5. Ian McKellen As Magneto In X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Bryan Singer directed the first two X-Men movies as well as the upcoming X-Men:Days of Future Past, and he acquitted himself quite well with the first two films. The first X-Men was an enjoyable film, albeit with a rather rushed third act and X2 was even better, with a simple premise and one of the best opening sequences to a superhero movie this side of the Dark Knight. So when Singer jumped ship to direct the Superman reboot, X-Men fans were no doubt upset. When they heard that Brett Ratner, director of Rush Hour had replaced him, many were a bit worried about what exactly would be turned out. As it happens, what was turned out wasn't very good at all. The whole Pheonix story seemed to fall on its face as it was hard to know whether Jean Grey's new personality was actually to be taken seriously, or just a spoilt brat that wanted the whole cookie jar. The loss of Nightcrawler was palpable, as his powers were one of the coolest things in X2 and the less said about the Juggernaut the better. And that's all before we get to the fact that we are supposed to take Porcupine Man seriously as a villainous threat... McKellen performs very well, continuing to give Magneto the gravitas and menace that the character deserves. But sadly, even though much of the cast performs admirably, the film still feels pretty ordinary.