10 Most Boring Superhero Movies, Ranked

What’s the biggest sin a superhero movie can make? Well, being downright boring and forgettable, of course. For the most part, Superhero films have the power to thrill audiences with their wickedly entertaining stories of action and excitement. They’ve been a dominant force at the box office for years, primarily since Marvel’s Iron Man in 2008. While there certainly have been some incredible superhero flicks recently, they haven’t always been stellar.

Let’s talk about the superhero movies that failed to be entertaining or weren’t as thrilling as expected. For the following ten movies below, not all of them are terrible or badly written. In fact, some have a few great moments, but these are still underwhelming snoozefests that are a far cry from some other more exciting examples in the superhero genre. These tried but ultimately failed to keep audiences’ attention from start to finish. From Marvel to the DCEU, here are ten of the most boring superhero films, ranked from least to most.

10

‘Eternals’ (2021)

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Starting off is Chloé Zhao‘s Eternals from 2021. It’s an ambitious superhero epic, attempting to be the next big game-changer after Avengers: Endgame brought a satisfying conclusion to one of the best phases of the MCU. Unfortunately, this didn’t sit well with most audiences as it didn’t pack a pleasing punch.

Zhao, an Academy Award-winning storyteller who’s done incredible work with her Best Picture-winning film Nomadland, felt like the right fit for more dramatic films, but not so much for this, which was supposed to be a blockbuster superhero flick. It doesn’t help that the film’s slow pace, weak character development, and long run time drag its entertainment value down by a mile, making it, at times, unwatchable compared to some others. It’s definitely not the worst superhero flick, but it mostly fails to be an entertaining movie, which is what its intended purpose was.

9

‘The Marvels’ (2023)

Directed by Nia DaCosta

Now, on to one of the weaker post-Endgame Marvel movies. 2023’s The Marvels isn’t terrible nor the worst, it’s just incredibly forgettable. The 2020s haven’t been that great for superheros and this one is one such example; a mostly underwhelming story with weak pacing, dull action, and a lackluster antagonist.

One of its few saving graces is the chemistry between the three leads, Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, who work off each other’s strengths and add some charm to this overall bland story. The Marvels is not a bad movie, but it’s just that there isn’t much here to come back to for multiple rewatches. It’s lack of excitement is perhaps what is attributed to its poor box office numbers, leading it to be one of the lowest-grossing MCU to date.

8

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ (2023)

Directed by Peyton Reed

Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) hasn’t made the biggest splash in the MCU. Though he’s played a significant supporting role in other films, his stand-alone movies range between semi-decent and fun to downright forgettable. Though Ant-Man and The Wasp could be a contender to appear on this list, it’s the mediocre third installment, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, that takes the honors as the most boring.

It’s one of the biggest superhero letdowns of the decade so far. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to enter a new phase on a soaring high note but mostly felt flat, failing to tell a satisfying story. The CGI is noticeably poor, the character development feels weak, and it didn’t do much to introduce the new big bad of the franchise, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). While the climax features a few decent moments of action and excitement, this overall isn’t the MCU’s most thrilling movie. Of all the films the company has released, this is easily one of the most unwatchable.

7

‘Green Lantern’ (2011)

Directed by Martin Campbell

While it has slowly gained more momentum in recent years, DC famously didn’t have the strongest start to creating a cinematic universe. One of their most notable missteps was 2011’s Green Lantern, a failed attempt to bring one of the studio’s most popular superheroes to the big screen.

It’s no surprise that Green Lantern was a massive critical and commercial flop upon release, and it’s mostly been forgotten in recent years. From the poor CGI to the bland action, it’s hard to find much enjoyment as there is so much going wrong throughout its runtime. Honestly, it’s argued that the only enjoyable thing about this is that its star, Ryan Reynolds, hilariously bashed its many flaws in his far superior superhero film Deadpool.

6

‘Morbius’ (2022)

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

What may just be one of the most boring blockbusters in history is Morbius, the 2022 superhero misfire that had audiences everywhere wondering why this movie was even made in the first place, outside the money, of course. As an at times unintentionally hilarious disaster, this has everything one could expect from a lazy superhero crash grab: unfocused, uninteresting, and not the least bit thought out.

Morbius has honestly become more famous now because of the memes it generated rather than any genuine part of the movie. And outside the bizarrely hilarious and iconic scene where Matt Smith’s Milo awkwardly dances around shirtless, is there any part or other character that stood out? It was an overall flop that wasn’t exciting, not scary, or the least bit action-packed. The thing is, did anyone expect this one to succeed?

5

‘Hulk’ (2003)

Directed by Ang Lee

Known mostly for his touchy dramas before making a huge splash in the action genre with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the truly talented Ang Lee made a considerable mark on cinema. But his one-time dabble into the superhero genre was met with less acclaim. Released in 2003, Lee’s Hulk was meant to be the triumphant big-screen debut of the classic Marvel hero, but this mean green hero’s first outing wasn’t what most fans had hoped.

For being a nearly two-hour and eighteen-minute film, the Hulk barely has much screen time. Instead, we’re treated (or punished) to a boring story where people mostly sit around having pointless, drawn-out conversations. Once the Hulk finally arrives and the action starts, it’s a bit of a letdown, save for one cool tank battle in a desert. While not frustratingly boring, and some of the drama is a bit engaging, it’s not what a Hulk movie should be. Though it was a moderate commercial hit, this attempt at bringing the Hulk to cinema ultimately proved to be a mostly forgotten miss.

4

‘Kraven the Hunter’ (2024)

Directed by J. C. Chandor

Let’s be honest here; 2024 wasn’t the best year for comic book movies. Besides Deadpool & Wolverine perhaps being the only outlier, it was a year marked by extreme letdowns like the forgettable Venom: The Last Dance, the frustrating Joker: Folie à Deux, and the hilarious train wreck that was Madame Web. But while each one of these flops represented some low points for the genre, they aren’t as mind-numbingly boring as Kraven the Hunter.

Released at the tail end of the year, this underwhelming film is a mismatch of bad ideas and terrible storytelling. It’s a slow-paced, poorly CGI’d, clumsly edited disaster full of uninspired performances. There’s hardly anything worth watching, as it never comes close to even being badly amusing. It’s an overall skippable mess that tries to cash in on another iconic Marvel character. Expect, according to its abysmal box office returns, no one was buying what it tried to do.

3

‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)

Directed by Alan Taylor

Phase Two of the MCU had a few slight missteps during its run, but it still had some major highlights, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: Winter Soldier. It was the time that Marvel was really kicking up, leading to the much more thrilling Phase 3. But, the one most audiences agree was the weakest, and one of the worst in Marvel history is Thor: The Dark World.

Though featuring some decent action and surprising emotional moments, this is by far Thor’s most underwhelming outing. Its story is forgettable, it doesn’t have the most exciting characters, and the villain is incredibly dull. Though Chris Hemsworth once again shines in the titular role he was made for, his presence is about one of the only things that makes this one at least slightly memorable. But as it stands, this is an unfortunate stain from the early years of the MCU, one that won’t get brought up as much as those around it.

2

‘Max Steel’ (2016)

Directed by Stewart Hendler

When it comes to terrible superhero movies, some can be so bad that they are good; others are just completely unwatchable. The latter, unfortunately describes 2016’s Max Steel, a generic snoozefest, lacking any originality or excitement.

Whereas most bad superhero movies have at least a few entertaining scenes and at times can be unintentionally hilarious, are there any moments in Max Steel people genuinely remember? The plot is bland, the characters are forgettable, the acting is subpar, and it overall fails to grip viewers in to its story, which is almost nonexistent. It was a critical and commercial bomb that resulted in it being glossed over in most discussions when talking about terrible films of this genre.

1

‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)

Directed by Josh Trank

Finally, in last place, it is arguably one of the worst, most underwhelming superhero movies in recent history: Fantastic Four. While the two other Fantastic Four movies from the early 2000s weren’t cinematic masterpieces, they were at least entertaining at best and enjoyably bad at worst. This one, however, is a complete dud, lacking any excitement or intrigue.

It’s hard to believe that Josh Trank, the director of Chronicle, one of the most gripping and emotional superhero movies of the 2010s, was a part of this mess, as all the intense drama and thrilling action that made that one so compelling is missing here. 2015’s Fantastic Four attempted to reboot a superhero group that unfortunately had trouble transitioning to the big screen in the past but ultimately failed, becoming the worst and most boring adaptation of them all. This is undeniably a snoozefest that doesn’t get much better with any rewatch.

NEXT: 10 Superhero Movies That Are Awful From Start to Finish