Every X-Men Movie Ranked

3. Deadpool (2016)

“Give it the R rating,” the filmmakers said.

“You’re crazy!” The studio said.

“We’ll do it for pennies,” the filmmakers said.

Deadpool went on to make $783million from a $58million budget and broke R-rated records in the process. It was also nominated for a host of Golden Globe awards including Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical for its star Ryan Reynolds.

The movie itself gave the superhero genre the breath of fresh air that it so desperately needed. Loud, brash, arrogant, and oh-so meta, Tim Miller’s telling of the cocky superhero was a fantastic game-changer.

Much of its success was owed to the apparent lack of studio involvement – which was cleverly mocked by Deadpool himself – as well as its huge departure from any of the tried and tested characters or actors that had been a part of the franchise previously.

So what if it suffered from an under-powered antagonist and very little in terms of investment for side characters? The laughs were so big you’d hardly notice.

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2. Logan (2017)

Logan Review

Deadpool opened the door and Logan tore it to shreds.

While Deadpool found its niche in the comedy and brutality of the R rating, Logan found its home, perfecting the previously established themes and character traits of its titular hero to create the most honest, focused and downright emotional X-Men movie of all time.

Patrick Stewart (Xavier) and Hugh Jackman (Logan) were excellent, and the director’s choice to make the movie more of a Western than a typical superhero film helped Logan to recreate the franchise as powerfully as Deadpool did.

It was the emotional goodbye that writer-director James Mangold, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman wanted, and ended up being as great of a send-off as it could have been courtesy of their collective passion.

From start to finish it explored that which we had yet to see in Wolverine’s cinematic universe and did so with such class that almost every emotional twist and turn elevated the film beyond some of its more cliché narrative threads. It was a truly fitting goodbye to perhaps the most beloved singular comic book movie hero of the century.

1. X2 (2003)

Director Bryan Singer made no secrets of the fact that he’d used the second Star Wars movie as inspiration for his own sequel. And, with such a huge focus on the so-called antagonists of the piece, it’s easy to see how important an inspiration Irvin Kirshner’s movie was.

In this film, the narrative aligns us with Magneto to bring sympathy to the mutants as a whole and not just Xavier’s X-Men, and suddenly we’re convinced of the evils of humanity.

X2 is also stunning to look at, with the Nightcrawler White House scene still being regarded as one of the best in any comic book movie.

Though often forgotten about in debates regarding the greatest superhero movies ever made, this was one of the best action/sci-fi/fantasy sequels ever, and was about as fantastic as any movie in the genre could hope to be in every aspect, including direction, acting, writing and visual effects.

The X-Men franchise’s second instalment truly is the Empire Strikes Back of the series.

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With the Fox era of the X-Men now well and truly at an end, this franchise is now complete. And what tremendous memories it has fostered.

What are your best memories? Let us (and everyone else) know in the comments below. And why not tell us your own order while you’re at it?

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Updated 5th Aug 2024 to include Deadpool & Wolverine. Original article published 20th March 2017.

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