10 Things About Fox’s X-Men Movies That Have Aged Poorly

After the success of 1998’s Blade, X-Men was released in 2000 and jumpstarted the juggernaut of comic book films that is Marvel Studios. Many remember the X-Men franchise fondly but also recognize that for every great decision, there were also several questionable ones.

As the franchise went on, the X-Men films developed by 20th Century Fox ended up being a coin flip with fortune not favoring the bold. Many fans agree that the movies suffered greatly, especially when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started to rise and X-Men tried their hardest to compete.

The Original Deadpool

An incarnation universally despised by the fanbase and even the actor Ryan Reynolds himself. With blades coming out of his arms and mouth fused shut, this version of Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine was so universally mocked that Fox ended up parodying it when Ryan Reynolds made his own Deadpool movie.

In Deadpool 2, the more comic-accurate Deadpool ends up going back in time just to kill the original Deadpool out of spite. So while Fox did admit to their mistake and make up for it, it’s still a mistake from an already maligned film.

Storm’s Accent

It can be argued that keeping an African accent is challenging but that excuse could only go so far, especially after Black Panther featured a cast of African-American and British actors. So it makes it even harder to see Halle Berry’s Storm struggle with an accent that constantly goes in and out.

In all sequels, Halle Berry doesn’t even try to have an accent and made Storm completely American when the character is famous for featuring a strong and regal African accent. This is not Halle Berry’s fault since she is a talented actress who has shown her talents over the years.

Darwin & Bishop’s Deaths

As a whole, X-Men: First Class was considered a step in the right direction for the X-Men. However, it features a controversial death with the character of Darwin, a character whose literal ability is to adapt to any situation so he cannot die. Yet, the character is killed off because he swallows an energy ball.

A similar death happens in X-Men: Days Of Future Past with the iconic mutant Bishop, one of the most surprisingly powerful mutants in Marvel comics. Bishop can absorb any plasma energy and reuse it as his own; this makes him a perfect weapon against Sentinels but he ends up being killed by plasma with very little development.

Prequel Cast Apparently Doesn’t Age

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, and the rest of the prequel cast nail their roles. So it made sense that Fox kept them on for so many years but it became a detriment by X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix takes place in 1992, just eight years prior to the first X-Men film but all of the cast still looks exactly how they did in X-Men: Apocalypse. This is where the filmmakers should have used CGI or prosthetics since actors such as Fassbender and McAvoy are far too youthful compared to how Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart looked in 2000.

Broken Timelines

Despite their best attempts to fix things with X-Men: Days Of Future Past, the timelines of the X-Men franchise are filled to the brim with plotholes and inconsistencies. X-Men Origins: Wolverine seems to be have been deleted from canon, how Charles and Erik meet Jean Grey changes twice, Mystique disguised as Stryker never comes back up.

Multiple characters are recast with their characters being 100% different without any explanation. Wolverine just magically gets his adamantium claws back after The Wolverine, Cerebro’s origins changed several times, and somehow Professor Xavier returns from the dead with no explanation. Even with Logan, the most beloved Wolverine movie, the canonicity of it is a mystery.

Bland X-Men Costumes

Considering how well-done the Deadpool movies managed to bring comic book characters to life, it is somewhat sad just how boring the X-Men movie costumes were. They were all dressed in matching leather outfits with a slightly different colored accent. This would not change until Days Of Future Past when they were given new uniforms but they still hardly resembled the characters.

Fans had begged to see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine wear the iconic yellow suit but that never happened. Finally, with Dark Phoenix, the X-Men wore the matching blue and yellow suits, although it was considered too little, too late.

The Phoenix Saga Was Botched Twice

With X3: The Last Stand, Fox attempted to adapt the famous Phoenix Saga to life in which Jean Grey becomes one of the X-Men’s deadliest villains. Unfortunately, the Phoenix Saga was treated as a subplot in a sequel that was considered a disappointing end to a trilogy.

So Fox tried it again years later, this time with the prequel cast, and after a year of reshoots, rewrites, and recuts, X-Men: Dark Phoenix was released in 2019. The result is a movie equally as despised by fans to the point that it killed the Fox X-Men movies before they were bought up by Disney.

Too Much Focus On Wolverine

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is up there with Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in terms of perfect casting. Everyone loved the character and how Hugh Jackman played him but Fox did not seem to understand that there are other X-Men besides him.

Wolverine became the protagonist of several of the X-Men movies, he received three solo films, and he had show-stealing cameos in the movies not starring him. Meanwhile, other X-Men were left in the dust when they could have had led projects just as well as he could.

Wasted Iconic X-Men

Infamously, the Fox version of the X-Men turned Cyclops from who was originally the Captain America of the X-Men into nothing more than a jealous boyfriend who happens to have optic blasts. Even in the prequels, Cyclops was nothing that impressive. The fan-favorite X-Men character Gambit got nothing more than a glorified cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Iceman only turned into his signature ice-form twice and very briefly across the whole franchise. Rogue was made into a completely different character due to rights issues and Nightcrawler vanished from the films because Fox decided not to recast Alan Cumming.

Mystique Was Too Heroic

X-Men fans despised the backward use of Mystique in the prequels. At first, her tragic descent into villainy is perfect for her origin story but with each subsequent film to capitalize off the hype of Jennifer Lawrence at the time, she became more of a hero. Mystique even started appearing less in her blue form which completely goes against the character.

By the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, Mystique was a leader of the X-Men and a noble hero for mutantkind. Fans agreed: not only did the character not even come close to feeling like Mystique, the makeup gradually got worse, and Lawrence’s performance got worse. As a result, the character was simply killed off in Dark Phoenix.

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