This year FOX will be releasing another X-Men movie, this one titled X-Men: First Class. The plot that I have heard in snippets and bits, is a prequel to the previous X-Men movies…in the 60s. Think Mad Men…but with Mutants.
Kidding! Kind of.
I remember seeing the first X-Men movie back in the summer of 2000. 90 degrees of dry evening heat in Tucson, Arizona of all places couldn’t stop me from seeing my favorite comic book at the time brought to life on the silver screen. I remember the euphoria, the anticipation, the awesome Curve remix track they used in the trailer.
Back then, the only other successful comic flick to come out in the past few years was Blade. But X-Men was the first major comic film release since the beyond horrible Batman & Robin and the first major Marvel release. This was the trailblazing film that ushered in the current age of comic-to-movie adaptations.
Spiderman. The Nolan Batman films. Iron Man. All of them have the first X-Men flick to thank for even existing. Now while X-Men wasn’t perfect, it was fun and exciting to watch. Plus, an unknown Hugh Jackman brought a pitch-perfect performance as Wolverine.
Three years later, X2 came out. Much MUCH better than the original. In fact, I remember clapping and bouncing in my seat like a crazy Twi-hard during the opening sequence involving Nightcrawler taking out the Secret Service.
And then X3 came out. I knew what to expect so my disappointment had been tempered somewhat. But still…it was many levels of awful. And then Wolverine. Eesh.
That leads me to X-Men: First Class. I’m hearing now that there have been a number of rewrites amongst other problems on set. Way to make fans feel confident, guys! But just with a few images that have been leaked online in the past few days, I already see a few things that worry me.
As much as I understand that the X-Men film and comic franchises stand independent of each other, a number of the ‘First Class’ X-Men characters they chose either leave me scratching my head or just straight facepalming myself.
Azazel – They choose the lead character in one of the most reviled X-Men story arcs in years? Unless it brings the whole ‘Azazel and Mystique are Nightcrawler’s parents’ this gets a fresh batch of FACEPALM.
Mystique – No problem with using the character for reason stated above, but she was never an X-Man (or X-Woman). However, it could explain her Magneto relationship. For now, HEAD SCRATCH.
Alex Summers aka Havok – This is Cyclops’ younger brother. What the heck is he doing in the X-Men before his brother in the 1960s? FACEPALM.
Emma Frost – I’m a fan of this character, though I’m skeptical about January Jones bringing the necessary sexy/high class bitchiness needed for this role. Plus, didn’t she appear as a teenager with no telepathic powers in the Wolverine movie?? FACEPALM/HEAD SCRATCH combo
Hank McCoy aka Beast – This one they got right, as Beast was one of the original X-Men. WIN.
Charles Xavier – We get to see a young Professor X mastering his powers as well as his friendship with a young Magneto. WIN
Magneto – A young Erik Lehnsherr played by Michael Fassbender? WIN.
See, I’m not all negative about this film. Anywho…
This will be the fifth film in FOX’s X-Men franchise, and its second prequel-type movie (the first being X-Men Origins: Wolverine). It is also the most important X-Men movie since the very first one.
The last two X-Men movies –X3 and Wolverine–were critical flops, so if First Class fails then it might be time to reboot the whole damn franchise (yes, I said reboot, which brings out a knee-jerk gag reflex in me nowadays). This leads me to the biggest issue that has been tangibly plaguing the X-Films since X3.
FOX. As soon as FOX started taking a more active hand in the X-Men movies that is when their quality plummeted. Firing Singer from X3 was just the beginning of the shit storm. Which leads me to believe that the only way for the X-Men films to regain their luster is for Marvel to take back their film rights. Granted, this will never happen due to FOX not wanting to lose such a lucrative Marvel cashcow. But as long as FOX remains in control of the X-Films, I fear the quality will continue to suffer to the point that not even the most diehard fanboys will care anymore.
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