I know I’ve been posting a lot about comic book movies, so please excuse this rant. But X-Men: First Class is a mess.
First a little bit of a recap. Two days ago and awkwardly posed (and obviously Photoshopped) picture of the cast showed up on MSN before quickly being taken down. It was for naught as the photo made it’s way around the internet in no time.
From left to right, it features Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Lucas Till as Havok, Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and James McAvoy as Professor X.
As a result, Fox ended up distributing 3 new photos from production to media outlets yesterday that show the cast in more traditional clothing, Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw chatting it up with Jones’s Emma Frost and a quaint shot of McAvoy and Fassbender playing chess.
Serviceable photos, but a little ho-hum. As bad as the leaked cast photo was, at least it gave us something to sink our teeth into. In fact, they kind of make X-Men: First Class look… well, boring.
That brings us to today. Now we have a conversation with director Matthew Vaughn who was so incensed about the original promo shot being leaked, he reached out to SlashFilm and provided them with a pair of HIS OWN exclusive images – including one of Fassbender wearing his Magneto helmet.
“I freaked out on them yesterday,” said Vaughn. “I don’t know where the hell that came from. I don’t think it’s a Fox image. It’s not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, ‘What the f*** is this s***?’ and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It’s like a bad Photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn’t reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like ‘Jesus Christ’…”
Vaughn goes on in the interview to assert that he loves the X-Men, that they are not bastardizing the concept, that the tone of the film is serious, more realistic and basically the most awesome thing since sliced bread.
Pardon me if this sounds like a load of crap.
Clearly Vaughn and Fox are scrambling to adjust perception of the film in the wake of the leaked cast photo. That’s admirable. They’re trying to manage expectations for the film and that leak undermined it.
But at the same time, I can’t help but think all of this scurrying around is nothing but a huge cluster-eff and it really hasn’t done much to change my perception of the film.
I understand it, the plot revolves around Professor X and Magneto jointly establishing their “School For Gifted Youngsters” and the ideological differences that drive them – and the student body – apart. Framed within the context of the social upheaval of the 1960’s this makes sense.
But it over-complicates things.
Why do we need Angel Salvadore and Azazel in the mix? Modern characters that even most comic book fans aren’t familiar with. For that matter, why do we need Havok or Mystique?
What’s wrong with telling the origin story of the X-Men and using Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel and Beast? Why does there have to be this manufactured conflict or behind-the-scenes view of the school’s foundation that depicts the how and why of Magneto and Professor X’s falling out?
In the words of Patton Oswalt, “I don’t give a s*** where the things I love come from! I just love the things I love!”
Mostly I think I’m worried about Fox’s flimsy adherence to continuity. I don’t need the movies to be exactly like the books, but Fox seems to have trouble following character development in their own films.
In X-Men 2, Hank McCoy (AKA Beast) had a cameo in human form as a mutant rights activist. In X-Men 3, he shows up in his more well-known furry blue form and is played by Kelsey Grammar. If the leaked promo shot is to be believed, Beast shows up blue and furry almost 20 years prior to the events of X-Men 2. Um, okay.
In the comics, Havok is the younger brother of Cyclops. But in Wolverine: Origins, we see Cyclops recruited by Professor X while he’s still in high school. So I guess I’ll be interested to see how they explain that – if at all.
I’ll also be interested to see if they make any mention of Emma Frost’s relationship to Silver Fox – a plot contrivance that was also laid bare by Wolverine: Origins. Or are they just going to continue doing what they want?
Vaughn seems to hint as much.
“I’d say this is more like Casino Royale than [JJ Abrams] Star Trek. If you think about it, Casino Royale just totally rebooted Bond — they kept what they wanted and got rid of what didn’t work. You sort of saw Bond become a double O for the first time and yet it didn’t seem to matter [what they changed]. I think my rule is to make a stand alone movie that is as good as possible and do as many nods and winks towards the comics and the other films, but not get tied up in knots worrying about that.”
So, in other words, another hatchet job that will leave fans of the comics dissatisfied and Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2 the high water mark of the franchise.
What’s your take to the pictures that have been released? What do you anticipate from X-Men: First Class? Are you optimistic about the film or do you have reservations? Do you think Fox and Vaughn can salvage the negative emerging perception of the film? Leave your comments below!
Agree completely. I was initially excited by the idea and potential of a First Class movie, but then I discovered that instead of a reboot they were going to try and shoehorn it into the exiting continuity (which is already far from perfect) and lost interest. They’ll just keep driving the franchise into the ground.
A reboot is unnecessary – much of this story could be used as “falshback” or some such in a “current” storyline for X-Men 4 or whatever. LAME. I think, just like the upcoming Spiker-Man reboot, it will be servicable
I’m probably a little more optimistic of the Spider-Man reboot only because it won’t suffer from the “every mutant and the kitchen sink” casting quagmire that Fox seems to apply to the X-Men franchise.
In fact, with the announcement that J. Jonah Jameson won’t be in the Spider-Man reboot, their casting sounds downright conservative!
Did I really read that correctly? Jameson isn’t going to be in Spiderman? Seriously? He was a particularly bright point for the series’ first trilogy, stole every scene he was in. Fantastic casting for a great (if one-note) character.
I’m gonna need some paper towels to soak up all this melted cheese. This looks like the stupidest comic movie ever. Besides the ridiculous continuity issues (Beast was a teenager when he was recruited by Prof. X, who was in his 50’s at the time, he is not the same age as Xavier. Havok is another non-sensical addition. Cyclops was also a teenager when recruited by a 50-something year old Xavier, and Havok is Cyclops’ younger brother, explain that one) this movie just looks ridiculous overall. Putting Kevin Bacon in this movie is just laughable, as are most of the other casting choices. The publicity stills make this movie look like a low-budget student film. The shots of Xavier and Magneto in particular look cheesy as hell. It’s one thing to do a reboot, a well-done reboot can completely revitalize a franchise (look at “Star Trek”), but it’s completely another to just make sh*t up. And that is obviously what is going on here. A “First Class” movie should be about the recruitment and early adventures of Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel & Marvel Girl. ‘Nuff said.
BTW, who the hell is “Azazel”?! I know my comics fairly well and I never even heard of this guy. That tells you something about the movie right there.
Apparently he was Nightcrawler’s father. I’m sure the only reason he was thrown in is because Mystique is supposed to be Nightcrawler’s mother and the producers think that is somehow “cool.”
It reminds me of a Joe Q. quote, “never let continuity get in the way of a good story.” Unfortunately in this case, it probably wouldn’t anyway.
I think Joe Q. is absolutely right in this regard and I have no problem with the films establishing their own continuity outside of the comics.
But if they’re going to go to the trouble of establishing a new continuity, they shouldn’t be able to re-write it with each new movie.
First Class will be the 5th film in the franchise. Is it so hard to keep a narrative thread in tact? If a comic book changed course as dramatically as the movies have, it wouldn’t earn a following. It’d be too confusing.
Hey Tom, do you like Angelina Jolie? THEN HERE’S JOHN VOIGHT’S BALLSACK!
Sorry, had to continue the sketch. Anyway…
In all seriousness, first off, after the messes that were X3 and Wolverine, how can you really expect anything other than a flaming mess out of this film? Keep the ole’ expectations low, my good sir, and enjoy the comedy of errors that is their handling of the franchise.
I enjoyed all three Xmen movies along with Wolverine: Origins. I’m not sure I’d say any of them were *good* movies except X2. Why the hell would you bother with the pretense of saying it’s in the same continuity of the existing movies if you don’t want it to have to respect any of it? Just acknowledge it as its own separate canon entity and then whatever.
Xmen, my poor babies. The only comic I’ve ever been interested enough in to buy massive amounts of. 🙁
Also, I think the Spiderman reboot looks stupid. No MJ, no Jonah Jameson and they’re making him gritty? What the hell?
Part of me wants to wait and see if they take the best possible course they could: Make this a period piece that just happens to have mutants in it. The shot of Fassbender in the green room, for example; the back set bears more than a passing resemblance to the rooms we see on the alien world in the final minutes of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. If they could evoke the wild movies of the 1960s, like the Derrek Flynt films and the other concurrent Bond-inspired films from then, this might be an interesting trip. Otherwise, well, as they used to say back then: Bummer, man…
Hollywood ruined the X-Men!!! They could have made many successful movies, but they didn’t take it seriously! The X-Men cartoon was way better
Ugh. I am having a hard time finding even one redeeming quality about this movie. I actually liked the first X-Men movie. And I loved the second one. The third one I loathed, and Wolverine: Origins was predictably “meh.” But this looks like an absolute clusterfuck. Who OK’d this cast of characters?! Don’t you think people potentially interested in an X-Men movie are going to want to see characters they care about? Or at least know? It would be like if the new Spider-Man movie featured the villains Looter, Stilt-Man and Paste Pot Pete. Or The Avengers movie consisted of Moondragon, Dr. Druid, Mantis, Starfox and Captain Marvel (pick one, any one). It doesn’t help that the first promo shots are of the actors standing around casually or sitting uncomfortably. Look at the promotional shots leaked of Captain America, or even the rebooted Spider-Man. The latter isn’t exciting, but it’s at least dramatic.
What is it just the helmet, or does Michael Fassbender’s head look comically large in that last photograph?
I can only hope I’m proven wrong.
As amazing as the trailer visually, special effects do NOT make a good story much less a great one, of which comic book movies like THE X-MEN deserve to have. Create a GREAT story, the movie WILL sell.
The way you can do that?
Go by the (COMIC) book.
But as I have seen (and commented on other blogs of this particular subject), Hollywood will NEVER change it’s opinion on what THEY think a comic book movie should look like, and how the audience will react to it. I could understand if they go by the ULTIMATES universe, but they’re not even doing THAT. They mix stories from the entire history of the character, then attempt to create something new.
If we wanted something different and new as far as a comic book movie goes, then you should have let Will Smith be Superman- a man who does NOT fly, does NOT wear the costume, and eventually, fights a giant spider….
….or is that being covered on SMALLVILLE?