THE MEN OF THE X VARIETY AND OTHER FOX BS (spoilers)

[Randall]

Might have missed that due to wanting to throat punch the couple of 11 year old girls near by, talking through the entire damned movie.

[Captain Russ]

I just hope there is a chance of another X movie down the line.

And that the crazy space shit is in it.

[Anderson]

Damn, there was some dumb shit in this movie (Shaw's plan, January Jones acting, Beast's horrible muppet suit) but overall it was really fucking well made.

Are people really still bitching about its relation to the comics? You had to know by this point that they just cherry pick ideas for the films. Especially with all the continuity problems apparent from the outset. Not to mention the goddamn comics barely make sense anyway. Everyone's an resurrected future clone alternate reality version of their original selves at this point. Not exactly a well of seamless, brilliant ideas to pull from.

Also, sorry, but no one gives a shit about the Hellfire Club.

Pull your head out of your ass long enough to respect the source material. Sure, they cherry pick what they want, but there's a need to actually world build and create what you can out of the material provided.

When you go to far out on a limb without any grounding you get Ang Lee's Hulk.

[Captain Russ]

A movie I still appreciate. Hulkdogs be damned.

[Randall]

Pull your head out of your ass long enough to respect the source material. Sure, they cherry pick what they want, but there's a need to actually world build and create what you can out of the material provided.

When you go to far out on a limb without any grounding you get Ang Lee's Hulk.

What? That's the attitude they took with the first X-Men movie, and is exactly why the franchise is so successful.

They were like "holy Christ, as much as living islands, aliens and fleets of giant robots are cool, this is a little goddamn much for one franchise. Let's strip this down to a mutant war and try to just make a decent flick that won't confuse the fuck out of the audience."

[Anderson]

What? That's the attitude they took with the first X-Men movie, and is exactly why the franchise is so successful.

They were like "holy Christ, as much as living islands, aliens and fleets of giant robots are cool, this is a little goddamn much for one franchise. Let's strip this down to a mutant war and try to just make a decent flick that won't confuse the fuck out of the audience."

You're making broad assessments of a franchise that's approaching the 50th anniversary marker.

What we're talking about here is misappropriation of character motivation, pacing issues and general malaise when comes to creating an actual living world.

[Captain Russ]

I'd love to see Genosha one day.

[Anderson]

I'd love to see Genosha one day.

Genosha's time has kind of passed, but it could work for a period piece prequel. Hell, throw Dazzler in.

[Captain Russ]

I'm just trying to think of what other aspects of the universe haven't been explored via Claremont-derived events.

(not saying this one is, just extrapolating from the end of 2 and most of 3)

[Randall]

Hell yeah, Genosha. Since the timeline is all over the place, maybe they'd use something like that in the sequel. It'd be a nice change of tone as well, so there's no retread of what happened here. They could explain Xavier rescuing some young major players for his team there also. Kind of like they tried to do with Wolverine, except good.

Ruckus, I'm barely tracking your issue with the movie aside from "It's not like the comics." Singer's pacing was arguably better, but he seemed to deal with less plot threads and character arcs.

[PHEDG]

I had fun. Nice cameos.

p.s. I never read the comic. Was Rose Byrne's character in them?

[FilmNerdJamie]

RE: Magneto's development.

Kinda Monday morning quarterbacking/half-glass full kinda situation, I guess.

They had to assume there would only be one First Class film (and there most likely will not a sequel) and chose to adhere to Singer's continuity. Granted it totally worked for me, but I would have preferred they instead ended the film with Charles and Erick still BFFs and allowing them to grow as "good cop, bad cop" running the school together down the line in further films. That and making this a full-on reboot instead of a prequel. Phil's right.

To be fair, the way this ends they're not enemies. There's still love/respect between them to let one another draw their lines in the sand and head in their own paths. Like I said...Monday morning quarterbacking. Personally, I loved what we got with First Class.

[Matt]

Just came back from seeing this. I really enjoyed it, but it felt like it was missing about 5-10 minutes of plot to really make the characters come alive, especially Magneto. His character felt fully developed one minute and then minimalized the next; I wanted more philosophical shit, because I really REALLY dug the relationship between Charles and Erik. It's fully formed and believable, and the scenes between them where they're just TALKING are completely enthralling.

I rank it above X2 for the simple fact that Vaughn knows how to do a fight scene.

[Nathan]

The good mostly outweighs the bad. Don't think too much. Could've been so much worse.

[Matt]

I'm sorry, but 'could've been so much worse' is NOT good enough to justify a film's existence. That being said, I liked the film. I'd give it a solid 3.5/4

My X film rankings:

1. Tie between 'X-Men First Class' and 'X2: X-Men United', with a slight edge to XMFC because of the direction of the fight scenes. Both 3.5/4
3. 'X-Men' 2.5/4
4. 'X3: The Last Stand' 1.5/4
5. 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' 0/4

Also, January Jones is one of the worst actresses that I've ever scene. Holy shit, she actually makes Andie MacDowell seem like a master thespian. Nice body and rack, but good GOD somebody buy her acting lessons.