Before Disney acquired the studio and the rights to the characters returned to Marvel, 20th Century Fox made a good go of an X-Men movie franchise. The series was certainly a mixed bag. The prequel era brought some of the worst comic book movies in recent memory, despite featuring a bunch of the best actors working today, but movies like Deadpool and Logan changed the game with their R ratings and subversions of audiences’ expectations.
The original X-Men movie blazed the trail for superhero blockbusters at the turn of the century, proving that comic books could form the basis for a very profitable blockbuster franchise.
13 Dark Phoenix (22%)
Fox gave Simon Kinberg one chance to adapt the iconic “Dark Phoenix Saga” for the big screen in X-Men: The Last Stand, but he failed to deliver a worthwhile cinematic version.
Then, for God knows what reason, the studio decided to give Kinberg another crack at it – as his directorial debut, no less – and unsurprisingly, the end result was another disappointing adaptation.
12 The New Mutants (33%)
Teased as a horror movie set in the X-Men universe, The New Mutants was initially highly anticipated. Then, there were a bunch of reshoots as the release date kept getting pushed back. The studio was also sold before New Mutants was released.
When New Mutants finally hit theaters during a global pandemic, the reviews were so negative that few moviegoers wanted to risk their lives to see it.
11 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (37%)
While Wolverine’s solo trilogy would culminate in one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, it started with one of the worst. Hugh Jackman wanted to dig a little deeper into Logan in his origin story, but the studio just made it another team-up movie that minimized Wolverine as much as the regular X-Men movies did, negating the whole purpose of its existence.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was so underwhelming that it derailed plans for other solo movies featuring mutants.
10 X-Men: Apocalypse (47%)
Apocalypse is one of the Marvel Universe’s most all-powerful villains, so it was pretty tantalizing when it was announced that he’d be played by Oscar Isaac on the big screen.
Unfortunately, the script was lackluster and the only powers that Apocalypse got to use were sand manipulation and changing the TV channel without using the remote.
9 X-Men: The Last Stand (57%)
The X-Men franchise’s first of two failed attempts to adapt “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” The Last Stand followed up its groundbreaking predecessors with the first of many disappointing superhero threequels.
This movie is more notable for its meme-able scenes (“I’m the Juggernaut, b*tch!”) than anything else. The Last Stand kills off a number of characters in unsatisfying ways as it rushes through an epic storyline that deserves much better.
8 The Wolverine (71%)
James Mangold wouldn’t get to go all-out with his portrayal of Wolverine until Fox let him aim for an R rating with Logan. However, under the constraints of a PG-13 rating and a ton of studio interference, he managed to make The Wolverine more exciting than the average blockbuster.
The movie makes terrific use of its Japanese setting, like having a fight on the roof of a moving bullet train.
7 X-Men (81%)
Although Richard Donner’s Superman and Tim Burton’s Batman had hit theaters decades earlier and Blade’s part in the equation can’t be discounted, Bryan Singer’s X-Men can be credited with launching the superhero genre’s domination of Hollywood blockbusters.
While X-Men would be surpassed by later films in the franchise, its contribution to showcasing the commercial and critical potential for mainstream movies based on comic book properties should not be minimized.
6 Deadpool 2 (83%)
While the sequel to Deadpool couldn’t quite live up to the breath of fresh air of the first movie, it did a great job of raising the stakes from the first one and developing the characters further while introducing a batch of new ones.
Deadpool 2 continued to leave the audience’s expectations in its dust, as it sets up an ensemble for a team-up franchise, then kills them all off immediately.
5 X2 (85%)
The tradition of superhero movie sequels being bigger, bolder, and more action-packed than their origin-focused predecessors, like Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight, began with X2.
The movie breaks up the mutants early on as they’re all faced with a common enemy and have to join forces in clumps throughout the second act before reuniting for a big final battle in the third.
4 Deadpool (85%)
Fox put off Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool film project for years, fearing that a self-aware R-rated superhero movie filled with profanity and gruesome violence wouldn’t make them a lot of money.
These reservations remained when the movie was finally greenlit with a shoestring budget. Of course, these doubts turned out to be unfounded. Deadpool’s record-breaking box office numbers speak for themselves.
3 X-Men: First Class (86%)
After the disappointment of X-Men: The Last Stand, Fox executives decided to reboot the franchise with a prequel, First Class. Set in the ‘60s, this film details the origin of Professor X and Magneto’s love/hate dichotomy.
While this new direction would eventually kill the franchise, it got off to an intriguing start in the hands of director Matthew Vaughn.
2 X-Men: Days Of Future Past (90%)
Wolverine is sent back in time in X-Men: Days of Future Past, arguably the biggest, most spectacular movie in the X-Men franchise. Logan’s quest to prevent the Sentinels’ extermination of the mutant race in the future provided the perfect narrative vehicle to bring the original cast and the prequel cast together.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is an action-packed romp that represents the franchise at its best.
1 Logan (93%)
After helming The Wolverine with a PG-13 rating, James Mangold was allowed the freedom of an R rating with Logan, which Hugh Jackman decided early on that this would be his last appearance as Wolverine.
In telling the story of the end of Wolverine’s road and his reluctant quest to save the next generation of mutants, Mangold drew heavily from the classic western Shane and gave the character a perfect swan song.