X-Men Cinematic Universe/YMMV

• Arc Fatigue: Much the same case as the comics the films were based on. No matter what happens, mutants will always be second-class citizens. Led to many losing interest in the films, combined with a touch of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy as their situation kept getting worse.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Lady Deathstrike in X-2, who was only being mind-controlled. Even the look on Wolverine's face shows he regrets that he had to do it.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • There was much rejoicing in learning that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were going to play Professor X and Magneto.
  • Beast's in the third film? Cool. What's that? He's being played by Kelsey Grammer? Thank you, God.
  • For First Class, Bryan Singer producing/writing and James McAvoy as Xavier.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: X-Men: The Last Stand has Rebecca Romijn naked. Other stuff, probably, happens in it but Rebecca Romijn is naked.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Liev Schreiber's Victor Creed has caught the eye of the fangirls.
  • Deadpool, with most of his fans tending to whitewashing his more villainous actions. Though this has some ground to stand on as, unlike his comics self, Movie!Deadpool seems to reserve his villainous acts for the truly vile.
  • Fassbender's Magneto.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Par for the course when Nightcrawler is involved.
  • Beast, as played by Kelsey Grammer, was almost guaranteed to be this.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Logan/Rogue is much more popular than Logan/Jean.
• Fandom Rivalry: Goes back and forth between this and Friendly Fandoms with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as both franchises, before Disney bought Fox, employed Suspiciously Similar Substitutes (Apocalypse was X-Men's Thanos, Inhumans in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were mutants) that largely invoked mixed feelings from the fans.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Magneto asks Wolverine "You think it's all about you, don't you?". Deadpool & Wolverine reveals that yes it is all about him. He is the Anchor Being on the entire universe. If he's Killed Off for Real, the universe will collapse in on itself.
  • Back when Magneto and Professor X meet again for the first time in the first movie, Erik says "I can feel you in here" while invoking the Pstandard Psychic Pstance that Charles isn't even known for using... until First Class.
    • Similarly, Erik playing with a bullet he's pushing into some poor shmuck's head...
  • Beast throwing down the mutant cure in disgust in X-3, in regards to his experience with another serum in First Class. And the odd pairing of Azazel and Riptide as Co-Dragons, considering the Ship Tease between the similarly-powered Nightcrawler and Storm in X-2.
• Jerkass Woobie: Magneto and Mystique, given their backstories.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • As time passed, some people only began watching for Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart.
  • Most people's primary motivation for watching The New Mutants was to see Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik.
• Moral Event Horizon: Stryker's plan to wipe out all mutants on the planet qualifies. For that matter, Magneto crosses the line when he is trusted with stopping this by the X-Men and does....by reversing it to wipe out all humans on the planet, leaving his old friend Xavier to die in the process.
  • In First Class, Shaw killing Erik's mother to get him to unlock his mutant potential. It really colors his efforts to put mutants in charge in a very different light when you consider that he is willing to torment other mutants in order to achieve that end.
• Narm: The entire exchange between Mystique and the prison truck guard in X3 is tooth-grindingly Narmy.

Guard: Oh, Mr. President...shut up! Mystique (disguised as a Creepy Child): Why are you doing this?! Let me down! I'll be a good girl! Please! Guard: Keep it up and I'll spray you in the face, bitch.

• Never Live It Down: While serving as a Mythology Gag, Fans also interpreted Scott Summer/Cyclops' sarcastic question to Wolverine about dressing in yellow spandex as a personal attack on those who advocated for comic book-accurate suits in the movie. This also didn't age well, as beginning in the 2010s, comic book movies started to strive for accuracy in the costumes, which indeed culminated in Wolverine wearing a yellow costume in Deadpool and Wolverine. Furthermore, X-Men '97 completely reverses the line ("What would you prefer, black leather?"), firmly establishing Movie Superheroes Wear Black and Not Wearing Tights as Discredited Tropes.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: The Brett Ratner-directed X3 is generally considered a step down from the first two movies, directed by Bryan Singer.
  • This is also a reason why fan reception to the X-Men joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been positive.
• Retroactive Recognition: Juno as Kitty Pride.
  • Miles Straum as a mutant.
• Sequelitis / Contested Sequel: The Last Stand (helped by Bryan Singer leaving for Superman Returns) and Wolverine (though it's a prequel).
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: First Class, towards the previous two movies.
• Too Cool to Live: Darwin. He has the power to survive anything through gaining whatever adaptations he needs. So, naturally, he gets an anti-climatic death way before any of the other mutant characters.
• Unfortunate Implications: Despite being a very racially diverse team in the comics, the only non-whites in the X-Men are Storm (a native African played by Halle Berry), Darwin (who dies), and Angel Salvadore (who pulls a Face Heel Turn). Meanwhile, the evil mutants and human villains are very diverse. Almost every Asian on screen is a villain, even Kid Omega, Agent Zero, and Psylocke (the former two being white in the comics, the latter being a heroine in the comics). The only exception is Jubilee, who has nothing more than a cameo.
  • The greater diversity of the Brotherhood at the end of First Class can be interpreted as showing that people who have actually experienced oppression are less idealistic/naive about the chances of peace. There's also a significantly greater proportion of people with visible mutations in the Brotherhood than in the X-Men.
  • Cecilia Reyes, one of the most prominent medics the X-Men have in the comics, being given Adaptational Villainy in The New Mutants. Considering the efforts of real-life medics is the reason why the movie finally got released in the first place as COVID-19 had been brought down to manageable levels, and the fact that said efforts eventually paid off by creating a vaccine for the virus, it really wasn't the time to be demonizing medics.
• WTH? Casting Agency:
  • Liev Schreiber (who is about a foot shorter than Tyler Mane) as Victor Creed. His performance is good (Terrific even), but one quote here describes the disparity to a T.
  • Sunspot and Cecilia Reyes in The New Mutants are light-skinned Latinos, while both were dark-skinned in the comics. Ditto for Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

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