With the release of Dark Phoenix, the era of Fox X-men films, which started nearly two decades ago, has finally come to an end. While I am happy that we will finally see the X-Folx in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can’t help but be a little sad to see such a stylistically different set of films about super-people come to an end. It’s been an interesting ride, so I figured I’d share my tier list for the film and where I would rank them against one another.
And before you say anything, even though Deadpool is kind of disconnected, I still thought it made sense to include them because of their tangential relationship to the “mainline” X-Films.
With that out of the way, let’s dive in!
“Brilliant and Should Be Shown In Any Film Study Class”
These are the best of the best X-People films. They are visually striking, have interesting stories, play with ideas from the comics in a fun and engaging way, and are memorable (something I’ll come back to later).
(Heading the overly literal haters off at the pass, the tier title is a bit of a joke that you may have missed if you don’t frequent twitter.)
1. Logan
I don’t have to say much here, this is the most well-told X-Story as well as the best acted, best filmed, and most emotionally satisfying. Despite not being the last X-Men film released, this film showed us how the series of films should have ended and does the best job of helping us say farewell to the universe. Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman are on overdrive, rounding out their time with the X-Men franchise with two incredibly memorable and heartfelt performances that make you rethink what these films can truly achieve when you put in the right hands.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=g8ccf8BEaKY
You can read plenty of other people gush about this film, so I won’t do that here, but just know, this is one that I love to revisit because of James Mangold’s expert execution of making a super-person movie into a hard-hitting, gritty western that strikes your emotional core with Wolverine’s patented lunge.
2. X2: X-Men United (Tie)
For years, this was in my top 5 list for super-person films. The Nightcrawler scene at the beginning, the attack on the X-Mansion, the dam assault, unlocking Wolverine’s memory, and so much more. I love coming back to this film because it felt like they finally got the persecution of mutants right on the big screen and did it in an exciting and fun way (as fun as being hunted for being different can be).
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nVJ9NxmGYO8
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Tie)
The coolest thing about this film for me was its ability to combine aspects of the original set of X-Men films with the new aspects we gained from First Class. Hugh Jackman dials in his best pre-Logan Wolverine performance, and we get fantastic and different Professor Xaviers from James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart, and both Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen give us fantastic turns as Magneto. The way they do “time travel” in this film felt original and different, creatively using mutant powers in a way that I personally hadn’t thought much about.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qje8JiVxD1k
While I would have loved to see the Sentinels handled a little bit differently, the introductory sequence of this film included some of the best X-Men film action of any of the films.
Fun
For me, this set of films are just plain fun. I personally don’t think they are the be1st, and in a few ways I don’t think they use our mutants in the most interesting ways, but they are enjoyable on the most part.
4. X-Men: First Class
I have an unpopular opinion about this movie. I know a lot of people love it and think it’s one of the best films in the franchise, but I’ve always kind of thought it was lame. Revisiting it, I love the bright nature of it, the re-envisioning of the history of the creation of the X-Men and the way that they play with some of the real world histories of the time.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GCgd-5c3Tqo
The best part of this film is hands down Magneto: Nazi Hunter. I love this aspect of this film and Michael Fassbender really brings his A-game to it. Watching his quest for revenge makes me wish we had gotten that Magneto solo film, but I guess they gave us the best they could.
I still think Jennifer Lawrence was miscast, something that we were continually reminded of throughout her stay in the franchise.
5. X-Men (Tie)
By today’s standards, this one is exceptionally cheesy, but this film deserves some credit for kicking the superhero film movement in earnest. Our introductions to characters like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Anna Paquin’s Rogue, Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto were kind of brilliant. While Magneto’s plan to turn all humans into mutants was a bit of a ridiculous place to start this series off at, it did lead us to get some very formative film superheroics, and for me, made me incredibly excited for what we had to expect from future movies featuring Marvel characters.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mkZ9HsTHTts
Not even Storm’s horrible lines could break me from the joy I felt when I saw that film opening weekend all of those years ago.
5. Deadpool (Tie)
People don’t often get a do-over with a character, but Ryan Reynolds got his second chance with the character he was born to play. While the comedy isn’t always my cup of tea, life is wonderfully breathed into this character and his world. The action is hard-hitting and fun, and I think it adequately subverts a few superhero movie tropes in a tight film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, a problem many of the other X-Men films.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OwMFznIcyjc
7. Deadpool 2
Not much more to say here. I don’t think I enjoyed this as much as the first Deadpool, but Josh Brolin’s Cable was an interesting addition, and they definitely had some fun’s with the villains in this one. Really interested to see what they end up doing with the character as Marvel assumes control and I hope they let him retain his R-rated foulness.
Forgettable
This tier speaks for itself… I find these films completely unmemorable and unremarkable. They aren’t bad per se, they just aren’t necessary.
8. The Wolverine
So before Logan, Mangold had made The Wolverine. The concept was interesting, and who doesn’t want to watch Wolverine fight the Yakuza, and ninja, and samurai? It just doesn’t give enough to make this movie interesting or necessary. Seriously, the best part of the whole film is the credits scene prepping us for X-Men: Days of Future Past.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HHp_EUajLTY
9. Dark Phoenix
The epitome of not bad, not good, and existing for no reason. This film should have been shelved when the Disney-Fox merger went through. It adds literally nothing to the X-Men legacy and leaves such a sour taste in the mouth, considering that Logan had so efficiently ended the franchise on a high note. The film goes through the paces and fails to even create a memorable action sequence as The Wolverine did. It is just blah.
Also, with scenes like this, it would have been easy for me to drop this to the next tier, but I actually don’t think it’s as bad as the bottom three. It amazes me that they gave the writer of X-Men: The Last Stand a second chance to tell a Dark Phoenix story and he still botched it, this time as a director.
Trash
These films are the worst of the franchise on multiple levels. They shouldn’t exist and actively diminish an otherwise pretty good series of film.
10. X-Men: The Last Stand
Surprised this isn’t last? So was I, but thinking about this film, and having watched it multiple time, it’s saving grace is the number of fun moments that actually exist here. The sequence at Jean’s childhood home and (spoiler) destruction of Professor X’s body at the hands of Phoenix.
This film is a mess, fails pretty much every character and felt like a weird departure from the triumph that we had previously received with X2. Countless folks have skewered this movie, so I am not going to get into every awful thing they did here, but I just can’t believe they dropped the ball so poorly on what could have been an amazing way to close out the initial X-Men trilogy.
11. X-Men: Apocalypse
Coming off of Days of Future Past, I’ll I find myself thinking is why? Why was this so bad? Why did they forget how to tell a compelling story? Why did they forget how to right character motivations? Why did they not see how they were wasting their source material?
Apocalypse is one of my favorite X-villains, and the cartoon from the ’90s did an amazing job of realizing the character. In this film, Oscar Isaac is tragically wasted in terrible prosthetics reminiscent of Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers movies. Save for a few, performances felt phoned in throughout and it feels like no one really wanted to be in this movie.
At least Fassbender still gives a masterful performance, you’ve got to find a few glimmers of excellence in even the worst trash.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PJ-zDRmOei0
12. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
CGI claws? Deadpool without a mouth? Amnesia bullets? This movie is stupid, stupid trash. It’s a literal waste of time and no one should waste their time on it.
But, because I don’t like to end on a sour note, unlike the X-Men film franchise, I’ll leave you with the best part of the film.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VE69Lh40UDM
So, agree or disagree? What are your favorite X-Men films? Do you love one that I hate? Share your thoughts in the comments.
