Dadnology Week 33: The Full X-Men Marathon Before Doomsday

🦾 The Week That Was — The Full X-Men Marathon

This is the week we finally reviewed the rest of the X-Men saga. With Avengers: Doomsday dropping its biggest trailer yet at D23 this weekend and pulling the X-Men properly into the MCU for the first time, we spent the week catching up on everything we hadn’t covered: the back half of the original trilogy, all three Hugh Jackman Wolverine films, both Deadpools, and the complete reboot trilogy — eleven films in total, plus X-Men ‘97’s second season. It’s the single biggest cluster of reviews we’ve ever published in one week, and it wasn’t the only thing going on. Alan Ritchson’s War Machine got the deep dive its Netflix numbers deserve, three foundational Halo novels were reviewed together, two sets from Patrick’s own childhood LEGO collection came out of storage next to four brand-new reviews, PAW Patrol got a family movie night double feature, and Minecraft quietly confirmed the release date families with a Switch 2 have been waiting on. Sorted by category below.

Jump to: 🎬 Movies & TV · 🎮 Gaming · 🧱 LEGO & Family · 📚 Books & Reading

🎬 Movie & TV News This Week

D23 hands Doomsday its biggest trailer yet - and why we just watched the whole saga

The reason this week looks the way it does is happening in Anaheim right now. Disney’s D23 fan expo runs August 14-16, and its headline footage is a new Avengers: Doomsday trailer built around the exact sequence Marvel debuted at San Diego Comic-Con weeks earlier: Doctor Doom raising an army of Sentinels, and Thor, Shang-Chi, Steve Rogers, Mr. Fantastic and the X-Men going toe to toe with them. That single shot is the whole reason this is the week it is — the X-Men are about to become an actual MCU property for the first time, with Robert Downey Jr. playing the villain rather than the hero everyone spent a decade watching him be. If you need to explain that switch to a kid, our Doctor Doom explainer covers who Victor Von Doom actually is in the comics, why he isn’t a cartoonish bad guy, and where to start if your kids are still too young for a PG-13 trailer. A comic-accurate Doctor Doom figure is a good side-by-side once the film shows Downey’s take on the mask. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters December 18, with Secret Wars a year later.

The original trilogy’s back half, and three Wolverine films

We picked up where last week’s X-Men (2000) review left off. X2: X-Men United still holds up as the high point of the original trilogy at 3.5/5, thanks to Nightcrawler’s White House cold open, while X-Men: The Last Stand crams the Dark Phoenix saga and a mutant-cure subplot into one overstuffed film and lands a fair 3/5. From there it’s Hugh Jackman’s own seventeen-year arc as Wolverine: X-Men Origins: Wolverine leans on his rivalry with Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth for a genuinely entertaining 4/5 despite a rough script, The Wolverine trades globe-spanning stakes for a personal story in Japan at a solid 3.5/5, and Logan closes the whole run out with a bleak, deliberate neo-Western that earns a respected but tough 3/5 — the character’s mortality finally catching up with him after seven films.

Deadpool breaks every rule, and the reboot trilogy resets the timeline

Deadpool (2016) is the rare perfect score around here — a 5/5 that corrects everything Origins: Wolverine got wrong about the character and proved an R-rated superhero film could be a genuine box-office hit. Deadpool 2 follows it with a near-perfect 4.5/5, built around the X-Force skydiving scene and Josh Brolin’s Cable. The two-movie collection is the way to watch them back to back. On the reboot side, X-Men: First Class rebuilds the franchise as a 1960s spy thriller at 3.5/5, Days of Future Past merges both casts into one genuinely satisfying time-travel reset at 3.5/5, X-Men: Apocalypse goes big and bright in a knowingly 80s setting for a franchise-highlight 4.5/5, and Dark Phoenix closes out the Fox era on a disappointing 2/5, retelling the same Phoenix saga The Last Stand already botched. The full reboot trilogy on 4K is the cleanest way to watch the strongest three of that run.

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X-Men: Beginnings Trilogy (4K Ultra HD) (opens in a new tab)

The reboot trilogy in one box — First Class, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, all reviewed again this week.

Every one of these lives in our X-Men hub, now the most complete watch order on the site for the saga — original trilogy, reboots, both Wolverine spin-off runs and Deadpool, all ranked and reviewed in one place.

X-Men ‘97 keeps climbing, and two more seasons are locked in

Away from the Fox films, X-Men ‘97 Season 2 earned a strong 4/5 — a tighter, more confident run that sends the team across three eras to face Apocalypse himself. The timing lines up with real news: Marvel TV head Brad Winderbaum confirmed Season 3 for 2027 and Season 4 for 2028, with an annual release cadence now the explicit goal. Good news if you were worried the show’s momentum would stall the way the Fox films eventually did.

Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi becomes a full series

The best short in the Star Wars: Visions anthology finally got the room to breathe. Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi earned a strong 4/5 — Production I.G expands the 2021 short into eight episodes of some of the most fluid, painterly lightsaber animation the franchise has ever produced, confidently non-canon and better for it. If the original short stuck with you, this is the Visions spin-off worth clearing an evening for.

Alan Ritchson, and why he’s action cinema’s best modern hero

Outside the mutant marathon, War Machine earned a 4.5/5 — an old-school throwback where Ritchson mows through an alien killing machine in the woods, and it is exactly as fun as that sounds, backed up by real numbers: over 118 million Netflix views in five weeks and a #1 spot in 87 countries. We followed it with a proper profile on why Alan Ritchson has become action cinema’s best modern hero, tracing a decade of near-misses to this moment, alongside two companion lists: Best Modern Action Movies for Dads and Best Classic Action Movies for Dads, ten one-man-army picks and ten essential 80s/90s originals for whenever you’ve run out of new releases. Prime Video’s free trial covers War Machine and most of the classic-list rewatches in one subscription.

Family movie night: a PAW Patrol double feature

Two PAW Patrol reviews landed this week, both worth a family movie night. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie earned a solid 4/5 as a Paramount+ watch — superpowered pups, Adventure City chaos, and an evening everyone actually enjoyed. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie matched that 4/5 as our son’s actual first-ever cinema trip — rescue dogs, dinosaurs, a volcano, and zero real scares. If either one lands, our Best PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie Toys guide sorts the tie-in wave by what to grab first, and the Mighty Pups figure six-pack is the easiest single gift out of this week’s toy coverage. Both films sit in our PAW Patrol hub alongside everything else we’ve reviewed from the franchise. For streaming built specifically around preschool content, Amazon Kids+ is the subscription we actually reach for over a general Prime trial.

Reacher is back, and Neagley gets her own show

Reacher season 4 landed on Prime Video this week, adapting Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow and moving the story to Philadelphia — and the premiere is the strongest opening the show has produced. The detail that matters if you have never watched it: this is the lone-wolf season, so it needs no catch-up at all. Prime Video also locked September 16 for Neagley, the first spin-off, dropping all eight episodes the same day the Reacher finale airs. Maria Sten leads, Alan Ritchson guest stars, and the trailer is worth two minutes before you decide.

Greenland 2, and what to watch this month

Greenland 2: Migration landed a fair 3/5 — Gerard Butler’s family-survival saga returns with real tension but noticeably shakier logic than the original, a solid rental rather than a must-see. And if you’re looking past this week entirely, our August 2026 streaming picks are still the guide for what’s genuinely worth your evening across Prime Video, Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu and Paramount+ — a curated shortlist with an actual opinion attached to every title, not a dump of the full release calendar.

🎮 Gaming News for Dads

Minecraft finally confirms its Nintendo Switch 2 date

The one gaming story worth knowing this week didn’t come from us — it came from Mojang. Minecraft’s native Nintendo Switch 2 edition is confirmed for October 27, 2026, and it’s a genuine upgrade rather than a resolution bump: Vibrant Visuals — directional lighting, volumetric fog and enhanced shadows — is the default rendering mode on Switch 2, a first for a Nintendo console version of the game. Existing Switch owners get a digital upgrade path (Mojang hasn’t confirmed pricing yet, though early reporting puts it somewhere in the $5-10 range) and carry their save data straight across, and the Nintendo-exclusive Super Mario Mash-Up pack gets the Vibrant Visuals treatment too. For a family that already runs Minecraft as the go-to co-op game, this is the best version of it Nintendo has ever shipped — worth planning the October portable-gaming budget around if your Switch 2 has been sitting there waiting for a reason to replace the old cartridge.

Travel gaming, solved: PlayStation Portal + Switch 2

We also published our own gaming guide this week: PlayStation Portal + Switch 2: The Ultimate Dad Travel Gaming Combo, landing at a strong 4.5/5. The pitch is simple and, after enough hotel trips to test it properly, entirely earned — the Portal handles PS5-quality Remote Play on decent hotel Wi-Fi for the thirty minutes after the kids are asleep, and the Switch 2 is the backup that always works regardless of signal, doing four-player Mario Kart World duty on a rained-out afternoon. Neither device replaces the other; that’s the whole point of packing both.

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PlayStation Portal Remote Player (opens in a new tab)

Half of the travel-gaming combo we reviewed this week at 4.5/5 — good hotel Wi-Fi turns it into a full PS5 in your bag.

🧱 LEGO & Family Round-up

Two sets from Patrick’s own childhood collection

The standout LEGO story this week isn’t a new release at all. LEGO Castle Dark Dragon’s Den (6076) is Patrick’s own 1993 set, still fully intact after 33 years of real play, and it earns a full 5/5 — a fire-breathing dragon and a wizard’s tower that prove the Dragon Knights subtheme still holds up. LEGO Pirates Caribbean Clipper (6274) matches that perfect score, 37 years out from its 1989 release and just as intact, explaining why the original LEGOLAND Pirates System era still gets talked about by adult fans decades later.

Two brand-new reviews

Alongside the throwbacks, two current releases got the full review treatment. LEGO Creator Hummingbird (31384) was our fastest 5/5 decision of the week — a posable hummingbird in a dynamic flying pose that rebuilds into a butterfly or a tropical fish across 312 pieces. It’s currently the pick of the Creator 3-in-1 aviary lineup. LEGO City Yellow Bulldozer (60466) landed at 4.5/5 — 682 pieces, a raisable dozer blade and a rear ripper that turned out to be the excavator’s perfect construction-site partner. The bulldozer is worth pairing with the excavator if you already own one.

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LEGO Creator 3-in-1 Wild Animals: Colorful Hummingbird (31384) (opens in a new tab)

Our fastest 5/5 decision of the week — a posable hummingbird that rebuilds into a butterfly or a fish.

Two reveals, and the standing guide to the whole August wave

LEGO also unveiled two sets worth knowing about even without a review yet. The Ministry of Magic Collectors’ Edition (76476) is a genuine flagship — 3,491 pieces and 14 minifigures marking 25 years since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, arriving September 1 at $449.99. The Nike Air Force 1 x LEGO Set (43026) is the smaller, stranger sibling — a 1,093-piece brick tribute to the 1982 sneaker with a spaceman minifigure that hits a working 360 dunk, also landing September 1 for $99.99. Both slot into an already enormous month: our August 2026 LEGO buying guide is still the reference for the 67-set wave that dropped at the start of the month, now that the Scully’s Lab gift-with-purchase window has closed.

📚 Books & Reading This Week

The Halo novels that built the lore

We reviewed three foundational Halo novels together this week, and they read best in order. Halo: The Fall of Reach is the one to start with, and the strongest of the three at 4.5/5 — it turns the silent green soldier into a six-year-old boy who was taken, and the games are never quite the same afterwards. Halo: First Strike fills the exact gap between Halo 1 and Halo 2 at a genuinely good 4/5, explaining how Master Chief got back to Earth with the Covenant right behind him. Halo: Ghosts of Onyx is the darkest of the three at 3.5/5 — the book where the lore stops being backstory and reveals humanity ran the Spartan program again, cheaper and worse. The boxed set is cheaper than buying all three separately, and our new Halo Books in Order hub ranks and sequences all three against each other at 4.5/5 if you want the full reading order in one place. Audible’s free trial is genuinely the best format for finishing any of them during a commute. Everything Halo we’ve covered - games, guides and now books - lives in our Halo hub.

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The Original Halo Book Series (Boxed Set) (opens in a new tab)

The three foundational Halo novels we reviewed this week, boxed together and cheaper than buying them one at a time.

The Dadnology Week archive: missed last week? Catch up with Dadnology Week 32.

❓ FAQ

What were the biggest dad-relevant releases in week 33, 2026?

We reviewed the entire remaining X-Men saga ahead of Avengers: Doomsday’s new D23 trailer - eleven films across the original trilogy’s back half, all three Wolverine solo films, both Deadpools and the full reboot trilogy - plus a Doctor Doom explainer for kids. Away from the mutants, three Halo novels got reviewed, two sets from Patrick’s own childhood LEGO collection came out of storage, and Minecraft confirmed its Nintendo Switch 2 release date.

What is the best family pick from week 33, 2026?

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (4/5) for the youngest kids, or LEGO Castle Dark Dragon’s Den (6076) for a genuinely fun conversation about how well 33-year-old bricks still hold up. If your kids are older and mutant-curious, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (4/5) is the easiest entry point into this week’s marathon.

Why did Dadnology review the entire X-Men saga in one week?

Avengers: Doomsday - out December 18, 2026 - pulls the X-Men properly into the MCU for the first time, and D23 this weekend (August 14-16) showed off the trailer’s biggest X-Men vs. Doom sequence yet. We wanted the full saga reviewed and linked from one hub before that trailer went wide, so anyone catching up has a real watch order rather than a scattered back catalog.

What did Dadnology publish this week?

Eleven X-Men, Wolverine and Deadpool film reviews, the X-Men ‘97 Season 2 review plus the Season 3/2027 and Season 4/2028 renewal news, a Doctor Doom explainer for kids, War Machine and an Alan Ritchson profile, two action-movie evergreens, a Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi review, a PAW Patrol double feature review and toy guide, a Greenland 2: Migration review, four LEGO set reviews (two brand new, two from Patrick’s own 1980s-90s collection), two LEGO reveal briefs, three Halo novel reviews plus the Halo Books series hub, and a PlayStation Portal / Switch 2 travel gaming guide.