The X-Men film series is a series of superhero films based on the fictional Marvel Comics team of the same name. The films star an
ensemble cast, focusing on Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, as he is drawn into the conflict between Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), who have opposing views on humanity’s relationship with mutants: Xavier believes humanity and mutants can coexist, but Magneto believes a war is coming, and intends to fight. The films also developed subplots based on the comics’ Weapon X and Dark Phoenix storylines.
20th Century Fox earned the film rights to the characters in 1994, and after numerous drafts, Bryan Singer was hired to direct X-Men and returned for X2. He left a potential third and fourth film to direct Superman Returns, leaving Brett Ratner to direct X-Men: The Last Stand. Critics praised Singer’s films for their dark, realistic tone, and subtexts dealing with discrimination and intolerance, but Ratner’s film was met with mixed reviews. Nonetheless, each film outgrossed the last, and Fox is developing spin-off prequels. The X-Men films are also attributed as leading to a reemergence of superhero films in the 2000s, such as the Spider-Man film series.
Each of the films set opening records in the United States: X-Men had the highest July opening yet, while X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand earned the fourth highest opening weekends yet. All of these records have since been surpassed. X-Men: The Last Stand and X2 rank as the seventh and eighth most successful superhero films, while X-Men is thirteenth. The third, second and first films are the fifth, sixth and seventh most successful Marvel Comics adaptations, as well as overall the seventh, eighth and fifteenth most successful comic book adaptations. It is Marvel’s second most successful film series after the Spider-Man films.
When did X-Men film series Jump the Shark ?
5 votes so far...
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I did think that X-Men jumped a bit with the Last Stand movie because the Last Stand movie had two different story lines going on and I wanted the movie to be mostly about Jean Grey’s dark phoenix powers.
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Never jumped. Although these films were by no means modern classics i still found them entertaining and action packed.
I would say however that having so many superheroes in a movie is a bit of a problem. Far too many storylines going on and different character development to keep up with throughout.
Like Hamishdad said, i think the Spiderman films were so much better than this. Mainly due to having one main character that the films focus on.
I wonder if the upcoming Avengers film could succeed where X-Men failed.
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Obviously they’ve been a successful franchise but I never got it. I found all of them, including the Wolverine spin off, to be nothing more than watchable.
I think part of my apathy was that the movies simply took themselves a little too seriously whilst expecting you to buy into a completely ridiculous concept; the idea being that mutations somehow allow humans to do all sorts of amazing things. The other part was probably to do with amount of super heroes on stage at once – too many for my humble human powers to take.
In fact I always preferred the Spiderman movies. They were a little more light hearted with fewer characters and less reliant on the big set pieces.
The fact that the Hollywood machine seems to be churning out more Xmen movies doesn’t fill me with joy!
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