Top 5 Hugh Jackman Movies

So I wasn't able to see Logan this week because they weren't screening it in Cincinnati, but the movie has a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes, so here I sit, shaking with anticipation. In that vein, I decided to count down my top five favorite Hugh Jackman movies.
 
But this was not as easy as I expected. For some reason, I thought Hugh Jackman would have been in more movies. He got his first big break in 2000 and since then he's only been in 34 movies and a lot of them do not stand the test of time. But since I need my adamantium fix, I decided to stick with the list and see where it would take me.
 
Chappie

Like I said, Jackman doesn't have a lot of movies out there but I will defend this one with the best of them because Chappie made me laugh. The graphics were great, both the acting and the story were completely over the top, and Jackman was great as the cocky villain; it feels like he should be playing that role a lot more than he does. The story felt reminiscent of Robocop or Short Circuit equally in its technology aspect and its humor.
 
Les Miserables

I know a lot of people aren’t down with this movie and I understand your hesitation - it's long, at times it is poorly paced, and some of the casting choices are questionable. But Hugh Jackman is solid as Jean Valjean. I will be the first to admit I have seen this show three times on stage, so the chances of me not liking the movie were slim, especially since director Tom Hooper stuck so closely to the story. I'll give Hooper credit—he took a big chance by having his actors sing live on camera and not all of them can pull it off (sorry Russell), but Jackman takes the entirety of this movie and puts it on his shoulders for the good and the bad. Overall the movie looks great; it's beautifully shot, and I find it hard to believe that you didn't get at least a little emotional while watching. 
 
X-Men Days of Future Past

After some duds like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine I was hesitant to go back, I didn't want to get hurt again. But X-Men: First Class was actually pretty good and the best thing it did was lay the groundwork for X-Men: Days of Future Past, which connected the first and second generation of X-Men characters in plot that played out like comic book nerd heaven. The movie had every opportunity to be a jumbled mess with all that time travel, but it wasn't. A credit to Brian Singer who works well with Jackman, who in turn is great playing off the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen. And let's not forget that Quicksilver scene. 
 
The Prestige

Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors out there and I feel like a hipster saying it, but I liked him before The Dark Knight for movies like this, Memento, Batman Begins, and even Insomnia. You could see the beginnings of something great in this movie. It has a fantastic plot; it's dark and has terrific character development, with a little twist at the end. If the story and the acting aren't convincing none of it works, but Nolan pulls it off to near-perfection. So close, in fact, that Nolan would go on to make a perfect film his next time around. 
 
X2: X-Men United

Given the choice I may actually watch the original more often, but X2 is a better movie. For starters, they were able to raise the stakes in the story with some interesting social commentary. That's one thing the X-Men franchise has done throughout its history: dealt with xenophobia, marginalization, and race. With the success of the original, X2 got a bigger budget and it showed in the effects, including Nightcrawler’s amazing opening scene. Comic book nerds also rejoiced at the ending of the movie, which alluded to the Phoenix, one of the greatest X-Men storylines of all time. At that time, we didn't know that X-Men: The Last Stand would be such a big pile of shit, but the potential for something great was there and we all walked out of the theater hopeful. It's that feeling of giddiness that puts this in the number one spot.