10 Movie Universes That Make NO SENSE

Don't try to understand these movie universes. Just go along for the ride.

Hugh Jackman X-Men
20th Century Studios

Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe made more money than God, every major movie studio has scrambled to build as many franchises and interconnected cinematic universes as they can, because why the hell not?

The reality of course is that building an ongoing movie universe that's actually internally logical and consistent is extremely difficult.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is basically an outlier in having an impressively firm handle on itself across almost two-dozen movies, largely thanks to the committed efforts of mega-producer Kevin Feige.

But given the enormously complicated nature of sustaining an ongoing franchise, usually incorporating the work of countless writers, directors, and producers, it becomes increasingly difficult for even the simplest movie series to maintain internal equilibrium.

And so, we come to these 10 movie universes, all of which have basically checked coherence at the door as they've gone along, for better or worse.

In unfortunate cases it's forced even hardcore fans to lose interest in the IP, while every so often a series proves itself so utterly uninterested in silly things like logic that it dares to become almost...charming?

Whether it worked or not, though, these movie universes took the fundamental laws of storytelling, physics, and time, and promptly set fire to them...

10. X-Men

Hugh Jackman X-Men
20th Century Studios

The X-Men franchise is undeniably one of the most seminal and important blockbuster IP ever made, but as it surged in popularity it also began to lose its grip on any sort of internal consistency.

The biggest issues abounded in the wake of the (admittedly terrific) X-Men: Days of Future Past, where director Bryan Singer used time travel to effectively jettison aspects of the existing continuity he didn't much care for.

But with each new prequel-sequel movie leaping forward roughly a decade in time, it became increasingly laughable to see actors like Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Hoult apparently playing people in deep middle-age.

The prevailing sentiment from the filmmakers seemed to be that the time jumps were worth ignoring the laws of ageing for, even if most fans might disagree given the middling quality of both X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.

This is without even getting into peripheral movies like Deadpool, Logan, and The New Mutants, none of which slot into any semblance of the continuity in a coherent way.

Though the majority of Fox's X-Men-branded movies have been relatively entertaining, the lack of consistency is majorly headache-inducing.

Hopefully the MCU might take a more measured approach when they inevitably integrate the mutants into the series in the future.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.