20th Century Fox’s version of the X-Men has come to an end with the mutants set to join the MCU. Fox’s franchises span 12 films that were made over 19 years. It was a series which attracted some great filmmakers who got to work with some of the best source material comic books have to offer. The film series has yo-yoed in quality, giving audiences some of the best and worst movies the superhero genre has to offer. As a fan of the X-Men I look at the films, from worst to best.
12. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is easily the worst movie in the X-Men series, the one that nearly killed the franchise. After X-Men: The Last Stand supposedly closed the X-Men trilogy Fox planning to continue the franchise with spin-offs and prequels. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was meant to be the start of this.
The production of X-Men Origins: Wolverine started with some promise. Then award-winning novelist David Benioff wrote the origin draft and his screenplay was placed on the Blacklist of best-unproduced screenplays. Gavin Hood was hired to direct after making Tsotsi which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was based on the popular Weapon X storyline. Then Tom Rothman happened.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a troubled production with Rothman and Hood often clashing. Hood wanted to make a darker, psychological film whilst Fox demanded that the film should be lighter and brighter. Incidents on set included Rothman ordering a set to be repainted behind Hood’s back. The situation was so bad that Hood was on the verge of being replaced before Richard Donner acted as a mediator. The film had to undergo extensive reshoots and a workprint copy was leaked online weeks before the release date.
As expected Origins was a mess. Issues affecting the film were the tone – there was too much poorly placed humour – bad attempts at fan service like the inclusion of Gambit, ignoring the continuity of the original trilogy, and had some of the worst CGI in a major superhero film. Origins took an interesting comic book story and turned it into an uninspired revenge tale.
Even though Origins was a bad film there were some great nuggets. The film opened with a terrific title sequence showing Wolverine and Sabretooth fighting in wars throughout the ages with Sabretooth becoming more bloodthirsty. Liev Schreiber did make a great Sabretooth due to his mix of charm and menace. And Ryan Reynolds was a scene stealer when he played Wade Wilson.
11. X-Men: Dark Phoenix
The last film in the series sadly places near the bottom of this list. Dark Phoenix was Fox’s second attempt at adapting the “Dark Phoenix Saga” and the studio took the strange decision to hire the same screenwriter, Simon Kinberg – and letting him make his directional debut.
Like Origins Dark Phoenix was hit by production problems. Kinberg intended Dark Phoenix to be a two-parter but it was scaled back to one film. The test screenings were disastrous, leading to a bad buzz and the third arc had to be reshot. Yet it was more an average, uninspired film rather than the mess the Rotten Tomatoes suggested.
Dark Phoenix had a strong opening arc with Kinberg trying to make the X-Men more like the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the X-Men being revered by the public and turning them into International Rescue. The surrogate father-daughter relationship between Xavier and Jean Grey acted the film’s heart and it was one of the biggest improvements over The Last Stand. The film focused on more Jean’s tortured mental state. And like previous films in the series there was some strong action scenes – the highlights were space shuttle rescue and the battle on the train.
But the Dark Phoenix story was one that needed more than time to breath and develop its characters, especially the relationship between Jean and Cyclops – and shoehorned in fan-favourite Magneto. Despite the film meaning to be a grand epic, it came across as small scale.
10. X-Men: The Last Stand
When X-Men: The Last Stand was released in 2006 it was met with hatred by fans of the comics. But time has been kinder to the film. The Last Stand was based on two comic arcs – “Gifted” and “The Dark Phoenix Saga” because the film had to continue the step up at the end of X2 whilst trying to capitalise on Joss Wheldon’s run on the Astonishing X-Men.
Like with Origins The Last Stand was affected by Tom Rothman’s heavy hand. He set a tight deadline and demanded the film had a run time of less than two hours. He did this partly as a screw you to Bryan Singer who left the X-Men franchise to make Superman Returns. Matthew Vaughn was set to direct but left due to the rush production schedule – leaving Brett Ratner to take over at the last minute.
The Last Stand had a number of obstacles – such as Halle Berry demanding more screentime, James Marsden being cast in Superman Returns, and having to juggle two major storylines. And these were problems that the film was unable to overcome because Marsden’s Cyclops had to be killed off and the Dark Phoenix storyline was more of an afterthought. Nor was the film helped by Ratner’s comedic approach, like turning the Juggernaut into a punch line and serious moments being undercut by a joke.
Despite The Last Stand does have excellent moments as well. The opening where a young Warren Worthington III problems with the film tries to hack off his budding wings could have fit in any of the Singer films and Ian McKellen does excel as Magneto once again. Nor can there be many complaints about the action – the highlight being when Wolverine tries to infiltrate Magneto’s camp.
More causal superhero fans were more receptive towards the film.
9. X-Men
If time has been kind to X-Men: The Last Stand, then the opposite is true for the first X-Men movie. The first X-Men movie was the first mainstream superhero movie to be released after the disastrous Batman and Robin. Some will say that Blade was the film to revive the superhero genre but it was more of a cult hit for adults.
Bryan Singer was hired to direct after numerous filmmakers were linked to the film, from Kathryn Bigelow, to Robert Rodriguez, to Tim Burton. Singer treated the source material seriously and his approach was darker to many other superhero films that preceded it. This set out its tone with its opening scenes where a teenage Magneto is dragged by Nazi soldiers and Rogue nearly killing her boyfriend with her powers.
The original X-Men was blessed with some great casting, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were fantastic as Charles Xavier and Magneto. The film gave Hugh Jackman his first major role and he did a fine job as a last minute replacement of Dougray Scott. But it was obvious that Jackman didn’t have time to hit the gym like he did for subsequent films.
The first film does a great job setting up the world of X-Men and the prejudice mutants suffer. However, the film’s was burdened by having to set up so many characters and being an introduction for non-comic fans – so had a fairly standard story. X-Men had a budget of $75 million which was fairly low compared to other blockbusters at the time and it showed with some of the limited action sequences and dodgy CGI.
8. X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Apocalypse was the last X-Men movie to be directed by Bryan Singer and it was the first film in the rebooted continuity. It was a highly anticipated but was seen as a disappointment after the highs of the previous films. Although I found enjoyment with the film and it was one of the better summer blockbusters of 2016. But this was a summer that features the likes of Warcraft and Ghostbusters.
As the title suggests this film featured Apocalypse, one of the most powerful villains in the X-Men universe and Singer used his appearance to make a more genre heavy film. Apocalypse moved away from socio-political commentary to being a global disaster film. The film visuals were more like the comic books with characters dressed more like their comic book counterparts.
X-Men: Apocalypse was also one of the most violent PG-13 films ever made. It started with a prologue in Egypt that had some brutal deaths and was added to by an interlude where Wolverine escaped from Alkali Lake.
The best part of Apocalypse was Michael Fassbender’s performance as Magneto who dons the helmet once again when he suffers his greatest loss.
7. Deadpool 2
After the success of the first Deadpool movie Fox fast-tracked a sequel. It was given a bigger budget and was it on par with the first film in terms of quality. But it wasn’t a smooth production because Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller had creative differences, leading to Miller departing from the franchise.
Deadpool 2 was an expansion upon the first film – having a bigger cast and bigger action. It was able to subvert expectations with the hilarious parachute jump and had an incredible chase sequence in the middle of the film. David Leitch, director of Atomic Blonde took over the directional duties and as expected he delivers on the action sequences. Ryan Reynolds had a co-writing credit and Deadpool 2 was funny. On a plot level Deadpool 2 was the superhero remake of Looper.
There were some great additions to the series. Zazie Beetz was a terrific find for the role of Domino and this film did a much better joke at portraying The Juggernaut than The Last Stand. The Juggernaut theme tune was epic and hilarious.
6. The Wolverine
The Wolverine was the first Wolverine film to be directed by James Mangold and was based on the popular Japanese arc by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. The Wolverine was a film that was in development for a long time – its production was announced when X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released. It was a film that drew the talents of Darren Aronofsky and Christopher McQuarrie before Mangold was handed the reins.
Mangold followed the template set out by Bryan Singer and made it a darker, character-driven film. This was The Wolverine‘s greatest strength because it was a brooding offering from the series. The film showed Wolverine at a low ebb due to the death of Jean Grey and the break-up of the X-Men. Hugh Jackman was fantastic -his character was given the chance of a peaceful life. The film was strong at drama and the fight on the train was a highlight from an action standpoint. It acted as a dry run for Logan
The film was a given a PG-13 rating for cinemas and an R-rated version was released on Blu-ray. The R-rated version had more ninja action in the fight at the mountain village. The snow blower added to the carnage.
5. Deadpool
Deadpool was a passion project for Ryan Reynolds despite Fox not wanting to make it. The studio was convinced when concept footage was leaked online – and the rest is history. The film was made on a modest budget of $58 million and was extremely profitable.
Deadpool was a standard origins story but it made up for its lack of originality with its well-executed jokes and action sequences. Reynolds clearly loved the character and faithfully brought Deadpool’s style of humour to the big screen including fourth wall breaking and self-deprecating jokes. The best moments for me were the action scene on the freeway (which was a shot-for-shot remake of the test footage) and the various montages. It was one of the best superhero comedies ever made.
4. X-Men: First Class
X-Men: First Class was a soft reboot of the series after the failure of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film brought back Bryan Singer as a producer and directed by Matthew Vaughn following the success of Kick-Ass.
Vaughn and his writers made a prequel set in the ’60s looking at the origins of the X-Men. The key focus was on the friendship between Xavier and Magneto and how their differing ideologies split them apart. The film effortlessly blended the themes of the X-Men series, real historical events, and character-driven drama.
Vaughn’s talents were on display – he is a director known for making energetic, colourful films and being able to balance light-hearted and darker moments. Some of the best moments in the film came from Magneto who got his revenge against the Nazis who experimented on him. Sebastian Shaw’s death was brutal and satisfying. The Nazi-hunting plotline was incorporated from the proposed Magneto Origins movie that never happened.
3. X2: X-Men United
After the success of the original X-Men Bryan Singer was given more creative freedom and a bigger budget for the sequel. Singer and his writing team used this opportunity to expand the universe and continued Wolverine’s storyline. Singer and the writers went to the “God Loves, Man Kills” and “Return to Weapon X” storylines as influences.
X2 showed massive improvements from the outset with the terrific opening where a mind-controlled Nightcrawler attacks the White House and continued from there. There was improved action sequences, special effects and most importantly a better story. Singer was able to give most of the large cast a chance to shine and added the US military as a faction against mutants. This film gave audiences their first taste of Wolverine’s berserker rage and Magneto’s prison escape was creative and epic.
X2 was for a long time considered one of the best superhero films ever made and it is certainly the best of its era – the Superhero Resurgence of 2000 to 2007. But there are two films better in the series.
2. Logan
Logan was the last film Hugh Jackman starred as Wolverine and it was a perfect, if sombre send-off for the character. James Mangold returned to the series and like Bryan Singer with X2 had more creative control. And Mangold used it to the fullest, having a screenwriting credit and gave fans the R-Rated Wolverine film always wanted.
Logan was based on the Mark Millar’s “Old Man Logan” and used elements of the “Death of Wolverine” storyline. Logan was set in a bleak future where most of the mutants have died and none have been born for 25 years. Wolverine has become a jaded figure and slowly dying because of his adamantium skeleton. He is called into action when a Mexican woman pays Wolverine to escort a child to Canada.
Logan was influenced by the Western genre – it has a similar set up to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and the 1953 film was Shane was referenced a lot. There were also elements of The Road and Children of Men in Logan and being a fan of dystopia and post-apocalyptic stories it pleased me.
Logan was one of the darkest superhero films ever made. There were grim scenes like Gabriela’s secret recording, the death of Charles Xavier, and Wolverine’s final battle. Even the action was downbeat because of the violence and lack of mutants. Although Logan did overdo it with the use of the f word.
Logan was the first superhero film to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
1. X-Men: Days of Future Past
Topping the list is 2014′ X-Men: Days of Future Past. As the title suggests Days of Future Past was based on the popular Chris Claremont storyline – a storyline that has been influential on many X-Men adaptations.
Days of Future Past saw the return of Bryan Singer as director and acted as a way to unite the prequel series and the original trilogy. It also had to act as a way to reset the continuity of the series. And manages to do all this with aplomb.
The return of Singer saw the X-Men go back to a darker direction – fitting considering half the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by robots. The filmmakers reinvented the Sentinels as bio-mechanical robots that could counter any mutant power – making them pretty much unstoppable.
Days of Future Past was well written when describing its time-travel mechanics, by stating that both timelines run in tandem and like the better X-Men movies there was great character development and character moments. The film was Xavier’s story where the younger version has to regain his faith and use his powers again.
The best moment in the film was when Magneto holds Richard Nixon and his advisors hostage and makes a public threat and plea. As this goes on the X-Men bravely fight a last stand against the Sentinels. Magneto’s speech perfectly sums up his character and ideology.
Days of Future Past is the best X-Men movie to date – being grand in scale and effective with its character work.
