In the future mutants are hunted to near extinction. Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) saves Bolivar Trask but is captured and her adaptive genes are used to create the Sentinels. Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine’s consciousness back into his younger body in 1973 to stop this happening.
The team are rounded up by Stryker and are joined by the telepath Quicksilver (Evan Peters). Together they battle an ancient mutant Apocalypse and his Horsemen minions.
X-Men: The Last Stand
This sequel to xman isn’t as good as the first film but it still has plenty of action and sexy mutants. Famke Janssen returns as Jean Grey, who now has powerful telepathic powers and a dangerous alternate personality known as the Phoenix.
Charles Xavier is now the headmaster of a mutant school and he has recruited new students to his team such as Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who can move at supersonic speeds, Rogue (Anna Paquin), who can steal other mutant powers, and Blink (Fan Bingbing), who can create portals for teleportation.
The problem is that they have to face one of their own, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). This character has been transferring his conscience into different bodies over generations and picks up the powers of each body he inhabits.
X-Men: First Class
The first of the period-set films, this 2011 offering from director Matthew Vaughn positioned itself as something different from most of the other X-Men movies. Its tone veered closer to that of early Sean Connery James Bond pictures, with Fassbender’s vengeful Magneto a dead-ringer for the 007 of his youth.
X-Men: First Class introduced the film versions of many established mutant characters, including this version of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), and Beast (Nicholas Hoult). It also introduced Jean Grey as a young woman still finding her place in the world and added newcomers like Psylocke and Nightcrawler.
This film also resurrected the idea that radiation can cause mutation, a concept that went unexplored in previous movies. Ultimately, it was a solid entry into the franchise and set up the events that would lead to Days of Future Past.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
In this one we get to see an alternate future where Jean Grey and Cyclops are still alive. This future has been rewritten from the events in X2 and X-Men: Last Stand. Some of the characters have new powers including Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) who can control and manifest ice, Pyro (Aaron Stanford) who has the ability to create fire and a lighter, and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can teleport.
The film also features a younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who is under the control of Stryker (Josh Helman). X-Men: Days of Future Past is a mix of emotional drama, exhilarating action and surprising comedy. It explores complex ideas of identity, alienation and the abuse of political power. It is one of the best films in the franchise so far.
X-Men: Apocalypse
This third X-Men installment focuses on the uber-mutant Apocalypse who, after waking up from millennia of hibernation, views 1983 civilization as evil and wants to bring it down. He recruits four mutants, including Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and his henchmen Angel (Ben Hardy), Beast (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn).
Bryan Singer delivers more special effects than ever before in an X-Men movie, but a lot of the action feels contrived. For example, Magneto has a mind battle with Apocalypse that feels like a nod to the character’s traditional comics portrayal, while the Horsemen stoically stand around and look bored. The X-mansion gets obliterated, and there are a ton of deus ex machina moments. Still, a solid cast of characters and impressive visuals help elevate Apocalypse above a standard action film.
X-Men: The Wolverine
Wolverine has been the X-Men’s scrapper since his introduction in Giant-Size X-Men in 1975. He has also become their teacher, guiding younger mutants in his footsteps. Wolverine has a rougher, tougher edge than the other members of the team, which has made him a popular character in both film and TV.
In a future where mutants are near extinction, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine’s consciousness back to 1973 in order to prevent his horrible future from occurring. He prevents Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask and preventing her adaptive genes from being used to create the Sentinels that will eradicate mutants.
Wolverine is joined by young X-Men including Storm, whose weather-control powers make her worshipped as a goddess; Colossus, a mutant with incredible strength and organic steel skin; and Nightcrawler, who can teleport. They team up to fight the ancient mutant Apocalypse and his Horsemen (Magneto, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) as well as the new leader of the CIA’s black-ops Team X, Stryker.