Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This week, Jared Leto takes on another comic book role as Doctor Morbius, an ailing scientists who finds the secret to eternal life as a vampire. I’m not terribly excited about the film, but I thought it would offer an opportunity to look at the Marvel universe outside of the MCU. Granted, this list will be populated mostly with X-Men movies, but what can you say about the non-Disney output except that some of it was really really bad.
Before we get to those, let’s highlighted five titles that didn’t make the final list. Three of the X-Men films made between 2000 and today have made my final list. Two titles came close, but not close enough. The original 2000 X-Men started it all and managed to convince studio execs that a Marvel team-up film could actually work. While the Blade films pre-date X-Men, Fox’s X-Men titles were a huge success and were followed by the even more successful Spider-Man trilogy from Sam Raimi, the combination helped pave the way to the MCU itself. Another of the X-Men titles came close, X-Men: First Class was the introduction to a new group of mutants, the younger versions of the ones created by Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and others. They did well setting up the new universe that would retcon the third film of the original trilogy and start a new path towards the second X-Men title on my list and a group of mediocre follow-ups.
X-Men-adjacent Deadpool also came close to the list. Ryan Reynolds acerbic, motor-mouth figure that first appeared in The Wolverine, got his own stand alone film and it was bat shit crazy and hilarious at the same time. It set the standard for modern title sequences and was incredibly fun.
After Raimi’s popular Spider-Man films reached their conclusion, Sony attempted to reboot the character with Andrew Garfield replacing Tobey Maguire and Emma Stone stepping in as one of Peter Parker’s other famous love interests. Although The Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t as popular as its Raimi forebears, Garfield and Stone were leagues better than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
And finally, a film that Disney made, but which isn’t considered a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Big Hero 6. Loosely based on a series of comics of the same name, some of the character names were changed and it wasn’t billed successfully as a Marvel movie. Still, it fits and is the primary reason I didn’t say “Non-Disney” Marvel movies.
X2: X-Men United (2003)
While X-Men introduced us to Marvel Comics’ most progressive team, X2: X-Men United took all the lessons learned from the first film and improved upon them in the second, introducing new characters, but making sure everyone had something to do. The film’s plot revolves around anti-mutant military leader William Stryker, his abduction of Professor X, and his attack on Xavier’s school. This film introduced us to Magneto’s Holocaust backstory and provided Bryan Singer an opportunity to show off his directorial chops.
As always, the film is filled with noted performers turning in solid work. Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, and Halle Berry are all particularly noteworthy with McKellen having the most compelling narrative threads. While the third film in this initial trilogy was a massive let down, this film remains a watershed film in the franchise. It’s an entertaining, fascinating, and well molded picture.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Like X2, Spider-Man 2 was also the pinnacle of its initial trilogy. Significantly improved over the prior effort, this film introduced us to Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, the best villain yet presented in any of these Spider-Man films. Molina’s performance was terrific, but he was surrounded by able actors delivering wonderful work. Tobey Maguire returned as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Kristen Dunst came back as his love interest Mary Jane. The film also featured James Franco, Rosemary Harris, and J.K. Simmons.
While Maguire is inferior to other live action incarnations of this character, Dunst is a solid second to Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man. Sam Raimi’s initial trilogy hit this high water mark, but fell appreciably in the third film where the ever expanding roster of villains became too burdensome. This film found the right balance between fan service and cinematic achievement, making it one of the most enjoyable superhero films of the last two decades.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
After X-Men: The Last Stand tanked with audiences, the future of the X-Men was in doubt. Thanks to the reboot of the franchise in X-Men: First Class, the team was taken into the past to look at how they were when they were much younger and when the school was just being founded. Rather than taking itself out of the universe that had already been created, that film didn’t try to rewrite all that came before it. This was solidified in this film, the second with the younger cast in evidence, which brought together the casts of the original and the new films in a time-bending, exciting feature film.
In this film, the future is in doubt as the X-Men are slowly being eradicated by General Stryker’s mutant-killing Sentinels, so they send back a representative to see if they can stop Stryker before he destroys all of humanity in his quest to eliminate mutants. Hugh Jackman takes center stage with James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, and a number of other actors who had so-far inhabited the X-Men universe. Not only was the film filled with terrific visual effects, it had a fantastic, easy-to-follow story that was a delight for any X-Men fan.
Logan (2017)
The last great X-Men film was this 2017 feature set in the X-Universe’s future where an ailing Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) is struggling to maintain his grip on his mental powers, which are slowly getting out of control thanks to his deteriorating psyche. Logan (Jackman) must escape a mutant-hunting squad to protect Xavier while doing everything he can to ensure Xavier’s condition doesn’t cause catastrophic destruction.
Stewart is terrific in a role that should have netted him an Oscar nomination. Jackman is likewise excellent and the whole film, written and directed by James Mangold, is a gritty deviation to the standard superhero feature, eschewing commonplace tropes for those more keenly associated with road movies. It’s an outstanding accomplishment that netted Mangold an Oscar nominated and earned the franchise some of its best reviews. It’s a wonderful film that could help non-superhero fans find a way to appreciate the stories that drive such films.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
While the Tom Holland Spider-Man films have been largely entertaining, Sony embarked on a different journey with this animated feature, which centered on Miles Morales who became Spider-Man in his own timeline. With excellent vocal work from Shameik Moore as Miles, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Kathryn Han as Doc Ock, Mahershala Alie as Miles’ Uncle Aaron and Brian Tyree Henry as his father, it was a stacked cast of voice talents, but they were only a part of the reason for the film’s success.
Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman wrote the screenplay for this fast and funny trip into the Spider-Verse. The hilarious story about finding your place in a world full of people who can do the same thing as you, the film had a wise and witty way of conveying its narrative with fascinating twists on past themes of the Spider-Man universe and managed to one-up every other live action Spider-Man film ever made with the possible exception of Spider-Man 2. Even on second viewing, the humor stands up remarkably well and that is the true test of a film’s lasting appeal.
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