Sunday Best: X-Men Films Ranked (2019)

With the releases of what many are saying is the worst movie in the X-Men franchise, I thought it would appropriate to go back and rank the X-Men movies for worst to best.  I have not seen the new one, but something tells me that it will rank towards the bottom. 

I made an original list 5 years ago when there were only 7 X-Men movies.  Now those ranks have swollen to 12.  And this seems to close the loop on the Fox series of films, though we are waiting on New Mutants and if there will be another Deadpool. 

Be warned, I am in the minority of opinion on some of these.

11.  X-Men: Apocalypse

The only thought going through my head as I watched this was, "What is the point?"  The First Class cast always feels like the understudy team to the originals and they never quite broke through.  Everything about this film seemed pointless and messy.  On top of that you had the strangely blasphemous marketing campaign and this puts this movie at the bottom.

10.  X-Men Origins: Wolverine

There is a good deal of fun to be had in this movie.  Some of the action set pieces are great and I could watch Hugh Jackman doing his Wolverine thing all day.  But it probably has the worst special effects of any of the movies.  It also completely ruins the character of Deadpool not to mention making Wolverine's past needlessly convoluted.  The story is also a bit of a drag.

9.   X-Men: First Class

Many think that this is one of the best in the franchise.  I beg to differ.  It is fun to get a very fresh take on the younger version of these characters.  But it comes down to my complete and utter annoyance with Charles Xavier in this movie.  He is an idealist who never had to enter the real world.  Magneto is a holocaust survivor who constantly gets lectured by a rich, ivory tower egghead.  This is also the movie that has the least amount of Wolverine in it because of that, a lot of the charm and energy are missing as well.



8.  X-Men

The first of the series got a lot right.  It took the characters seriously and it hired a fantastic cast.  Can you picture anyone else playing Wolverine but Jackman?  But if you look at it in the context of the rest of the series, it is a bit dull.  There are very few really good action set pieces to carry it through.  It also has the worst line of the entire series.

7.  Deadpool 2

If the original is a phenomenon, then most sequels fail to live up to the original.  The same is true of this follow up to the out-of-nowhere hit that was Deadpool.  But there is enough funny humor and action spectacle to make sure you get your money's worth while watching.  Also, the Black Tom Cassidy joke might be the funniest thing I have ever heard in a super-hero film.

6.   X2: X-Men United

What was great about this movie is that it built off of the first and added more characters and more layers.  Instead of it being simply good vs. evil mutants, it added the human element into it.  It did a great job of showing Wolverine as the reluctant guardian and Magneto as a sympathetic monster, but a monster nonetheless.  Again, the place where this has its deficits was in ramping up the excitement to epic levels.

5.   X-Men: The Last Stand

I am one of the few defenders of this movie.  I know that it has its flaws, but there are some great attributes to this movie that place it above the first two:
-the Joss Whedon inspired cure storyline adds fantastic levels of complexity to all sides of the X-universe.
-the killing off of X-Men, while sometimes handled poorly, raises the stakes in this movie in ways that were''t present in the others.
-Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde was perfect.  Her scenes, especially against the Juggernaut were some of the best in the entire series.
-Some people couldn't buy into the emotional side, but I was completely in tune with what was happening.  I thought it was such a touching and dramatic moment when Jean asked if Logan would die for all of the people there and he replies defiantly and helplessly, "No.  For you!"
-I thought the action set pieces were much better than in the the first 2 Bryan Singer films.

4.   The Wolverine

This, of any of the X-movies, captures the real heart and soul of Wolverine.  He is a beast who wants to be a hero.  It has some of the best action sequences of the entire series, not because of the special effects, but because they finally let Wolverine be Wolverine.  This movie embraces both the killer and the stalwart found in him.  The movie doesn't try to be anything other than a straightforward action adventure and it delivers that better than nearly all the rest of the X-Men movies.

3. Deadpool

On paper, this movie shouldn't work.  It was the 8th film in a franchise that already appeared to be winding down.  It was R-rated, which usually restricts audiences.  The character wasn't well known in the general public.  And it was partially a parody of the franchise in which it was a part.  And yet, the audaciousness of this movie broke through the haze of the average super-hero film and it became a cultural touchstone (at least for adolescent boys).  But beyond that, it works as action and comedy and Ryan Reynolds actually turns in an excellent dramatic and comedic performance that has cemented his stardom. 

2.  X-Men: Days of Future Past

I will give my full review later.  But this movie was well written, acted, paced, and themed.  It did an excellent job of bridging the original X-movies with the First Class cast.  Its major deficit is, again, Singer's inability to infuse a constant sense of action throughout.  But that is more than compensated for by a very entertaining spectacle.

1.  Logan

(from my film review of Logan)

There isn't another super hero movie like Logan.

This movie is sober, contemplative, visceral, and heartbreaking in a way I haven't seen in this genre before....

The most important thing to understand about this movie going into it is that it is actually less of a superhero film and more of a classic Western.  Logan is the hard-travelling hero who has lived too long and seen too much killing....

The violence in this movie is more graphic and emotional than any other X-Men film.  As someone who grew up with the comics, this is was how I always imagined Logan cutting loose.  And while it at first as the same vicarious thrill as watching Deadpool or John Wick, after a while the graphicness of the violence gets to you, which I think is part of Mangold's point.  We've reveled in Wolverine's ability to cut his enemies to shreds over the last 17 years.  Now we get to feel what that does to a person's soul.  And yet the action sequences are still enough keep you on the edge of your seat.

One of things I loved most about the film was its depiction of simple, ordinary love.  There is a moment in the movie where our three main characters spend the night with a farmer family.  Mangold fills the scenes around the dinner table with such humor and warmth that part of you wants to leave all of the violence and just settle in.  This family is depicted as faith-filled, hard-working, and trying to get by in life with larger forces arrayed against them...

[It is on this point that I want to spend a little more time.  One of the things that elevates this movie is the focus on the quiet love mentioned above.  The scenes with Logan and Charles are so touching especially upon repeat viewing  because the only thing bonding these men together is the love they have for each other.  And when all is said and done, Logan comes to learn that the only happiness in this world that can be found is through love.  That message does not come off as cheesy or overly sweet.  Instead it is the hard-fought truth underneath all the darkness.]

Logan is powerful and emotional film that has stayed with me in my mind and my heart long after watching it.  When so many movies disappear from our consciousness like smoke, the solid and strong Logan is something to treasure.