Reel Facts & Opinions: X-MEN - Days of a Franchise Past

This past weekend, the 12^thfilm in the X-MEN franchise since 2000 arrived in theatres with a mutated thud; earning lousy reviews (read Reel Speak’s review HERE), no love from fans, and the weakest box office debut of all the X-films. As the last X-MEN film to be made by 20^thCentury Fox it served as a finale to the 19-year-old film franchise, which makes this the perfect time to look back and see how we got here. 

In the 1990’s, the superhero genre in film was a joke, thanks to several low-budget bombs and high-budget stinkers. No one took the genre seriously, but that all changed in 2000 when director Bryan Singer’s X-MEN arrived. X-MEN centered its universe around three main characters, played by Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), and Ian McKellen (Magneto), and surprised everyone by inserting social issues into its narrative. By making super-powered people (called mutants) deal with civil rights issues, X-MEN vaulted itself and the genre into legit filmmaking. Today, there is a lot of focus on universe-building over several films, and Singer’s X-MEN established everything it needed to in a film that ran less than two hours. 

As good as X-MEN was, it was topped by the superior X-MEN: UNITED in 2003. Commonly referenced as X2, Singer’s second film kept the civil rights issues in the crosshairs while adding some great character-work with his large cast of mutants. There are strong family themes at work, and despite the bigger stakes, operates firmly as a character piece. This Blogger holds X2 as one of the top five best superhero films ever made. 

With such a high bar set by X2, it was difficult for the third entry, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND to come close. Trouble started early when Singer left the franchise and was replace by Brett Ratner, who shot the film in a de-saturated look which sucked the life out of it. The plotline involving a possible cure for mutant-powers was great on paper, but missed an obvious ethical grappling the characters should have had. X3 was met with critical drubbing, and long-time X-MEN fans revolted over some decisions made with the characters and the half-assed attempt at adapting the famed Dark Phoenix comic storyline. It had its moments, but not nearly enough of them. 

At this point, Hugh Jackman had elevated his character to household name status, and was the obvious choice to be the first character to get his first shot at a solo career. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE arrived in 2009, and was to be the first in a series of origin films. Intending to tell Wolverine’s backstory before he received his famed metal-claws, the film suffered from some silly moments (even for a comic book film), and an overabundance of crappy CGI. 

Plans for further origin-telling solo-shots were scrapped, and Fox instead went with a broad-strokes origin-tale with X-MEN: FIRST CLASS in 2011. Telling the story of a young Professor Xavier (now played by James McAvoy), and Magneto (Michael Fassbender), FIRST CLASS was directed by Matthew Vaughn with Singer as a producer. Although this Blogger considers this movie to be a step sideways; neither moving things forward or back…the film was met with critical praise, and for many, righted the ship. 

Fox wasn’t done playing with the immense popularity of Jackman’s Wolverine, and in 2013 gave him another shot at a solo career with THE WOLVERINE in 2013. Directed by James Mangold, THE WOLVERINE explored more of the character’s backstory while taking him forward, and the film stands as the most visually stunning of them all. THE WOLVERINE kinda fell apart in its third act, but still earned praise. It was enjoyable, didn’t spark much outrage…and kept the mutant wheels turning. 

In 2014, the existence of X-MEN: FIRST CLASS was finally justified with the magnificent X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, which saw Bryan Singer return to the director’s chair. The film brought the old and new cast together though some clever time-travel, had some of the most stunning sequences to be seen in an action film, and once again put society back on trial for the way it reacts to people who are different. The time-travel fuckery in DAYS OF FUTURE PAST actually corrected many wrongs by completely erasing the events of the less-than-favored X-MEN movies, which made a lot of fans happy. 

DAYS OF FUTURE PAST reset the board for the original cast, and Fox had a golden opportunity to make an X4 to give them a proper sendoff and perhaps plant seeds for what was to come. But instead, the younger cast was made to stick around a big longer, which brought us to the somewhat abysmal APOCALYPSE in 2016. It was a CGI overloaded film that told us over and over how big and bad of a bad guy Apocalypse was…only to dispose of him in 90 minutes which made the film feel like a Saturday morning cartoon episode. That same year, the talk-at-the-audience superhero DEADPOOL got his first of two films, which kind-of, sort-of took place in the same universe as these cinematic X-MEN; depending on how serious we take the character. 

And then in 2017, the franchise got what is probably it’s finest hour in LOGAN, which saw Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart give their characters a proper sendoff. It was gritty and dark, and a far cry from the CGI cartoons of APOCALYPSE which made it feel like a true film. It was the first superhero film to earn an Oscar for Best Screenplay and it deserved it. 

And then we have DARK PHOENIX, which was the second attempt at an adaptation of the comic story of the same name. The film has been a flop with critics, audiences, and the box office…and as the last film done by Fox serves as a sad end to a once proud series. But things are looking up. With Fox now out of the driver’s seat, Marvel Studios will now rightfully takeover and bring the X-MEN home. Our favorite mutants will no doubt be recast (again, maybe, maybe not for DEADPOOL)…and we can expect them to inhabit the universe once held down by Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America. When that will be, we don’t know yet, but there will likely be a long break for the X-MEN…and they probably need one. But these 12 X-MEN films should not be forgotten forever. They predated the new Marvel series by eight years, and the decision to not shy away from the X-MEN as a civil rights story gives it a timelessness and a lasting legacy. They were shown as humans first and heroes second; and that’s the true blueprint for great superhero films.