Bryan Singer: His Films Ranked From Worst To Best

Singer brought the comic book movie back to the forefront of blockbuster cinema with 2000's X-Men, but it was with the sequel three years later that he really perfected the format. An awe-inspiring balance of action, character-driven drama and surprisingly raw emotional content, X2 was arguably the finest comic book movie ever made on release. 13 years on, its power has not diminished.

Having established the story world with the first movie, X2 wastes little time developing it further. This inevitably means bringing in new characters and showing off new powers (Nightcrawler, Collosus and Lady Deathstryke among the notable new arrivals). The existing characters also get their time to shine: Cyclops (sadly underserved in the original) gets his first real piece of the action here, whilst Jean Grey and Storm's powers grow ever more spectacular. Most notably for Wolverine fans, we get our first real glimpse of the berserker attack here.

But beyond all this, the real masterstroke is how, despite the big budget spectacle, X2 manages to remain an intensely personal, character-driven film. The emotional journeys of our heroes are ever bit as essential as the FX and stunts, and all the X-Men really get put through the wringer. The beauty is how even the smallest moments are filled with character detail: take Pyro's beautifully understated journey to the dark side, his few brief scenes speaking volumes.

As much as we all agree The Last Stand was a major let-down, perhaps it's just as well Singer didn't direct the third X-movie: X2 was always going to be a very tough act to follow. In fact, it's debatable whether the series has ever reached such dizzy heights again since.

Do you agree with this ranking of Bryan Singer's body of work? Any films you think should have been placed higher, or lower? Let us know in the comments section below.