I think it kind of breaks down to First Class being an incredible film based on the strength of the performance of Macavoy and Fassbender, and Apocalypse being nowhere near as good as Spiderman 3. I think as time goes on people have started to realize that SM3 for all its flaws still stays true to its characters, still had great moments (Harry dying and his redemption), versus not fully utilizing Oscar Isaac to his full potential, and the core cast of SM 3 having great character drama. Even minus the cringe moments of Emo Peter dancing, Mary Jane rejecting Peter over not seeing her play (TF??), there's a lot to love in the film moreso than Apocalypse (Goblin is redeemed, the three climax in grief over his loss), and the CG scene where Sandman assembles is better than any technical effect in Apocalypse. Beyond the comparison of the last entries of these films, I just think that SM 1/2 are just demonstrably better films. Everyone remembers in the nineties watching these movies and thinking that the CG (which has held up solidly, minus the Skeleton scene lol), that nothing like it was possible and it put the Superhero genre on the map. SM 2 has a great villain, great drama between Harry, Mary, and Peter and it stays true to his character- which is a knock against the terrible usage of mutants that come and go with impunity in the FOX films (Bishop, Sunspot, Iceman, Blink all dying with ZERO introduction), and the scores of mutants who died with undeveloped storylines in First Class. With the FOX X-men Films the principle performance/cast strength has always been Magneto, Wolverine, and Professor Xavier for like 16-17 years that the movies have existed. Those are a lot of great character moments but that's spread out over scores of films. I just think the core drama between the main cast in the SM trilogy was greater than the bromance of Xavier/Magneto which sort of culminated in DOFP in the plane scene but never reached a moment where the two broke off in their respective philosophies. Also the sheer influence the first two SM films is just greater than the reboot of the X-men films. All we had before those movies was Blade and the Spiderman films are a huge influence on the MCU, today
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