The Wolverine (2013)

The Wolverine slices and dices his way through Japan where it turns out he is best friends since WWII with a Japanese industrialist, in this superhero movie far superior to 2009's X-men Origins: Wolverine, with humorous lines and nicely choreographed action including a spectacular sequence on the roof of a bullet train.

★★★☆☆

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Logan (2017)

Superhero movie franchises get stuck rebooting and telling the same story over and over again but the Marvel X-men franchise's new solution to this problem seems to be not telling any story at all, as in 'Logan', the mostly joyless, ultra violent (really violent - perhaps the most violent movie ever made) Terminator 2-like Wolverine episode which offers up the barest sliver of plot that can be summarised, "Weapon X/James Howlett/Wolverine/Logan, Professor Xavier and a mutant kid drive for two hours...to be continued."

★★★☆☆

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X2: X-men United (2003)

The best of all the X-men movies, this sequel of the original has it all - a thrilling non-stop action plot, moments of laugh-out-loud humour mostly thanks to Wolverine, and the best thing of all — alone, worth the price of admission — is the invasion scene at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in which audiences are treated to a fast-paced and exhilarating showcase of the mutants' weird and wonderful gifts.

★★★★☆

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

This movie makes the mistake of stripping away too much of the mystery of the brooding Wolverine character, in a more cheaply made film than usual X-men instalments, with less impressive effects and a far too simple and often cornball origin story, disappointing for a series which is usually so stylish and complex.

★☆☆☆☆

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X-men: Days of Future Past (2014)

What the X-men franchise probably didn't need, with all its humans and mutants and feuding subfactions of each, was the added complication of time travel because this instalment involving a Terminator-style battle across time to stop assassin robots, is almost too convoluted to enjoy.

★★★☆☆

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X-men: First Class (2011)

This episode of the X-men franchise goes back to 1962 to explain Professor Xavier's love-hate relationship with Magneto (they used to be buddies) and calms down the fever-pitch energy attained over the course of the original three X-men movies while still delivering the themes and set-pieces expected of the series.

★★★★☆

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X-men: The Last Stand (2006)

The third installment of the X-men series dutifully upholds the superhero filmmaking law which states a third installment superhero movie must be so unrestrained it collapses from its own bombast.

★★☆☆☆

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