9. X-Men
20th Century Fox
Best entry: X-Men 2 (or X2 in the US)
Most enjoyable: First Class / Days of Future Past Bryan Singers X-Men added a much-needed shot in the arm to the comic book movie genre and the follow up was an absolute belter. Expanding on the success of the first film, X-Men 2 delivered a much more confident film with fantastic action, all the while adding to the character roster. Nightcrawler's White House attack remains the series best action sequence (followed closely by the Quicksilver Pentagon break-in in Days of Future Past). Singer also deftly set up the Dark Phoenix storyline for Brett Ratner to completely balls up in the third movie. The real success of this film was to juggle the story of so many characters without side-lining them. First Class and Days of Future Past dont quite live up to X-Men 2s complexity and they both stumble a little in the final act. They are however both more fun than X-Men 2. The concept alone of First Class, the origins of Professor X and Magneto and generally messing with history, is hugely entertaining. Magnetos Nazi hunting sequence is a particular high point. First Class also drops the F-bomb in the most glorious way possible. Yet overall First Class muddled tone stops it from being a really great movie. Days of Future Past goes for the bigger is better approach, upping the scale, complexity and number of characters. It manages to do all this without messing it up too, which is a feat in itself. How many times has upping the stakes in the sequel failed? Days of Future Past certainly delivers. The opening scene and previously mentioned Quicksilver time-warping antics in the Pentagon are great. But it is not a better film than X-Men 2. For all its brilliance it does gloss over some major characters in a way X-Men 2 doesnt, reducing Mystique to a plot device and barely involving Ian McKellens version of Magneto. Ultimately it succumbs to its monstrous ambition delivering some brilliant sequences along the way.