Help! I can't stop thinking about the X-Men films!

The superhero movie genre has been a mainstay in cinema for over a decade, predominantly as a result of the behemoth that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In recent years however, the love of all things Marvel has faded and there's many reasons for this. It could be put down to anything from the over kill nature of their multiple film releases a year, the sharp increase in the need to watch their tv show releases, the love of cinema dropping or simply the films just not hitting the same sweet spot since Avengers Endgame came out in 2019.

Since then, there have been around 20 MCU projects to some degree, which is nearly 5 a year when you take into account all their Film and TV releases. Putting it simply, that's a lot to ask for the average consumer to pay attention too. Throw in the major overarching plot points of the multiverse (more than one reality etc) getting involved. It's hard to believe how Marvel, having landed a lot of their decision making in the early years of the MCU, got it so jumbled.

By the looks of it, we're now entering an era of the MCU where nostalgia seems to be at the forefront with characters from the 'Foxverse' (aka the original xmen films) and the 'Sonyverse' (aka ur boys spidey 1, 2 and 3) all crossing over to appear. This got me thinking..

Do we appreciate the X-Men movies enough?

Personally, I have always loved the X-Men films and like many, am firmly in the boat that Hugh Jackson is the superhero GOAT (greatest of all time) and not Robert Downey Jr. It's genuinely absolutely mental that he's been playing the same guy since the year 2000, and is about to, once again, suit up as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 (despite being a 55 year old man). As of writing this, I am 25 years old and the guy has only not played Wolverine for a couple of years of my life. That's some impressive longevity.

Just as a catch up for those who never really got on board with the X-Men franchise, it was 13 films that came out between 2000 and 2017, and followed the story of the aforementioned X-Men, a group of superheroes who protected the world in the same way that the Avengers do in the MCU. Although the films focused more on it's sub plot involving mutants vs humans, compared to the MCU battles predominantly against a big purple alien all whilst searching for some super powerful stones. The really interesting thing that the X-Men films did, was that it offered one coherent straightforward timeline with it's main films and 'older versions' of characters, before introducing younger version of themselves in prequels that they then managed to really nicely combine in the film 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' back in 2014, before going on to tell more stories of the younger characters... until things got a little bit out of hand but we don't need to focus on that bit.

I found this on Google in case it helps..

Many seem to think that X-Men: Dark Phoenix flopping killed off the franchise in 2019, with bad reviews (22% on Rotten Tomatoes), poor box office return (£250 million from a £200 million budget) and a lot of dodgy allegations around fairly overarching Director of the X-Men franchise, Bryan Singer (Director of X-Men, X2, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse), appearing in the news, being the main factors. Since then, I can't help but feel that the X-Men franchise has a fairly mixed reception. Those growing up in the 2010s just would have been more focused on the Marvel films and it's only human nature to compare the two studios work to try decide which ones better, and which one to pay attention too.

However, looking back in 2023, I am not convinced. I can't help, as I slowly work my way through a rewatch, feel like as a society, we were a bit harsh on the X-Men. We were caught up in the shiny lights of Marvel and that's ok. Yes, Robert Downey Jr was fantastic as Iron Man. Yes, Chris Evans was hot as Captain America. Yes, there is a lot of really fantastic Marvel work in general but my point is, we were harsh on the X-Men, especially towards the end of their 13 film saga. The films simply weren't as bad as people thought at the time.

On the train to work recently, I have been rewatching some of the more recent X-Men films, starting my rewatch with Days of Future Past, before moving to Apocalypse and currently watching Dark Phoenix. At home, I've been rewatching the originals, with the 2000 X-Men film being on as I write this. I've loved every moment. First of all, the casting in these films is genuinely pretty incredible. I can't comment too much on the accuracy when it comes to the comic books but Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James Marsden (underrated king!), Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult all stand out to me as fantastic in their roles. I could name a lot more too. Fassbender for me being the icing of the cake. The guy just didn't need to go as hard as he did when it came to playing Magneto. There are some truly gut wrenching scenes for his character, particularly in X-Men Apocalypse, in which Fassbender offers a phenomenal acting performance. I have also noticed that a lot of the characters in the franchise have very strong coherent character arcs that work really well, with Jennifer Lawrence's evolution for Mystique from leaning towards the wrong side of what's good in Days of Future Past all the way through to being a strong maternal figure in Dark Phoenix being particularly well articulated by the writers. This doesn't even take into account some fantastic soundtracks, some really good costumes, solid VFX (arguably better then more recent MCU films) and many other brilliant areas of the films.

With many heavy rumours existing for a long time that X-Men are on track to appear within the MCU eventually (or very soon depending how much attention you pay after film credits), and in some cases played by their original actors from the X-Men saga, I am really intrigued by what is going to happen going forward.

In the meantime, however, let's try and give the X-Men franchise a little bit more respect and love..

Thanks x