Isn’t it weird that so much has changed in the world and film business and yet FOX’s ‘X-Men’ is still going strong.
Almost 10 years ago the MCU started. At that point this wave of superhero movies had been going on for about 8 years and many were claiming it was getting ready to end. “Blade” proved that a Marvel based superhero film could work. Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” was where the genre kicked into high-gear. But it was “X-Men” building off of the success of “Blade” that truly got it started. We have a lot of movies to get through so lets get started.
*SPOILER WARNING!*
1.) ‘X-Men’
I cannot describe in words just how excited I was for this back in the day. I grew up on the old animated series and I had been imagining what a “X-Men” movie would be like. Needless to say I was elated to learn they had picked my favorite choice for Professor X by hiring Patrick Stewart. I devoured every piece of info I could about it. This was the first time I can remember downloading a trailer off the internet. It took half the day to download and the size of the screen was only slightly bigger than a wallet photo. But I didn’t care, I could see the characters I grew up seeing on TV and comics on the big screen. My nostalgia aside, how does the film hold up? Overall it’s okay. I remember hearing this criticism at the time and now I totally see it, it feels like a feature-length trailer. So much stuff just hinted at. Promising us it would be shown in the sequels. The best thing I can say about the movie is that it made me truly realized how much of a hellish existence Rogue’s life would be and she became one of my favorite characters. At the time this is what we needed a film to be to prove this sort of comic book story could be adapted. However, now it’s kinda quaint to see how small-scale this is in comparison to where other superhero films would go.
Eric’s advice: See it but keep in mind the time this was made and try not to judge it too harshly.
2.) ‘X2: X-Men United’
For the longest time this was my favorite “X-Men” film. I didn’t think it would get any better than this. It really felt like it had the best balance of character, emotion, and action. Also, on a side note can we please stop this whole “Bryan Singer can’t direct action” thing? That’s all anyone says when he’s hired to do another superhero movie. Yet, no matter how good or bad it turns out to be there’s always at least one action sequence everyone comes away talking about how amazing it is. I don’t care if you like him as a director or person. But can we at least stop with that criticism as it clearly doesn’t apply. We get a new antagonist with William Stryker, an obscure character from the comics that the films would continue to use again and again. Still he’s great in this played by the wonderful Brian Cox. I have such strong memories of seeing this the first time and the audience going nuts when Colossus armoured up. Then, the collective groans when Wolverine sends him away to protect the escaped kids. Nightcrawler is as perfectly realized a character from comic to screen as I’ve ever seen. He’s so good I wish they could have included more parts of his and Wolverine’s friendship. All of this while still giving many of the characters their own moments and arcs like Pyro’s turn to the dark side or Iceman’s “coming out” scene. The end scene with the President still sends shivers down my spine as a message of hope takes over. And of course our first glimpse of the Phoenix Force and so many promises of great things to come.
Eric’s advice: See it, for the longest time was my favorite of the series.
3.) ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’
As we all waited for the third film Bryan Singer was offered his dream project, “Superman Returns.” So Brett Ratner was brought onboard. Not only did they need to follow up on the Phoenix tease which would lead into an adaptation of what is generally considered the best X-Men story in the comics, but they also decided to throw in “The Cure” storyline. Either would be fine stories to make X-Men movies out of, but together end up detracting from one another. They needed to pick one or the other. We have even more characters. Angel’s introduction in the beginning is an amazing little story that does a great job showing how so many of these mutants must feel growing up. Sadly even though he is in a number of scenes after this, he serves no purpose. We have Rogue being sent away for most of the film to cover up the actress’ busy schedule. All sorts of issues like that throughout the film. And let me be clear there are a lot of good things in this film like Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Magneto’s reactions to Xavier’s death, but there is also the bad. For instance all the death in this film. You know they went a little far when even a Wolverine fan is complaining about the treatment of Cyclops. Then, they mess up perfectly good characters like Juggernaut (not a mutant in the comics and is Xavier’s stepbrother) and the nature of the Phoenix. In the comics it’s more like demonic possession and is much more interesting. In the end the movie leaves you feeling really hollow. My one comfort is that people have come around to how bad this film is, which is where I was when I first saw it.
Eric’s advice: Not the worst film but pretty damn bad and ruined a promising looking series.
4.) ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’
Thus began FOX’s plans to continue the series by doing spin-off films of different characters. Wolverine’s backstory had been hinted at so it seemed natural to start things off with a film about him. Instead, what we got was one of the most nonsensical films ever. I can boil down why this film doesn’t work by just going over the title. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” This should have just been a Wolverine movie, but they tried to turn it into a “X-Men” film for some reason. There are so many characters thrown in for no reason other than we haven’t seen them yet. Characters like Gambit are wasted. Deadpool… I think the internet has that pretty well covered at this point. We also have a new Sabertooth actor with Liev Schreiber who gets the personality down perfect even if visually he’s a little off. One thing I’ll never understand is why they felt the need to change his power to growing fingernails. I mean “Family Guy” made that joke years ago and it’s all I could think of whenever they tried to make him seem threatening. They also couldn’t seem to make the CGI claws look right. Ok number one why CGI? You’ve been using practical claws in the films up until this point. It literally would have been easier to use the props. Number two HOW’D they do such a bad job with the CGI. That shouldn’t be hard to do. Then, to top all these other problems off they can’t even get the continuity correct which for a prequel I don’t think is an unfair thing to complain about. I’d get into all the issues, but this is already getting long so I’ll stop here. I think you can guess how I feel about the movie. If not, then look at the next sentence.
Eric’s advice: SKIP IT! SKIP IT! SKIP IT! Oh and SKIP IT!!!
5.) X-Men: First Class
For a while it seemed the “X-Men” series was over. Although some work was being done on a “X-Men Origins: Magneto.” It never got very far, though apparently a little bit was put into this film. At the time this came out a lot of the superhero films that had started this boom had concluded or rebooted themselves. Instead, they kept it in continuity. Although still with plenty of goofs. Not as bad “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” but still head scratching. I remember when I brought some up on a comment section someone tried really hard to insist despite the visual design of Mystique (which is not from the comics) and even stock footage of the concentration camp from the first film that this was indeed a reboot and therefore those complaints didn’t matter. Even ignoring that bull crap, my main issue with the film is A.) it’s kinda forgettable. B.) for a film that is supposed to show us the origin of the friendship of Erik and Charles, I don’t buy it. The arc of them being partners and eventually enemies is fine. But for people that will grow up into adversaries while still possessing an enormous amount of respect I don’t see it. In the comics they were partners/friends for years before they had a falling out with their different ideas. So while the film isn’t bad I find it lacking in some major aspects. It still works despite those, but there also the kind of thing that always makes me tilt my head whenever someone tries to say this is the best “X-Men” film. It also has a great cameo for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine which went over so well it became his unofficial catchphrase from that point on. Although as far as great Hugh Jackman cameos go I’d highly suggest “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl.” Trust me on that for the cameo. Plus it’s just a fantastic film in and of itself.
Eric’s advice: It is perfectly good film and worthy of seeing, just not for me.
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6.) The Wolverine
You know years ago a film as bad as “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” would have certainly killed off a franchise. Still the “X-Men” series continued on and Hugh Jackman had enough goodwill to make another solo Wolverine film. This time getting James Mangold to direct. I’ve enjoyed his other films like “Walk the Line” and the “3:10 To Yuma” remake. He seemed to be a really good fit for this character. It’s based on Wolverine’s most famous comic story referred to as the Japan arc. However, the film really just takes the very basic structure. Still it was nice to see Wolverine be given a much better film. It may be PG-13, but it’s a much more brutal film. My main takeaway from the film is that it is a case of a movie climaxing too early. The scene of Wolverine getting his healing factor back and then it turning into a sword fight with Mariko’s father is so well-done in every aspect that you don’t care that there’s still the actual villain to take care of. There are still good moments after this fight, but the film never gets this good again. Now the original director was planned to be Darren Aronofsky. He left the project, but I highly suspect the ending is from his script. They not only turned the Silver Samurai into a mech, (not at all what he is in the comics) but specifically they make the grandfather evil and a head in a robot body trying to steal Wolverine’s healing factor to live forever. If that sounds a little goofy well it is and it breaks the tone of the film up to this point.
Eric’s advice: When it works it’s one of the best, when it doesn’t it really fumbles.
7.) X-Men: Days of Future Past
I know a lot of people love Matthew Vaughn and find Bryan Singer to be okay at best. Still in my opinion All the best films up until this point had been directed by Singer so I was eager to see him return. Loosely adapting one of the most famous “X-Men” stories ever not only did he come back, but so did practically all of the old cast. Some major, some minor, but it was so cool to see them all plus the new characters. A lot of people complain about Wolverine once again being the main character, but really he’s just the POV character they still keep this as Charles and Mystique’s story. We have Peter Dinklage as Trask and while he doesn’t have many opportunities to shine he’s very good as always and I really like how the film never makes mention of his height. All of my complaints are very minor like as a comic fan there’s no way Mystique would have not killed Nixon given the chance, she’s pretty evil. Also, seeing Wolverine at least have a little bit of a fight with Magneto. Once again he easily gets defeated by him even though he only has the bone claws. And other flaws (like the lack of Rogue) are fixed with the director’s cut. In addition to the nostalgia of seeing these actors back again the film just seems to really get “X-Men.” I always thought of the central theme of “X-Men” as being hope for the future. Yes the world is falling apart and is very dark, but the “X-Men” do what they do out of a sense of hope and making a better tomorrow. No where is this better exemplified than in the scene of young and old Xavier meeting. Just that scene along makes this film the “X-Men” film I always wanted.
Eric’s advice: My favorite film of this series!
8.) Deadpool
There’s not much to say about this film. I’ve been racking my brains to think of something, but there’s not much. It’s quite simply a very well-told, fun action flick. I didn’t know much about Deadpool going into this. I knew him as an obscure Wolverine villain. Needless to say his introduction in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” didn’t impress me. Still like the rest of internet fandom I learned more about him and from what I can tell this film really captured him well. Ryan Reynolds fits as well into the role as Hugh Jackman did for Wolverine. It was also the first time a film I’ve seen that got the white eyes look of the comics down perfectly. Such a simple detail that took such a long time to get right. It’s also the first time Colossus looks completely comic accurate. He’s looked OK in other films, but they got the size and lines down right finally. Fun fact: the film’s budget got slashed at the last-minute so a lot of things like Deadpool “forgetting” his guns so they could keep the fights under control. Just a great example of working with what you have and getting what’s really needed.
Eric’s advice: Even if you don’t normally care for this sort of film I’d still recommend this for a solid comedy action flick.
9.) X-Men: Apocalypse
So when the “X-Men” movies were new and coming out I imagined that since the first film had Magneto, the second film would have Mr Sinister (still waiting on him BTW) and then the big trilogy ender would have to be Apocalypse. As seen earlier on this list, that’s not what happened. Apocalypse in the comics presents an interesting challenge. He is immortal and best the heroes can do is just foil his plans and force him to retreat, but he’ll eventually return. Needless to say I was really looking forward to this villain to finally come to the big screen. This may be going a bit against everyone else, but personally I liked his costume. The very Egyptian style was cool and the make-up invoked the look from the comics enough for me to accept it. I even like the take on the character in making him into an almost anti-Xavier with how he interacts/recruits his horsemen. There were a number of things I liked. I liked the look of the costumes, a lot of Magneto’s turmoil still worked, the new Nightcrawler was great. However, for everything I liked there was a ton of things I really didn’t. The Wolverine cameo was great example of my conflicting feelings. On the one hand it was a shameless excuse to get Hugh Jackman in one more time and once again Stryker is forced into a story. On the other hand, his attack that lasts only a few seconds was way bloodier and badass than the ENTIRE “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and as a comic fan I never expected to see the costume from the Weapon X story to ever make it into a live-action film. So many of the film’s fumbles were maddening in how a director with this much experience in “X-Men” movies made such silly decisions. Angel is turned evil and I’m pretty sure is killed before he could ever become the hero he is in the comics or even the previous continuity. The origin of Xavier’s bald head being the biggest “why did we need a prequel to explain this?” But the biggest fumble was this amazing yet simple arc they had set up with Magneto and Quicksilver that they didn’t take advantage because… I still don’t know why and it makes Magneto’s last-minute turn back to good really come out of nowhere.
Eric’s advice: I promise I wanted to like this but it just seemed to repeat a lot of the same mistakes of ‘Last Stand.’
10.) Logan
I don’t like Mark Millar. His writing style seems to be shock and gore for the sake of gore to appear mature. “Old Man Logan” is no exception so I wasn’t looking forward to an adaptation of this story. Still the trailers looked fantastic and the reviews were even better. Much like “Wonder Woman,” for the first 2 3rds it was about as perfect as I could have reasonably expected. But then something happens and the rest of the film goes a bit wonky. In this film’s case it would be once the evil clone of Wolverine shows up that my issues with the film come into play. From that point on the film just doesn’t have the same emotional impact that had been building up to then. Maybe it’s the fact he kills Patrick Stewart as Xavier. Especially during one of his best moments of acting (which needless to say is incredibly high praise for him). Now I am an optimist so I’ll admit the idea that this is the eventual end of the mutants’ storyline is troubling to me even if there is a renewed sense of hope at the end. It’s best for me to see this as an alternative story. I’m not a fan of X-23 from the comics. In general not a fan of gender flipped clones in fiction, but I will admit I did find their reinterpretation of Laura interesting. Maybe it’s how young they made her, Wolverine always works great against a younger female. I remember when I saw this, I noticed a real young kid with his parents a few seats down. He seemed way too little for this film, but that’s on his parents. As I left the theater I saw him again in the lobby completely bawling his eyes out. Good luck with the years of therapy you no doubt just created with your kid!
Eric’s advice: Can see why so many love this, I still have issues. Still a fantastic film.