For years now, we’ve known that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting closer to springing mutants on us. In fact, we already have some MCU (multiverse) X-Men stories underway, courtesy of the great X-Men ’97. And as we get an increasing number of X-Men in the MCU confirmed – Samara Weaving has literally just landed the role of telepath Emma Frost – there’s no better time to look back at some of the great comic book movies from the series that launched the genre.
Still, not all X-movies are created equally, and some are much more deserving of a rewatch than others. If you just happen to be in the mood for X-Men movies right now, here are three that Empire’s experts heartily recommend.
X2 (2003)
Director: Bryan Singer | Runtime: 2hrs 15m | Streaming on: Disney+
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden
The first live-action X-Men movie is great in its own right, and well worth revisiting too – but the step up to X-Men 2 (or X2, or X-Men United, depending on your territory) is undeniable. The action is bigger, the scope is broader, and it digs much deeper into its characters – particularly Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, as he digs into his own forgotten history as a product of the ‘Weapon X’ research project, and Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey as her telekinetic abilities tease impending disaster. From the thrilling opening White House break-in (hello, Nightcrawler!) to the X-Mansion attack scene, to the Lady Deathstrike showdown at Alkali Lake, X-Men 2 proves a thrilling comic book movie classic. Plus you get Brian Cox tearing up the screen as William Stryker, as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen’s Professor X and Magneto, respectively, continue their game of evolutionary chess with operatic results. A cinematic checkmate. BT
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
Director: Bryan Singer | Runtime: 2hrs 13m | Streaming on: Disney+
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult
Before the MCU started messing with multiverses and timelines, two generations of mutants got thrown together in a doozy of a time-travel story. Throwing together the OG X-Men trilogy bunch with the baby-faced First Class crew, this loose adaptation of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s two-part comic run sees everyone’s favourite adamantium-clawed Canadian sent back in time to stop Mystique from killing a US senator, thus bringing about the robot apocalypse (y’know, just a normal day at the office).
Days Of Future Past is a mixtape of everything an X-Men fan could want, with big powers on display from the brutal opening Sentinel fight to the show-stopping slow-motion Quicksilver prison escape. You’ve got Logan, disorientated in 1973 and thrown into full fish-out-of-water mode (or, as Xavier explains it away, “somebody gave you really bad acid”). It’s also not afraid to sink its claws into the knotty politics and morally messy areas that X-Men is known for, with Mystique placed in the middle of two vastly different points of view. It’s a big ol’ celebration of the mutants we’ve come to love, so do yourself a favour, make like Wolverine and pay yourself a visit to 1973. HS
Logan (2017)
Director: James Mangold | Runtime: 2hrs 20m | Streaming on: Disney+
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant
Sure, Hugh Jackman did technically come back for Deadpool & Wolverine after this film, but for me, James Mangold’s sombre masterpiece Logan still provides the perfect ending for one of cinema’s defining comic book movie characters — riffing on Western classics to give Fox’s grizzled adamantium-slinger his own ‘no more guns in the valley’ moment, Shane style, as the sun sets on an icon.
Properly X-Men for grown-ups, Mangold’s movie doesn’t hold back on the F-bombs, the ultra-violence, or the palpable emotion. Charles Xavier is suffering from Alzheimer’s, which combines with his telepathic powers to induce seizures, making him a weapon of mass destruction; Logan is coming to terms with the fact that, finally, mortality might be chasing him down; and Dafne Keen — as Wolvie-like feral teen ‘X-23’ — adds a compelling father-daughter dynamic with real depth of feeling. Both Stewart and Jackman are excellent, given far bigger scope to dig into the knotty relationship between their characters by the darker material, and Keen’s ferocious performance is a revelation. That a movie this refreshing, this complex, and this moving could be made almost two decades into the X-Men franchise is truly a Marvel miracle. In a word, Logan is X-traordinary. JK
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Finished with our list of three great X-Men movies? Why not check out our guides to the best movies on Netflix and what to watch on Apple TV? Or, for those with an even bigger appetite, our lists of the 100 best movies and 100 best TV shows ever made have got you covered.
