James McAvoy Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of James McAvoy-whose latest project "Speak No Evil" is in theaters today. 

James McAvoy's Filmography Ranked:

16.Gnomeo & Juliet (D)

15.Atonement (D+)

14.It Chapter Two (C-)

13.Glass (C-)

12.Filth (C-)

11.Split (C-)

10.The Book of Clarence (C)

9.Dark Phoenix (B)

8.The Last King of Scotland (B)

7.Arthur Christmas (B)

6.Trance (B)

5.X-Men: Apocalypse (B+)

4.Atomic Blonde (B+)

3.Wanted (B+)

2.X-Men: First Class (B+)

1.X-Men: Days of Future Past (A)

Top Dog: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

The MCU's overwhelming dominance of the superhero space in the 2010's has managed to bury the excellence of something like Days of Future Past. It does something that feels particularly extraordinary now that we've seen shameless full-blown nostalgia plays in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine enter the world during this decade by finding an organic way to bridge the two eras of X-Men films together without the narrative becoming incoherent or betraying its character-driven focus. Plus, that Quicksilver kitchen scene remains one of the coolest things that has ever appeared in a superhero movie.   

Bottom Feeder: Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

The lawn gnome jukebox musical filled with suspect covers of Elton John songs is very bad! If you're in the market for something with good Elton John covers, go watch Rocketman instead!  

Most Underrated: Wanted (2008)

As a proud owner of the 2-disc special edition DVD, I'll proudly take this opportunity to defend Wanted. There's just something so beautifully late 2000's about a cartoonish, chaotic action film that delights in reveling in its own silliness. I mean, this is a movie about a covert group of superhuman assassins that are headquartered in an old textile mill who take their orders from something called "The Loom of Fate". It would be insulting if the shootouts weren't gleefully manic bursts of total anarchy, the cast wasn't trying to one up each other in the overacting department for the entirety of the running time (McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman end up finishing on the podium) and everything wasn't delivered with a big wink. Timur Bekmambetov hasn't been made anything this fun since (although Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter comes pretty close), which is a real shame since it felt like he was on the path to becoming a sicko auteur here. Maybe next year's Mercy will mark a return to form.           

Most Overrated: Atonement (2007)

Bringing together the dryness of a British period drama with the over-the-top tearjerking theatrics of a soap opera is one way to ensure that I will strongly dislike a film. As bored as I was for the opening 100 or so minutes, the "twist" ending was really the piece de resistance that elevated Atonement into all-time groaner territory.