The X-Men are dead.
Well, the first set of movie X-Men, anyway.
That run (kind of) came to an end after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Clearly, there remains a lot of affection for the high points of Foxs decades-spanning superhero run.
So before we join those Fox heroes for (possibly?)
one last adventureinside the Void, lets rank all their entries, from worst to best.
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13.
It would also prove to be the most clean-cut and shadowless interpretation of the character ever put to film.
We wouldnt blame him.
OnlyLiev Schreiberseems to be having fun as a sadistic Sabertooth.
Remember how Quentin Quire has quills?
And Juggarnaut actually says, Im the Juggarnaut, bitch?
We wanted space opera andThe Last Standgave us internet memes.
The franchise never really recovered from the amount of damage this thing did.
So, surely, a 21st century film adaptation will at least clean up those problems, right?
Instead it just imitates better ones from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Deadpool 2 (2018)
The firstDeadpoolhas its pleasures, but it largely felt like a proof of concept.
Would audiences go in for a raunchy, self-aware, super-violent superhero?
The answer was a resounding yes!
But theme and humor-wise, its more of the same.
Some of the gags do land, but the overwhelming majority of them dont, makingDeadpool 2a missed opportunity.
The opening sequence in ancient Egypt also has some amusing grandiosity.
The Wolverine (2013)
Its the Silver Samurais fault.
The movie accurately adapts the first Wolverine miniseries by Claremont andFrank Millerwithout ever being too slavish.
It brings to the screen themes about fallen honor and Logans bestial nature.
But its Ryan Reynolds committed performance that makes the movie so palatable to audiences.
X-Men (2000)
Okay, lets talk about all of the problems inX-Men.
Its plot kinda doesnt make sense.
The CG is dated.
Halle Berry has nothing to do and says something about a Toad getting hit by lightning.
All bad, all discussed in the past.
Now, lets talk about the good stuff.
Even the great stuff.X-Mentotally nails the casting in a way that never happened pre-2000, outside ofChristopher ReeveasSupermanandWesley SnipesasBlade.
Its not just that Hugh Jackman captured everything wild and wonderful about Wolverine.
Its thatPatrick StewartandIan McKellenembodied the operatic tension between old freniemies Charles Xavier and Magneto.
The two share the same theatricality as their predecessors and have great chemistry together.
They also embrace Vaughns fixation with 1960s Bondmania aesthetics, givingFirst Classa chic, Kennedy-era giddiness.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
X-Men: Days of Future Pastshouldnt work.
And yet, it all works out.
X2: X-Men United (2003)
You came to the wrong house, bub.
No,X2is pure superhero action.
Logan (2017)
Superheroes never die, least of all Wolverine.
By jumping ahead into an undisclosed future,Logancan avoid that problem.
Instead it lets Wolverine face his final days and end his struggle, once and for all.
Jackman puts in a career-best performance as an old man Logan.
But the real scene-stealer is Stewart as an aged Professor X, suffering from dementia.
