X-Men: First Class (spoilers)

Singer's responsible for the not-consistent-with-the-original-comics team lineups. Personally, I don't really have a big problem with the changes Singer OR Ratner made (other than emo Rogue*). Yodaminch was complaining about not being able to make the movie comic-accurate, and I just think it's disingenuous to put all the blame for the lineup issues on Ratner when the movies have taken pretty big liberties the whole time.

*even then, it's not a deal-breaker by any stretch of the imagination. It's kind of annoying for there to be a character called Rogue who looks and acts nothing like her comic counterpart, but ultimately what's most important is whether the movie works as a movie. Rogue's power obviously opens up a broader range of dramatic possibilities than Kitty's, so I can understand why they created the patchwork hybrid that they did. Though she probably didn't have to be quite SO wimpy...

 

So MATTHEW VAUGHN is officially directing with BRYAN SINGER producing and there is a release date of June 3 2011!!!

Official announcement:

BRYAN SINGER AND MATTHEW VAUGHN UNITE FOR X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

Twentieth Century Fox will release film on June 3, 2011

LOS ANGELES (May 4, 2010) __ "Kick-Ass" director Matthew Vaughn will helm X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, a new chapter in Twentieth Century Fox's blockbuster series of films based on the Marvel Comics.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS begins production this summer for a June 3, 2011 release. Bryan Singer, who conceived the story for FIRST CLASS and directed the original "X-Men" and its sequel "X2," is producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.
"I've been a fan of Matthew's since LAYER CAKE," said Singer. "He has a deft hand with multiple characters and storylines, and a great love of the X-Men universe. I feel the combination of this story and his vision will make for an exciting and original X-Men film."
Added Twentieth Century Fox president of production, Emma Watts: "X-Men: First Class presents an exciting opportunity to further explore the history and relationships of these beloved characters. Matthew's combination of talent, verve and vision is perfectly suited to the task."
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, following the classic Marvel mythology, charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.

So as much as I enjoy Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, would they really go to the efforts of 'de-aging' them for the whole movie or will we get a 'Shinzon' actor for Xavior and someone younger for Magneto...?

 

I'm more concerned with who's writing it. One of my biggest complaints about all the X movies is the number of random characters they just throw in there for no reason. The X-Men movies really need to tone down the number of cameos and that seems like it's the writer's responsibility.

 

X-Men is now 10 years old, you could argue that they haven't aged considerably in that time, but First Class is set around 10 years before then? So ideally they should appear at least 20 years younger then their current age.

I think you will find that all of the cameos are at the request of the Studio. They seem to like showing off as many mutants as possible.

 

Or hopefully a younger actor who bears at least SOME resemblance to Stewart beyond both being bald white dudes?

...geez, Nemesis was awful.

 

Traditional make up can add 80 years or subtract 20. At least, that's what my instructor used to say.

 

Just read over at SuperHeroHype that James McAvoy has been cast as a "Younger" Professor X. I'm officially off this movie. I don't give a **** who's writing, Directing, or Producing because obviously they have their heads up their collective @$$es.

-T_S_R

 

The announcement that James Mcavoy has been cast as Charles Xavier ruined my hope that thanks to Matthew Vaughn the X-Men film franchise would be good once again and hopefully remain more true to the comics. Thank you very much FOX (SARCASM).

Although I suppose it could be worse (think X-Men meets '60s Adam West Batman) :
[image=http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2009/4/4/128833425977103979.jpg]

 

Can you guys BELIEVE those idiots cast Heath Ledger as the Joker?!!?! I can't see him as the Joker at all. They should have picked someone else. This movie is going to suck.

 

In that instance, there were no viable joker actors from recent film to use. In this, Patrick Stewart IS Charles Xavier. He has been the fan's choice for Xavier since before the films even started. The same goes for Ian McKellen as Magneto. Yes they are both older and not getting any younger, but they could still be viable in 80% of the movie especially with the tech available.

It's not that James McAvoy is a bad actor (he's fantastic in what I've seen), it's just the many would have preferred Stewart and McKellen back.

What would the prequels have been like without Ian McDiarmid for Palpatine? It could have been good (Ewan as Obi-Wan) or it could have been bad (Hayden's "Vader")

That's basically what First class is looking like without two excellent actors who defined their roles and were the standout performances in all 3 movies. It doesn't mean it will be terrible. And I'm hoping it's not. But suddenly two characters who were pretty much perfectly cast, are now recast and fans are concerned based on Fox's recent track record with marvel films. Some simple questions: Will McAvoy be bald? In the comics, Xavier lost his hair very early. But perhaps McAvoy doesn't want to shave it off. There goes the iconic look. See Deadpool in Wolverine Origins as a perfect example. Compared to Marvel's movie, the adaptions made by Fox have not always been as faithful to the characters as they should have been.

 

Remember when James Bond was recast? How horrible that was? Why, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was so bad, they brought Sean Connery back. Then they found Roger Moore, who was so terrible, they kept him on for 7 or 8 more. Then they recast again, and again, and again... And then they completely rebooted the series.
OK, I don't like the new guy very much. It could just be that the writing sucks, but so far the only actor who has impressed me is Judy Dench as M.

First Punisher: Dolph Lundgren was good, but the script sucked.
Second Punisher: Actor sucked. Script lame. Was an excuse for John Travolta wo be a shallow villain again.
Punisher WarZone: Finally got it right with a bunch of relatively unknowns. Didn't receive nearly the praise or acclaim it deserved.

Sure, they might blow it again. First Class and Avengers1 may suck harder than Tonya Harding and blow more than GIJoe. But it might surprise us. I'm willing to wait and see. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.

 

Sorry, but no. Yes, Stewart IS Xavier at the height of the X-Men as we know them. No doubt.

But we've got the establishment of a timeline now. And we know that there's a good 10-15 years between Wolverine and X-Men. Given what we've been shown we can surmise that at the time of X-Men that Magneto was about 60, but Xavier has always been hinted at in the comics and even in the movies as being younger than him by up to 10 years so he'd have been around 50-ish. So you've got a mid-30's Xavier and late 40's Magneto.

The amount of money that would be needed to spend, not only on the fees for both actors, but then the make-up and/or visual effects to de-age both given that unfortunately they both have started really showing their age over the last 10 years would not be insignificant. For McDiarmid on the other hand, his original role was not his 1983 self, but a heavily make-upped and corrupted version so it wasn't that hard to reprise 20 years later.


As for McAvoy, they couldn't have made a better choice. He's one of the only actors of the current generation that has the requisite gravitas, look and more importantly accent to play a young Xavier. Just as I had no doubt about Ledger as Joker, I don't have any doubt about McAvoy as a young Xavier. It won't be absolutely true to the comics, but trying to do that at any stage of what they have done with this franchise would have been a mistake.

 

I agree with Quest. Tom Jane ruled as Frank Castle as he does in most of his roles. The only thing the actor from War Zone had going for him was the look. He did not have the acting chops that Jane did. And when it comes down to looks vs. acting, the better actor wins out every time IMO. Liev Shrieber's Sabretooth was much better than Tyler Mane's because of this. He was just about the only thing I enjoyed about the Wolverine movie.

 

I believed the guy in Warzone was The Punisher.
I believed the guy in Punisher was trying to be young Christopher Lambert, but not that he could even remotely be The Punisher.

WarZone script was far, far better, and a lot more true to the 1980s Punisher than either Punisher preceding it.

Jigsaw, even as a Joker ripoff, was also a lot more interesting than Travolta's hamming.

 

Okay maybe McAvoy won't be terrible but its not like they couldn't have used Patrick Stewart again, considering this takes place like right after Wolverine and Stewart was Xavier in that one.

 

I'd much rather have a proper X-men 3 movie(with Singer directing, but keep the power levels of the mutants the same as in the originial third film, because his characters were either under-powered or holding back),so they can give the Phoenix a proper movie and bring the Shii-ar empire into the mix.

 

Actually that's pretty much what does it. If Patrick Stewart hadn't been in Origins (or we had just heard his voice and seen the back of his head and not the face) it would be a bit easier to accept this change. But since they didn't, it does look a bit weird. Luckily, this is easily rectified that pretending Wolverine never happened.

 

Maybe they should do a Special Re-Edition of Origins with McAvoy CGId over Patrick Stuart. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it? I mean, they did it with Return of the Jedi, and no one noticed the difference. Right?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's been nothing that says this occurs between the two? So there's nothing that can't prevent them using Storm, Beast and Jean who were all a few years older than Scott to have this set before Wolverine.

 

I believe you are correct sir. I really would like to see more Beast. He was always my favorite as a kid.

 

Regarding McAvoy and CGI makeup for Stewart, that just really wouldn't work well. People love to immediately refer to the de-aging tech they could use, and then they criticize movies for an over-reliance on CGI. Casting for a younger Xavier is a much better choice.