Pre-launch Film Rankings: Super hero movies (Marvel v DC) and Zombie movies (AMC's The Walking Dead)

While the Reel Fives website ( www.reelfives.com) is still in development we plan to begin producing rankings and ratings for films and movies within selected genres. The broader and functional reel fives website, currently under development, will have a great deal of more functionality and rigor but in anticipation we plan to list preliminary rankings for movies based on their rankings or ratings across the web. Similar to what is done in sports with preseason rankings for the teams in each league, we will in some ways predict how movies within genres will be ranked based on currently available rankings and ratings information and well as relevant movie reviews. Of course, once our Reel Fives flagship website www.reelfives.com is launched these might significantly change.

The first two genres that will be covered will be zombie movies and super-hero (including comic book-based and more broadly defined) movies.

The motivation for Reel Fives providing pre-launch rankings to determine the best zombie films is the current attention and popularity growth to this genre.  AMC's show The Walking Dead has generated a substantial fan base for this genre through its ability to show the promise in this genre and bring to light the elemnents of the genre that contain mass appeal. Reel Fives will be publishing this first rankings article on zombie film in the coming weeks. Again, this will be based the top 5 ratings system from currently published ratings and rankings in anticipation of our more rigorous rankings that will be generated when our website is launched.

The motivation for Reel Fives providing pre-launch rankings to determine the best super-hero films is also the current attention to this genre.  Although this genre's general appeal has not changed significantly recently there are some titles being released in the next year that will likely have significant influence over where this genre stands and how super hero films are structured. After the growth in the super hero movie genre that took place following Iron Man (2008) through Marvel's lead up to and release of The Avengers(2012), along with the commercial and critical success of The Dark Knight (2008) whose popularity transcended significantly beyond just the super hero film genre, there has not been significant gain the popularity or devoted audience for super hero movies based on the titles that have recently come out,. These titles are largely sequels, and have had a relative lower level of commercial success as a whole (albeit Avenger Age of Ultron (2014) had among the highest revenues in 2014). Following Marvel's success in setting up a consistent and seamlessly interwoven representation of the Marvel Universe, DC comics has began to follow this model.  The highly anticipated  title Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) will be the first film to create a modern cross-over of this type coming out of the DC comics Universe, which is as expansive as Marvel's counterpart. The success of movies based on DC comics super hero characters was historically greater than for movies based on Marvel characters. Batman(1989) and Superman (1978)  which were based on DC comic book characters were seminal in the genre and remain among the most highly regarded super hero movies. However, ever since the comic book boom of the early 90s (see this article on the comic book bubble of the 90s) movies based on DC characters, with the exception of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, have trailed behind those based on Marvel characters.  Therefore, we at Reel Fives view the upcoming introduction of Justice League movies, DC's counterpart Marvel's Avengers, with the soon to be released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) as having the potential to significantly shift the super hero movie genre's landscape. Currently it is being reported from some sources, sensationally,  as possibly the most expensive movie of all time- not just for DC comic book super hero movies or just for the super hero movie genre. For these reasons we (Reel Fives) will be publishing our first rankings article on super hero films/movies in the coming weeks. Again, this will be based the top 5 ratings system from currently published ratings and rankings in anticipation of our more rigorous rankings for super hero movies that will be generated when our website is launched.

Identifying the best movies is our mission.
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