What was the last movie you've seen?

[Sarge]

Watched Doctor Strange. It was good. Just the right amount of seriousness and levity. It really does seem like Marvel has that down at this point.

[Exhuminator]

I saw Dr. Strange as well. The film's sitting at 72 on Metacritic right now, and I agree with that score. But still, any super hero movie that can get people thinking about astral projection is okay with me.

[REPO Man]

I'm revisiting the Harry Potter films, and just finished rewatching Sorcerer's Stone & Chamber of Secrets. Since I can watch Blu-Rays I figured why not? And they both had the extended versions so MAJOR bonus.

Don't know if the remaining films have the extended versions, if any.

Also, it should be noted that:

* I haven't seen HBP since it was in theaters
* I missed both parts of DH in theaters and only saw them months ago (they were at the library)

[J T]

I revisited some of the Harry Potter movies lately. My wife is a big fan, so when they were showing them in the theater again we went to see Chamber of Secrets, Goblet of Fire, and Deathly Hollows 2. It was crazy to see them age so quickly since we did this over a 2 day stretch.

[samsonlonghair]

I've not seen all the X-Men movies, but what? This was awesome. My wife is not familiar with X-Men AT ALL. But I grew up a huge fan of their comics. So I was thrilled to see a prequel that gave background on Magneto and even showed lesser mentioned members like Banshee and Havoc. So fun.

Also I loved Logan's cameo.

The X-Men movies are a mixed bag in a lot of ways. The timeline is a little bit screwed, but it's too late to go back and re-shoot the old movies now, so we just keep moving forward. Light spoilers ahead.

X-Men starts off the franchise in 2000. Hugh Jackman takes on his pigeon-holing, career-defining role as Wolverine. Bryan Singer directs a darn decent action superhero movie, but it's still mostly a popcorn flick. This was back in the day when Kevin Feige was still figuring out how to build a superhero movie franchise. By comparison to the superhero films around back then, this was an amazing triumph for the genre. Today it has lost some of its luster by comparison to bigger, better superhero films.

X2 in 2003 continues the story from the first film. In this film, Singer and Feige are starting to see X-Men as an ongoing movie franchise here. The script makes use of some of the best plot lines from the comics. Namely God Loves, Man Kills and a setup for the Pheonix Saga.

Speaking of Saga's, there was some kind of behind-the-scenes drama, and Bryan Singer temporarily left the franchise to film Superman Returns. This made 2006 an altogether disappointing year for superhero movies. X-Men: The Last Stand was kind of a mess. The one saving grace was Kelsey Grammar stealing the scene as Beast every time he comes on screen. The rest of the film was kind of a train wreck. Remember how they setup Pheonix at the end of the X2? Phoenix was basically wasted on this movie.

But it gets worse from there. X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out in 2009 just to show us how bad an X-Men film can be. There are so many plot holes that make no sense given the rest of the film franchise. This steaming pile of cellulose was directed by Gavin Hood. The only good that came of this film is Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but it was such a poor implementation of the Deadpool character that you could bathe in fans' tears.

Bryan Singer came back to direct X-Men First Class in 2011 when the franchise was being drug down under its own weight. The only thing to do was go back to the beginning and try to retell the story right from the start in the 1960s. This is maybe my favorite X-Men film. I like that Singer cast off the baggage from Last Stand and Origins.

The Wolverine is another matter. This 2013 film seems disconnected from the rest of the franchise. It's the first one directed by James Mangold. We get to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine solo again, but this time in a competent action film. The stakes are raised. Wolverine is more vulnerable than ever. I found the dialog scenes a bit tiresome. This one is good, but not great. Solid A minus.

Bryan Singer moves forward by moving backwards in 2014 with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Lots of star power comes in on this film. Bryan Singer called in a favor from every actor who ever played an X-man more than once. This film is based on my favorite story line from any X-Men comic. Instead of making Kitty Pride the main character Singer made the more marketable choice to bring back Hugh Jackman as a time-traveling Wolverine. Evan Peters steals the screen as Quicksilver. He's just the right balance of heroic and smart-alecky brat. Days of Future past is the rare example of a competent time-travel movie that never bores the audience by trying too hard to explain how/why time travel is simultaneously possible and impossible. Instead we get to see Wolverine travel back in time to the 1970s, kick ass, and change the future. The best part of this is that Singer does his best to alter the timeline in such a way as to erase the two worst x-movies while letting his first two movies stand - more or less. This is my second favorite X-Men film.

Deadpool came out in February of this year. Director Tim Miller makes it clear that this movie takes place in the X-Men film franchise by adding Colosus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to the roster. Deadpool tries to right the wrongs of X-Men Origins Wolverine by letting Ryan Reynolds play the character the way he was meant to be played.

X-Men: Apocalypse just came out this summer. Bryan Singer brings the titular big bad purple dude to life to fight the X-Men in the 1980s. This has both pros and cons. Critics called Apocalypse heavy-handed and melodramatic - which it is. Anyone who read X-Men comics with Apocalypse can confirm that they're melodramatic as hell. Apocalypse has basically every superpower he needs with practically no limits. He's unscrupulously evil, and he assembles his four horsemen despite not really needing any help at all. This isn't far removed from the comics. Jen Lawrence leveraged her star power to get out of wearing the blue Mystique makeup for most of this film. Even Peters is back as Quicksilver, and Hugh Jackman makes another brief cameo as Wolverine. This last part was supposed to be some kind of surprise, but let's be honest - no one is surprised to see Wolverine in an X-Men movie. He's in every one of them.

Logan is due out in 2017. We can reasonably speculate that this film draws on plot lines from Old Man Logan and X23 storylines. This film is also directed by James Mangold, so we could call it a sequel to The Wolverine from 2013.

The X-Men film franchise has had its ups and downs. It's certainly a long way from perfect, but it also has done a lot right. Basically any X-film directed by Bryan Singer is a must watch. I would also recommend watching the Wolverine sometime before Logan comes out.

[Xeogred]

No joke but I basically agree with samsonlonghair on everything there. X2, First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, are all very legit, and Deadpool was incredible (totally different kind of film though haha). Your mileage will vary with the rest. The Last Stand is an insane trainwreck and X-Men Origins: Wolverine is incredibly bad.

I guess it's amusing, X-Men on its own is a massive franchise and almost feels like it could be its own non-Marvel thing entirely. By this point, even the movie-verse is kind of like that haha. It's crazy how long it's been going and how horribly or great they connect in the long run. Gotta hand it to Hugh Jackman for being one of the longest lasting super hero actors ever.

Definitely hoping Logan is great. Still need to see Apocalypse, but since I like all the Singer movies for the most part I'm hopeful I'll dig it.

[noiseredux]

holy shit, great post. Thanks!

I watched the old X trilogy back and the day, but the only one I've seen in the last decade was the original (which I still think is really good). But I thought First Class was probably better.

Deadpool was fantastic in my opinion. Loved that one so much.

I'm def interested in catching up on the ones I've missed. Though I'll prob try to show my wife the newer ones first.

[isiolia]

Saw Doctor Strange last night. Probably the most I've enjoyed a Marvel film since Guardians of the Galaxy. May have helped that I'm not that familiar with the character.

[noiseredux]

Saw Doctor Strange last night. Probably the most I've enjoyed a Marvel film since Guardians of the Galaxy. May have helped that I'm not that familiar with the character.

that's promising. We're going tomorrow night. But I went into Guardians knowing nothing about it, and it ended up being one of my favorites (if not my absolute favorite) MCU films. I basically know OF Doctor Strange from some comics, but I wouldn't say I'm really familiar with his character.

[Cronozilla]

I really enjoyed Doctor Strange (surprise!).

It's only been the second origin movie we've had in MCU since Phase 1 ended, and comparatively I would say this is a much stronger movie than Ant-Man.

The amount of love the filmmakers have for Doctor Strange is just awesome.

There's so many threads started in this movie. Outside of the minions, everyone is a name player and you definitely shouldn't assume dead people don't come back.

And, it feels like they took Doctor Strange as an opportunity to start correcting the Phase 2 problem of underdeveloped villains. Not that Doctor Strange itself doesn't suffer from this, but future Strange movies will do well with what they've set up here.

Also ... don't watch trailers or the TV spots, they show literally everything. Boo. This is worse than

when they revealed Giant Man in the Civil War spots.