X-Men is easily one of the biggest missed opportunities in cinematic history. The source material is filled with a host of dynamic characters, exciting stories, and themes that deal openly with antisemitism, homophobia, and racism. After all, the characters of Magento and Charles Xavier were inspired by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. respectively. And yet, the X-men movie universe (which will now join the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is inconsistent, to say the least.
While there have been some very strong entries in the X-Men movie franchise (such as X2: X-Men United, Days of Future Past, and Logan) there have been far more missteps. And yet, fans think that one moment specifically killed the entire franchise. Let's take a look...
There Is Literally No End To Issues Within The X-Men Franchise
Without the original X-Men movies there simply wouldn't be an MCU. In fact, without the X-Men movies, you probably wouldn't have The Dark Knight either. When the now-disgraced Bryan Singer started this franchise in 2000, he set the tone for taking superhero movies seriously. Unlike the Spider-Man films that existed around the same time, X-Men was dark and aimed at adults... for the most part. The franchise also featured a number of excellent stars, some of whom would find their careers launched because of their roles... ahem... ahem... Hugh Jackman. A lot of the special effects were impressive, the music was stellar, and there was always a strong message... But the issues were endless.
Even in the strongest entries in the franchise, there were abundant continuity problems including major plotholes and the fact that none of the characters really aged. Then there were some outrageous story decisions that seemingly disrespected the source material or straight-up angered fans. All of this led to a number of critically-dissed films, an assortment of canceled X-Men projects, and one that lost over $100 million.
And yet X-Men movies were continued to be made up until Disney bought its original owner, Fox Studios. Nevertheless, fans believe there was a specific moment the franchise died and the movies just weren't good anymore...
Two Franchise Deaths, Two Revivals, And One Last Fatal Stab In The Heart
The truth is, the X-Men franchise has actually died a whopping three times. The first two times, the franchise came back to life. But the third is a moment that fans have blamed for the death of the franchise... until Marvel finds a way to revamp it, that is.
The first death was X-Men: The Last Stand. The third movie in the original franchise did everything the first two films didn't... and that was a mistake. Due to a change of director and studio interference, the entire movie felt pieced together in a lab and lost much of the dark and emotional tone of the first two movies. It also unceremoniously killed off important characters and jammed in one of the most beloved X-Men comic stories ("The Dark Pheonix Saga") with a completely unrelated story arc.
While fans left the theaters furious that the pay-off to the first two films was so sloppy, hope was on the horizon due to the first spin-off movie. After all, it was going to feature the franchise's most beloved character...
X-Men Origins: Wolverine wasn't really part of the main storyline of the X-Men franchise but it certainly killed off the series yet again. After all, it's one of the most widely loathed superhero movies of all time. There is no shortage of reasons why. The result was bad enough that it killed several other origin movies that were supposed to happen.
But eventually, these spin-off films were given more life thanks to James Mangold's The Wolverine and the two Deadpool movies, the latter are easily some of the most beloved superhero movies around. Then, of course, there's Logan which stands leaps and bounds above almost every mutant property ever made.
More importantly, Fox decided to revamp their X-Men series by doing the prequel movies, starting with X-Men: First Class. While First Class also had a ton of continuity issues as well as some very strange casting choices, it reenergized the franchise by giving it a fresh feel. This was continued in X-Men: Days of Future Past which attempted to tie the two timelines together and fix some of the glaring problems fans were complaining about. Overall, it was an incredibly exciting film which showed a lot of promise. But then X-Men: Apocolypse killed everything for good...
As soon as Oscar Issac stepped onto screen as the titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse, the franchise took a nosedive that it would never recover from. There are countless articles online, including one by Collider, that blame X-Men: Apocolypse for the direction of the franchise. While the two follow-up films, Dark Pheonix and New Mutants are arguably worse films, they were undoubtedly affected by the creative and tonal mistakes in Apocalypse.
While Days of Future Past did everything it could to restore the right tone in the franchise and tie up loose ends, Bryan Singer decided to take Apocalypse in a totally different direction. And nothing sums this up as well as when the poorly designed, totally miscast, and utterly silly villain first appears on-screen in the first scene of the movie.
X-Men became about nothing more than poorly executed skeptical and lost everything that made it special... Here's hoping Disney can find a way to do right by the X-Men.
