A huge part of the draw to most superhero movies is their action, making it all the more disappointing when they fail to deliver a climactic final fight sequence. From the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the many one-off films featuring DC characters, most comic book movies rely heavily on their fight scenes to draw audiences’ attention. This focus on combat usually results in one final battle against the film’s overarching villain to close out the story, pulling out all the stops for a memorable last battle.

The best comic book movie final fights are able to balance characterization with smooth editing, believable special effects, and creative uses of powers to maintain an exciting bout. Conversely, the worst finales in superhero movie history can be the result of a lackluster final battle, especially in films featuring otherwise great combat scenes. Both Marvel and DC have committed the sin of a pitifully weak final battle in their movies.

10. Suicide Squad’s Final Fight Is Infamously Bad

Suicide Squad

Few superhero movies have as dire a reputation as 2016’s Suicide Squad. While the film had some small crumbs of worthiness, such as the first appearance of Margot Robbies’ Harley Quinn or the popularization of the Suicide Squad as a concept, the film failed in nearly every other regard possible.

This certainly includes the final action sequence, which takes place as the ancient witch Enchantress prepares to take over the world via vague magical means. Dancing around awkwardly, Enchantress generates a generic energy spire, gaining almost godly levels of power as the Suicide Squad approach.

This meek two-stage climax is a meek end to an already infamously bad movie, laden with pitiful CGI and rampant overuse of slow-motion cinematography.

Somehow, Harley Quinn is able to distract her long enough to slash her once with Katana’s magical sword, which, followed up with a detonation of explosives courtesy of Deadshot, is apparently enough to slay the witch once and for all. This meek two-stage climax is a meek end to an already infamously bad movie, laden with pitiful CGI and rampant overuse of slow-motion cinematography.

9. Madame Web’s Final Fight Undermines The Potential Of Its Main Cast

Madame Web

A more recent infamously bad superhero movie, Madame Web is easily the worst of Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off movies, a feat which is almost impressive considering the competition. Even if the title may posit Madame Web herself as the main character, the teenage trio of future Spider-Women are presented as a far more interesting prospect that drives the events of the story. It almost goes without saying the film ends on a ridiculous note that not only doesn’t make sense, but undermines the abilities of its protagonists.

Rather than fulfilling Ezekiel’s destiny to be slain by Julia, Anya and Mattie, the film instead sees him lured into a cartoonishly violent trap in a conveniently-placed fireworks factory by Cassandra. The resulting explosion causes him to be crushed to death by the “P” of a giant Pepsi sign. This marks the first (and hopefully, last) time a supervillain in a movie is killed by product placement.

8. 2015’s Fantastic Four Final Fight Manages To Waste Doctor Doom

Fantastic Four

It was bad enough how wasted Doctor Doom was in the original Fox Fantastic Four movie, but the second anticlimactic final battle with him in the 2015 reboot added insult to injury. A concerning amount of runtime has already passed by the time 2015’s Fantastic Four makes its way to a final battle with the titular quartet and Doom, resulting in an alarmingly rushed showdown.

The two sides come crashing together on a barren planet, with Doom wielding the vague telekinesis he has in place of his traditional mastery of sorcery and technology from the comics.

The fight plays out like something out of a turn-based video game, with both Doom and whatever member of the Four he’s currently battling patiently waiting at a static distance to batter one another with boring attacks.

The Fantastic Four don’t display much team synergy here, and Doom’s powers are somehow even more boring than they were in the 2005 version. The scene mercifully ends with The Thing punching Doom into one of many generic blue beams of alien energy piercing the sky, apparently killing him.

7. Iron Man And War Machine Vs Whiplash Is Underwhelming To Say The Least

Iron Man 2

Widely considered to be among the worst Marvel Cinematic Universe movies ever made, Iron Man 2 earns such a title with some truly arbitrary action scenes. After Ivan Vanko takes over the drones commissioned from him by Justin Hammer, he wreaks havoc on New York City, leading to a final confrontation between himself, Iron Man, and the newly-minted armored hero War Machine. The pair make a last stand against Whiplash and his robots in a botanical garden.

The initial battle against the waves of automated soldiers starts out interesting, but Iron Man soon demonstrates he was capable of easily destroying them the whole time with a use of his laser gauntlets, which just as effectively cut through the tension. When Whiplash finally appears, his bulky suit is quite lame, and he has zero combat instincts, allowing War Machine to fire a bunker-busting missile at him (even if it does misfire). The zero-stakes fight ends with Iron Man and Rhodey simply firing their repulsors at the same time, an attack which Whiplash practically begs to be hit by.

6. Black Panther Vs Killmonger Looks Like A PS2 Cutscene

Black Panther

For as highly as the original Black Panther is venerated, there’s no denying that the film’s last battle leaves much to be desired. As T’Challa works with his allies to re-take the throne from his cousin, he dodges some terrible-looking CGI animals in a weightless battlefield, eventually cornering his prey in an empty mineshaft of Wakanda’s Vibranium deposit. What follows is a fight sequence that looks like something out of a PlaySation 2 game, with pitiful CGI replacements of the real actors flipping around as if in zero gravity.

What’s mind-boggling about how bad this last fight is is the fact that director Ryan Coogler can direct a brilliant action scene when he wants to, as demonstrated in the Creed franchise. Even earlier fights in Black Panther are quite grounded and exciting, with M’Baku’s challenge to T’Challa’s rule at the waterfall being a particularly standout sequence. This only makes the egregious special effects and bland choreography of the film’s last battle sting all the more painfully.

5. Batman Vs Bane Proves Combat Was Never Nolan’s Strong Suit

The Dark Knight Rises

There’s a lot to love about Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, from the stellar performances to Nolan’s vision for a more grounded Batman that nevertheless manages to feel “comic book-y”. Nolan certainly has a flair for high-flying action scenes involving stunts and vehicles, but his one-on-one hand-to-hand combat scenes occasionally fell quite flat

This is more obvious in the final confrontation between Bane and Batman in The Dark Knight Rises than anywhere else. Christian Bale’s fighting style as Batman is quite simplistic and brutish, all overhand slams and backwards strikes with his fists.

Batman ripping off Bane’s mask is at least kind of cool, but what should’ve been the film’s biggest setpiece is instead intensely forgettable.

When Bane fights almost the exact same way, it makes for a lackluster final fight, particularly embedded within the chaos of the street the two duke it out in the midst of. Batman ripping off Bane’s mask is at least kind of cool, but what should’ve been the film’s biggest setpiece is instead intensely forgettable.

4. Wonder Woman Vs Ares Is A Boring CGI Mess

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is another film whose final fight is made worse by the earlier action being far superior. For most of the film, Wonder Woman navigates the World War I setting with some weighty, kinetic fight scenes that see her blocking bullets in real-time, getting hit by grenades, and tearing through entire platoons of soldiers in spectacularly-choreographed shots that look like something out of a painting. All this wonderful action only makes the final CGI slopfest against Ares all the more disappointing.

When Ares is finally revealed, his actual battle with Wonder Woman is essentially decided in two moves. After flinging himself headlong at Diana along with some debris doesn’t work, Ares gets the brilliant idea of throwing a lightning bolt at the literal daughter of Zeus. Obviously, this backfires, and the entire sequence is painted in muddy strokes with some rushed-looking digital effects that could’ve used another pass or two.

3. Superman Vs Nuclear Man Is A Sad End To Reeve’s Career

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Older superhero movies certainly had their fare share of miserable final battles, with none being perhaps as infamous as Superman’s globetrotting duel with Nuclear Man in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Here, Christopher Reeve’s Superman does battle with his evil clone, Mark Pillow’s Nuclear Man, by far the most infamous cinematic Superman villain. The two engage one another in a battle that spans the world, flying at supersonic speeds to various different locations.

This set-up should’ve been an exciting one, but the action is made moot by some terrible green-screen effects even by the standards of the film’s time. The fight also features some of Christopher Reeve’s Superman’s most hilariously off-the-wall powers, apparently able to re-build the Great Wall of China with a look alone. Between the uninspired shoving of Superman and Nuclear Man, the jumbled use of clearly unrelated footage, and poor special effects, this final battle was a sad note to end Reeve’s legacy on.

2. Shang-Chi Vs Dweller-In-Darkness Is A Horrendous Downgrade

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Few movies have as big a disparity between their earlier fight scenes and their final battle as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi proves his title as the MCU’s greatest martial artist with some thrilling and brilliantly-choreographed sequences like the bus fight and the scaffolding fight. Sadly, the film can’t resist an over-the-top CGI fantasy battle against a dragon known as “Dweller-in-Darkness” for its climactic final action setpiece.

This boring mess of half-baked CGI throws away all the hand-to-hand combat that made the first two-thirds of the film so exciting, instead opting for a giant video game boss battle against a generic dragon, complete with a glowing weak point. The mediocre nature of the fight makers Wenwu’s earlier sacrifice feel all the more pointless and unearned, leaving Shang-Chi and his sister to swing wildly around two dragons long enough for Awkwafina to land a kill shot with her bow and arrow. Shang-Chi deserved better than a hideously dull dragon for his final opponent.

1. Catwoman Vs Laurel Is Unambiguously Terrible

Catwoman

Halle Berry’s Catwoman is an infamous enough film as it is, earning the actress an ironic Razzie Award which she famously accepted in-person. As if the terrible dialogue, awful CGI, and bizarre changes to the DC character weren’t bad enough, the movie also ends on an incredibly disappointing final fight between its titular feline anti-hero and the film’s villain…a woman named Laurel. Catwoman and Laurel confront each other at the top of a high-rise building, and a so-bad-it’s-almost-good jumbled fight soon ensues.

Laurel is revealed to have some superpowers due to her chemical concoctions, giving her an excuse to match Catwoman’s wild kicks and athleticism. The sequence is edited with a dizzying number of cuts-per-second that make the action all but intelligible, and features one of the most cringe-worthy lines in a DC movie ever as Catwoman spouts “Guess what? It’s overtime!“. It’s no wonder Catwoman is so poorly-regarded as a superhero movie.