The X-Men franchise has weathered plenty of ups and downs over the years, with the now-iconic
series playing host to its fair share of garbage, as well as some of the greatest superhero
movies ever made.
Here's every one of them, ranked from worst to best.
In March 2019, Disney finalized its acquisition of Fox's film assets, and just like that,
Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was taken over by the House of Mouse.
So when Dark Phoenix hit theaters a few months later, it was to be the final mainline X-Men
movie of the Fox era, and the last film of a franchise dating back to the year 2000.
And boy, did it end with a whimper.
Dark Phoenix tells the story of Jean Grey, a powerful mutant who's possessed by an otherworldly
and all-consuming entity.
This cosmic force turns Jean into an uncontrollable force of nature who decides it's time for
the X-Men to become X-tinct.
And yeah, the movie itself works about as well as that joke.
From its lackluster emotional cues to its disappointing action scenes, the movie is
just a total bore.
Sure, you could argue that one other X-Men movie is technically worse, but at least that
particular mis-step was good for a laugh.
Here, you just end up disappointed.
What could've been a grand space opera filled with thrilling space action turned out to
be a dull and disappointing farewell to the uncanny X-Men.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was Fox's return to the X-Men franchise after the original
trilogy ended in 2006.
But while it's always great watching Hugh Jackman have fun as Wolverine, even he couldn't
save this schlockfest from heaps of cheap CGI, cardboard characters, and a screenplay
that doesn't even know the difference between a wolf and a wolverine.
Origins begins in the 19th century and follows Wolverine through his pre-X-Men days, including
his relationship with half-brother Sabretooth, his first love, and even his first dramatic
yell to the sky.
"no."
Unfortunately, the movie is also full of cheesy dialogue and pointless action scenes, while
the obligatory romance is so rushed that you feel practically nothing when Logan loses
the love of his life.
But at least there's still time for this.
"no."
Adding insult to injury, this is the movie that stitched up Wade Wilson's mouth, giving
us a dumb and dull version of Deadpool that kept Ryan Reynolds out of the X-Men universe
for seven years.
It's legitimately one of the worst superhero movies ever made.
After two solid entries in the series, the original X-Men trilogy crashed and burned
with The Last Stand.
Set in the aftermath of Jean Grey's death, The Last Stand revolves around a young boy
who develops the ability to "cure" mutants.
Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Magneto, who raises a ragtag army to kill the kid,
forcing the X-Men to show up and stop him.
The result is a truly messy movie involving far too many characters.
So many crucial scenes either happen offscreen, or are glossed over entirely.
Mystique is morphed back into a human and then basically dropped from the plot.
We never see Hank McCoy grapple with his decision regarding the mutant cure.
Cyclops, one of the most important X-Men, is even murdered off-camera.
But where The Last Stand really falls down is with the Dark Phoenix herself.
Remove Jean Grey, and you lose pretty much nothing from the film.
The entire plot should've revolved around her descent into darkness, but instead she's
just there to look sexy and make things blow up.
It just doesn't work, which really makes you wonder why they decided to revisit this mess
in Dark Phoenix.
X-Men: Apocalypse actually has a lot going for it.
The ancient Egyptian intro is pretty exciting, Magneto's sub-plot could've been its own awesome
movie, and Quicksilver is, as ever, an absolute delight.
It's just a shame that the rest of the movie is such a catastrophe.
The plot involves an ancient deity named, you guessed it, Apocalypse, who wants to take
over the world for…reasons.
And while Oscar Isaac occasionally shines from under those silly-looking prosthetics,
he's done no favors by a script full of cliched dialogue and poor motivations.
It doesn't help that there are too many characters involved in the story too, from Storm and
Psylocke to Cyclops and Nightcrawler, and that's not even counting all the old characters
still around from the previous prequels.
The movie is just too crowded to give every character their due, and as a result, the
film falls flat during its big emotional moments.
Thankfully, Fassbender and McAvoy bring their scenes to life, but the same can't be said
for Jennifer Lawrence, who seems like she really doesn't want to be there.
The superhero genre was in a weird place in the year 2000.
A little over a decade before, Tim Burton had revitalized the genre with Batman, but
after a long line of flops, the genre's popularity had cooled.
And that's when X-Men came along.
The film was a total hit, taking superhero movies in a new direction and making things
a little more grounded than they had been before.
In short, X-Men laid the groundwork for the modern-day superhero boom, and whether you're
a Superman fan or an Avengers aficionado, you probably owe this 2000 flick a debt of
gratitude.
But is it any good?
Well, you've got some dated CGI, a laughable roar from Sabretooth, and who could forget
this particular low-point?
"Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning?"
Nitpicks aside, however, Bryan Singer's take on the X-Men is mostly fun, with characters
you actually care about, simple but well-choreographed action scenes, and the establishment of certain
figures who quickly became a permanent part of the Hollywood landscape.
Ian McKellan is absolutely magnetic as the metal-bending Magneto, for example, while
Hugh Jackman is thrillingly feral and savage as the Wolverine.
All in all, X-Men was a fantastic way to start the franchise…and kick off two whole decades
of superhero films.
Deadpool 2 is kinda like hearing a really good dirty joke more than once.
The first time, it's shockingly fun.
But the second time, the novelty of that R-rated edge wears off a little.
Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 finds the Merc with a Mouth completely lost after
his girlfriend Vanessa is killed.
But when the indestructible trainee X-Man comes across a troubled young mutant with
a fiery temper, Wade Wilson finds new purpose in his ultra-violent life.
Obviously, there's a lot of meta-humor going on here.
Pretty much every comic book property in history is mercilessly roasted, and Wilson takes aim
at a near-endless number of pop culture targets, too.
The film also introduces some pretty cool characters, like the ever-lucky Domino and
arguably the greatest X-Men character of all time: Peter.
"You're a goddamn superhero, you!
"X-force!"
"X-force."
After the disappointing double whammy of The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the
X-Men franchise was in serious trouble.
Fortunately, director Matthew Vaughn gave the series a much-needed boost with X-Men:
First Class, an origin story for the mutant supergroup.
The crux of the movie revolves around the contrasting worldviews between Charles Xavier
and Erik Lehnsherr, who each grew up in radically different circumstances.
It's idealist versus cynic, and some of the best scenes of the movie involve Xavier and
Magneto discussing their opposing perspectives on humanity.
"We have it in us to be the better men."
"We already are.
We're the next stage of human evolution, you said it yourself."
"No, no…"
James McAvoy is delightful as Professor X, and unlike her performance in Apocalypse,
Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic here, portraying an earnest Raven Darkholme who struggles with
her own self-esteem.
Speaking of Erik Lehnsherr, Michael Fassbender as Magneto might be the most inspired bit
of casting in the franchise since Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.
Fassbender's Magneto is a tragic hero grappling with the conflict between his desire for revenge
and his need for a family.
His Nazi-hunting scenes are powerful, and the tense standoff at the South American bar
is almost on par with a certain other classic scene involving Fassbender, beer, and Nazis.
Whether he's pulling submarines out of the ocean or yanking metal fillings from a bad
guy's mouth, Fassbender more than proves his worth as Ian McKellen's successor.
Easily the best film in the original trilogy, X2 begins with one of the most exciting openings
in superhero history.
And everything is just uphill from there.
The plot follows the X-Men as they confront one of their nastiest enemies, the mutant-hating
Colonel Stryker, after he kidnaps Xavier.
Desperate, the team is forced to ally with Magneto and Mystique in an effort to save
the professor and protect mutantkind.
Every single character gets a moment to shine here, whether its Pyro facing off with the
cops, Rogue taking down her fiery friend, or Storm and Nightcrawler simply discussing
their views on humanity.
And if you're looking for killer action scenes, it doesn't stop at the Oval Office beatdown.
The film's best set-pieces include Stryker's attack on Xavier's mansion, Logan's battle
with Lady Deathstrike and Magneto's thrilling escape from his plastic prison.
Action-wise, it doesn't really get much better than this.
Inspired by the 1982 comics series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, The Wolverine
was directed by James Mangold, who later went on to direct Logan.
And it was the first film to give the mutton-chopped hero a revisionist spin.
This Logan has lost his cocky swagger.
Instead, he's a tired man, living as a hermit in the mountains, visited nightly by the ghost
of Jean Grey.
All he wants out of life is death.
That changes when he's invited to Japan to meet a sickly businessman he saved years ago.
Afraid of dying, the man wants to take Logan's powers for himself, and in exchange, offers
him an ordinary life.
But when Logan turns down the deal, he soon finds himself mysteriously drained of his
regenerative abilities, and is drawn into a plot involving a corporate heiress, shady
tycoons, and yakuza thugs.
Drawing inspiration from everything from The Outlaw Josey Wales to Floating Weeds, James
Mangold crafted a truly unique X-Men movie and gave a classic comic book hero a whole
new depth of humanity.
Deadpool's first appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was an absolute disaster.
Thankfully, a few years later Wade Wilson was back on the big screen.
Only this time, the "Merc with a Mouth" could drop as many f-bombs as he wanted, there wasn't
a stitch in sight, and Ryan Reynolds was able to give the craziest performance of his career.
Directed by Tim Miller, Deadpool tells the story of special ops soldier-turned-assassin
Wade Wilson, who is stricken with cancer and forced to seek radical treatment.
Unfortunately, the "cure" leaves him permanently disfigured, though he does pick up some impressive
regenerative powers in the process.
So after donning a tight red suit, he starts hunting the evil scientist who destroyed his
life.
Rude, crude, and caked with blood, Deadpool is a wonderfully self-aware departure from
your usual superhero flick, which is probably why it's the highest-grossing R-rated film
of all time.
The second installment of the prequel trilogy, X-Men Days of Future Past is a timey-wimey
adventure that asks one of sci-fi's most intriguing questions: Can you change the past?
Or is the future set in stone?
The movie opens in a devastating post-apocalypse, where mutants are near to being wiped out
by ever-evolving androids called Sentinels.
These things are impossible to kill, so the X-Men borrow a page from the SkyNet playbook
and send Wolverine back in time to stop the Sentinels from ever being created.
And if X-Men: First Class was Michael Fassbender's movie, then Days of Future Past belongs to
James McAvoy.
This 1970s Professor X is radically different from the wise old mutant we know and love.
He's angry and depressed, beaten down by life and tortured by the voices of the dead and
dying.
McAvoy gives Xavier new depths, portraying him as an unkempt cynic before transforming
into a kind and compassionate leader.
Throw in some crazy visuals and a few clever action scenes, and Days of Future Past becomes
the perfect X-Men film to tie the two main eras together.
Directed by James Mangold, Logan is a sweaty, dusty Western, filled with lonely anti-heroes
desperately looking for hope.
It's set in the year 2029, when mutants are supposedly extinct, except for Wolverine,
Professor X, and their albino friend Caliban, who all live in hiding in rural Mexico.
And that's when Laura shows up.
Played to feral perfection by Dafne Keen, Laura is both a violent animal and a scared
little girl, constantly hunted down by some seriously bad dudes.
Ever the reluctant warrior, Logan steps back into his role as hero and, with Xavier in
the backseat, sets off on a blood-soaked road trip to get Laura to safety.
Hugh Jackman's turn as Logan is arguably his finest performance, not just in the franchise,
but in his entire career.
He plays Wolverine as a tired old gunslinger; bitter, lost, and staring death in the face,
until he's given one last shot at redemption.
Patrick Stewart has never been better than Professor X in his final days either.
And then, of course, there's that final shot, of a cross tilted into an 'X' atop Logan's
grave, which might just be the most beautiful and heartbreaking image in X-Men history.
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