level of anticipation that preceded this movie, as well as the potential for greatness that this movie possessed, and then blew it completely.  When "The Shadow" came out, nobody expected it to be a blockbuster hit.  So, when it wasn't very good, there was very little disappointment flowing through the veins of the average moviegoer.

The same cannot be said for "Spider-man III" however.  This was the movie that we had all been waiting for.  This was the movie where they were going to introduce Spidey's black symbiotic suit.  The previews had us anxious with anticipation.  Even the idea of seeing Thomas Hayden Church play Sandman was intriguing.  

After desperately trying to weave together a storyline which included way too many characters to begin with, the writers then tried to turn the black suit into the creature known as "Venom" in the same two hour timespan. It was a mess.  Even a simple character like Sandman fell apart at the seams, literally, as this version of the popular criminal allowed him to simply blow away in the wind and assume the size of a skyscraper.  It was really too bad that this movie, which could have been great, ended up like this.

5. Batman & Robin

On one hand, you have to give Chris O'Donnell credit for creating an interesting "Robin" character in the last two movies of this ill-fated series. This movie was long before DC decided to break out a role like "Nightwing" so the boy wonder could start to be considered cool.

But the batman counterpart in both of the last two films in this set completely let him down. Val Kilmer was at a loss trying to be the vengeance driven billionaire and vigilante in Batman 3.  Yet his performance far outweighed the awful display put on by George Clooney when he donned the codpiece.

Like Spider-Man 3, this episode of Batman simply had too many characters to work into a two hour film.  You had a new Batman, a revived Robin, a dying Alfred, his niece Batgirl, the charming yet deadly Poison Ivy, the cartoonish but menacing Bane and the evil Mr. Freeze"¦all in the same movie.  Sometimes, less is more.  This was one of those times.

4. Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds is going to be a smash hit as the new "Deadpool" when that movie comes out.  His smart-mouthed ways and sarcastic attitude are perfect for the role of the "Merc with a Mouth."  Yet those same attributes are what made him a terrible choice to take over the reigns as Earth's defender within the Lantern core.   

The character of Hal Jordan is a solemnly dutiful fellow.   In the comics he is incredibly serious and is always learning more about his powers and taking his life seriously.  Reynolds doesn't have a serious bone in his body.  

This movie even had poor special effects.  The villain looked ridiculous, the story was basic and crude and the objects that he created with the ring were just plain dumb. You can probably still find this movie in the $.99 bin over at Wal-Mart, but I don't know why you would bother looking for it.

3. Elecktra

The character Elecktra lived on the edge back in the comic book days.  She was always up for a challenge and she regularly crossed the line.  Elecktra was an assassin, pure and simple.  She killed bad guys, usually because someone paid her to, and she ran on the opposite side of the law from some famous superheroes like Daredevil and Captain America.

Then the movie came along and she became an obsessive-compulsive acrobat who developed a conscience.  The character was introspective and weak, and the storyline was even weaker still. The villains didn't develop and the storyline with the infamous "Stick" left more questions than answers.

Elecktra was a character in the comics that always shared a storyline.  She was running around with other A-list heroes and never had to hold up a comic book story all by herself.  Now we know why.  This wasn't good, at all, and should be stricken from your playlists.

 

2. HULK

Let's be clear.  This is the movie that is titled, "HULK."  It is not "The Incredible Hulk" that we are discussing.  The first attempt at creating the giant green monster starring Eric Banna had some potential.  The cast was put together pretty well, as Sam Elliot took on the role of General Ross and Nick Nolte was cast as Bruce Banner's father.

Unfortunately, whoever decided to write the fight scenes shot a hole through the heart of the movie that could not be repaired.  At one point, the Hulk is fighting some gamma ray-infected dogs.  One of the dogs that he is supposed to fighting to the death is a poodle.  Seriously, it's a poodle.  

Add to that the ridiculous idea that the Hulk could actually fall from outer space into the desert and heal in minutes, and you have the beginning of a pathetic movie.  Fast forward to the tragically bad ending, where Nick Nolte apparently becomes absorbed by pure evil energy, and you have a complete box office flop.

1. Iron Man III   

This movie never should have been made. None of it made sense, the characters were all out of sorts and following the story would have required using a magnifying glass and Google Maps to prevent you from becoming totally and helplessly lost.

The Mandarin is one of Iron Man's most popular foes throughout the years in the comics. I was encouraged when I saw that Ben Kingsley had signed on to portray the evil genius.  Then the people in charge of the movie decided to give the audience heartburn by making the Mandarin into just a disgraced, fake actor.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it isn't Tony and his brilliantly designed Iron man models that take down the bad guys.  It's Pepper Potts, who has become the heroine of the day.  This movie needed to sit on a shelf for a little while longer.  

 

What the heck happened?  Seriously, can you describe in a few sentences what the movie was about?  I have been writing my entire adult life, and I can't do that.  Iron man was struggling with his relationship with Pepper.  The Mandarin was a terrorist that was waging war against America, I mean, an actor trying to get a date.   Iron man loses his powers and his suit.  There is a mutated army of specialists waging war against mankind, led by some woman that Tony dumped and some guy that he slighted over 20 years ago when he was drunk.  Rhodes is the Patriot"¦sort of, and is protecting the president, I mean, he's helping Tony who, wait, is making weapons out of stuff he bought at a hardware store in Nebraska, because some genius kid living in a garage helped him"¦

Writing that gave me a headache, and I didn't even get to the part where Pepper goes super-nova and saves everybody.  There are 10 new Iron Man suits introduced, run by remote control, but that can also be worn.  Apparently they wanted to beef up the toy aisle at Target that year, because there was no other reasonable explanation for bringing out all of those suits so they could be summarily beaten down by inferior bad guys.  This movie is so bad that my 10 year old asked me NOT to get it for him for his birthday.  Sorry Tony, but this was one too many.