X-Men Movies Thread

[Ben]

I'm not believing any hype...just what I know went on during the Valkerie shoot to the point when Cruise (as actor and producer) had to take the director aside and, um, give him a little talking to.

Dacey...with you on Kick-Ass 2. Again, I know the producers on this and apparently several deleted scenes really do make up a better film. Unfortunately they were cut for time, something I don't think would have been an issue had Vaughn directed and tightened up the pace elsewhere. I thought Carrey was pretty solid in it, but it was hard for me to tell them I didn't like the released version!

[eddievalient]

I honestly don't see where the problem is. The first Kick Ass is one of my all time favorite movies and I thought the second one was just as good. Since it was apparently planned as a trilogy from the start, I'm really hoping they'll be able to do the last one and finish it off in style.

[Ben]

They are still looking at finishing off the trilogy if 2 hits a certain mark on home video. It hasn't happened yet but costs are being looked at. That said, the whole team has moved onto two or three other projects right now, so it might be a while if they do get around to it...

[James]

Gotta agree: first one was great, second one was meh. The first was very subversive, the second seemed to embrace being mainstream.

[Ben]

I actually had a chat with one of the producers on the set of First Class, back when KA2 was being talked about (so even before prep) and we both sort of made the point that the thing with KA was that it subverted the superhero genre while aspiring to it, but that with Kick-Ass himself having achieved superherodom that a sequel would basically be a superhero movie without that edge or sideways take on it. Mark Millar thought he had tackled and broken that problem with Captain Stars And Stripes and the other new characters, when the original title was Kick-Ass 2: Balls To The Wall, but really I just don't think they had that originality to it that made it an interesting take anymore. I don't think the third comic is out yet (could be very wrong there, but the last I heard it was an anthology of stories) but there's some talk of doing more with Hit Girl in one medium or the other.

[Randall]

The third KA comic has already come out, with the hardcover set to appear this summer. Additionally, there was a Hit Girl miniseries that served as a prelude to KA2.

[Ben]

Ahh, that's probably what I was thinking of. I know they do hope to finish off the trilogy cinematically...it's just a matter of pulling everyone together again and the right circumstances.

Anyone know how the films compare to the comics? Are they pretty close or did the second one stray off the page, as it were? Just wondering what they might do with a third movie...

[LotsoA113]

Despite never seeing the movies or reading the comics (peculiar since I'm as big of a comic book nerd as they come!), I actually do know of one major difference from Kick-Ass 2's comic and film. Since it's an extremely adult sequence, I won't go into detail, but the scene where the villain played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse "humorously" attempts to do something horrible Kick-Ass's romantic interest is actually followed through in the comic. That actually inspired a lot of discussion when it got released, which I find humorous solely since, after a week of release and discussion of that scene, the movie was forgotten by everybody; I'd bet it wasn't even mentioned again on the internet for months until you guys started talking about it on this topic!

[EricJ]

Like its characters, the "Kick-Ass Trilogy" seems to be something its geek fans wish was a big thing, but seems to be only in their wishful fantasy worlds--
The first movie flopped in theaters, the second movie...well, what didn't Jim Carrey do to it, and if you're getting a third on cult-niche value, they might as well mail the disks directly to the fans than go to mainstream theaters.

But, like Scott Pilgrim, it's something that its fans like to TALK ABOUT that it was made, as if the next one was still always coming out someday, whenever mentions of "big" comic book movies pop up.
Who wants to talk about the next dumb-ol' X-men anyway?

[Dacey]

Wrong again, Eric.

The first Kick-Ass was independently financed, meaning that it was a pretty risk-free movie for Lionsgate. It may not have been a "hit," but it was a big enough success in theaters to do exceptional business on DVD and Blu-Ray.

And there's no talk among fanboys about "the next Scott Pilgrim being made," because the movie adapted all six books in the series.

But the main problem with Kick-Ass 2 was tone. The first Kick-Ass was brilliant in the way it effortlessly balanced the light in the dark. The sequel just felt mean-spirited and awkward. And this can largely be contributed to Jeff Whateverhisname Was (director of instant classics Cry_Wolf and Never Back Down) being handed both directing AND writing duties. He was inexperienced, not a fraction as clever as Vaughn, and seemed to think that "getting the sequel made" was enough of an accomplishment...without actually making it, you know, good.

But still, the first Kick-Ass is way better than the next "dumb ol' X-Men movie." So is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, for that matter.

[Ben]

Hear hear!

[ShyViolet]

Kelsey Grammar wants to return as Beast:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/kelse ... 201240868/

[Vernadyn]

Anyone know how the films compare to the comics? Are they pretty close or did the second one stray off the page, as it were? Just wondering what they might do with a third movie...

Sorry to go back off topic, but the ending of Kick-Ass 2, particularly what happens to Hit-Girl, is much different in the comic (no, she doesn't die, but I'll spoiler it anyway).

In the film, she leaves New York. In the comic, she gets caught by the police while distracting them to save Dave/Kick-Ass. It ends with her being taken to prison, and a big plot point in the third comic is how she handles prison (quite well, as you'd suspect), and Dave's pathetic attempt to break her out.

In the comic, the final battle takes place in Times Square, but I do understand that the movie probably didn't have the budget to do that. Also, Christopher Mintz-Plasse's character is MUCH more sympathetic in the film. In the comic, he machine guns down a group of grade-school kids and actually does order his henchmen to kill the dog. And there's no "sick stick" scene in the comic, either.

And I agree with the general sentiment that the first film was prodigiously better than the second; it's one of the most deliriously entertaining movies I've seen. Looking forward to Vaughn's Kingsman: Secret Service, or whatever they're calling it now.

[Dacey]

Supposedly they actually filmed that ending (which, if it is on the Blu-Ray, might compel me to buy the disc someday), but decided that they needed something that was more "upbeat" in tone...which is ironic, because I found the film's "ending" to be infinitely more depressing.

And, besides...

Ending the movie with Hit-Girl punching an inmate in prison would've been awesome...and also might've removed some of the film's "meh" taste from my mouth.

[Vernadyn]

I didn't know they actually filmed that ending; it's definitely not on the Blu-ray. There are a handful of extended scenes but, as their name suggests, they're more scene extensions than anything. One of the things I wished they had kept was Hit-Girl's "Avengers assemble, ***hole" line (which was in the comic).

I'm still waiting for the "Extended Cut" of Kick-Ass 1 Vaughn or Millar (I forgot who) teased back in 2010… though I'd have loved if they had just released all those deleted scenes as a separate bonus feature on the original Blu-ray.