X-Men Movies Thread

[Dacey]

No reason to believe it will be "the best one yet" when they have yet to shoot a single frame of film

And given...well, "everything" that happened with Singer last year, I'm still a bit baffled that he's actually directing this.

[ShyViolet]

I really think it will be. At least we're finally moving away from "prejudice" being the only villain. (Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, but some theme diversity is good too.)

And the whole ancient Egypt opening (which will have wonderful John Ottman music I bet) sounds so, so powerful. From the end credits clip we saw it really seems that Singer can handle a story as big as this. He is just so good at mixing characterization/drama with bada@@ action. I think he's more than proved that with DOFP.

Plus, four horseman in addition to Apocolypse? Epic battles? Disaster movie drama?
How could this not make the grade??

[Vernadyn]

Singer's OK in the X-Men universe. Unlike Matthew Vaughn, though, he has real trouble doing anything well outside of it (except Usual Suspects, which was a while ago). Although I like Singer's take on superheroes over, say, Zack Snyder's or Tim Story's, I'll admit that I prefer the approach of directors such as Whedon, Vaughn, and the Russo brothers. I was looking forward to Edgar Wright's take, too, but alas….

One thing I don't think any X-Men film has done well is handling minor characters-- or even some of the major ones such as Cyclops, Storm, and Rogue. It's difficult to see how this can be done well in a two-hour film format.

[Dan]

Usual Suspects was fantastic, I liked Valkyrie, and I'm among the minority that enjoyed Superman Returns (I actually have a VHS copy of his first film Public Access, I just haven't watched it yet), and he set the tone for the fantastic House, M.D. But that's just me.

I agree that some of the other X-Men characters outside of Wolverine, Jean, Magneto, Xavier, and more recently Mystique and Beast haven't been highlighted all that well. Though I think this is more to do with Fox and dictating the way the script comes out, leaving Bryan to have to play with what he's got. I'm sure he gets some say as producer, but merely to allow for him to get his creativity through. Course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

---

Any way, Bryan announced the actress who will be playing Jubilee in Apocalypse, Lana Condor. I'm waiting for a reply on whether or not this means she'll get a decent amount of screen time.

[Vernadyn]

I actually didn't know Singer had anything to do with House… I don't watch a lot of TV, but I do remember enjoying what I've seen of that show. Maybe I should have said that I personally haven't enjoyed anything Singer has done outside of X-Men since he entered the X-Men universe.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for the extended cut of DOFP….

[ShyViolet]

Loooooved Usual Suspects (the ending blows me away every time) really liked Valkery, love all three X-Men films he directed including X-Men from 2000. He just did such a great job of bringing their larger-than-life personalities onto the screen, as well as their various nuances, while letting their basic "humanity" shine through. And all this from someone who never read the comic.

I liked First Class a lot, but it was just missing that "unique" quality of a Singer X-film. It was well made and a whole lot of fun, but just doesn't pack the punch of X2 or DOFP. First class was an extremely well made action movie/spy thriller, but not much more than that. (Shaw was not nearly as scary as he should have been--Kevin Bacon was sooooo miscast! ).

As great a classic as Usual Suspects is it's in the X-movies where Singer's talent truly shines through.

[Vernadyn]

One thing I liked about First Class was that it mined the relationship between Charles and Erik. The first two X-Men films got by on that score because Stewart and McKellan are such great actors, but in DOFP, all we really got between those characters (the younger versions) was that one scene in the plane. I do feel that Apocalypse will provide Singer a great opportunity to shift his focus to other characters, though.

Then again, as you said, Singer's X-Men films are among the best in his CV, while I personally think First Class is Vaughn's "worst."

[ShyViolet]

Totally agree in hoping that different characters get more focus in Apocalypse. Funny how The Last Stand had a ton of minor characters that pretty much got no focus at all, making the film even more confused. A great example of what not to do.

I think as far as trying to give some screen time to "minor" characters X2 did this best of all...I always enjoy the little subplot of Pyro going "bad" (or at least worse) and deciding to join Magneto. Also Bobby's scene with his family was pretty good as well.

Btw, it's been reported that Psylock is going to be cast soon as well. I'm now really interested to see how they're going to incorporate everyone. Simon Kinberg did say that it would somewhat resemble a "disaster movie" (in the best possible sense I hope) so I'm guessing they'll probably be "jumping" from one plot thread to another and quite quickly. I really do hope that the film (and Singer) will be able to handle this. I think he can.

[Ben]

First Class was produced by Singer, Vi...it's okay to like it!

[ShyViolet]

[Randall]

Here's some new-ish info on the Rogue Cut of DOFP. I haven't seen the film yet, as I've held off, waiting for the more complete version. Sadly, from what else I've read, it won't be converted into 3D like the theatrical cut was. Incidentally, the 2D theatrical version just hit Netflix, at least in Canada.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/X-Men-Da ... 70654.html

[Ben]

You should see it on Netflix, Rand. Good film, and extended versions are not always bloat-free. Besides, makes for good comparisons later on!

[ShyViolet]

Rogue director's cut to be more than 17 minutes long:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/04/05/br ... uture-past

EDIT: whoops, didn't realize Rand's link also covered running time.

[Randall]

17 minutes long? Pretty short movie!

Actually, the article I linked to said it would only be 11:11 longer. So, if Singer says it's actually 17 minutes longer, that sounds even more worthy of a new release.

[ShyViolet]

If you watch the first trailer there's actually a tiny clip of Rogue being rescued.




It's at 1:39.