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I am looking for the best order for "plot" or continuity where I don't get too many disjunctive stories, not necessarily the order they came out in - how should I arrange the X-Men movies?
I would prefer to avoid details that may reveal spoilers, if you feel they add to the answer, please hide them behind spoiler markup.
Well, you can watch the movies in the following order:
First, X-men First Class, as it depicts how Professor X and Magneto met.
However, in order to watch X-Men Days of Future Past, you have to watch the original trilogy. You should finish X-Men, X2 and X-Men the Last Stand.
You can also watch X-Men Origins Wolverine Before original trilogy, but
there is a cameo appearance of Professor X. However, by watching this movie, you will know how Logan got metal claws and help watching X2.
So X-Men and then X-Men Origins Wolverine.
Once you have completed these movies, see The Wolverine, as
it has a scene that is related to X-Men Days of Future Past.
It also shows events took place in Wolverine's life after what happened in X-Men the Last Stand.
After that, watch the upcoming movie, X-Men Apocalypse.
CONCLUSION
The Order of the movie can be:
Deadpool is also a part of X-Men series, but it is not related to any of these movies. However, one can see it after X-Men, or as per comment by cde, X-Men Apocalypse.
Edit after release of Logan
Logan movie is set in 2029, after X-Men: Days of Future Past. So it can be watched after DoFP without requiring to watch Apocalypse or any other movies if you have character knowledge as mentioned on my other answer.
First thing first, X-men was never tightly paced up chronologically and it do have many canon issues.
But I do want to suggest to go by release order:
First watch X-men 1 to 3. X-men 3 was a disaster film but it is important for understanding The Wolverine.
Then go for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which is a prequel and give you back-story of Wolverine, most of it is weak and unnecessary and it's not even canon anymore with X-3. Which I have discussed in my own answer here but it have Deadpool origin spoiler from X-men Origin and Deadpool film. (X-men 1 and 2 too are also not much of canon, but they are better treat to watch).
Then go for X-Men: First Class which is prequel to all the rest of films, you can watch it at first place but it's not going to help much and it also have many inconsistency with rest of the films which was fixed by it's sequel a bit.
Then The Wolverine came which can be watched anytime after X-men 3, no need to watch First class before it. But it's end credit scene is a setup to it's sequel , X-Men: Days of Future Past.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is sequel to X-Men: First Class and X-men 3 and it also set up a tight canon and made X-men Origin and X-men 3 non canon and X-men 1 an X-men 2 too to undefined extent for now. Not sure how much The Wolverine is canon now.
Then comes Deadpool, which works standalone but did made reference to X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past. For detailed answer from scifi refer here.
So I suggest to go by release order, if want to make short-cut then avoid X-men 3 and just read it's synopsis before watching The Wolverine and watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine just to see how badly Deadpool was handled before it's redemption in Deadpool film.
The Wolverine
Cuban Missile Crisis , 1962
1973 is clearly stated in film. This is after Wolverine left
Stryker's group, but before his "lumber-jack" job. This film is
in the middle of "X-Men: Origins: Wolverine" and start with an alternate
timeline that ends up never existing because a new timeline is put in place.
This covers Wolverine's past, but takes place
during Vietnam and through the 1970's up
until 3-Mile Island ( 1979 ).
Wolverine's MIND is WIPED and he is ENCAGED as
"WEAPON X"
Wolerine (Weapon X) is RELEASED from his CAGE, about
15-years before the 2000 X-Men film, and
Jean restores a few of Wolerine's memories.
This is after the "X-Men: The Last Stand" film.
For the best overall narrative and least amount of inconsistency, I'd suggest the following order (note: I am omitting some of the films due to quality, consistency, and narrative issues).
First Class (obviously)
X-Men
X-2
X-Men United (optional because it isn't very good, but is pretty important to fully appreciating the ending to DofP)
Days of Future Past
Logan
I left out Origins and the Wolverine because they are more side stories that distract from the main X-Men narrative (that are already heavy on Wolvie) and Deadpool because it just similarly doesn't belong at all. I also leave out Apocalypse which is alternate/ branching timeline stuff (and a pretty lame film). That being said, I recommend everybody to check them out after watching the others if they are interested.
This the correct way and why SPOILERS FOR DARK PHOENIX
The only way it makes sense is
Deadpool now works because the past was changed in Days of Future Past and X-Factor Deadpool may have never been created.
