X-Men movies proved pivotal in terms of the superhero genre. Long before the MCU or the DCEU, we had X-Men. The X-Men movies even predate Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. However, when it comes to the debate over the X-Men Movies ranked, it’s clear that some films in the franchise are considered weaker than others.
There are a total of 13 X-Men movies. Many of these movies are amazing, considering they managed to set the trend for modern superhero movies. The first installation of the X-Men franchise was released in 2000 and is still continuing.
Keeping in mind the hype for Deadpool 3, which will be the latest entry in the X-Men franchise, we have decided to rank X-Men movies from worst to best. This list will be based on public opinion rather than critics’ opinions.
So let’s dive into the world of X-Men and talk about all the X-Men movies ranked from worst to best. This article will give you an overview of the franchise’s evolution, highlighting both the hits and the misses.
X-Men Movies Ranked
Keep in mind that we will be ranking all of the X-Men movies, regardless if they’re considered canon or not. This means movies like “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” will be included in this ranking of X-Men movies.
With that out of our way, let’s discuss all the X-Men movies ranked from worst to best.
13. Dark Phoenix (2019)
In terms of X-Men movies ranked, Dark Phoenix is certainly the lowest of the bunch. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the most recent X-Men movie that takes place in the prequel timeline. It was directed by Simon Kinberg.
In this film, Jean Grey is hit by a powerful energy ray after making a mistake. She absorbs it into her body. This makes her impossible for the X-Men to control. Now the X-Men must make a difficult choice: saving the planet or their friend who is threatening it.
This film adapts the popular “Dark Phoenix Saga” comic books. However, this film wastes that potential and falls flat on its face. One of the many critiques this movie faces is the casting of Sophie Turner as Jean Grey.
Even if we ignore the mediocre acting, many scenes are impactless. There needs to be more action, nothing unique or amusing, boring writing, unfocused acting, and an uninteresting plot. All of these elements make it the worst X-Men movie in terms of the X-Men movies ranked.
12. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Fox’s first attempt at creating a solo X-Men movie that would lead to a series of prequels failed miserably. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a big disaster for the X-Men franchise. It managed to anger the fans and critics but failed terribly at the box office.
As the name suggests, this film revolves around James Logan’s early life, including his rivalry with his brother Victor Creed, his time in the special forces team Weapon X, and his experiments to turn himself into Wolverine, a mutant with a metal skeleton.
Hugh Jackman’s performance as Wolverine and Liev Schreiber’s performance as Sabretooth were the only highlights of this movie. Weird creative choices and over-stuffing the plot with various characters led to the downfall of this film.
Even though the movie has some good parts, as a whole, it is a tragic waste of potential. There are huge plot holes and some “emotional” scenes that don’t add anything to the movie. This film will always be considered a stinker when it comes to X-Men movies ranked.
11. The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants was the first movie released after the Disney and Fox merger. It is also the most recent X-Men movie. It was an attempt at reviving the franchise with some new faces. However, as you can guess, this decision wasn’t too good. In terms of X-Men movies ranked, this film also falls on the lower end of the spectrum.
In this movie, five young mutants are being held against their will in a secret facility, where they are just learning about their abilities. They have to fight to escape their past mistakes and save themselves.
The New Mutants was announced all the way back in 2017 with a trailer, but due to reshoots and delays, the film fell flat on its face when it was released. The hype of this film died down long ago, and the poorly written storyline didn’t help its case either.
In the end, this film proved that the X-Men franchise is running out of steam and things need to be changed up a bit.
10. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
The next movie on our X-Men movies ranked list is X-Men: The Last Stand. This film was the final entry in the original X-Men trilogy. Many people blame this movie for “killing” the X-Men franchise because Fox had to do a soft reboot of the franchise seven years after this film was released.
In this film, the human government finds a way to stop mutations, and Jean Gray changes into the Phoenix, a darker, uncontrollable version of herself that works with Magneto. This makes things worse for the X-Men, and they have to fight to the death.
After watching the brilliant movie that is X2, fans were eagerly waiting for its follow-up. So The Last Stand had a lot of expectations associated with it. As you can guess, it didn’t quite live up to those expectations. This is why it is at this position in this ranking of the X-Men movies.
This movie has too much going on. The director and writer bit more than they could chew, which means that the film is extremely clustered. The Last Stand would’ve worked better if they had stuck to a single storyline instead of cramming it all into one movie.
9. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
2016 was a very blossoming year for superhero movies. We got to see movies with superheroes fighting one another, a team-up of supervillains, and Inception as a superhero movie.
However, we did get two X-Men movies as well, but only one was worth viewing (Spoilers: Deadpool), and the other was X-Men: Apocalypse. X-Men: Apocalypse takes place in the 1980s. The X-Men must face En Sabah Nur, an ancient and all-powerful mutant who plans to flourish by delivering ruin to the planet.
As you might’ve guessed, the movie was a disappointment. It wasn’t anything extremely bad, but yet the iconic comic storyline didn’t translate well to the screen. The film begins smoothly, balancing itself properly and establishing characters.
However, after a time, you begin to feel disoriented within the film owing to the chaotic characters. The focus of the film shifted halfway through. Hence, the film is tolerable at best but not worthy of being in the top 5 when it comes to X-Men movies ranked.
8. The Wolverine (2013)
Wolverine’s second outing in a solo movie was received better than its predecessor. Set after the events of The Last Stand, The Wolverine sees Logan traveling to Japan to see an old buddy whose life he once saved and becomes engaged in a yakuza-mutant plot.
Unlike its predecessor, The Wolverine is actually watchable. This movie is more dramatic and fun than many others in the X-Men series, thanks to James Mangold’s direction. He was able to highlight smaller character moments and give them time to breathe in between action scenes.
Even though the film has many inconsistencies in its plot and tone, it was a huge improvement over X-Men Origins. Furthermore, this was the definitive solo Wolverine movie that Jackman deserved.
Overall, The Wolverine is an average movie despite all its flaws. It can be enjoyed if you’re a fan of this character.
7. Deadpool 2 (2018)
With Deadpool 2, we have officially entered the good movies territory of our list of X-Men movies ranked from worst to best. In this movie, the foul-mouthed mutant mercenary is back. He puts together a team of other mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural powers from the cruel, time-traveling cyborg Cable.
Deadpool 2 is an amazing follow-up to the original movie. It features some amazing and fun new characters, such as Domino, Firefist, and Cable.
This movie built on everything that made Deadpool great. In Deadpool 2, slapstick humor and breaking the fourth wall are back, and Josh Brolin’s Cable is the perfect straight villain for Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool to play off of.
However, to enjoy Deadpool 2, make sure you’re watching the theatrical cut or the Super Duper Cut of the film because the other makes it look like an entirely different movie. If we had to go with that version of this movie, Deadpool 2 would’ve ended way lower in this list of X-Men movies ranked.
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
The last of the good X-Men movies was also the most ambitious one. X-Men: Days of Future Past was responsible for bringing the prequel and main timelines together. Moreover, this movie allowed Fox to carry the prequel franchise further without creating continuity errors.
X-Men: Days of Future Past revolves around The X-Men, who send Wolverine back in time in a last-ditch effort to change the past and stop something that will be catastrophic for humans and mutants alike.
It still feels unreal that Fox managed to pull off an ambitious concept like Days of Future Past without any trouble, but they horribly failed at something like X-Men: Apocalypse. But we are really glad that we can put Days of Future past at a high spot on this list of X-Men movies ranked.
Overall, X-Men: Days of Future Past is a delightful mix of old and new parts of the franchise. It combines emotional drama, exciting action, and unexpected humor to make a fully satisfying experience that ranks among the best in the franchise.
5. Deadpool (2016)
After his horrendous outing as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins, Ryan Reynolds picked up the katanas once more for Deadpool’s solo outing. Deadpool was released in 2016, and everyone was glad to see their favorite mercenary on the big screen in all of his glory.
This is the story of how Wade Wilson, a former Special Forces agent who became a mercenary, got his name. After a bad experiment gave him the ability to heal quickly, he became known as Deadpool. Deadpool goes after the man who almost destroyed his life, using his new skills and a dark, twisted sense of humor.
It wouldn’t be wrong to call Deadpool one of the most fun superhero movies, even though Deadpool wasn’t the first ultra-violent superhero movie or the first to poke fun at the genre’s cliches. But it was definitely the most fun, and it was also the best one in that category.
Deadpool emerged as a savior of the superhero genre, which was getting stale by 2016. It gave filmmakers another perspective on how whacky and over-the-top superhero movies can also be made. We can see its influence in some other movies or shows after its release.
4. X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men: First Class was the first film of the prequel series, and it is the best one too. In terms of prequels, First Class deserves a high spot in this list of X-Men movies ranked. First Class is a soft reboot that tells the fans how their favorite X-Men characters got their beginnings.
This film is set in the 1960s. Superpowered humans Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr get together to locate others like them, but Erik’s furious pursuit of an ambitious mutant who shattered his life leads to a division between them.
After X3 and Wolverine Origins, our expectations for the X-Men franchise dropped significantly, if not totally. However, Matthew Vaughn came in to save this once beloved franchise, and he honestly nailed it.
X-Men: First Class was the push this franchise required to move forward. McAvoy and Fassbender nailed their roles as younger Professor X and Magneto. Especially considering they had to fill the shoes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. Overall, X-Men: First Class is one of the finest X-Men movies ever made.
3. X-Men (2000)
We can’t forget the first installment because we are kicking off the top 3 entries of our list of X-Men movies ranked. X-Men was released in 2000 and directed by Bryan Singer. This film served as a catalyst for all the early 2000s superhero movies.
In this movie, Magneto kidnaps Marie, a young mutant, and plans to use her talents to destroy mankind. On the other hand, the X-Men and Wolverine band together to save her and stop Magneto.
There were a lot of expectations and pressure on this movie since this was the first-ever live-action appearance of X-Men. Thankfully, the movie lived up to the expectations and was a critical and box office success.
It’s a film that permanently puts the genre back on track. While the concept and storyline may appear to be a little sloppy now, the implementation of the ideas was as well as humanly possible. It’s a must-see for any fan of superhero movies.
2. X-2 (2003)
X-2 revolves around Nightcrawler, a mutant who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States. Meanwhile, when William Stryker attacks Professor X’s school, the mutant kids band together to stop him.
This is one of those cases where the sequel is better than the original movie. X-2 is definitely the best “real X-Men” movie. This is why it deserves a second spot on this list of X-Men movies ranked.
The action in this movie is much better than in the first one, and many of the action scenes are just awesome. We get to see more of Wolverine’s wild anger, which is always interesting to watch.
X2 took everything fantastic about the X-Men of the 2000s and made it even better. Even though the movie had many characters, it didn’t suffer for a moment.
1. Logan (2017)
The best entry in the X-Men franchise is definitely Logan. Wolverine’s trilogy has been nothing short of a rocky cliff. It started from a low point, then got better, and then with the final entry, it hit the peak.
In the future, mutants are almost extinct, and Logan, who is old and tired, lives a quiet life. But when Laura, a mutant child being chased by scientists, comes to him for help, he has to get her to safety.
If we are talking about X-Men movies ranked, then Logan deserves the top spot. It is not only the best X-Men movie but also one of the best comic-book movies in general. There’s simply so much going on here that it is hard to comprehend.
Overall, Logan is a great payoff to Wolverine and Hugh Jackman. Overall, Logan is a perfect adaptation of a comic book that is heartbreaking and beautiful. This is a great movie made by Mangold and Jackman that will be talked about for years to come.
Conclusion
So this was our list of X-Men movies ranked. Your list might vary from ours, but this is based on common public opinion with a blend of my own opinions.