Top 10 Superhero Movies That Aren’t Based On Comics

#9 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

This is low on my list for two reasons:

1. I’m not the biggest fan of Birdman (or much else from Alejandro Iñárritu, for that matter).
2. What does work best in this movie has little to do with…well, superheroes.

Still, not enough can be said about how well-spoken Birdman is about the aging decline of celebrity status and superhero movies, not necessarily the heroes themselves. It’s even better that Michael Keaton himself (who played Batman in this movie’s parallel dimension) is starring in this role and absolutely sells his mythic angst as an all-powerful bird…man.

More importantly, Birdman is one of the few entries on this list that works somewhat independently of comic book influence. True, you could argue that it’s an indirect relationship because superhero movies borrow so heavily from the books they’re adapted from, but Birdman pays little attention to those details. Instead, it gets the meta-commentary quite right, making it the unlikely crowd-pleaser that wowed audiences just two years ago.