The X-Men Archive

X-Men: Days of Future Past is upon us! That's right, the seventh film in this mega-successful (and in my humble opinion the best) Marvel film franchise has been released and is already set to be hugely popular and of course deliver massively on the epic scale. Rest assured I shall surely endeavor to see it, and to thus write a review for you lovely people. But first, as this is a series of films that has spanned 14 years to date, I thought I would take a quick trip down mutant memory lane, and offer a brief compendium, looking in turn at each of the X-Men films gone before, as part of my own build up to the latest barn-storming outing - enjoy!

NB. This blog post is looking at each individual X-Men film featuring the marvelous team of mutants, and not the two Wolverine spin-offs. That is not to say these are not fantastic too, in fact for my review of the latest Wolverine film, see my blog archive!

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X-MEN

The original, and to a lot of Marvel/X-Men connoisseurs, the best. This film was released way back in 2000 and for me as well as legions of others, surely launched the first golden age of movies not just for Marvel, but for the X-Men.

We were introduced of course to a stellar core cast of characters portrayed beautifully in each case by a fantastic collection of acting talent; in this film as well as the sequels, you will never hear me say any actor or actress was not suited to their own mutant alter-ego, the casting really was and is superb. These characters of course featured the hugely popular Wolverine AKA Hugh Jackman who was in turn introduced to Charles Xavier (the legendary Sir Patrick Stewart) and his X-Men, and thus their first clash with Magneto (the equally legendary Sir Ian Mckellen) and his evil brotherhood of mutants. Suitably restrained for a first outing, yet certainly delivering just the right amounts of comic book action and human moments abound, yet also this first X-Men sort of feels to me to be a Marvel thriller in many ways. Very gritty, very set in what Marvel has always tried to portray as "the real world" to their credit. As I say, this film was a great precedent for all the greatness to come, yet it could have been a total flop. Happily however, under the leadership of director Bryan Singer, the X-Men adventures got off to a very solid and very pleasing start.

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X-2

Even after a good start 2003's sequel, like any other sequel, could still have been a poor anti-climax. Yet I am pleased to say that I feel the opposite occurred. The second on-screen X-Men adventure excelled beyond anyone's expectations. Not only was the many and varied cast expanded brilliantly even further into a truly blistering ensemble (notable highlights for me included the great Brian Cox as villainous William Stryker and Alan Cummings as the iconic Nightcrawler) but the story of the second film worked to exaggerate and highlight the great intricacies of each character, both individually and together.

The result was a film that was ram-jam packed full of fantastic chemistry between characters, oodles of action, and the developments of classic X-sagas that were highly recognizable to comic fans. Whilst the first film has its staunch supporters, for many X-2 remains the all time great, and I can certainly see why.

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X-MEN: THE LAST STAND

For a lot of people X-Men: The Last Stand of 2009 was the definite low-point in the series, yet for my part I struggle to see why. Yes OK, there were a few bits and pieces that just didn't look and feel right (for me these included the character of Callisto and the acting/lack of it when it came to the characters of Warren Worthington II/Angel and Dr. Kavita Rao) and whilst the "Cure" and "Dark Phoenix" antagonistic plot devices are brilliant individually, the way they were brought together in this film could have been better.

That being said, this film still produced some absolutely fantastic action, some incredibly energized sequences and real curve-ball moments and character developments, all culminating in an epic final battle that to me was brilliant, even by Marvel standards. Despite a couple of negatives, I do feel that this film was an incredibly fitting end to the original trilogy, and certainly a worthy X-Men film in its own right.

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X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

After the huge and richly deserved success of the first three X-Men films (and the first Wolverine spin-off) I think it would have been very easy, and perhaps sorely tempting to simply carry on with the same sort of formula, but no. 2011 saw a brand new image and a brand new take on the X-Men, with a rebooted revamp that surprised many, but by the end had everyone staggered. Essentially a prequel to the films before it, X-Men: First Class focused on the beginnings of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, as well as a few other choice mutants of X-men legend, and their progression from nervous outcasts into all-powerful superheros and villains. 

Despite being totally new in many ways, this film had all the right amounts of classic X-Men nuance and magic. Still a stellar cast, still a great concept and story, and still all the right amounts of intertwining humanity and comic book action. Best of all, it gave us a second generation of X-Men to enjoy alongside the first; two factions that are set to come together magnificently in the eagerly awaited Days of Future Past...