Whenever I get asked what the best superhero film is, I always have one answer: The Phantom.
This film gets the genre in a way that only a handful of superhero films do. It captures the pulpy essence of Lee Falk’s original stories and turns it into a faithful adaptation that is memorable and very fun.
The rousing score adds so much to it, the introduction to The Phantom as a character is so well done. You feel the build up and the hype and then comes a man clad in a skin tight purple suit riding a white horse with a wolf next to him and yet it isn’t stupid. This film makes you believe. It sounds silly but you just have to watch it to get what I’m on about.
The cast is great, Billy Zane is just fantastic and there’s a really great performance from James Remar that nails the pulp villain archetype.
I’ve always been a proponent for superhero films being set in the time period that they were originally set and The Phantom just adds to that. This wouldn’t have worked had it not been set in 1938. Having superhero films be period pieces helps the genre so much and it’s a crying shame that more superhero films aren’t period pieces.
Whilst The Phantom doesn’t have Endgame levels of
Production value or Logan’s emotional weight, it captures the essence of the superhero genre so well that it’ll always be the greatest superhero film. It’s a shame it’s not more well known.
Whenever I get asked what the best superhero film is, I always have one answer: The Phantom.
This film gets the genre in a way that only a handful of superhero films do. It captures the pulpy essence of Lee Falk’s original stories and turns it into a faithful adaptation that is memorable and very fun.
The rousing score adds so much to it, the introduction to The Phantom as a character is so well done. You feel the build up and the hype and then comes a man clad in a skin tight purple suit riding a white horse with a wolf next to him and yet it isn’t stupid. This film makes you believe. It sounds silly but you just have to watch it to get what I’m on about.
The cast is great, Billy Zane is just fantastic and there’s a really great performance from James Remar that nails the pulp villain archetype.
I’ve always been a proponent for superhero films being set in the time period that they were originally set and The Phantom just adds to that. This wouldn’t have worked had it not been set in 1938. Having superhero films be period pieces helps the genre so much and it’s a crying shame that more superhero films aren’t period pieces.
Whilst The Phantom doesn’t have Endgame levels of
Production value or Logan’s emotional weight, it captures the essence of the superhero genre so well that it’ll always be the greatest superhero film. It’s a shame it’s not more well known.
