X-Men

Hard to believe this was released 17 years ago. Part 1-2 and Days of Future Past are the best ones. Otherwise the movie franchise a mess. Not bad movies but X-3 messed things up. Days of the Future Past attempted to fix that but made things more confusing.

In the category of understated superhero movies, the winner is..."X-Men". "X-Men" is another case where the villains are more interesting than the heroes. Magneto and Mystique are the greatest things going in "X-Men". They have much more defined personalities that any in the do-gooder X-Men crew do (nod to Dr. Seuss). In fact, Wolverine is far more interesting before he starts working with Prof. Xavier. He's edgier and more dangerous. The plot centers on discrimination and bigotry and less on superheroes slugging it out. And that's fine because I think it's safe to say movies like "Transformers 2" and "Terminator: Salvation" tell us everything we need to know about style over substance. The building tension between Xavier and Magneto is what sells this. It's a neat thing to see them playing a game of chess as they discuss the fate of the world which is largely in their own hands.