X-Men movies

I watched all X-Men movies that are out so far, and here is what I feel about them. I am a big fan of the franchise since the animated series back in the 90s, and I have red a big part of the comic books, so I am very nitpicky when it comes to adaptations because retro all wins and the first version is always the better version. Aka I am biased and blinded by nostalgia but at the same time what I say is the truth.

When the first movie came out in 2000, I wasn’t critical about it, simply because it was the first live action about a franchise I loved. The acting was good, the special effects were fine, and I didn’t care about the plot since I saw it as an introduction to better things that will come out in sequels. In retrospect, the movie by itself is very straightforward and there isn’t much to keep you engaged besides the theme of racism and the dangers of using power for destructive purposes. The problem is, you get the exact same things in all following movies, which makes the first one passable.

The second movie is when I realized what went sour. What was making the X-Men great was not seeing people with superpowers fighting each other, or the theme of racism. It was the interesting events in which the aforementioned elements unfold. It’s not engaging if the conflict is essentially a superpower gimmick. The first movie was about using one mutant to turn other people into mutants, the second movie was about using a mutant that can kill other mutants. That’s boring. The highlights in the comic book were engaging because they were about affecting the world with their powers, instead of trying to use their powers and being stopped before there is any effect. The movies were not adapting the highlights and felt like the heroes were going in circles, trying to preserve the status quo instead of changing it with their powers.

The third movie, the Last Stand, is where everything went to shit. Unlike the previous movies which didn’t adapt a highlight, the Phoenix Saga is a major event in the comic books. And its adaptation was terrible. Aside from how it had close to no relation with the source material, the whole thing is again based on gimmicks instead of engaging events. Instead of having a space opera about saving the universe from a megalomaniac alien, all we got is a parade of cameos. This was the Star Wars of the X-Men and all they did was trying to stuff as many mutants as they could to just be there. Jean Grey was just a pyromancer, there was a mutant that could take away mutant powers, and no space battles with huge alien armadas. Boring and outrageous!

After that, the producers realized how much they fucked up so they basically rebooted everything by making prequels. Seeing how everybody loved Wolverine, they made a movie about his origins which would be used as an introduction for the next movie. Although the events are following the comic book, it didn’t have much to keep you engaged. It’s ok if you love to see some action and the origin of Wolverine but it’s also forgettable as soon as it’s over. It was about amnesia of which I don’t care about, not to mention the bullshit they did with the final bad guy being not Deadpool. What were they thinking?

Anyways, using that as an introduction we move to the First Class, by far the best one in the franchise, since it takes things from the beginning, it dedicates most of its duration on fleshing out the characters, and the final showdown is not about some mutant that can do shit to other mutants but an actual nuclear threat that puts the whole world in actual danger by using actual nukes made by actual countries. They are finally interacting with the environment and they are developed as characters wonderfully. As an added bonus, it’s what happens in the first X-Men story, only far better. That’s what the first movie should be all about. It improved the source material instead of being a hollow version of it.

The next movie is about Wolverine once more, which is again just an excuse to build hype for the next movie from the post-credits scenes. Even so, it is far more enjoyable that the first Wolverine film. Logan is now in Japan and he is fighting the yakuza and ninjas and cyborg samurais. It’s completely silly but it’s also a throwback to the campy action flicks of the 80s. I loved it as trash entertainment and I would easily watch it again, unlike the previous one which I don’t give a shit about.

The next movie was Days of Future Past, which is also a major event from the comic book. Unlike the Phoenix Saga, this adaptation was far more faithful and enjoyable as mindless action. We finally get some Sentinels. It still suffers from abusing superpower gimmicks, since it’s technically about time resets which I hate. They also changed the roles and powers of some mutants for the sake of plot convenience, but as a whole I wasn’t disappointed. I didn’t love it, but it was serviceable as a tribute to Terminator.

This leaves us with the recent movie, Age of Apocalypse, which suffers from the exact same problems as the Last Stand. Close to no relation with the source material, lots of mutants just being there as cameos, doing anything, and everything being about mutants with broken powers doing shit to other mutants with broken powers, with the end result being to maintain the status quo. The original Age of Apocalypse was an actual apocalypse by the way, which was taken away by a time reset, but at least it was engaging as a dystopia. This movie on the other hand felt like watching Power Rangers. I am just baffled with how they let this happen, like they forgot the mistakes of the past. It was terrible, I don’t recommend it, read the comic books instead. Or watch the 90s cartoon, like I am doing right now. Retro always wins!