Tag: x-men

With the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, it is now officially the end of the Fox-solo run of X-Men movies. Even if you have yet to see the film, it’s been basically confirmed beforehand that the film was to act as a a farewell to that era of superhero movies and open the door for Deadpool’s introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I don’t think you can find a superhero franchise that is this inconsistent and all over the place in terms of quality. The highs remain very, very high while the lows remain very, very low. While the X-Men movie franchise deserves credit for laying the groundwork for the 21st century domination of superhero flicks, they are certainly not without their faults.

Because of all that and more, let’s take a look back at this superhero series before the MCU does their own spin on it in film form.

Here is my ranking of all 14 X-Men films from worst to best, including Deadpool & Wolverine.

14.) Dark Phoenix

Simon Kinberg returned to do yet another adaption of the Dark Phoenix saga that he screwed up last time only to somehow do an even worse job here. As underwhelming as Last Stand was, that at least had more effort put into it and had some sort of emotional investment from the first two X-Men movies to pay off of. Dark Phoenix on the other hand lacks any sort of groundwork or proper payoff. We are expected to care about versions of X-Men characters we just meet one movie ago and is expected to have the sort of gravitational emotional weight that Avengers: Endgame provided. It doesn’t even come close to capturing a quarter of that since these are the versions of the characters we have spent the least amount of time with and there’s not much of a proper finale to build to. Not to mention the cheapness of the filmmaking on display despite it’s massive budget, set pieces that lack any sort of weight or proper direction, a villain that is so forgettable that no one even knows what her name is (Not even Jessica Chastain herself!) and wasting talented actors that are clearly over this franchise. Not even Han Zimmer bringing his A-game and the final scene between Charles and Xavier can save this disaster! I don’t know if it’s because of the numerous delays, the Disney and Fox merging, and/or Simon Kinberg trying to do the same story he already screwed up but no matter what way you look at it, Dark Phoenix is an utter failure of a motion picture and the worst film in this franchise by a country mile.

13.) X-Men: Origins Wolverine

For a long while, this was the worst that the X-Men franchise got. X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows what happens when a comic book movie tries to do too much with so little effort. This glorified attempt at making an compelling origin story for it’s main character falls flat in every single way. With too many characters, overloaded subplots, endless retcons and contrivances, awful effects, and insulting logic, this comes across more as a textbook example of how NOT to make a comic book movie and prequel at the same time. And don’t get me started what they did with the Merc in the Mouth (Screw you, Fox!) Although unlike Dark Phoenix, the cast, the clear standouts being Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, and Liev Schreiber, give their best efforts and there are PLENTY of unintentional laughs to be found here. It may no longer be the worst X-Men movie (Dark Phoenix) nor the worst Fox Marvel movie (Fant4stic) but Origins: Wolverine remains the lowest point of Hugh Jackman’s tender as Wolverine and possibly his whole career.

12.) X-Men: The Last Stand

I never in a million years thought that this would be the best film adaption of the Dark Phoenix saga to date. At least there’s actually a plot driving the movie forward and and had payoffs to the first two movies of some sort. That being said, The Last Stand still doesn’t come close to being the satisfying conclusion to the original trilogy it aims itself to be. The pacing is way too break neck without giving you a second to breathe, the direction makes the film look lifeless and rather bleak to look at, there are decisions made by the characters that are just baffling, and (until Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League), you would be hard pressed to find a superhero adaption that gave such disrespectful death scenes to beloved comic characters. It’s certainly more action packed than most X-Men movies and there’s a emotional beat or two that work but X-Men: The Last Stand still remains one of the most disappointing superhero movies of all time.

11.) X-Men: Apocalypse

How do you follow up with one of the best and most exciting X-Men movies in the series with Days of Future Past? By wasting Oscar Isaac in an incredibly boring villain role, that’s how! X-Men: Apocalypse is not without it’s redeemable moments, which some good character beats scattered throughout (Quicksilver always steals the show!) and solid performances from the last old and new. It still can’t get over glaring flaws such as super slow pacing, a middle act being practically non-existent, wasted supporting cast, dodgy CGI and green screen effects, and of course, Apocalypse being an incredibly wasted villain. It’s baffling how the one X-Men movie that Bryan Singer did strictly as an obligation (Days of Future Past) turned out to be a million times better than the one X-Men movie he actually wanted to make from the start (Apocalypse).

Also, f*ck that stab at Return of the Jedi!

And f*ck Bryan Singer as well!

10.) The New Mutants

A re-watch has made this movie aged better in hindsight. The New Mutants had an interesting idea going for it by being more small-scale than most superhero movies and going with a more horror-like tone. It also has a commendable cast who do the best they can and even a lgbtq+ relationship that doesn’t feel pandering or forced. If only more time was spent on the new mutants developing their powers and NOT on constantly explaining their motives and themselves to everyone else and it fully committed to it horror elements. No one saw this movie when it came out because it released in theaters during the pandemic nearly three years but when watching it again on Disney Plus, there are more redeemable elements to this movie than I initially thought. Perhaps if it didn’t get caught between Covid and the Disney-Fox merge, The New Mutants could have been a refreshing change of pace to the superhero genre.

9.) X-Men

The original X-Men deserves credit for being the one that started it all and laying the foundation of this franchise for over the past two decades. It introduces the superb cast of characters that fit their role like a glove such as Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen, it established the core of beloved X-Men characters from the comics, and brought to the table the number of timely themes about civil rights and discrimination (X-Men has ALWAYS been woke btw!). That being said, it has not aged the greatest. It feels more like a POC (Proof of Concept) or pilot for an eventually long-running television series than it does a movie, with poorly aged effects and dialogue throughout (Do I even need to mention that one line from Storm?). Not to mention, turning Rogue (No fault of Anna Paquin!) into a scared little girl rather than a sexy badass and the middle finger it gives to the classic X-Men suits. As an introduction to this game-changing franchise, it does it’s job well enough. As it’s own movie, it’s passable but far from great.

8.) Deadpool & Wolverine

The newest Deadpool film finally introduces the long-awaited arrival of Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the longtime fans, there’s a lot of fun and enjoyment to be found here with the insane amount of cameos, action beats, full 4th wall breaking humor, and just seeing Hugh Jackman in that classic yellow X-Men suit for the first time ever. That being said, if you are expecting a compelling straight-forward plot on par with the first two Deadpool movies and look for more than just fan service and easter eggs in a movie, you will likely be disappointed. As enjoyable as Deadpool and Wolverine is, I can’t help but find the character more engaging on his own with his own friends and family. Also, I really hope Marvel doesn’t take the wrong lesson from this movie’s inevitable box office success and start making every movie going for just “MCU Reddit Fan Theories The Movie”. That will get old and fate very, VERY quickly!

7.) Deadpool 2

You can go back and forth between the sequels with the Merc with the Mouth but I learn towards it’s second installment due to the more creative filmmaking and emotional weight on display. Deadpool 2 shows David Leitch bringing his own inspiring flavor to the Deadpool franchise, getting a chance to play in the massive sand box with Marvel’s beloved anti-hero. What holds this back from the original are some of the creative decisions involved with trying to add more depth and weight to the character, particularly killing off the romantic hook that drive forward the first movie just to make our main protagonist sad. Also, certain bits dragging on and on and on got tiresome quick. Thankfully, the action, gore, and 4th wall breaking still work here and the new players of Josh Brolin’s Cable and Zazie Beetz’s Domino fit into the Deadpool world incredibly well. Even if it is a step down from the first, Deadpool 2 is still a blast overall.

6.) The Wolverine

Even if this one just misses the top 5, I can’t help but feel like this is the most underappreciated X-Men film to date. Perhaps it has to do with Logan coming out later on and the big CGI robot at the tail end of the picture but The Wolverine is still a really solid action flick and the Wolverine film we needed after Origins: Wolverine. Here we get to see the haunted and immortal Logan going on his own adventure to Japan, seeing a more darker and riveting take on the character than the prior movies up to this point. There’s plenty of good fight scenes all the way through and seeing Wolverine go through a James Bond-like arc is really fascinating to see on screen. The third act doesn’t work with the big CGI robot and a villain reveal being so underwhelming, almost as if Mangold forgot this was suppose to be a comic book movie, but everything else in The Wolverine is so strong and deserves more recognition. Even if Mangold and Jackman did everything better together next time around, their first time together was pretty damn good as well.

5.) X2: X-Men United

Talk about a sequel that steps it’s game up in every way possible. The original X-Men walk while it’s sequel X2: X-Men United was able to run like hell. This is where we see the X-Men get striped away of everything they hold dear and both sides of the mutants in Professor X and Magneto force to team up to stop Striker before being forced to go to war with the human race. There is not a single thing from the original that is not improved upon big time here. The story is better with more momentum and stakes, the characters get a lot more to do, the action is more creative and exciting, the score and direction has more life to it, and it’s just so interesting to see these characters that were fighting against each other in the first movie being forced to work together in this one. While there have been comic book movie sequels that would later surpassed this one, X2: X-Men United still remains a damn good X-Men movie and a really top notch sequel.

4.) X-Men: First Class

After The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine came out, the X-Men franchise felt about as good as dead. Thankfully, Matthew Vaughn was able to bring the series back to new heights with the excellent (No pun intended!) prequel known as X-Men: First Class. This really felt like a proper origin story about the very first members of the X-Men becoming a team along with the start of the biggest love-hate relationship ever with Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. The cast are all excellent and have perfect chemistry with one another (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender might just even better than their older counterparts!), the action is fun and inventive, the soundtrack is great, and it’s able to fit all the requirements needed for a prequel film without the baggage that tends to weight these kinds of films down. The film’s villains could have been fleshed out more (Even if Kevin Bacon is clearly having a blast in the role!) and yes what they do with Darwin absolutely SUCKS but as a whole, X-Men: First Class is the real deal and one of the best installments in this franchise.

3.) Deadpool

After over a decade of development hell and test footage that got leaked all over the internet, we were finally able to get a proper Deadpool movie in 2016. After the character was botched horribly in Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller was able to deliver the film that fans have always wanted with the Merc with the Mouth. The comedy is brilliant, the action is fantastic, the violent is as bloody and gruesome as it can get, the soundtrack is heat, the romance is one of the best in any superhero movie, and it’s able to make for the best use and subversions of all the most common superhero tropes imaginable. Not to mention, Ryan Reynolds was clearly born to play Wade Wilson/Deadpool, it’s what God clearly always wanted. Yes, you can argue the origin story itself is a tad formulaic but since this was Deadpool’s first movie I can give it a pass. This is not only one of my favorite comic book movies, X-Men or otherwise, but also one of my favorite comedies period.

2.) X-Men: Days of Future Past

While there’s definitely a strong argument to be made that First Class might be superior in terms of being a more proper team-up movie, Days of Future Past still stands as my absolute favorite team-up X-Men movies in the series. This basically acts like the Avengers: Endgame of the Fox X-Men universe, the culmination of the entire franchise up to this point, with seeing the old cast members teaming up with the new ones. From the superb character development to the amazing action set pieces (The Quicksilver scene is still an all-timer!) to the warm, dark tone to the resonate themes to the inventiveness of the time travel storytelling to the inspired score, this is basically everything you can ask for in an X-Men film or in basically any superhero movie in general. I can’t really recall any movie in recent memory that was able to be a kind of course-correcting movie without feeling the need to sacrifice it’s own quality for a brighter future. There are definitely nicks that can be picked (How does Kitty have time travel powers all of a sudden?!), but these are forgiving for how rewarding the whole experience is. As curious as I am with how the Marvel Cinematic Universe handles the X-Men property from now on, I can’t imagine them topping this film or craft something as creative and inventive as this. Perhaps I’ll be wrong but as the film itself states, the future is never truly set!

1.) Logan

Of course, it was gonna be this one. Logan not only stands as the best X-Men film but up there with one of the best that the superhero subgenre has ever offered. This is about as perfection of an adaption of Old Man Logan as you could get, delivering the hard R-rating that everyone always wanted for a Wolverine movie and bringing together that perfect conclusion to Hugh Jackman’s original run with this character. The performances by Hugh Jackman, Patrick Steward, and Dafne Keen are outstanding, the direction by James Mangold could not be more perfect, the action is incredibly well-handled and gruesome, it’s able to weave into the gritty western genre very well, and it’s tells a really compelling story about time being an enemy when you are on your potential last remaining days. (Also, you are a robot if you don’t cry at the ending of this film!) Regardless if you look at Logan as an X-Men film, superhero film, or as a film in general, it is still top-tier cinema on all accounts, with that one final shot being a special cherry on top. Even though Hugh Jackman would come back as the title character seven years later, that doesn’t change the fact that Logan is a masterpiece and one of the best comic book films ever made period!