5) Bryan Singer
After the shambles of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, fans of the franchise would have been forgiven if they’d wiped their hands of mutants and moved onto other things. Then Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn stepped in and we were suddenly allowed to hope again – hope for a better class of X-Men movie. It turned out this was X-Men: First Class, a refreshing yet hollow affair that reinvigorated the superheroes rather than propel them back to the pinnacle of their respective genre.
And while James Mangold delivered a solid Wolverine standalone film, there was still something missing. It turns out that thing was Bryan Singer, back in the hot seat after leaving to direct the ill-fated Superman Returns. His return has seen the series ascend to a level it hadn’t yet reached, picking up where X2 left off in terms of quality filmmaking. Not only has he brought back his style and passion for the project, but by melding the original and new cast together he has taken the best bits of a post-singer Singer X-Men and incorporated them with what he did so well last time.
He takes humour and intersperses it with the spectacle. He takes his time to fully form his characters so we actually care about them when we get to the action scenes – action scenes that are led by motive and narrative rather than explosions. This is a credit to his ability to pace a film, a plaudit deservedly shared with editor, composer and long-time collaborator, John Ottman.
Gone is the Juggernaut and erased is the botched Phoenix saga. Fortunately, X-Men: First Class was a stop-gap against the drivel we’d been exposed to, but it seems we never truly got back on track until the return of Bryan Singer.