James Gunn Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of James Gunn-whose latest project "Superman" releases in theaters today. 

James Gunn's Filmography Ranked:

6.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 (C+)

5.Slither (B)

4.Super (B+)

3.Guardians of the Galaxy (A)

2.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 (A)

1.The Suicide Squad (A)

Top Dog: The Suicide Squad (2021)

Gunn's unceremonious, unjust (ultimately temporary) firing from Marvel ended up being an unexpected blessing that helped his career. When he got back behind the camera to make The Suicide Squad, he was so grateful for the opportunity to make movies again that it made him better at his craft. His huge embrace of practical effects that harkens back to his days at Troma provides the film with a refreshing B-movie edge that is unlike any other recent superhero movie, the sharp script does a really great job of mixing heartfelt character moments, offbeat humor and damning commentary on US imperialism and the cool confidence that he navigates through the hyperactive maximalist nature of the story he's telling here allow this to feel like a comic book come to life in the best possible way. On top of all that, the casting choices that Gunn made here for the revamped version of the titular band of villains (Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchoir, Sylvester Stallone in a voice role) forced to masquerade as heroes are absolutely spectacular and it kind of sucks that we'll likely never see all of the surviving members share the screen together again.     

Bottom Feeder: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 (2017)

As has been the case the past handful of times I've written about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, an asterisk should be placed next to this paragraph as I've not seen the film in some time and a rewatch could very well change my feelings towards it. With that in mind, my review of this film isn't particularly glowing. It's the only time I've ever watched a movie of Gunn's and thought the story just kind of got away from him. The emotional beats surrounding Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), his real father Ego (Kurt Russell) and adoptive father Yondu (Michael Rooker) don't really land, the tonal shifts between the sentimental, the sad and the goofy are often pretty jarring and despite a valiant effort from Russell, Ego isn't all that interesting of an antagonist.     

Most Underrated: Super (2011)

Right before Gunn got called up to the big leagues to make Guardians of the Galaxy, he made a grungier, angrier and considerably cheaper "superhero" movie in Super. As much as I respect Slither, Super cleans up many of the first feature hiccups with pacing, writing, etc. that held back his campy monster/alien horror comedy and showed that his skill as a storyteller was starting to catch up with his enthusiasm for the stories he was telling. Gunn's now signature gift of finding heart and humanity in the places that you'd least expected to find them is at the core of this story about a short order cook (Rainn Wilson) who decides to become a masked vigilante named "The Crimson Bolt" after his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a sleazy drug dealer/strip club owner (Kevin Bacon). A depraved dark comedy about the absurd lengths a man will go to cope with the pain of his failed marriage being able to have moments of such sincere empathy and emotion is a magic trick that not too many people could pull off and it's crazy impressive that it only took Gunn two movies to figure out how to nail such a tricky tonal balance.       

Most Overrated: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 (2017)

Much of why I don't view Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 in a particularly high regard was covered above, so the only thing I'll add here is that I very much disagree with the people out there that think this is one of the MCU's best movies.