We are now less then 2 weeks away from 2016, so you know what that means: looking back at the year that was. And although 2015 was not as exciting of a year for superhero movies as 2016 will be, we still got 3 pretty different movies. So let’s discuss 2015’s superhero movies!

3. Fantastic Four

Well what is there left to say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? With all the production issues it would have been very hard for this movie to actually end up good. It tried to do something a bit different, but for what ever reason it didn’t really get there. What could have been an interesting sci-fi movie, exploring the world of these people who have been turned into monsters, instead ended up being a really messy generic action movie.

Now the future of Fantastic Four is unknown. The sequel release date has been pushed off the calendar which isn’t too surprising at all. The film made $56 million domestically (yupp Star Wars did make that much in one day) and $112 million internationally. That brings it to a total of $168 million worldwide, yikes! That’s even less than the earlier 2 Fantastic Four films. With numbers like that Fox would have made a big loss, so what’s the future of Fantastic Four?

I still believe that Fox will want to hold on to those rights. Perhaps integrating the Fantastic Four into the world of X-Men will work out better for them. The cast they have for Fantastic Four is awesome, so hopefully they don’t lose them. But if they don’t want to lose the rights to the film then they will need to have something in production soon.

It’s not like Fox aren’t capable of making good superhero movies, we’ve seen it with X-Men, and Deadpool looks great. Hopefully they learn from their past mistakes and finally make a good Fantastic Four film.

2. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Because I only watched the first couple of trailers, the movie I was expecting to see wasn’t the movie I ended up seeing. Now I’m not saying that Age of Ultron was a bad movie, it was definitely a lot of fun, it just wasn’t the movie they were initially selling. What looked to be a more serious film with a compelling villain (some were even calling it the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise after the first trailer hit), ended up being even more quippy than the first Avengers movie.

I think going in with different expectations really distorted my viewing experience, so I did have a better time with the film the second time around, however the film still has its disappointing elements. Ultron ended up being another pretty forgettable generic Marvel villain, but at least Vision was awesome!

The biggest gripe people seemed to have with the movie was that it felt more like a filler movie. Instead of being a great story in its own right, it was more of a set-up of things to come. I think this will pay off nicely for Civil War, but on its own Age of Ultron isn’t as strong of a movie.

However that didn’t hurt its box office as it ended up grossing $460 million domestically (versus $623 million for the first Avengers) and $946 million internationally (versus $896 million for the first Avengers). That brought its worldwide total to $1.4 billion, which is quite the nice number.

1.Ant-Man

I never would have thought I would end up saying that Ant-Man was my favourite superhero movie of 2015. Like Fantastic Four, this movie had plenty of production issues but still managed to pull it off. I guess that helped the film in a way because many people, myself included, were going into this movie with lowered expectations. So it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.

What was great about Ant-Man was that it felt refreshing. It was quirky and the protagonist was unlike the other Marvel heroes. His powers were unique and the combination of Rudd and Peña was quite the comedic force. And although story-wise it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, you can’t deny that there was a level of heart in this film that wasn’t as present in the other superhero movies this year.

Ant-Man was another box-office hit for Marvel grossing $180 million domestically and $338 million internationally, bringing its total worldwide gross to $518 million. What’s become clear with these Marvel films is the strong international appeal they have. Although domestically the films seem to be slipping (very slightly though), internationally they keep getting stronger and stronger.

So whilst 2015 was not the best year for superhero movies (especially compared to last year), we did have an interesting mix. What’s painfully obvious is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a superhero movie, audiences aren’t going to be jumping all over it if it simply isn’t good. Let’s hope 2016 brings us some great superhero movies!