I Rewatched Every X-Men Movie. Here’s What I Learned
I was sick of superhero movies.
And that's coming from someone with a stack of vintage comics and graphic novels stuffed in his closet.
I was sick of the corporate world-building.
The quips, CGI, and big blue villains.
The blank checks and awkward celebrity casting.
And I was sick of the generic hero/antihero's journey being rewashed over and over like an endless pile of laundry.
But after sobering up from the decades of superhero dominance at the box office, my itch returned.
This spring, Disney+ released X-Men '97, a new animated series from the creators of the beloved 90s X-Men cartoons. The show used a familiar animation style but heightened the mature storylines for an adult-centric audience.
X-Men '97 did more than capture nostalgia. It reminded fans and recovering fans alike that superhero stories can still pack a punch.
My subtle return to the genre sent me down a rabbit hole by watching every X-Men film in one month.
Here's what I learned:
X-Men Set the Standard
Mutants Mean More
Disney Needs the X-Men
Bring on the Deadpool
1. X-Men Set the Standard
At the dawn of the millennium, comic-book movies were relegated to niche adaptations like Blade and Spawn. Because of the financial decay of DC's silver screen heroes, Batman and Superman, by the late 90s, superhero movies were closer to the horror genre than the box-office giants they are today.
That's until X-Men.
Before the MCU, before every star took the sweet comic book movie cash, two seasoned British actors risked their reputation and elevated a genre from niche to commercial juggernaut.
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen gave the superhero genre credibility, and newcomer Hugh Jackman made Wolverine a posterboard icon that the comic-book character would despise. Director Bryan Singer gave X-Men (2000) and the lauded X-2: X-Men United (2003) the budget and bravado of a top-rate action movie while pairing with sincerity for the source material.
The first two X-Men films, alongside Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, made comic book movies commercially viable again. And while the X-Men franchise's spotlight waned as its corporate cousins turned an Iron Man film into a franchise epic worth billions, the series still evolved and churned out quality installments, including First Class, The Wolverine, Days of Future Past, and Logan.
But it's all thanks to the year 2000 when X-Men changed the popular taste and quality of the genre.
2. Mutants Mean More
When you binge the entire X-Men franchise in a month, it becomes apparent what mutants stand for in our world.
The creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby used the X-Men as a way to elevate discussions on race in America in the 1960s. And Chris Claremont's revival of the series in 1975 only heightened the X-Men's allegory of persecution of minority groups. In the past few decades, comics have also served as a voice for the representation of LGBTQIA+ people.
The original X-Men film immediately set the tone for this tradition with the opening scene of Magneto's backstory as a Holocaust survivor. This origin expands in X-Men: First Class (2011) and subsequent scene-stealing performances by Michael Fassbender. When the most recognizable villain in your franchise is as sympathetic as Erik Lehnsherr, you know you've got something special (sorry, Thanos apologists).
The continuous themes of the X-Men revolve around minorities' acceptance into society, legislation over bodies, advancement of genetic science, political control over people groups, and the use of power.
Sounds like our world, right?
The stakes of the X-Men are more meaningful because they are a direct allegory for the stakes of our own world.
Here are a few standouts from my rewatch of the franchise:
New Mutants (2020) has one of the first openly gay main characters and subsequent love stories in superhero movies.
In X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), set in the 1970s, James McAvoy's Charles Xavier has alcoholism and is addicted to a needle-induced drug that suppresses his powers.
In Logan (2017), a weary Wolverine cares for an elderly Xavier suffering from dementia and helps abandoned mutant children cross a border to seek asylum.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), Fassbender's Magneto and McAvoy's Xavier's final outing, showcases a mutant reservation awarded by the federal government led by Magneto.
In X-Men: The Last Stand (2007), a disappointing installment for fans and critics, tackles the fallout of a private corporation's discovery of a cure for the mutant gene and how the government plans to distribute it. Watching that film with 2024 eyes feels a lot different.
In all these examples, X-Men does more than the average superhero film and actively tackles issues that are cemented in our own reality. This allows the audience to connect with the characters more than an alien with powers or a billionaire with intellect.
While there are plenty of subtle and not-so-subtle attempts throughout the franchise to address these issues, there are many more untapped voices and stories to elevate using the X-Men platform.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
3. Disney Needs the X-Men
What are you looking for in a superhero movie?
Meaning? Fun? Thrilling action sequences? Nostalgia? Escapism?
Because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), we're used to a formulaic production line of content between streaming television, movies, and more. The plan was all fine and dandy when it led to The Avengers, but audiences are starting to get sick of being treated like Wall Street investors.
And it's showing in the box office.
No "Phase Five" Marvel picture has hit the billion-dollar mark, a regular occurrence from 2013 - 2019. Now, the results are probably a reflection of the struggling theater market. Still, the MCU isn't used to box office flops like 2023's The Marvels or even "meh" financial performances like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
And for a corporation like Disney, perception is a reality for stockholders.
Although, I appreciate The Marvels actor Iman Vellani's stance on the box office situation.
"That's for Bob Iger."
But more than finances, storytelling fatigue is starting to weigh on critics and fans alike because people no longer know what they want in their superhero movies.
Attempting to recreate the emotional weight of the "On your left" and "I am Iron Man" moments from Endgame feels like a fool's errand. It's the same with the nostalgic incarnation of the Spider-Man meme with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
So, what's next for MCU executive producer Kevin Feige and Disney? Can Disney's current short-term profitability business strategy survive multiple flops and build to a grandiose team-up extravaganza?
How about they pull a DC Comics and go dark? Or double down on the weirdness of multiverse television and film story structure that's putting off general moviegoers?
Besides getting Robert Downey Jr. back in the Iron Man suit, there are few moves left to return to bathing in the billions.
The solution is the X-Men.
Part of the MCU's decade of brilliance was teaming up comic book characters that traditionally couldn't hold a franchise independently.
With the X-Men, the philosophy is part of the package deal. There's enough character-building, storylines, and stakes to build an entire phase of the MCU. Plus, tapping into the built-in IP will only strengthen the world's ability to expand.
If Tony Stark built the MCU, the X-Men can keep it regenerating like Wolverine.
4. Bring on the Deadpool
When a business needs to shake things up and introduce itself to a new audience, it typically hires a marketing consultant.
Think of Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds as comic book movies' innovative marketing consultants.
In 2016, the cinemas were getting pummeled with comic book movies. The MCU had kicked off "Phase Three," churning out two theater movies yearly to build up to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame at the end of the 2010s. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox attempted to keep pace with X-Men: Apocalypse, and DC released Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Every billboard, social media ad, promo poster, and late-night talk show appearance promoted a superhero movie.
But out of all the superhero movies released in 2016, Deadpool dominated culturally. The film took a fresh take on the genre that needed some serious self-awareness.
And even though he wouldn't say it. Deadpool is an X-Men.
That was Deadpool's power. We all were in on the joke.
At the peak of superhero saturation, Deadpool broke the fourth wall and reminded us that comic book characters shouldn't take themselves too seriously. Deadpool laughed at itself while still hitting all the notes fans expect from the genre.
Deadpool was released in February of 2016, a dead month for new movies typically reserved for romantic comedies and horror, and became the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.
Out of the six live-action superhero movies released in 2016, Deadpool had the lowest budget by triple but was second in earnings, just behind Captain America: Civil War, an Avengers movie in disguise that included Tony Stark and introduced a new Spider-Man.
Yeah, but they didn't have Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Just saying.
Yet, Deadpool was received with open arms because of its humor and independent take on a genre that was and is corporate. For the first time in years, Deadpool really felt like you were watching a comic book adaptation instead of a cobbled money grab developed by studio heads.
Deadpool will now be in the hands of Disney thanks to its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. This summer's Deadpool & Wolverine is sure to be the film that passes the X-Men torch to Disney, with Jackman coming out of retirement to dawn the claws one last time. We can assume that Reynolds and company won't water down the character and style for a historically outwardly conservative brand, and that might be exactly what Disney needs to get the X-Men into the game.
Because when you need to shake things up, you bring in a marketing consultant. And for comic book movies, there's no better outsider to grab attention than Deadpool and the X-Men.