James Gunn’s Superman is coming to theaters on July 11, ushering in the esteemed director’s vision to reshape DC’s shared universe. There’s a lot to live up to with such a powerful franchise, but he’s certainly no stranger to bringing superheroes to life on the big screen or small screen. He’s even been known to create his very own.
His directorial movie portfolio isn’t vast, but it’s certainly an excellent representation of James Gunn’s unique and dark comedic style. From extremely low-budget sci-fi classics to multi-million dollar superhero flicks, his range is incredibly varied, and history has shown that a big budget doesn’t always make the best work.
So, to celebrate the upcoming release of Superman, we’re taking a look back at all of James Gunn’s sci-fi movies and ranking them from worst to best.
7. Movie 43
- Release date: January 25, 2013
- Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Josh Duhamel, Emily Alyn Lind
Movie 43 is an anthology of 14 short stories, unconnected, but all steered towards comedy. For his part, James Gunn created Beezel, and… well, we’re not even sure how to start describing the events that unfold in Beezel because it is absolutely wild.
Amy (Elizabeth Banks) is competing for the affection of her boyfriend, Anson (Josh Duhamel), but not with another woman vying for his attention. No, in fact, it’s his animated and pretty vulgar cat, Beezel. While Amy tries to explain to Anson what’s really going on, it all gets super weird and very funny.
Movie 43 has 14 different storylines in it, but Gunn’s ill-behaved offering is definitely among the best. It’s a great example of how Gunn’s mind can craft something teetering on the edge of ‘acceptable’. With that said, it’s only a small part of an anthology, and he’s done even greater things with full control throughout his decades-spanning career.
6. Super
- Release date: April 1, 2011
- Cast: Rainn Wilson, Elliot Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon
Gunn is fully enrolled in the Marvel Cinematic Universe hall of fame, and now he’s heading up the DC universe’s cinematic efforts too, but before he tackled superheroes with tales already told, he worked hard to make his own with Super.
With the same dark comedic tone that he carries through a lot of his directorial work, Gunn shows why not everybody can be a superhero. Frank (Rainn Wilson) finds a nemesis in Jacques (Kevin Bacon) for leading his wife astray in the dangerous world of drugs. So, he decides to formulate his own superhero, Crimson Bolt, to fight crime and win back his wife. But, what he quickly finds is he’s severely misjudged what a comic book might have taught him was possible.
Turning the superhero concept on its head is a bold and brave idea, but if you come in looking for a typical superhero story, Super isn’t going to deliver for you. It’s weird enough to win over genre fans, but stepping too far out of the realms of feel-good superhero story redemption arcs will leave some fans feeling pretty deflated and disheartened.
5. The Suicide Squad
- Release date: August 5, 2021
- Cast: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Viola Davis
Before he was co-CEO of DC Studios, Gunn took on The Suicide Squad, a standalone sequel to 2016’s much derided Suicide Squad. The first movie was a stinker, but five years later, Gunn decided to revive the franchise, and it was a lot better. Gunn’s take on the DC Comics team is widely praised by critics and fans alike, and can be seen as the catalyst for his current reign over the DC movie and TV empire.
Bringing back Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Viola Davis’s character was the launchpad that began a whole new roster for Task Force X. Their mission – to invade the island of Corto Maltese to stop Project Starfish.
The plot subverts expectations from the off, and a combination of sharp writing and expert delivery from the all-star cast resulted in a hilarious, but also touching tale of redemption. John Cena’s Peacemaker character was so well-received that he got his own spin-off TV show, Peacemaker, with season 2 coming out on August 21.
4. Slither
- Release date: March 31, 2006
- Cast: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker
Another weird and wacky tale from the front-end of Gunn’s career, Slither is the tale of a small town turned alien parasite hive that seeps into every corner and crevice of the once-peaceful place.
Grant (Michael Rooker) is the unlucky patient zero, but it doesn’t take long for half the town to get infected, leaving only local police officers to fight it off. Unsurprisingly, a bunch of small-town sheriffs are not clued up at all on how to deal with a hostile alien entity..
For his directorial debut, James Gunn used his signature humor and beautifully twisted storytelling to create a sci-fi movie for real genre fans, and he didn’t disappoint. A scriptwriter before director, Gunn has a knack for horror comedy, and Slither is an exceptionally weird and captivating watch. Be warned, you will also be left feeling a little bit icky.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Release date: May 5, 2017
- Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Kurt Russell
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the second outing of this MCU franchise, and if I could grant all three the joint top spot, that’s what I’d do. But, this is a ranked list, so rank them worst to best, I must.
Vol. 2 is a fantastic movie, but it doesn’t quite have the story building that the first carved out, nor does it have the emotional climax of the third movie that marks a perfect send-off for the characters, so it takes the bronze medal.
In Vol. 2, Peter Quill and the Guardians meet Ego (Kurt Russell), who just so happens to be Peter’s long-lost father. It’s jam-packed with action-packed sequences, excellent soundtrack picks, beloved returning characters, and some new faces, too, including the adorable Baby Groot.
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy is where Gunn’s unique and devastatingly humorous mind found its true home. The superheroes of this franchise were ripe for Gunn to build them layers, make them darkly funny, and bond them together with his deep knowledge and understanding of comic books.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
- Release date: August 1, 2014
- Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel
The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie is where Gunn used all the skills he’s built up throughout the years in the industry to create one of the most perfect movies in the MCU to date. From the very beginning, there’s a different vibe to this rag-tag team of superheroes, and that’s down to Gunn’s unique take on turning comic books into big-screen hits.
Unlike the gods and super-humans making up the rest of the MCU up to this point, the Guardians are a group of criminals bonded together to take on a common enemy, using their unique skills to team up to become a bit of an intergalactic powerhouse.
There’s not an unlikeable character in the bunch, all woven together with the same dry and well-timed humor throughout. From Peter Quill to Groot to Drax to Rocket, the casting is phenomenal, but the fact that Gunn had a hand in the writing as well as the directing feels so front and center to this movie’s success, and the two that followed it.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Release date: May 5, 2023
- Cast: Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn
For the final hoorah, the Guardians unite to defend the universe one last time in their biggest space mission yet. There’s a perpetual debate amongst Guardians of the Galaxy fans about the order in which these three stand in the rankings.
It’s our list, though, and we wholeheartedly believe that Vol. 3 is the best of the bunch. Why? Because it’s a culmination of everything that came before it without losing its drive and ferocity, and that’s often a hard position to hold three movies in. Taking the responsibility of ending a franchise is huge, but doing it with the prowess that Gunn did is awesome.
The end of trilogies can often falter, but there’s no less of the humor, fantastic dialogue, action scenes, and incredible relationships in this final run for the characters. We didn’t know a James Gunn movie could get us in the feels, but Vol. 3 demonstrated the layers he’s capable of – and hopefully, there’s more to come in Superman.
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