Adapted from Words Like That S2 Ep. 7, originally released July 23, 2024.
With the comic book movie world going gaga for Deadpool & Wolverine this weekend, I'm counting down every previous Hugh Jackman X-Men movie. (Note: This will list will consist of 9 films and not include the Hugh Jackman paper cutout face from Deadpool or the re-purposed X-Men Origins: Wolverine footage used in the post-credit scene of Deadpool 2.)
Let’s do it.
#9. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Although the third film in the X-Men prequel/reboot trilogy may find Michael Fassbender delivering some of his best work as Magneto, Oscar Isaac doesn’t quite pull off the menacing presence the titular villain is known for in the comics and animated series. Like most X-Men pictures, the cast is bloated with superfluous mutants, and while franchise newcomers Ty Sheridan and Codie Smit-McFee are stellar as young Cyclops and Nightcrawler respectively, other new additions don’t quite reach the same heights. Meanwhile, most of the returning cast seems bored with their characters.
While the existential threat posed by an immortal, near-omnipotent opponent should make for gold comic book cinema, the lackluster plotting causes the stakes to feel much lower than they should. Ultimately, the story is too comicbooky to be taken seriously but too self-serious to have any fun.
As for Jackman’s Wolverine, although at one point in the film’s development, he was intended to arrive halfway through the film and become the young team’s new leader, in the final version, Logan is relegated to a dialogue-less cameo near the picture’s third act. While his brief, violent appearance dishes out a delightful plate of fan service, the scene feels out of place and would have served the franchise much better in the great Wolverine origins movie that we never got.
With director Bryan Singer’s behavioral problems later confirmed to have negatively impacted production, it’s no wonder Apocalypse doesn’t live up to the highs of this often great franchise.
Rating: 5/10
#8. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Following X2’s critical and commercial success, X-Men: The Last stood poised to solidify X-Men as one of the greatest speculative fiction trilogies in cinema history. Unfortunately, the departure of franchise director Bryan Singer led to a change in creative talent behind the camera. The new team discarded the serious dramatic tone of the first two installments in favor of popcorn blockbuster sensibilities. The results were decidedly mixed.
While Kelsey Grammer’s Beast serves as a highlight of the film, the story, which tries to juggle one of the most famous epic storylines in comic history with a smaller, more recent social commentary narrative, ends up too much yet not enough. Since trilogies were considered the standard for science fiction franchises at the time, the film was also intended to serve as a series closer, leading to the killing off and de-powering of much of the first two films’ returning cast. Of a particular waste is James Marsden’s Cyclops, who [SPOILER ALERT] is murdered near the beginning of the film. (In real life, Marsden had effectively left the franchise with Singer in order to star in the latter’s Superman Returns.)
Much of the dialogue and plotting reeks of 2000s adolescent mentality, and director Bret Ratner goes all in on bombastic action sequences, cheapening the genuine dramatic moments. Consequently, the [SPOILER ALERT] demise of Jean Grey at the hands of Wolverine during the film’s climax, a moment which had the potential to be one of most gut-wrenching on-screen deaths ever, rings hollow.
The Phoenix Saga may be tailor-made for a great cinematic adaptation, but this ain’t it.
Rating: 6/10
#7. (And this one is probably going to be a little controversial) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Widely regarded as one of the franchise’s worst installments, Jackman’s first solo outing actually features a surprising number of positive elements. First, Liev Schreiber’s understated psychopathic portrayal of Sabretooth, or “Victor” as he’s referred to in the film, stands out as one of the franchise’s best villains, while the opening sequence of Wolverine and Victor fighting throughout a century and a half’s worth of wars remains one of the best comic book movie credit sequences to date.
Wolverine’s retirement into log-cabin seclusion with the love of his life sets up the perfect western motif that would come to define the character’s later solo outings, and the [SPOILER] murder of his love, Silver Fox, at the hands of Victor makes for the kind of gut-wrenching death we should have gotten in The Last Stand. In fact, the only flaws in the first half of the picture are mutant overload (an affliction from which all X-Men films suffer) and the discontinuities that begin to arise with the original trilogy, conflicts that, up to this point in the film, could be easily explained by Logan’s damaged memory. In short, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is half of a really good, if not great, film.
Unfortunately, the second half of the picture is so bad, the sum total of its parts falls squarely in the mediocre range. The mutant overload kicks into overdrive, and while Taylor Kitsch makes for an appealing Gambit, the character is misplaced in this movie and ends up wasted. Similarly, Ryan Reynolds’s return as a muted Wade Wilson in the film’s final act is a creative decision that still draws the ire of fans, Reynolds included, to this day. The worst transgression, however, lies in the decision to reveal Silver Fox’s death as a ruse, undoing one of the most emotionally impactful moments for Logan in any film.
Despite the film’s atrocious finish, I still consider X-Men Origins: Wolverine to be slightly better overall than The Last Stand.
Rating: 6.5/10
#6. The Wolverine (2013)
Directed by James Mangold of Walk the Line fame, the titular hero’s second solo effort firmly establishes the character’s western motif, with Jackman essentially embracing the Eastwood-Man-with-No-Name persona for his portrayal of Logan. Mangold also manages to deliver plenty of comic book action, including a magnificent fight scene atop a moving bullet train, while maintaining a consistent, serious tone throughout most of the movie.
Although the film mostly avoids mutant overload, it still includes some superfluous characters (did we really need Viper in this film?), and the climactic battle becomes a little too “cartoon/video game” for the picture to completely stick the landing.
While it might not play as well as the comic book storyline it’s based on, The Wolverine rests as a solid entry in the X-Men film-verse.
Rating: 7/10
#5. (Probably another controversial pick) X-Men: First Class (2011)
Although the film is very good, I’m not quite enamored of this one as a lot of critics and fans. First, like every other X-Flick, there are just too many unnecessary characters. Do we need Riptide? Banshee? Havoc, even? Their presence seems to be strictly for showcasing superpowers for “cool” action scenes and special effects.
While I enjoy the picture’s ‘60s James Bond homage for the most part, some the influences come off a little cheesy, and January Jones’s White Queen is tragically underdeveloped. Continuity with the original trilogy is also completely abandoned, making suspension of disbelief harder than it already is with a film about super-powered mutants.
Still, the film is expertly directed by Matthew Vaughan, and Michael Fassbender and James MacAvoy deliver masterclass performances as young Magneto and Young Xavier respectively. Fassbender’s portrayal of Magneto as a post-World War II Nazi hunter proves particularly compelling. Kevin Bacon also gives a highly underrated performance as the film’s antagonist, Shaw, while the real world backdrop of the Bay of Pigs incident lends credence to the fictional tale.
In this one, Jackman’s Wolverine appears in only one scene—spitting an expletive at Xavier and Magneto. Fortunately, we would get to see Jackman interact more extensively with this incredible cast in the film’s follow-up.
Rating: 7/10
(This next one will definitely be controversial)
#4. Logan (2017)
I know. Logan is widely considered to be one of the best comic book films of all time. And while I admit it is quite good, I just don’t feel it rises to the upper echelon of the genre.
Of the film’s positives (and there are many), Jackman’s and Patrick Stewart’s performances standout, as does Mangold’s direction. With this installment, the sub-franchise unapologetically completes its transformation into a neo-western saga (and in case anyone misses the point, a scene from the legendary western Shane is inserted for good measure).
However, like The Wolverine before it, Logan suffers from a climactic battle which strays far from the credibility of the rest of the picture. Not only does the mutant children’s rallying to defeat the bad guys play like cheesy horror movie antics, it also raises the question of why they didn’t wield their powers in such a way previously. My conclusion? Perhaps, Mangold is too much of realist to know how to properly handle the obligatory climatic battle of a superhero movie.
I also have my quibbles with the [SPOILER] Wolverine clone plot point. I’m not sure if it would have made better sense narratively, but I personally would’ve preferred Sabretooth or a Sabretooth clone (although that’s probably just because I’d like to see Liev Schrieber reprise his role). At one point in the film’s development, Victor was considered to appear in one capacity or another, but ultimately, Mangold, Jackman, and company went in a different direction.
Still, despite my quibbles, Logan is the best solo Wolverine movie by far and a fantastic entry in the genre.
Rating: 8/10
#3: X-Men (2000)
The movie that started it all. This is probably lower on many people’s list, but for my money, there is no film that has better captured the spirit of the comic than this first one.
Yes, Bryan Singer actively eschewed comic book aesthetics to a fault, going as far as banning comic books on set and, sadly, establishing those black leather costumes as the only acceptable X-Man attire for far too many movies to follow. The film also inaugurates the “superfluous mutants” tradition, suffers from budget and production time cuts that produce cheap-looking special effects, and stretches the bounds of believability with a convoluted plot involving Magneto’s attempt to mutate normal humans.
But Singer and company did something that no other creative team had done before: They treated a comic book superhero property as a serious work. No camp. No outlandish defying the laws of physics. Everything in the film worked realistically within the framework of the X-Men’s fictional world. There’s a story floating around the internet that, when young Christopher Nolan saw the film, he said something to the effect of, “Well, they beat me to my Batman idea.” While that anecdote may be apocryphal, the sentiment is certainly credible.
Beyond the treatment of the source material, the cast and characters, including Jackman as Wolverine, Stewart as Professor X, and Ian McKellen as Magneto, are stellar and near-pitch perfect representations of their comic page counter parts.
It may not be objectively the best X-Men film, but it’s certainly my favorite—and in truth, one of my favorite films of all time.
Rating: 9/10
#2: X2: X-Men United (2003)
Over 20 years after its initial release, the second entry in the original X-Men trilogy is still considered one of the best flicks the genre has to offer.
The film repeats most of the positives of the first film while ditching most of the negatives. Convolution is no where to be seen, and the special effects are top notch. The film also introduces Alan Cummings’s phenomenal Nightcrawler in one of the greatest scenes in comic book movie history.
While X2 still suffers from superfluous mutant syndrome, and the characterizations aren’t quite as compelling as they were in the first film, the technical execution nudges this one above its predecessor and perhaps pushes it into the top five of the genre.
Rating: 9/10
#1: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
The best film in the series. This one has it all. Stellar actors and characters from the original films, interacting with stellar actors and characters from the prequel/reboot. Well-executed, grounded action, but also great interpersonal character dynamics. Plus, the film continues with the historical setting that helped make First Class engaging.
Of course, there are always mutants that could have been excised from the script, and, although the time travel plot is fairly sensical, as with any time travel film, the logic of the temporal shenanigans could be nitpicked to death.
Still, complaints with the film are minor, and in my book, no X-Men movie has yet surpassed this excellent entry in the X-canon. And only time will tell if one ever will. Though not perfect, X-Men: Days of Future Past is about as good as the genre gets.
Rating: 10/10
Now, it's your turn. Do you agree 100% with my rankings? Or do you think I'm a complete idiot? Or maybe only a partial idiot? Drop your ranking in the comments or send us an email to randominerecords @ yahoo.com [no spaces]. If we like your thoughts on the matter, I might read it on the next episode of Words Like That.
Cole Powell is an arts and media commentator and award-winning singer/songwriter from Jayess, Mississippi, USA. Powell holds degrees in computer technology and liberal arts and sciences and wants to be a comic book artist when he grows up and learns to draw.