Comic book movies -- This thread is NOT about your favorite, or your least favorite.

It's about expectations -- which one disappointed the most, taking everything into account: your love of the source material, or the casting, or other choices made. You got there thinking all the right things and it was far from your hopes. What's the biggest example of that divergence between expectations and the reality.

Same thing for the postive -- which one did you assume you wouldn't like, and it either blew you away, or grew on you, or became a guilty pleasure.

The scoring is based on difference between expectations and outcome in both cases.

Requires some thought.

"Comic book movies," meaning any movie based on a comic-book, even if it wasn't superhero related?

I think my biggest disappointment was between Daredevil and Ed Norton's Hulk.

Daredevil was a great costume, a great look, and the Colin Farrell Bullseye was good casting in my book. The movie was a horrible mess that was boring. Affleck was a trouble sign for me. So that one is an example where expectations were medium, and the results were absolutely disappointing.

The Ed Norton Hulk was decent, but I had off-the-charts expectations for it, because it came in the wake of Iron Man and I loved the Ed Norton casting. I also loved the "drop me out of this helicopter, the Hulk is our only hope against this larger threat." I love that type of Hulk story.

But it kind of was just okay. So that one is an example where expectations were high, and results were medium.

Yeah, I guess you can count Richie Rich. But be fair -- they had to adapt that for a kid audience.

Biggest pleasant surprise is difficult, because there are some like Wanted I had no idea about, and then liked. Or the Wolverine movie -- I hated all the X-Men films so I stayed away. Then I liked Wolverine on video.

But I think I'm going to stab out there with Ghost Rider. I thought that would be absolutely horrible. Nothing about it to like. Stupidest thing ever.

But then . . but then . . it was kind of cool. Especially love the "midnight ride" scene.

My biggest pleasant surprise has to be X-Men. At that point I had just about given up on superhero movies, not knowing it would be the harbinger of a superhero movies golden age.

Maybe Spider-Man and Iron Man, too. Based on how much I dislike those characters in the comics.

Biggest disappointment - Daredevil, hands down. I was a huge fan of the character. One time, when Leia and I broke up (serious break up) I took her engagement ring back and bought an almost complete collection of DD with a mint #1 and 2 with the money I got. I went to whatever movie it was that had the DD trailer and told a woman who was talking to STFU so I could just watch that. I REALLY wanted this movie to be good. And it was like a never-ending gut punch starting when he killed the guy in the beginning and ending when the credits rolled.

Hmmmm, positive is harder because I always have high expectations. But I think Iron Man. I didn't think it would be any where close to being as good as it was.

That was one of the things I disliked about that movie. Not the intent or tone you describe, but the fact that they were about to land the copter, and Norton said, "No, don't land, I'll just jump out." Um, why? Banner just feels like adding some extra melodrama to the scene?

This might be mine too. I'm not so sure about the "superhero movies golden age" thing, but I was really really happy that X-Men was such a good movie, when the most recent ones had been the bad Batman ones.

Huge fan of Greg Rucka's Whiteout. I was really looking forward to the movie, but Hollywood won again.

My biggest disappointment will be the third Batman movie.

It was cool because it set up the crater in the street, and you're wondering if he changed, he comes up out of the hole all cool and all.

I was genuinely worried that crater contained the dead body of Bruce Banner. I checked my watch to see if it was possible the movie was over.

I'm gonna start with the positive one - Iron Man. I have been such a huge Shell-Head fan for so long that there was NO way anyone could make a movie about this guy and have me like it. None whatsoever. I wanted it to be good, but I never thought it would actually be any good. And then it turns out to be my fave funnybook movie ever. So, yeah

Disappointment...hmmmmmmmmmmmm. That's tricky. There have been so many awful ones.
You know, I think I'd have to say Batman & Robin. Not because of how awful it is (really, going on about that is like shooting fish in a barrel), but because of how much I loved the first two movies. Heck, I even kinda got what they were trying with Batman Forever, and found it to be quite enjoyable. A bit...off-model, let's say, but it had it's moments.
But to have taken everything that Burton had built up in the first two movies and throw it all away like they did in B&R...wow. Just....wow.

Disappointment: Ang Lee's Hulk. No movie has made as angry.

Pleasant Surprise: My Super Ex-Girlfriend. I assumed the worst, but the superhero/villain origin in this turned out to be a nice little old-school tale.

I was really digging Ghost Rider up until we hit the present day and a way too old Nic Cage appeared.

Both X-Men and Spider-man had be feeling pumped that the era of real superhero movies had finally arrived. X-men was the first one to get the special effects so right that it felt like somebody finally saw the potential of Marvel properties (which were closer to my heart than DC properties).

Spider-man was great on the visuals for Spider-man himself. And I was surprisingly won over by the organic webshooters. But Tobey is kind of morose. And I hated the Green Goblin costume. The one guy in the MU who flips out and puts on a crazy costume, and they go and make it an actual military suit (that looks crazy). And also did not look cool.

I had fairly high expectations for Superman Returns, but drunk Clark, no punching, Superbaby KILLS A GUY, and the creepy stalker scene at the end, dashed them.

I might have to give Dark Knight an honorable mention on pleasant surprises. I thought it would be good, I beat a path to it on opening weekend, and had no problems with the things we were seeing.

But my love for it was so off-the-charts that it even exceeded my wildest dreams. It was that good.

Assumed X-Men would be kind of lame, but other than one gimpy line of dialogue from Storm, it blew me away.

That is correct.

I didn't pick it over X-Men because I never thought it would actually suck. But I would give it an honorable mention, too.

So I have this quadrant of four --

On the positive side
1) Thought it would really suck, but it kind of turned out cool -- Ghost Rider
2) Thought it would be good, but it blew me away beyond expectations -- Dark Knight

On the Negative Side:
3) Thought it might be good, but it really sucked -- Daredevil
4) Thought it would be off-the-charts, one of my favorites, but it was just kind of okay -- Norton's Hulk.

Call these quadrants 1, 2, 3, and 4. What are yours?

Now you have my new quadrant system to use and include both.