Now that I have seen X-Men; Days of Future past, I would like to take the time to rank the seven films so far. The next installment is X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. Back in the 80's I got into the Uncanny X-Men right around the Dark Phoenix saga in 1981. From There I had a subscription until I finished high school in 1988. Not only did I collect the X-Men but I collected X-Force and the New Mutants (there were other non X-Men titles too as that's where my paper route money went. So I consider myself something of a X-Men connoisseur. A thing to remember is no movie can be 100% loyal to the source material so the diehards need to get over it. Let's do this!
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009): I made the mistake of going to the midnight premiere of this film and because of it, I haven't gone to another. This is the lowest rated X-Men film on Rottentomatoes.com and there's a reason for it. We already knew a lot about his backstory and we didn't really to see all if it in my opinion. Here was a shocker, Logan and Sabertooth are related! They kind of hinted at that in the first film and they gave us the Logan/Sabertooth dynamic that no one asked for. This film was ambitious though, if successful, a Deadpool film would've happened (it's still a possibility) and a Gambit film couldn't have been to far behind. Essentially it's a long commercial for hair products with Jackman is the pitchman. He can't keep his shirt on and he seems to yell a lot.
6. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): This was a tough call between this and X-Men Origins for last place. At the end of the day The Last Stand was a bad X-Men film while Origins was an awful film. This film had so much potential but it was possibly doomed from the get go as Bryan Singer left the franchise to direct Superman Returns (effectively putting that franchise back in a coma until 2012) and taking James Mardsen (Cyclops) with him. What keeps this out of last place was that it at least tried. There was a good film in there, one that stayed close to the Dark Phoenix saga but failed to reach the mark. It's possible that I'm being too nice. Who knows but if Origins is on TV I will pass it by without hesitation but I would stick around for a few minutes with this one.
5. The Wolverine (2013): Not a bad film but it offered nothing of substance to the X-Men franchise. This was strictly a money grab and to make up for the heinousity that was Origins. The film tells the tale of Logan's time in Japan after the events of The Last Stand. I've stated this before, Wolverine is the cash cow of the franchise. No doubt there is a sequel to this in the works somewhere. My review can be read here.
4. X-Men (2000): The film that started it all. Solid performances from Stewart and McKellan. Jackman turned out to be an excellent choice for Wolverine. Solid in all spots with a few notable exceptions. It did a nice job of laying the groundwork for the franchise.
3. X-Men: First Class (2011): This was another tough call between this and the first film of the franchise. It gets my vote for the bronze medal based on the performances of Fassbender and McAvoy. The filmmakers did a great job of molding the relationship between Xavier and Magneto that. The inclusion of nemesis Sebastian Shaw was a nice touch too as well as using the Cuban Missile Crisis as the introduction of the X-men, just like the comics. The film did make a few changes to the canon:
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009): I made the mistake of going to the midnight premiere of this film and because of it, I haven't gone to another. This is the lowest rated X-Men film on Rottentomatoes.com and there's a reason for it. We already knew a lot about his backstory and we didn't really to see all if it in my opinion. Here was a shocker, Logan and Sabertooth are related! They kind of hinted at that in the first film and they gave us the Logan/Sabertooth dynamic that no one asked for. This film was ambitious though, if successful, a Deadpool film would've happened (it's still a possibility) and a Gambit film couldn't have been to far behind. Essentially it's a long commercial for hair products with Jackman is the pitchman. He can't keep his shirt on and he seems to yell a lot.
6. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): This was a tough call between this and X-Men Origins for last place. At the end of the day The Last Stand was a bad X-Men film while Origins was an awful film. This film had so much potential but it was possibly doomed from the get go as Bryan Singer left the franchise to direct Superman Returns (effectively putting that franchise back in a coma until 2012) and taking James Mardsen (Cyclops) with him. What keeps this out of last place was that it at least tried. There was a good film in there, one that stayed close to the Dark Phoenix saga but failed to reach the mark. It's possible that I'm being too nice. Who knows but if Origins is on TV I will pass it by without hesitation but I would stick around for a few minutes with this one.
5. The Wolverine (2013): Not a bad film but it offered nothing of substance to the X-Men franchise. This was strictly a money grab and to make up for the heinousity that was Origins. The film tells the tale of Logan's time in Japan after the events of The Last Stand. I've stated this before, Wolverine is the cash cow of the franchise. No doubt there is a sequel to this in the works somewhere. My review can be read here.
4. X-Men (2000): The film that started it all. Solid performances from Stewart and McKellan. Jackman turned out to be an excellent choice for Wolverine. Solid in all spots with a few notable exceptions. It did a nice job of laying the groundwork for the franchise.
3. X-Men: First Class (2011): This was another tough call between this and the first film of the franchise. It gets my vote for the bronze medal based on the performances of Fassbender and McAvoy. The filmmakers did a great job of molding the relationship between Xavier and Magneto that. The inclusion of nemesis Sebastian Shaw was a nice touch too as well as using the Cuban Missile Crisis as the introduction of the X-men, just like the comics. The film did make a few changes to the canon:
- Hank McCoy invents Cerebro in this film but X-Men states that both Xavier and Magneto created it tohether.
- Xavier says in X-Men that he can't read Magneto's thoughts because of the helmet that he made for Magneto. In this film Magneto steals it from Shaw after he kills him.
- Moira MacTaggert is a CIA agent but a scientist in the post credit scene of X-Men: The Last Stand.
The things that I didn't like about this film didn't weigh that much apparently. Maybe it was the swinging 60s wardrobe for the female cast members that swayed my decision.
Hmm, those examples are just lingerie.
It must have been the homage to the original blue/yellow uniforms from the comics.
Definitely the homage to the original costumes. Yes, that it is the reason.
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014): My review of the film has been posted. Bryan Singer was back directing and there were excellent performances all around. The film did it's best to tie up any loose ends caused by previous installments. Again the Xavier/Magneto relationship takes center stage (along with Wolverine. Given). It also stayed as close as it could to the source material. Heck I may go see this again now that I think about. Also, nice work on the 70's wardrobe and hairdos.
1. X2: X-Men United (2003): Regarded as a metaphor for gay rights this was the best of the bunch. It introduced us to Logan nemesis William Stryker and used some plot lines from the 1982 graphic novel, God Loves, Man Kills. This film also gives us a look into Jean Grey's Phoenix persona (that Last Stand failed to complete delivery on). It also marked a increase in the Logan/Mystique dynamic that kind of fizzled out for some reason. This film didn't get this highest rotten tomatoes rating of the franchise but it's widely regarded as the best by people who can write better than I can.
Thank you for your time.
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