Fox’s X-Men Universe Has Come to An End: Will You Miss It?

[Weather Witch]

You're the first one to bought up Disney+ so yes. Lets not be more off topic.

I didn't say it was you who took this off-topic. I think just about everything has been said here. I'll miss these movies and I'll be keeping an eye out to see what the MCU does with our merry mutants.

 

[Hellion]

I'll mourn and miss the good (for me that's the original trilogy, FC, and DOFP, The Wolverine, Logan, the Deadpool films, and The Gifted and Legion), but be happy we probably won't have to deal with the bad (everything else not mentioned above) moving forward. When this series was bad, it was awful.

 

[CyclopsSummers]

No. this saga was a total mayhem

 

[psylockolussus]

No. this saga was a total mayhem

A mutant mayhem.

 

[LoganPool]

I'll miss the original trilogy cast, and James McAvoy. That is all.

 

[MarvelFan]

Never invested in any X-Men movies (I am more have resonates more to Sam Raimi Spider-Man as the first American superhero movies I have ever watched), so I think I will not going to miss it.

Even Wolverine: Samurai (The Wolverine) which set in Japan is pretty underwhelming.

Instead I am looking forward to the more colorful and fun X-Men like Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (though thats the only X-Men comic that I read).

 

[MarvelFan]

I'll mourn and miss the good (for me that's the original trilogy, FC, and DOFP, The Wolverine, Logan, the Deadpool films, and The Gifted and Legion), but be happy we probably won't have to deal with the bad (everything else not mentioned above) moving forward. When this series was bad, it was awful.

*sorry for little off topic here, but I cannot help and surprised at the same time when I noticed your Sho-kun's picture. I never thought I find an Arashi fan here, especially in this American based superhero forum. Haha. I am not quite their biggest fan, I just listen to few of their songs, but I too like Nino, Aiba and Matsu jun.

Anyway, nice to meet you, Hellion. And agree with your opinion on X-Men. I am looking forward to the future of this franchise, especially now in Marvel Studios' hands.

 

[Darkprime]

Maybe an unpopular opinion but Fox must have done something right for their x-men franchise to last 20 years.

 

[SumT]

Decent marketing that got the fanbase and a good portion of general audience into the theatres

joke aside, none said they didnt do things right. They just didnt do justice to most X-Men, and thats why many of their X-Men movies didnt reach their full potential, neither the characters.

 

[Airwings]

joke aside, none said they didnt do things right

Sorry, but that's what some people have said

 

[BobJM]

I think a good Dark Phoenix, or post-Apocalypse X-Men film would have helped leave a better taste in peoples mouths. The X-Men franchise was only as good as its last offering. FC, The Wolverine, DOFP, and Logan had audiences and fans back all the way onboard. I think it’s the Apocalypse and DP stumble that really cemented it’s ‘bad’ reputation around these forums. And rightfully so—those films were duds creatively, critically, and financially. It was a one-two punch.

Even after Apocalypse, Fox could have really done something special for a final film but they cut corners/costs and stuck with what they knew with Kinberg.

 

[Bayne]

Maybe an unpopular opinion but Fox must have done something right for their x-men franchise to last 20 years.

I'd say 'their franchise lasted 20 years' is an oversimplification at best.

I mean, for one there's a difference between lasting 20 years and succeeding for 20 years, and one of the main issues many people have with Fox is how often their films just didn't really succeed at anything at all. There are good reasons most people dislike The Last Stand, Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and Wolverine: Origins and why opinion is often divided on First Class and The Wolverine and why almost no one has even seen the New Mutants. And that's literally more than half of the movies in this franchise.

For another thing, New Mutants is the only 2020 release in the franchise, which means the only reason the franchise limped across the line to complete that second decade is because they held a movie in development hell for like four years after it was already filmed. Not exactly a sign of great decision making or success.

And one could also ask what it means to say 'Fox did something right'. For instance, 3 of the most successful films in the franchise were Logan and the two Deadpools. Fox only greenlit Logan because they had nothing to lose with Jackman leaving soon anyway after their previous attempts at making him a generic leading man/superhero had already failed. They also had to be literally blackmailed by Reynolds (or someone) whipping up public opinion for it before they would even consider making Deadpool at all. How much of that success really belongs to 'Fox' versus the creative talents that Fox clearly didn't believe in in the first place?

Yeah, they did do some things right at some points along the way (for varying values of 'they') but lasting 20 years doesn't somehow magically erase all the things they did wrong along the way.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Lasting 20 years also doesn't erase all of the good things they did along the way either. People just seem to be reluctant to give any credit where it's due.

Disney seem in no rush to release another Deadpool film, just like Fox were in no rush to greenlight the first, as R rated movies are a mixed bag these days success wise.

 

[Fosterson]

Lasting 20 years also doesn't erase all of the good things they did along the way either. People just seem to be reluctant to give any credit where it's due.

Disney seem in no rush to release another Deadpool film, just like Fox were in no rush to greenlight the first, as R rated movies are a mixed bag these days success wise.

I would actually somewhat agree with this. It is a bit hypocritical of folks to (rightly) lambast Donner, Kinberg and the rest over Borigins (not a typo, that's its name to me), The Last Stand, Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, but then imply that the good movies they presided over were made in spite of them rather than because of them.

It reminds me of when some Star Wars fans are so desperate to denigrate Lucas that they attribute to him 100% of the blame for the flaws of the Prequels, but are willing to give him zero credit for the OT.

Overall, while I am a much bigger fan of the MCU than the Fox-verse, I still think they made some good to great movies (X2, FC, DoFP, Logan) and those ought to be remembered along with the awful ones.

One major criticism that I do agree with that applies to nearly all the X-Men movies (with the sole exception of First Class) is the way in which they (especially in Singer's films) completely failed to adequately develop the non-Wolverine X-Men. As great as the future scenes in DoFP where the mutants are being massacred are, their emotional impact is greatly dampened by the fact that we barely know who most of these people are. And of course in Cyclop's case, they actually went so far as to engage in full-blown character assassination just to make Logan look good.

 

[Airwings]

Lasting 20 years also doesn't erase all of the good things they did along the way either. People just seem to be reluctant to give any credit where it's due

True!!
People complain too much about these films.

Some of them weren't as good, which makes people they have to the right to tie all the films up into a bunch and call it nothing but "crap".

 

[Zant]

Maybe an unpopular opinion but Fox must have done something right for their x-men franchise to last 20 years.

Would have done a lot more years if not for Mr Murdoch's greed...

Still don't think that Gambit movie was ever going to be made ...

 

[Herofan]

It was overall a fine adaptation, especially with Magneto, but it was and for way too long continued to be too Wolverine- and Magneto-centric and the loose-continuation (continuation that doesn't care about continuity, reboot that is really similar) aspects got more and more annoying.

It frankly would have been a lot better if the studio had actually really rebooted around 2011 or 2014-15.

 

[psylockolussus]

Well Saw is going to probably continue as long as the foX X-Men movies, I can't remember which year the first movie was released but 8 movies were already released from that franchise... Does that mean it was ever good, not really.

The main reason why X-Men movies under foX lasted 20 years, because it made money for foX. They were continuing despite the original cast stopped appearing after Dofp/Logan. They also started making lower budgeted films (see The New Mutants with its Tv budget). There are plenty of good movies out there that didn't manage to release a 3rd follow up for various reasons. But then when you compare the boX office numbers of X-Men to MCU, Spider-Man and DCEU.... the best X-Men movies didn't even come close to outgrossing the highest grossing film of those franchises, especially if you include adjusted numbers.

The longevity of foX verse isn't a good indication of its quality especially when five of those films were critical failures, plus the continuity sucked. Deadpool was retconned out of Origins and never appeared in a main X-Men movie.

Also part of the reason why the X-Men movie verse isnt that celebrated is their treatment to the characters from the comiXs. Really do you want to brag about the X-Men movies' 20 years lifespan when characters Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Psylocke, Gambit were barely developed? Yeah right

Like if you told me in 2003, a character like Gambit would only appear once in the entire 20 year lifespan of the franchise and its in a Wolverine prequel movie, I would have laughed at you. Its that bad. just for the fact that Gambit solo movie lost three directors and couldn't even begin filming when they could have easily featured the character in a X-Men team movie, is just tragic. Also they adapted Dark PhoeniX twice only for the second one to be much worse. These examples shouldn't surprise anyone why the X-Men movie franchise isn't celebrated as the mcu or other popular movie franchises.

 

[TheVileOne]

I definitely give credit to X-Men movies.

Now superheroes and comic book adaptations are everywhere, but after Batman & Robin, these films were badly in need of legitimacy. The early X-Men movies definitely helped that.

Also at a time when superhero movies were over-saturated, Deadpool came at just the right time. Deadpool being R-rated and irreverent allowed the film to be special. It gave us something different we never really got with comic book superhero movies before. Lower budget but with the lower budget, they had more creative freedom to experiment and do something a little edgier and irreverent.

Regardless, I'm not going to really miss it. They did their job and served their purpose for their time. But there's honestly nothing I desperately need to see again.

Secondly, it's not like the X-Men franchise was left in a good place between the awful sequels, New Mutants, and even Deadpool 2. I like Deadpool 2, but I highly doubt they are going to maintain everything that happened in the second movie. Or maybe they will, we'll see.