The Best and Worst ‘X-Men’ Movies are Leaving HBO This Month

X-Men fans, we’ve been through a lot when it comes to the movies. Since the dawn of the mutant movie age in 2000, there have been 11 films released in the franchise comprising three trilogies (the initial set, the Wolverine saga, and the time-hopping prequel film trio) and a trilogy-in-the-making (Deadpools 1 and 2). As with any superhero franchise, some have been better than others and some have been more comic-accurate than others (and sometimes those two traits have not correlated). But as the franchise closes out its second decade, there are two films that everyone more or less agrees are among the best and worst of the bunch. Those films are 2003’s X2: X-Men United and 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Even if you’re only passingly familiar with these marvelous mutants, you know which movie is which. However, you may not know that both films are currently streaming on HBO–and that both films are vacating the service on September 30! If you want to have a whiplash-inducing double feature, watch these two films.

Certified very fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, X2: X-Men United is obviously the good one of the bunch. For a while in the pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe days, X2 was even considered one of the best superhero movies of all time. You can see why, even when you rewatch it 15 years later. With all the set-up of the original X-Men film out of the way, X2 hits the ground running in a way few sequels have before or since. In a thrilling scene, the blue and scarred Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) carries out an assassination attempt by teleporting through the corridors of the White House. And in an emotionally-charged moment, the film concludes with a heroic sacrifice that punches you in the gut while paying tribute to one of the greatest comic book stories ever told.

But the film is more than just merely bookended by standout sequences. The film has a tense, frenetic pace (at least for its time) as the scattered X-Men try to outwit the government mutant hunters on their trail. Great character moments pepper the chase, like Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) coming out to his family, Magneto’s (Ian McKellen) dark seduction of Pyro (Aaron Stanford), and Mystique’s (Rebecca Romijn) brief but telling interaction with Nightcrawler. It’s the rare superhero sequel that outdoes the original. In the years since, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy films would handle ensembles way better, the political message of Black Panther would resonate even more, and the emotional stakes of Avengers: Infinity War would hit way harder. But while later movies have outshined X2, the film remains a fun watch.

And then there’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film that’s also fun to watch but for completely opposite reasons. This one’s just… it’s goofy. Wolverine’s CG claws look off, the film keeps insisting that wolverines are wolves (they aren’t), and it casts character actor Liev Schreiber as the marauding, hulking psychopath Sabretooth. The film features the debut of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, or rather a version of Deadpool that’s so poorly conceived that both Deadpool movies have included numerous disses towards it. Seriously, why include the Merc With A Mouth if you’re going to sew his mouth shut? Ryan Reynolds did not sign up to play that Deadpool! And, on top of all of that, will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas has a role in it.

The only redeeming things about it are Hugh Jackman, who’s always great as Wolverine even in subpar movies. And, yeah I’m gonna say it, Taylor Kitsch in his too-brief as Gambit. Kitsch deserved better. But as bad as X-Men Origins: Wolverine unquestionably is, it’s the WTF kind of bad that bad movie lovers can really sink their teeth into. It’s not worth paying money specifically for, but it’s definitely worth streaming for free on HBO.

If you watch these two back-to-back, you might need a mutant healing factor in order to survive getting jerked around from one quality to another. But after 18 years, X-Men fans have gotten used to the ups and downs of this film franchise. And if you want to see the X-films’ high high and low low, you gotta stream these two.

Where to stream X2: X-Men United

Where to stream X-Men Origins: Wolverine