In March, ScreenAge Wasteland will have its 3rd annual Movie Madness tournament to determine the greatest superhero movie.
Similar to the NCAA March Madness tournament that starts with 64 teams and ends with one winner standing tall, SAW is going to have 64 of the best superhero movies battle it out.
The great thing is you — our beloved Screenagers — will be able to help determine the winner by voting in the matchups!
You will have to check back when voting begins on March 1, 2023, to see what the matchups are for each region. The movies were picked by an intricate scoring system in order to get the best of the best superhero films with minimal opinions or bias involved (or something like that). The top four movies to grade out the highest are your four #1 seeds in each region.
Check out the entries already announced in other regions to see possible Final Four matchups:
The Kevin Feige Region | The DC Trinity Region | The Dark Horse Region
The Stan Lee Region
Blade (1998)
Director: Stephen Norrington | Writer: David S. Goyer | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N’Bushe Wright, and Donal Logue
Blade is a Dhampir, a human with vampire strengths but not their weaknesses, who together with his mentor Abraham Whistler and hematologist Karen Jenson, fights against vampires, namely the exceptionally vicious Deacon Frost.
X-Men (2000)
Director: Bryan Singer | Writer: David Hayter | Stars: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, and Anna Paquin
Mutants Wolverine and Rogue are brought into a conflict between two groups that have radically different approaches to bringing about the acceptance of mutant-kind: Charles Xavier’s X-Men and Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants.
Blade II (2002)
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Writer: David S. Goyer | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, and Luke Goss
The human-vampire hybrid Blade continues his effort to protect humans from vampires, finding himself in a fierce battle against a group of mutant vampires who seek to commit global genocide of both vampire and human races.
Spider-Man (2002)
Director: Sam Raimi | Writer: David Koepp | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris
After being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, outcast teenager Peter Parker develops spider-like superhuman abilities and adopts a masked superhero identity to fight crime and injustice in New York City, facing the sinister Green Goblin in the process.
X2 (2003)
Director: Bryan Singer | Writer: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, and David Hayter | Stars: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, and Anna Paquin
Colonel William Stryker leads an assault on Professor Xavier’s school to build his own version of Xavier’s mutant-tracking computer Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them, forcing the X-Men to team up with the Brotherhood of Mutants, their former enemies, to stop Stryker and save the mutant race.
Hulk (2003)
Director: Ang Lee | Writer: James Schamus, Michael France, and John Turman | Stars: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas, and Nick Nolte
Following a lab accident involving gamma radiation, Bruce Banner transforms into a giant, green-skinned creature known as the Hulk whenever stressed or emotionally provoked. The United States military pursues him, and he clashes with his biological father, who has dark plans for his son.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Director: Sam Raimi | Writer: Alvin Sargent | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Alfred Molina, and Rosemary Harris
Peter Parker struggles to stop Dr. Otto Octavius from recreating the dangerous experiment that kills his wife and leaves him neurologically fused to mechanical tentacles, while also dealing with an existential crisis between his dual identities that appears to be stripping him of his powers.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Director: Tim Story | Writer: Don Payne and Mark Frost | Stars: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington, Doug Jones, and Laurence Fishburne
The Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom confront, and later ally with, the Silver Surfer to save Earth from Galactus.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Director: Matthew Vaughn | Writer: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn | Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kevin Bacon
Set primarily in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, First Class focuses on the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, and the origin of their groups—the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, respectively, as they deal with the Hellfire Club led by Sebastian Shaw, a mutant supremacist bent on enacting nuclear war.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Director: Marc Webb | Writer: James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field
After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of the Lizard.
The Wolverine (2013)
Director: James Mangold | Writer: Scott Frank and Mark Bomback | Stars: Hugh Jackman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Famke Janssen, and Will Yun Lee
Logan travels to Japan, where he engages an old acquaintance in a struggle that has lasting consequences. Stripped of his healing powers, Wolverine must battle deadly samurai while struggling with guilt over Jean Grey’s death.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Director: Bryan Singer | Writer: Simon Kinberg | Stars: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Halle Berry, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart
Logan travels back in time to 1973 to change history and prevent an event that results in unspeakable destruction for both humans and mutants.
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Director: Don Hall and Chris Williams | Writer: Jordan Roberts and Robert L. Baird & Dan Gerson | Stars: Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Maya Rudolph, and Alan Tudyk
Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy, and Baymax, his late-brother Tadashi’s healthcare-provider robot, form a superhero team to combat a masked villain who is responsible for Tadashi’s death.
Deadpool (2016)
Director: Tim Miller | Writer: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, and Brianna Hildebrand
Wade Wilson hunts the man who gave him mutant abilities and a scarred physical appearance, becoming the antihero Deadpool.
Logan (2017)
Director: James Mangold | Writer: James Mangold, Michael Green, and Scott Frank | Stars: Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, and Stephen Merchant
An aged Wolverine and an extremely ill Charles Xavier defend a young mutant named Laura from the villainous Reavers led by Donald Pierce and Zander Rice.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman | Writer: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman | Stars: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber
Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man and joins other Spider-People from various parallel universes to save his universe from Kingpin.
What do you think of the films in this region? Do you have any predictions regarding which film will make it to the Final Four?
