X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - Grading+Discussion **SPOILERS!**

Emma's mind is a brothel, eh? Funny, mine is a sewer...

 

Actually the brothel thing could have been a lot of fun, sexy babes distracting the boys and all that like the Love Shop in Logan's Run. Maybe could have been a fun spot for more mutant cameos or something, people dreamlike morphing into other people or such.

The 90s cartoon is streaming on netflix now. My husband has somehow never seen it and started an episode. Watching those sweet credits, I was thinking that that show worked so well because it had a great team lineup and the time to make multi part storylines. I would much rather have had Jubilee and Gambit to Angel and Havok.

I like the way the cartoon credits are billed too almost like 'starring Cyclops and Wolverine, then ending with Jean Grey and Professor X.' I always thought Wolverine was better when he was having an anti hero reluctant banter or conflict with Scott over a smaller or even absent Jean. Magneto wasn't also always a factor, and sometimes they worked together. Can't wait to watch the cartoon through again when I finish my She-Ra rewatch By then the First Class dvd will be out!

I wonder what the numbers will look like this weekend? After this their theater numbers really fall off I suspect.

 

It's sitting at $135.7m and I'd wager that with the holiday weekend it'll pull about $4-5m to have it's total sitting at about $140m +/- 300K.

 

It should leave theaters with $150-$170 million domestic, which I think is a solid figure and comparable to the first X-Men.

 

^ But it cost more to make. Though I suspect it will sell better on DVD.

 

I still want to see it again before it gets booted out of theaters. I've seen it three times, one more would be nice to tie it with "Star Trek" and "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" as theater films I've seen multiple times.

 

I think 20th Century Fox are waiting on the DVD sales before deciding to move ahead with a sequel or not. I think Kick-Ass earned something like $30 million in DVD sales.

X-Men: First Class was always going to have an uphill battle for various reasons. The cast is mostly unknown, the mutants aren't as familiar to audiences, there's no Wolverine, and it's coming after the last two mediocre and disappointing installments. Not to mention it has huge competition this year with three other competing superhero films (not to mention all of the other big event pictures like Transformers, Harry Potter and so forth).

X-Men: First Class did two things the other films didn't achieve: critical success and the fans, for the most part, really dug it. Honestly, I think that was what Tom Rothman and Fox wanted after the critical and fan backlash of the previous two movies, which is why they secured Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn for this film (two filmmakers who previously ditched 20th Century Fox and the franchise).

I'm pretty confident we'll see more X-Men films, and that Singer and/or Vaughn will be attached to them in some capacity. Will there be a direct sequel to First Class? Only time will tell, but I believe we'll see one after all.

 

^ I agree. I think if "First Class" was a critical failure then we would have something to worry about. The fact that so many people including critiques liked it makes me think we will get a sequel announcement by the end of the year (my own prediction). I also think we'll get some kind of "X4" announcement...sometime next year would be my guess for a possible 2014 release.

 

Producer Lauren Shuler-Donner and Bryan Singer talked about X4. We know there's been movement on that front. I think after Singer is done with Jack the Giant Killer that 20th Century Fox might want to nab him for X4, but we'll see.

 

I'm old enough to remember that when X-Men - which also didn't have any movie stars, which came on the back of a run of naff comic adaptations, like Batman and Robin and which was also up against other blockbuster movies - finished its cinema run, there was talk of there not being a sequel, of Singer being replaced by a 'proper' action director, etc, etc. Yet the original movie, not a massive commercial or critical hit in cinemas, built enough of a following on DVD to warrant a sequel with a bigger budget, which proved to be a bigger hit. So I'm confident that there will be a sequel to FC, which I think is a much better movie than the original 2000 movie.

 

^ ^ That's what I've been suggesting and what my wish would be.

 

^ I just don't see that happening. My expectation would be a sequel to FC or, if that doesn't prove sucessful enough for a sequel, there'll be a reboot of X-Men. I can't see them opting to make a sequel to X-Men, some 5 - 6 years down the line, given the way it left the characters and given the ages of Stewart and McKellen. I think that time has passed.

 

An ostensible X4 doesn't have to feature Xavier or Magneto. It could feature some of the younger mutants, especially since Xavier is supposedly "dead" and Magneto is depowered. There are ways to make it work. However, I agree that a sequel to First Class is more likely.

 

^ If they go that way, younger mutants etc, what's to distinguish it from First Class? At least a sequel to FC would build on the goodwill and critical acclaim from that movie. Yet a further X-Men crew, with more unknown actors and characters would face the same problems as FC.

 

At least the movies done decent enough for sequel talk to be in play with the old adage of DVD sales.

I just don't buy the GL sequel talk, the $$$ isn't right.

 

^ Apparently WB are planning one, though.

 

I plan to marry a supermodel also. Doing so is another matter.

Seriously, though if they actually do it I'll be shocked. I think they are just talking it up as a way to counteract the bad WOM. As if to say, "Hey, it's not done as bad as you've heard. We're doing a sequel check this movie out."

 

^ You could be right. I'm planning ( that word again) to see it, bad reviews notwithstanding.

 

Well, the advantage of an X4 would mean you could secure Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry again, who were the real draws of the first three movies (at least to mainstream audiences).

We could see more familiar faces like Anna Paquin (Rogue), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus). You could even bring back mutants like Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast).

Plus, if Singer (or whoever directs the movie) is adventurous, he could try and rectify some of the deaths of the last movie and somehow bring back James Marsden (who was never really shown as dead) and Famke Janssen but that's entirely up to Singer, the writers, the producers and 20th Century Fox.

Like I said, I think a sequel to X-Men: First Class is much more likely at this point, but there's still a lot of interest and potential with an X4 that could make it very viable, at least for the studio (especially if Shuler-Donner can sway Singer to direct).

 

^ You could be right. But Halle would cost a fortune to get back and Rogue lost her powers in X3 (not to mention that Anna is tied up with True Blood). I don't see Ashmore or Cudmore putting a lot of bums on seats and Cumming has made clear his hatred of the make up process.

My main reason for not expecting a sequel is that studios tend to think audiences have the attention span of a gnat and find it easier to reboot than make sequels. The more successful Spider-man movies are being rebooted after a shorter gap and with a more open-ended 3rd movie. Superman, Hulk, Punisher, Ghost Rider and - apparently - Fantastic Four and Daredevil are also being rebooted, after shorter gaps than there's been since X3. I'd be surprised if X4 bucked the trend.

of course, we're broadly in agreement here anyway!