By Robert Bouffard
The first X-Men movie came out in 2000. It was a different age of superhero movies at that time – there was no Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dark Knight Trilogy, or even a Spider-Man movie. In a way, the X-Men franchise was able to help pioneer this new age of cinema where superhero movies are basically their own genre.
But since I was only four years old when the first X-Men was released, I wasn’t as familiar with the franchise as I am with the Iron Man movies, for instance. I’ve seen all of the movies at least once, but for most of them, it’s been years since I watched them. So with the upcoming release of Dark Phoenix, I decided to refresh my memory on the series as a whole.
Rewatching previous movies in a series before the latest entry comes out is something I like to do. For example, for episodes 7 and 8 of Star Wars, I like to build up to the release by watching one movie per weekend. But with the X-Men movies, I did it in a much more abbreviated time. I watched the original three films, the more recent three films, and the Wolverine movies all in one weekend. By doing this, I was able to look at similarities, differences, and the overall quality of each one with fresh eyes. But most importantly, I was able to rank them.
Throughout this rewatch, I developed a brand new appreciation for this franchise. I always knew the movies were good, but I never thought about the ideas that they were communicating. Mutants are able to represent just about any marginalized group of people, and that’s why the newer movies have (mostly) worked so well. They take place throughout different decades, allowing the mutants to represent different people at different times. And as with any series, some installments did it better than others.
The X-Men movies work best when they have a clear message and stay at least fairly contained. This movie has none of that. It lacks a clear focus, the
characters are boring and inconsistent, there are unexplained motivations, awful CGI, a convoluted story, and a final act that consists of lots of bland visual noise (which becomes a theme with the worse movies). It does have a great title sequence and introduces its characters well, but that is all the positive there is to be said about this movie.
This is easily the worst movie featuring the whole team. It has poor
pacing and is inconsistent tonally. In addition, its titular villain is so bland and boring, and his lines consist of nothing but classic villain nothing talk. But this does have some shades of previous movies in its themes – joining together to fight for what’s good and right, family, and examining the outcomes of your choices. They just aren’t close enough to the forefront.
There are lots of great character moments in this movie that built up
over the first two films. Even though there are random story threads that don’t seem to matter that bloat its (admittedly short) runtime, there’s enough in here to make it enjoyable. Its biggest problem, though, is its core – I never bought Logan’s feelings for Jean throughout this entire series. But I don’t think this movie is as bad as its reputation suggests.
The movies focusing on Wolverine having a tough time finding a focus or
reason to exist. The magic of the X-Men movies comes from the social commentary and the team working together(this has none of that). It explores Logan’s reason for existing and the meaning behind his life, and the action sequence on the top of a moving train is great, but this one also ends with lots of noise. It’s solid, but not great.
I found myself really enjoying this movie more than I expected to. There are so many characters that it introduces and it has the heavy lifting of the initial world building, but it does it exceptionally well. For something with such a vast catalog of characters, it keeps its story very contained and character-focused. It sets an excellent tone for the following 19 years of the franchise.
The strength of this movie is in its themes and philosophical ideas. Not
only do mutants represent immigrants or marginalized racial groups, but they even can represent the LGBT community in one very specific scene. It adds in religious and political ideas on top of human moments and a solid story (with an amazing opening sequence) to make itself far and away the best of the original three.
I know I said the Wolverine movies struggle to find a reason to exist, but this one is the exception. It takes themes explored in the other films, such as family and belonging, and puts a satisfying cap on them. On top of that, it has a captivating story with incredible acting from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. It takes itself seriously enough that, at times, it transcends the franchise and genre and becomes a great film in its own right.
This film would be great if it only looked into the relationship between
Charles and Erik. It does such a great job of establishing a conflicted and empathetic villain that Magneto is easily in the conversation for best comic book movie villain. But it also explores family and accepting who you are. All of this combined with an entertaining story with a very fun feel makes it a great X-Men movie.
This is another one of these movies that is large in scope, but feels small in scale. It’s a time travel movie that combines past and present X-Men cast members as they try to stop forces that will take out their kind. Yet, it doesn’t focus on the action and spectacle as much as it does on the character moments. It tells you that you can change your trajectory, no matter how bleak it is looking. It deals with hope – “the most human part of us.” It deals with trust, faith, and acceptance. In a movie full of big ideas plot-wise, it is the big philosophical ideas that make it great and the ultimate winner of the list.