Blame X-Men: Days of Future Past on The Avengers.
Five years ago this weekend, the First Class team of mutants teamed up with the OG crew lead by Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart in 20th Century Fox’s attempt to capitalize on Marvel’s team-up fever and box office success of Joss Whedon’s first Avengers movie. Days of Future Past effortlessly brought the classic Marvel comics storyline to life in a very action-packed and satisfying way, elevating the summer 2014 hit to rank among the best sequels the genre has ever produced.
As Days of Future Past celebrates its fifth anniversary, and with Avengers: Endgame breaking all the records at the box office, here are 15 of the greatest comic book movie sequels ever made.
15. ‘Blade II’ (2002)
Blade (Wesley Snipes) is forced to team up with the very vampires he hunts in this gory, action-packed sequel from director Guillermo del Toro. Sure, the script lacks the emotional resonance that dominates modern comic book movies, but del Toro makes up for it with several tense (and scary) set pieces, his signature approach to production design, some borderline Greek tragedy in the final moments, and a lots of Blade-vs.-vampire action.
14. ‘The Wolverine’ (2013)
For two-thirds of its running time, director James Mangold’s warm-up to 2017’s Logan is one of the best X-Men movies ever. Wolverine is broken — not sprained — when we first meet him, which adds extra weight to bringing the Marvel character’s classic Japan storyline to the big screen. The film is deliberately more intimate in scale, grounded by emotionally-driven stakes and a brooding and vulnerable performance from Hugh Jackman. And that incredible fight inside and on top of a bullet train is worth the price of admission alone.
13. ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ (2014)
The X-Men take a page out of The Avengers playbook with this epic team-up that literally breaks the laws of physics to bring the First Class mutants together with their original X-Men movie counterparts. The result is a dark and engaging trip through time, with standout performances from Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and James McAvoy.
12. ‘Batman Returns’ (1992)
Tim Burton’s dark as hell sequel to his 1989 blockbuster is a beautiful mess. A noble misfire that, despite its faults, has aged better with fans. The Christmas-set psychoanalysis of Michael Keaton’s Batman is heavy in theme and light on audience-friendly set pieces that appeal to the matinee crowd, but Batman Returns delivers a weirdly satisfying mix of macabre spectacle and pathos.
The final product is less narratively satisfying than its 1989 predecessor, but it’s 100 times more interesting to watch. Especially Michelle Pfeiffer’s instantly iconic portrayal of the damaged-but-fierce Catwoman. We’ll take its brazen, non-cookie cutter approach over certain comic book movies’ assembly-line feel any day.
11. ‘Iron Man 3’ (2013)
Iron Man 3 helped set the tone of future Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in ways that fans don’t really give the movie credit for. Its balance of snarky humor and ILM-fueled action scenes (that mid-air passenger rescue is an all-timer) serves as a sleight of hand of sorts as director and co-writer Shane Black disrupts the status quo by literally deconstructing Iron Man and Tony Stark to their most human, and heroic, parts.
Upending Iron Man’s entire profile after the misfire Iron Man 2 and the MCU-changing hit The Avengers arguably set the stage for movies like Winter Soldier and Thor: Ragnarok to push their heroes — and the MCU — out of their comfort zones with their big creative swings. If only more movies had as strong a batting average as this one.
10. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017)
The best Thor movie by far, Thor: Ragnarok hits the reset button on the stiff God of Thunder’s previous adventures and infuses this new iteration of the character with a pulse and sense of humor (Chris Hemsworth comedic timing is crazy good) that wasn’t there before. Director Taika Waititi became a household name by putting Thor and Hulk’s road trip movie through the lens of the filmmaker’s acerbic and deadpan sense of humor. And introducing Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie and Cate Blanchett’s villainous Hela into the MCU are among the best things Marvel has ever done. (Along with casting Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster.)
9. ‘Superman II’ (1981)
“Kneel before Zod!” is just one of the many memorable moments in this engaging (albeit, at times, cheesy) sequel to director Richard Donner’s 1978 classic. Superman II finds Christopher Reeve’s Superman struggling with the cost of loving the mortal Lois Lane as villains led by the Kryptonian General Zod use the very thing the Man of Steel cares about the most against him. From Gene Hackman’s love-to-hate Lex Luthor to the film’s climatic Metropolis showdown, Superman II still delivers more than three decades later.
8. ‘X2’ (2003)
X2‘s ambitious, emotionally-charged story and edge-of-your-seat action scenes make this sequel the Wrath of Khan of X-Men movies. Our second trip to Xavier’s school finds Wolverine and company forced to team up with Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants to stop the villainous Col. Stryker and his genocidal vendetta against mutantkind.
The sequel continues the series’ thematic explorations of prejudice and fear by weaving them through several “holy sh*!” set pieces, like a mid-air battle involving the X-Jet, several military fighter planes, and lots of tornadoes, courtesy of Storm. Nightcrawler’s introduction, teleporting through the White House to assassinate the president, is still one of the best scenes the series (or genre) has ever pulled off. A rare high point for director Bryan Singer, for sure.
7. ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (2016)
Captain America: Civil War has moments of greatness — several, in fact — but not enough to qualify it as a great film. It falls short of the high bar Marvel set with The Avengers or Winter Soldier, but this “Avengers 2.5” does provide Robert Downey Jr. with one of his meatiest performances as Tony Stark, as the once and future Iron Man dukes it out with Cap and half the Avengers roster.
Civil War is a really good summer movie that suffers from a third-act revelation that lacks the plotting and set up necessary to make it truly pay off. The crazy-good action scenes — holy crap, that airport fight! — are perfect blockbuster eye candy, though, and Civil War is a necessary stepping stone to Endgame.
6. ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
Infinity War is the epic first half of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first decade of blockbusters and it does not disappoint. The Russo Brothers, working from a script by Civil War and Winter Soldier scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, make juggling the 20-plus ensemble cast effortlessly as Thanos (Josh Brolin) hunts down the last of the Infinity Stones he needs to restore balance to the universe.
Brolin delivers a fully fleshed-out performance behind layers of motion capture, as the cost of Thanos’ life mission has consequences that impact every one of our major characters. Sure, we know that The Snap doesn’t really kill our favorite heroes, but that doesn’t prevent Infinity War from succeeded at tugging on our heartstrings while keeping us at the edge of our seats.
5. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
At three hours, Avengers: Endgame feels like Marvel has packed in an entire season’s worth of story and character into one summer blockbuster. The end result is a drama hiding out in a comic book movie about gods and talking, machine gun-toting raccoons. It’s a movie about grief and loss — about how the two work to help us pick up the pieces just in time to remember what it takes to be a hero, or — in these heroes’ case — what it means to be human.
All of the Marvel hallmarks are there: Comedic beats so funny, you’re laughing into the next scene; exceptional special effects grounded on the backs of relatable characters and great actors; and a generous and earned subversion of expectation. You’ve never seen a comic book movie — or summer movie — like this before, as directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Marcus literally reach back through the Marvel Cinematic Universe to tie up over a decade’s worth of stories and characters while also setting up Marvel’s future. Nothing is left on the table, and everyone gets the exact amount of whatever bit of business they need to deliver a satisfying — and heartstring-tugging — conclusion to this part of the MCU. Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth deliver some of their best work in the series — especially MVP Johansson. At the end of the movie, fans will only be disappointed that they can’t immediately rewatch it.
4. ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ (2014)
It’s hard to imagine that this is the Russo Brothers’ first action movie or their first Marvel movie; they pull off Winter Soldier with such a deft and effortless handling of the material that it feels like they’ve spent a career doing this.
Winter Soldier is Marvel’s riff on Three Days of the Condor, a spy movie/conspiracy thriller that finds Steve Rogers on the run from the very government he has vowed to serve. With SHIELD revealed to have long been infiltrated by HYDRA at key levels of power, the only people Cap can trust are Black Widow and Falcon (Anthony Mackie), as the three embark on an action-packed road trip to get answers, stop the bad guys, and save the world. Along the way, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) resurfaces to complicate the hell out of Cap’s efforts to prevent three Helicarriers from wiping out potential threats (sort of like Marvel’s version of pre-crime).
From Nick Fury outrunning and outgunning a HYDRA kill squad during a high-speed car chase, to Cap’s iconic elevator fight, Winter Soldier’s set pieces are exceptional. Some of the best the genre has ever produced. Arguably, Marvel Studios has yet to top them.
3. ‘Logan’ (2017)
James Mangold’s Oscar-nominated swan song to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is an R-rated western hiding out within some of the most successful IP ever. Set years after his last movie, Logan finds himself on the downslope of whatever life he has left — suffering from adamantium poisoning and retired from the X-Men life in a world where most mutants have been wiped out and it’s been years since a new mutant was born. He’s content taking care of a dementia-suffering Charles Xavier (an Oscar-worthy Patrick Stewart) and nursing his many physical and emotional scars when X-23 (newcomer and scene-stealer Dafne Keen) shows up with mutant-hunting bad guys on her tail.
A moving, tragic adventure unfolds as Logan subverts expectations and the genre at large to deliver the type of movie fans and film students should and will be studying for years.
2. ‘Spider-Man 2’ (2004)
Sam Raimi’s stirring follow-up to his landmark smash Spider-Man is an introspective blockbuster; it has all the big action and trailer-friendly beats but is more interested in the moments where it’s just two people talking in a room instead of them fighting atop trains or along the sides of buildings. (Though those moments are exceptional and borderline iconic.)
This sequel is relentless when it comes to not giving Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker a break, as Raimi executes an exceptional piece of comic book movie entertainment that perfectly balances his playful, Evil Dead sensibilities with the Marvel brand to illustrate that trademark “typical Parker luck.” Before The Dark Knight, this was the best comic book movie ever made. For some fans, it still is.
1. ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
Christopher Nolan’s epic exploration of the cost of being a hero, in a world where those heroics inspire both the best and worst in people, forever changed things (to quote the Joker). The Dark Knight raised the bar for what filmmaking in this space can and must do.
Like Batman Begins before it, TDK proved that the superhero movie genre can be elevated to Oscar-worthy status, thanks in large part to the late Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn as the Clown Prince of Crime. The film contains many scenes — that opening bank heist, Joker’s introduction — that are forever etched upon pop culture. It’s held up for more than a decade and will likely continue to do so for decades to come.
