James McAvoy reveals his “biggest criticism” of the X-Men films

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be all the rage these days, in many ways our current flood of superhero movies can be traced back to Fox’s run of X-Men films. Starting in the early 2000s, X-Men redefined the superhero movie genre and paved the way for the world we have today.

Fox’s film series was nothing if not inconsistent, with gems like X-2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan, and Deadpool balanced out by duds like X-Men 3: The Last Stand, Dark Phoenix, and Apocalypse. James McAvoy played a young Charles Xavier in four of those films, starting with X-Men: First Class. That one is widely regarded as one of the better X-movies, but much of the rest of those that McAvoy starred weren’t received as warmly. Both Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix were a bit of a mess.

James McAvoy wanted the X-Men movies to go deeper on Xavier and Magneto

Now, years later, McAvoy is opening up about his biggest issue with his run of X-Men movies. And it’s a pretty understandable one.

“My biggest criticism of what we did throughout the four movies was that after the first movie, we didn’t take advantage of the relationship between Xavier and Magento [Michael Fassbender],” McAvoy recently shared with GQ. “[That] really formed the backbone of the first film, so it was like, ‘why did we just eject that massive weapon?’”

I can’t help but agree with his sentiments. The dynamic between Fassbender’s Magneto and McAvoy’s Xavier was easily the most compelling part of First Class. More than a decade after its release, the scene where Magneto drives a coin through Sebastian Shaw’s (Kevin Bacon) head while Xavier is inhabiting the villain’s mind to keep him immobilized is one of the best in the entire X-Men franchise. Xavier and Magneto’s interplay has always been crucial, both in the older run of movies featuring Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as well as in the comics. Considering how successfully First Class and even Days of Future Past explored it, it’s a shame that the later films dropped the ball there.

All that said, it sounds like McAvoy is more grateful for the experience than anything else, saying that being a long-term fixture of the X-Men films “was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had with a studio.”

"I don’t really [see them as just] money gigs. Days of Future Past I think is one of the better films that I’ve been involved in."

No arguments here. Days of Future Past is a highlight of Fox’s X-Men franchise, using a time travel conceit to let the stars of their original films like Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Stewart and McKellan to cross paths with the new guard of McAvoy, Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Evan Peters. It holds up.

These days, you can stream X-Men: First Class on Peacock if you’re feeling nostalgic for McAvoy’s Xavier and the rest of the team.

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h/t SyFy Wire