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[pramod]

If I were to give it a grade, I would say around a B-. But that's only in comparison to the MCU, which is an almost impossible standard to live up to. But overall I think despite the many uneven and subpar movies, Fox's handling of the X-men franchise has to be given credit for several things:

1. Successfully bringing the X-men to life when no one thought it could be done.
2. Help revitalize the Superhero movie genre back in the early 2000s.
3. Amazing casting choices such as for Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto(Fassbender).
4. Covering a decent amount of famous X-men storylines like Days of Futures Past, Hellfire Club, Dark Phoenix, etc.
5. Creating the hugely successful Deadpool spinoff.

Despite these good things though I think this franchise fell short of its full potential, for a few reasons:
1. Too many repetitive storylines. I think there were at least 4 movies with the "bad humans" vs mutants plotline. It just got so tiresome.
2. Ironically, I felt that a franchise about mutants that can shoot lasers from their eyes, ended up being too grounded in reality and serious. It's almost as if the producers were afraid to cut loose and give us a real crazy all out comic book movie.

BTW my ranking of my favorites would be: First Class, Deadpool 2, Deadpool, Xmen 1, Logan, The Wolverine.

 

[cryptoadam]

Started out very strong and was the impetus for the comic book rennisance we have had going on for nearly the last 2 decades.

Eventually it went south with some peaks but many valleys. And just like comics it became convoluted with reboots, spin offs, timelines, etc... The last X Men movie has re killed the franchise and its time for another reboot. Wolverine was on its death bed but managed to go out in style with Logan. The other origins stories never got off the ground. Deadpool 1+2 have done well and created their own parallel connected but not connected universe.

Overall FOX was a bit LTTP to the party in a sense since they had the XMen universe but didn't understand the idea of a cinematic universe when they started this whole thing. It could of been as big as Marvel if you add in Fantastic Four and then all the X Men spinoffs they could of done.

X1 and X2 still rank up there as far as super hero movies even with all their dated cheese.

 

[cr0w]

X2 was great, X1 not so much but worlds better than X3. First Class and Days of Future Past were exceptional films, as was Logan. The Wolverine was good, but the goofiness of the Silver Samurai fight took it down a notch.

Wolverine was perfect casting, as was Xavier, but I always felt McKellen was too old to be Magneto though he did a good job. I just never saw Mags as being geriatric. I feel like X2 and DOFP were good in spite of Bryan Singer, who always seemed to be a little embarrassed by comic material, based on these and Superman Returns. He always tried to ground them too much, IMO.

 

[Kacho]

There was more good than bad IMO

Good: X-Men, X-Men 2, First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan

Bad: X-Men 3, Wolverine Origins, Apocalypse

So overall I’d give it a B. The series never reached the highs it could have which is unfortunate.

My biggest complaint about the series is the consistently bad costumes. They never looked believable.

I’m very excited to see what Marvel does with the franchise in the MCU. You know they’re going to nail the look and feel of the comics.

 

[Bolivar687]

I'd give them a solid B. They lost a lot of their charm once some of the better DC and MCU films started coming out, but the oversaturation of the latter has given me a newfound appreciation for what Singer and Fox accomplished.

 

[Nintendo Switch]

OP, X2 was amazing. How the hell did you leave it off your list.

 

[pramod]

OP, X2 was amazing. How the hell did you leave it off your list.

I'm just not a big fan of the evil humans vs mutants storylines. Its just not that interesting to me. I want to see mutant vs mutant battles and X2 had very little of that. And the villains plan seemed overly convoluted. Kidnap Professor X so we can have a mind control mutant control him and use our copycat Cerebro to mentally kill all mutants. Whew.

 

[BANGS]

I think OP is giving them WAAAAY too much credit... but the series does have it's ups and I generally like them...

 

[Gander]

This pretty much sums it up.

 

[TheSadRanger]

I'm just not a big fan of the evil humans vs mutants storylines. Its just not that interesting to me. I want to see mutant vs mutant battles and X2 had very little of that. And the villains plan seemed overly convoluted. Kidnap Professor X so we can have a mind control mutant control him and use our copycat Cerebro to mentally kill all mutants. Whew.

I dunno, I agree with you but you gotta admit that X2 has some of the best action set pieces out of all the films with the Nightcrawler scene and Wolverine vs Yuriko.

 

[Plague Doctor]

It was good up until X3. Then the MCU came along and outclassed it in every way. It peaked back up with First Class but by that point there was no competition to the quality, characterization, and writing of most (not all) of the MCU.

Deadpool though was a brilliant gamble and that one property of Fox's Marvel/tangental X-men went on to be one of the best Marvel films by doing so many things differently.

Honestly, they get points for being first on the scene for Marvel in a big way and for Deadpool, but was later proven to be lacking by the MCU.

For what it's worth, I felt Fox did a far better job with their properties than Sony did for Spider-man. Raimi's Spider-man 1 and 2 were solid but ultimately didn't have a long term coherent vision like Fox and Disney did. Amazing Spider-man was just shit.

 

[pimentel1]

...

 

[Sakura Doritos]

First two were ok. Last Stand was hoooorid. First Class and days of were great. Apocalypse was mediocre at best.

 

[Sub_Level]

Xmen
X2
First Class
DoFP
Logan

Those are the only 5 you need.

 

[Fox Mulder]

started off good as an early comic book movie and Hugh Jackman is an icon as Wolverine for nearly 20 years. I stopped caring with all the time line shit and the MCU came along and lapped the series anyways.

 

[Gander]

First two were ok. Last Stand was hoooorid. First Class and days of were great. Apocalypse was mediocre at best.

I'm a comic book expert and dammit I'm going to stand up for The Last Stand. There is some imagery in that movie done very well and taken right from the comics. Yes some of your favorites died but that's besides the point.

 

[pramod]

I just hope they drop the whole persecution complex shtick when they introduce Xmen to the MCU. That universe is already full of super powered beings anyway.

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

I liked it in the beginning. Nightcrawler was pretty awesome in the first one.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I didn't care for it. I didn't expect much from it either because those movies are adapted from a comic book. Here's hoping we get less superhero movies, fatigue is a thing Marvel...

 

[Sakura Doritos]

I'm a comic book expert and dammit I'm going to stand up for The Last Stand. There is some imagery in that movie done very well and taken right from the comics. Yes some of your favorites died but that's besides the point.

I do find a few scenes ok. But it’s a dumpster fire of a movie overall. I was so sweaty for the movie and it let me down.

 

[bitbydeath]

Better than DC movies but lacking compared to the Marvel movies.

The first two were the best.

C+

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Xmen is Marvel friend

 

[Doom85]

I rank them ( __/10):

Logan - 10
Days of Future Past - 9.5
First Class - 9
2 - 9
The Wolverine - 8
1 - 7.5
Apocalypse - 7
3 - 4
Origins: Wolverine - 2

Like sure, the franchise could have been better, but it's enjoyable overall. As Samuel L Jackson said in Jurassic Park: "it could have been worse, a lot worse."

I enjoy both Deadpool films but even though they're in continuity with them (sorta) I don't really consider them part of the X-men series.

Gander: it's because I'm a comic fan as well is partially why I dislike X3. It butchers the Dark Phoenix Saga (Scott is easily one of the most important characters in that story yet in X3 he's lazily offed. And I find the "he had only a month to shoot" excuse questionable, Ian McKellan only had three weeks to shoot for 2 and he was in plenty of that movie, and regardless even if there's a reason it still doesn't change the issue that the movie is lessened by it) and even thought we needed to throw The Cure story in despite it being one of the shortest superhero movies ever in runtime (also, you can tell how little they care about the fans when they kill Psylocke off after giving her like 15 seconds of screentime with zero dialogue. I forgive you if you didn't even know she was in the movie, that's how much she was wasted). As such, everything is rushed and crowded and nothing works aside from Kelsey Grammar as Beast who's awesome performance is why it's at least better than Origins. Magneto feels like he's being written by two competing writers in the film, one version really cares about mutants and the other version views them as nothing but tools. I could go on but I've ranted about how bad this film is to the X-men in the past. And really, it's just a poorly constructed movie that tries to do so much yet fails at most of it.

 

[pimentel1]

...

 

[It's Jeff]

More bad than good - but the good bits I really enjoyed. First Class ended up being my favorite of the whole lot. Fassbender moving the coin may be my favorite scene from ANY comic book movie. And First Class assigned musical themes to characters, good ones. Sidetracking, but that's one of the reasons I think the Raimi Spider-Man films have more heart than Homecoming does.

Mystique though - I get it, and she's interesting to a point but when all's said and done, she's a significant chunk of the narrative but they really needed to stop trying to make that happen. Colossus was a highlight of Deadpool because they finally got the character right, and they had plenty of opportunities in X-Men proper.

 

[kunonabi]

First Class was decent and Logan was good despite the weak villains. It was also the only X film to improve on an existing character since X-23 has been garbage in every other iteration. Other than that every other storyline and character was adapted miserably.

Deadpool 1 was good too. Deadpool 2 was almost as bad as the rest of the X-stuff.

 

[JimiNutz]

X-Men 1 and 2 were really solid and helped kickstart the superhero movie craze. Even though there were some big dips in quality, overall there was more good than bad in the franchise. Logan and Deadpool are also two of the best films in the genre so I'd rate it a solid B overall.

 

[VulcanRaven]

The first 2 were good but I really started liking the series when First Class was released. That was really good. First Class, The Wolverine, Days of Future Past and Logan are great movies. I enjoyed Apocalypse too.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Uneven.

X-Men 1, X-Men 2, Days of Future Past and Logan were all very good. I still need to see Deadpool 2 but the first one was gold as well.

The rest were meh to bad and yes, I know people really liked First Class, I thought it was average at best.

 

[oagboghi2]

Hugh Jackman was amazing, everything else pretty much sucked.

I also blame X3 for convincing Marvel that Scott Summers was an expendable character.

 

[Sapiens]

If only all of them were handled by a real director like First Class - but alas, we only got one genuinely decent one. The rest are only interesting for their cultural significance.

 

[Gander]

Well the Xmen, like Spiderman are now back in the hands of family. I'm sure they will be handled with care so I'm excited.

 

[kunonabi]

Well the Xmen, like Spiderman are now back in the hands of family. I'm sure they will be handled with care so I'm excited.

I kind of hate how they handled spidey so I'm not overly optimistic about how they're going to handle the X-Men.

 

[Gander]

I kind of hate how they handled spidey so I'm not overly optimistic about how they're going to handle the X-Men.

What's wrong with Spiderman? It may not be as good as Ironman's solo film but certainly it's no Ghost Rider.

 

[quickwhips]

Fox wasn’t going to even make Deadpool until the leak. The Wolverine movies were meh. Jackman is to tall. Patrick Stewart was awesome. I liked the first one even though I was disappointed with the black leather costumes. So I give it a c. I mean we had blade back then also as a good standard.

 

[kunonabi]

What's wrong with Spiderman? It may not be as good as Ironman's solo film but certainly it's no Ghost Rider.

Way too much junk taken from ultimate/miles for my tastes. Not a fan of how they handled his supporting cast, the iron man stuff isnt interesting to me, and the way they write him is very annoying and weird especially the way the Russos do it. I also hate teen spidey stuff in general even if I agree that it makes sense for their version.

 

[Gandara]

Did like X1,X2 and Last Class. I didn't like how Mystique took center stage in the later movies. I was neutral on Day of Future Past. Not horrible but didn't leave a lasting impression on me like the other 3. Same with Logan.

 

[VulcanRaven]

What's wrong with Spiderman? It may not be as good as Ironman's solo film but certainly it's no Ghost Rider.

I didn't like Homecoming either. They didn't get the character right in my opinion. That high-tech costume with some AI voice that speaks to him was bad. Spider-Man shouldn't have a costume like that. I would be ok if he has special costumes when he appears in Avengers movies but not in his own movies. I like Tony Stark but I don't think he was necessary. It sounds they they are bringing some other MCU character for the sequel. Spider-Man has his own characters who should be enough. Also too much humor.