Steel (1997)

Anybody remember this trashy excuse for a superhero movie? I'm sure you didn't; I never heard of this even when I was a child (I only heard of Batman and Robin and Blade at the time), and I can see why: this is one of the worst comic book movies of all time. I only watched this the first time on YouTube after watching the Nostalgic Critic review this flop, and I was so mortified by it that watching it the second time proved more difficult. My mind was telling me not to watch it, I mean it was boring, cheesy, and uninspiring.
The main issue with this movie is Shaquille O'Neal; the same guy who should have learned his lesson after a scathing review on the worst movie of all time, Kazaam! This guy doesn't even know how to act--even Michael Jordan could do better in Space Jam, only because the movie revolved around his basketball career--yet he even went for an opportunity to play the role of a lesser known superhero, which unsurprisingly did not go well at all. He was more robotic in this movie than was Robocop in the eponymous movie.
This is the Steel as he should have appeared in the movie as he did in the comics:



But here is what we were left with:

  
He was more like a knight in a not-so-shiny armor.

This movie was more like an out-of-date sitcom than an action movie: I mean it was as though it was stereotyping or just discrediting African-Americans, or was trying to at least extract some ounce of laughter from the audience. This sort of 'humor' would only yield scornful laughter from critics and fans alike. Other than that we were forced to almost half an hour of boredom. This movie drifted from the comics which escalated Steel to popularity as long as he was alongside the world-famous Superman. In fact, because there had been no mention of or connection whatsoever to Superman or his death, this movie failed to draw in any significant crowd, unlike Blade whose titular character could beat this robotic zombie in all aspects. There was no mention of this, as the death of Superman was the only inspiration for donning the metal suit of steel. This movie did not make such explanation as to why anyone would think of a steel armor in the first place.
Here are elements that really did my head in:

• The notorious souffle joke: since when does food require total silence?
• The urban kid who stuck with Irons: what's up with all that slang? Could anybody follow that unintelligible dialogue?
• The steel suit, which not only looks rubbery, but also lacks the red 'S' on his chest
• Ripoffs from other more critically acclaimed movies. 
• Because Steel has no superpowers, he is sluggish and is more frequently accident-prone than is Robocop, who is only subdued the same way by enemy machinery.
• The armed robbers: even robbers in Africa could pull off a better heist than these guys; these lot were totally incompetent noisemakers, always boasting of their crime even if they were in an open establishment.
• And the grenade at the climax. No grenade waits for some goofball to throw it before exploding; it explodes after 10-30 seconds, but no more than the maximum. So that scene in question was completely irrational.

In all I think was made to discredit African-Americans rather than promote the existence of an unknown superhero of DC comics.

If this movie stayed true to the comics all the way, and employed a real actor, I know Steel would have had as much success as Blade. In fact as the Nostalgia Critic recalled, this flop indicated the actual death of the comic book movie.