The Best Non-Marvel Cinematic Universe Films
In honor of the recent release of “Logan”, some of the CineNation writers decided to pick their favorite Marvel films that aren’t in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe
Before Iron Man ever took flight, before Captain America was ever injected with Super-Soldier Serum, there were numerous Marvel superheroes who graced the big screen. Movies like X-Men and Spider-Man were showing the world just what modern superhero movies could be. Logan is the most recent non-Marvel Cinematic Universe film, and it is tearing up the worldwide box office. The film is also important as Hugh Jackman’s last time playing Wolverine, the Marvel character that introduced him to the moviegoing audiences. Jackman has portrayed the famous character ever since the first X-Men release in 2000. In honor of the recent release and dominance of Logan, we decided here at CineNation to pick our favorite Marvel films that are not a part of the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe.
X-Men: First Class
By Dan LeVine
First Class had a big mess to clean up. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a major flop. Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand killed off much of the cast and rendered many others powerless. Superhero films blew up and now offered more competition than 2000’s X-Men. In fact, 2011 featured the releases of Green Lantern, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Green Hornet.
Furthermore, the reboot was going to be attempted without Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart or Hugh Jackman. In 2017, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are now considered movie stars, but back in 2011 they didn’t wield nearly as much star power. (Audiences hadn’t even seen Hunger Games yet.)
It’s a huge task, but director Matthew Vaughn successfully triumphs over all these obstacles to create what I believe is the best X-Men film of them all. Here’s why:
It puts character first, specifically focusing on the relationships between Charles/Erik and Beast/Mystique. Each of the four has to fight their own demons (not including Azrael) while fighting Sebastian Shaw and his henchmen (including Azrael). First Class also wisely embraces what made X2: X-Men United such a fun movie; it has our heroes and villains working together, creating a team with a lot of firepower and little trust. In fact, the two direct sequels, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse both feature our heroes and villains teaming up.
Most impressively, the film does what no superhero film (I believe) has done before — it perfectly interweaves the story of the X-Men into a famous story of American history, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Despite taking place in the 60’s, the film still honors the comics. It introduces beloved characters such as Banshee, Havok and Moira McTaggert. We see the origins of Cerebro, the founding of the School for Gifted Youngsters and even the classic yellow uniforms. And of course, we experience the unexpected and heart-wrenching moment when Professor X becomes paralyzed for life.
Full of action, romance, mystery, adventure, drama and comedy, X-Men: First Class is not only the best X-Men film, but it’s a first-class film.
Spider-Man
By Alex Bauer
This might be a nostalgia pick, but I can’t pass up the first of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series.
This was the first “comic book movie” I saw, and it instantly made me a fan of Spider-Man. This movie led me to a more in-depth appreciation for the character: I bought the video games based on Spider-Man; I watched the animated show. (I was never an actual comic reader, so I didn’t read the comics).
The first Spider-Man has it all: a wonderfully evil villain, a coming-of-age origin story, breathtaking action and a passable Tobey Maguire performance. Watching Peter Parker deal with high school issues, while figuring out his super powers, was something I enjoyed a great deal. It humanized the character in a way that is not captured by other superhero movies. When comic book films drift too much into fantasy land, I lose interest. The high school part of the film — dealing with bullies and crushes — was an aspect to the film I loved.
The superpowers part didn’t seem too over the top. Maybe there is a spider out there that does give you superpowers? The action scenes are great; the joy Parker gets from swinging through New York City with his webs is infectious. It looks fun! As a kid, I wanted to do that. I also wanted Green Goblin’s costume. What a badass.
The first of Raimi’s Spider-Man movies sticks out as being my favorite of the three he did, but also as my favorite non-MCU Marvel movie. It’s so much fun to watch.
Spider-Man 2
By Thomas Horton
Spider-Man 2 was the first movie I ever saw twice in theaters. It sounds weird to say it now, as I try to see most movies I really enjoy in theaters twice to get the full experience of them these days. But back in 2004, after seeing it with my cousins, I was staying with a friend when his mom offered to take us. I didn’t even tell her I had seen it before; I was afraid if she knew, she wouldn’t take us. And I just wanted to see it again.
Everything about Spider-Man 2 felt so fresh at the time. The visuals were incredible, from Spidey swinging through the streets of New York to the devastating explosion that created Doctor Octopus. And speaking of, Alfred Molina set the standard for layered villains with his performance as Octavius, creating a vengeful and violent man who was also deeply tragic and sympathetic in a way that most superhero films have failed to capture since.
The other reason Spider-Man 2 felt so groundbreaking was because it was the first superhero movie of the time to really be a great sequel story-wise. It picked up right where the emotional journeys of Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborne had left off before. Up until that point, the Batman films of the 1990s — and even the X-Men series, apart from Wolverine — had mostly used sequels as jumping off points for new arcs for the characters. But Spider-Man 2 came right back to its characters, enabling the film to take us even deeper into their stories, creating a true comic book feeling in a way that has been effectively adapted by the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the years since. It didn’t even really feel the need to revisit the Uncle Ben origin story…take notes, Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man.
Plus, I mean, the soundtrack of Spider-Man 2 is the perfect angsty summation of 2004. Despite the three paragraphs I just wrote, I really only need three words to explain why Spider-Man 2 was the greatest non-MCU Marvel movie: Dashboard Confessional, “Vindicated.”
X2: X-Men United
By Sean Randall
While Thomas already picked what may be my true non-MCU love (because Alfred Molina is just amazing and I unashamedly love Kirsten Dunst), X-2 is a photo-finish contender for the fight. While X-Men set us up with a great intro to the world of the X-Men and the complexity of the infighting and battles between them and Magneto’s group, X-2 focuses and intensifies the fight of “normal humans” vs “them.”
In what has to be one of the best opening sequences for one of the contenders on this list (other than perhaps the Deadpool opening credits), we get to see Alan Cumming as one of my favorite X-Men characters, Nightcrawler, BAMFing his way through the White House to attempt the assassination of the President of the United States in a targeted terrorist attack. As we continue on, we learn that this attack was orchestrated by a human, Colonel William Stryker (played by the ever-brilliant Brian Cox), in order to further his anti-mutant agenda and experimentation.
This film brought the X-Men franchise to a new level, a rare case of a sequel being better than the original. The harsh message of “they’re not like us, therefore they must be stopped,” the blatant metaphor relating the X-Men to LGBT rights (“Have you tried… not being a mutant?”), the despair of families torn apart simply because of the circumstances of someone’s birth and socially-driven hatred, how that would drive the marginalized to violence… It is all still so poignantly relevant even today. Plus, we delve even further into Wolverine’s tortured past, his romantic draw to Jean Grey, the tragedy of her apparent sacrifice and the set-up for what should have been an amazing look into the Dark Phoenix saga… Oh, and Halle Berry dropped the mishmashed less-than-successful attempt at an African accent, which is an improvement by any measure.
The acting is brilliant, the pacing is well-done, and without Magneto able to paralyze Wolverine whenever he feels like it, we got to see Hugh Jackman’s character really let loose both with violence and with acting. It is without a doubt the best of the original trilogy, and without it, you wouldn’t even get to have Logan.
Logan
By Hunter Barcroft
Continuing in the same gritty, ultra-violent vein as Fox’s Deadpool, Logan takes arguably the most iconic X-Men (Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier) and gives them a fresh, and decidedly humanizing story to tell.
I personally loved the smaller story that director James Mangold elected to make with this last standalone Wolverine film. For once, the whole universe isn’t at stake, and we really get into minds and hearts of the characters that we’ve watched struggle and grow for the last 17 years. This departure from the X-Men of old really opens this film up and allows our beloved characters some much needed room to breathe.
The simple decision to focus more on character and story gives Jackman the ability to go out in style, and most importantly on his own terms. Despite whatever happens to this character after this film, we are reminded one final time of how great and how innately human a man with metal claws and a raging temper can be. This is the best send-off you could ask for, and quite possibly the early stages of something to look forward to in the future.
Best superhero film since The Dark Knight. See it in theaters while you can.
Blade 2
By Brandon Sparks
This was a tough decision to make because I could have gone with another one of the X-Men films or Deadpool. One of those might be more of a favorite, but I felt like we need to give a little love elsewhere. Some people give credit to X-Men or Spider-Man being the first two big Marvel films, but Wesley Snipes portrayed the role of Eric Brooks/Blade before Hugh Jackman ever unleashed Wolverine’s claws and before Tobey Maguire ever donned the Spider-Man wardrobe. The Blade series was also the first successful R-rated superhero franchise, showing that audiences were fine with their superheroes being a little dark and gritty.
Blade was a good starting point for the series, but Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II is easily the superior film of the trilogy (let’s try to forget Blade: Trinity). Guillermo brings his fantastical mind into the superhero world, and he is able to create monsters and visuals that allow the film to standout from the crowd. His version of the Reapers, the villain group that Blade and his team fight against throughout the film, feels like an early, but still masterful version of what he would later show in his FX Television Series, The Strain. The choice of having del Toro direct the film, even though he had mostly just done popular Mexican horror films, shows that if you have a great director with a strong vision at the helm, then you can get a masterful film. This is something that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would later adopt when picking their directors. Del Toro showed that you could be a legitimate director with a vision instead of just a hired hand to deliver the studio their product for the release date (I’m looking at you Daredevil). If it weren’t for Blade II we might not have seen directors like Jon Favreau, Scott Derrickson, or Joss Whedon get the opportunity to direct their MCU installments.
Also, Wesley Snipes is just a badass as Blade. His performance as Blade makes it hard to see anyone else in this role. Do I want to see a Netflix series with Wesley Snipes as Blade? Yes, most definitely. If he has a great director behind him like del Toro, then he can give you a great performance as Blade. He is stoic and powerful, but there is something about his performance that humanizes Blade. He is a Daywalker, which means he is part human and part vampire, and because of that there is no place for him. He is an outsider and Snipes plays that incredibly well.
So, the next time you are wanting to do a Marvel marathon to prep for the upcoming releases, give Blade II a chance.
