Every Fox Marvel & X-Men Movie Ranked, From Worst To Best

Here's our definitive ranking of every Fox Deadpool 2. Nowadays, moviegoers are used to the idea of Marvel being a big name. Back in the 1990s, though, they were simply a comic book publisher who'd been trying to get film adaptations of their characters made for decades. The bottom fell out of the comic book market in the mid-'90s, and Marvel was forced to sell off the film rights to a host of their most popular superheroes in order to avoid bankruptcy.

Fox purchased the film rights for a number of heroes, and in the year 2000 they released the first X-Men movie. It was an unexpected hit, grossing nearly $300 million worldwide against a budget of just $75 million. X-Men blazed the trail for a wave of Marvel (and even DC) superhero films through the 2000s, and within a few years Marvel was considering the possibility of producing their own films rather than continuing to sell off the movie rights. Without the success of X-Men, it's probably true to say Marvel Studios would never have gotten off the ground.

After all, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige got his start in the industry working under producer Lauren Shuler Donner on the original X-Men films. Of course, not all of Fox's Marvel movies have been particularly good. In fact, some of them have been pretty dire, with Fantastic Four director slating his own film on Twitter on the day of its release. So let's take a look at the highlights (and lowlights) of Fox's Marvel films.

This Page: Fox/Marvel Movies, #16-11
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16. Fantastic Four (2015)

Fantastic Four is a film with serious problems. Director Josh Trank wanted to produce a superhero body-horror movie, but Fox lost confidence in him after some of his original ideas leaked online. As a result, the final finished product is a strange, mismatched film that feels like it's suffering from an identity crisis. The body horror, oddly enough, is probably the most effective part of Fantastic Four; but that approach is so at odds with the overarching franchise that it just seems bizarre.

Fox had originally hoped that Fantastic Four would launch a new superhero franchise that they could tie into the X-Men films, allowing them to create their own shared cinematic universe. Suffice to say, with the release of Fantastic Four that plan was dead on arrival. The stars - Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell - have been keen to forget this film ever happened, with a better impression on superhero fans in Black Panther.

15. Elektra (2005)

Jennifer Garner's Elektra wielding her blades in the 2005 movie

The Daredevil spinoff nobody really asked for, Rob Bowman's Elektra featured Jennifer Garner as the resurrected assassin. Garner did her best with what she was given, but her heart wasn't in it; as she openly itted in TV interviews at the time, she was only on board because of contractual obligations she'd signed up to before Daredevil. Elektra was a critical and commercial failure, grossing $56.7 million worldwide. It was slated for a tone-deaf script, poor dialogue, and sloppy directing.

In the aftermath of Elektra, Fox gave up on the Daredevil film rights, allowing them to revert back to Marvel. Years later, Captain Marvel has proved him wrong; it's more a case that bad superhero films are the ones that don't perform.

14. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Silver Surfer stands by water in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

With the first Fantastic Four grossing more than $330 million worldwide, Fox greenlit a sequel, entertaining dreams of launching a Silver Surfer spinoff. All these hopes were dashed when Rise of the Silver Surfer performed poorly at the box office, and on this occasion comic book fans agreed with the critics in pouring scorn upon the film. It will forever be ed for a surprisingly poor version of Galactus, which reimagined the Devourer of Worlds as a sort of cosmic cloud.

One of the highlights of Rise of the Silver Surfer is its Stan Lee cameo, in which the Fantastic Four's creator was turned away from the wedding of Reed and Sue. This is lifted straight from the comics, and the cameo alone means Rise of the Silver Surfer will always be ed fondly by Marvel fans - even if they don't consider it a good adaptation.

13. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Back in 2009, the big screen story of the X-Men franchise appeared to have come to an end. But Fox wanted to keep the franchise going, not least in order to retain the X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman as Logan, was intended to be the first of these spinoff origin stories. It was hardly a success, and the studio quickly ditched these plans.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is something of a mixed bag. The ideas are all there, but nothing quite comes together cohesively. Action sequences are well-directed, but undermined by sloppy CGI that really hasn't aged well. Unfortunately, director Gavin Hood even went for CGI claws rather than prosthetics, fatally undermining his film. The movie's worst sin is undeniably its waste of Ryan Reynolds, who was cast as Deadpool - a character whose mouth was stitched up for the third act.

12. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Wolverine kills Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand

Directed by Brett Ratner, X-Men: The Last Stand brought an unsatisfactory close to the first X-Men trilogy. In theory the film was inspired by Chris Claremont's classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" from the comics, with Famke Janssen resurrected as an out-of-control Jean Grey. Unfortunately, James Marsden's Cyclops was killed off in short order, with the focus going on the strange, obsessive pseudo-relationship between Jean and Wolverine.

Matters were made worse by a B-plot involving a mutant cure, that at times seemed more like the A-plot than the story of Jean Grey. Too many ideas and characters are tossed in for little apparent reason, and action sequences are effective but lack any real sense of soul. X-Men: The Last Stand came close to killing off the entire X-Men franchise. Most of the characters were left dead or depowered, and for a while it looked as though Fox's X-Men films had come to an end.

11. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

X-Men Apocalypse Jean Grey directs Cyclops' optic blasts

Directed by Bryan Singer, Wolverine cameo.

X-Men: Apocalypse is most notable for a smart bit of worldplay. In popular culture, an "apocalypse" is a disastrous, world-threatening event. But, in ancient times, an apocalypse is actually an unveiling, a revelation of something that was previously hidden. In functional , X-Men: Apocalypse is the unveiling of Jean Grey's true power, as she reveals just what she's capable of when she takes down Apocalypse. It clearly signposted the future direction of the franchise.

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10. Daredevil (2003)

Years before he became Batman, Ben Affleck starred as lawyer-turned-vigilante Matt Murdock in Daredevil. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, Daredevil pitted the Man Without Fear against Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin and Colin Farrel's Bullseye. Affleck put in a lot of effort for the role, working with the blind performer Tom Sullivan in order to understand what it felt like to be blind; the film's special effects were actually quite innovative, particularly when it came to realizing Daredevil's Radar Sense. Unfortunately, though, the plot was basically a paint-by-numbers superhero origin story. Daredevil was a commercial flop, grossing just $179 million in the global box office.

There's a sense in which it's hard to rank Daredevil. The R-rated Director's Cut was of a far superior quality to the theatrical release, and Johnson is rightly proud of it. "We hadn't seen a superhero come home covered in scars, and chewing on pain pills," he noted, "and it was kind of grim. You're not going to get that right now from a Disney-owned Marvel character."

Related: How Daredevil Season 3's Bullseye Compares To Colin Farrell's

9. Fantastic Four (2005)

Next up is the first Fantastic Four film, starring Ioan Grufford, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis as Marvel's First Family. Where most of Fox's superhero movies pivot towards the dark and gritty, director Tim Story decided to honor all the cheesiness and lightweight humor of the original comics. It has its highlights - Chiklis starred in several memorable scenes, pulling off an effective performance in spite of the heavy makeup - but on the whole Fantastic Four demonstrates that a comic book concept from the 1960s does actually need a bit of adapting in order to work on the big screen.

Jessica Alba has been scathing about the whole experience, telling Syfy that it even made her consider giving up acting. "The director was like, 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'"

8. The Wolverine (2013)

There's a sharp jump in quality between Fantastic Four and James Mangold's The Wolverine. Set in the aftermath of X-Men: The Last Stand, The Wolverine is a character piece in which Jackman's Logan is struggling to deal with pain and grief. He's gradually drawn to Japan, where he gains a sidekick in Rila Fukushima's Yukio and an ally - and potential lover - in Tao Okamoto's Mariko. The plot is adapted from one of the most popular Chris Claremont stories of all time, and a number of scenes are reproduced faithfully as part of the story, including a tremendous sequence in which the Hand bring Wolverine down.

While this is a strong film, it isn't really Jackman who shines in it. Fukushima was perfectly cast, with Mangold dramatically reinventing her comic book character; she changed from a black-clad assassin to a manga-inspired bodyguard. It worked perfectly, and Fukushima reveled in the action scenes, itting she had a blast.

Related: 'The Wolverine' Set Interview: Rila Fukushima

7. X-Men: First Class (2011)

2011's X-Men: First Class was essentially a smart way of relaunching the X-Men franchise. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, it was envisioned as a prequel to the original X-Men trilogy, revealing the backstory of Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique. Fox struck gold with a series of high-profile castings, with James McAvoy playing the young Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence becoming the shapeshifting Mystique. The plot is a smart one, weaving the X-Men into real-world history in a version of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It's something of a character piece, exploring the relationship between Xavier and Magneto and laying the foundations for the bitter rivalry of the X-Men trilogy.

Unfortunately, this film also marks the point where the X-Men continuity really began to get a bad rep. The inclusion of Emma Frost flatly contradicted X-Men Origins: Wolverine, while the childhood friendship between Xavier and Mystique doesn't quite work in light of their adversarial relationship in the first three X-Men movies. Still, First Class was a box office success, grossing over $350 million worldwide and gaining positive reviews. The future of the X-Men franchise was secured.