X-Men films: where do we go from here?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by RoJoHen, Feb 17, 2015.

  1. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    I'm sorry, I'm lost. What exactly is your point? Because I really can't find a cohesive one here that makes any sense.
     
  2. CaptainCanada

    CaptainCanada Admiral Admiral

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    Which is what they'd like to do with the franchise. It's a perpetual opportunity to make money. If it stops making them money at some point, they sell it back. They've got the wind in their sails now.
     
  3. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Which probably wouldn't be wrong. Guardians benefited from great word of mouth, in large part due to opening against pretty much nothing in an overlooked release window. DOFP would very probably have crushed it on a head-to-head matchup amidst casual moviegoers, thereby kneecapping said word of mouth and drastically lowering total ticket sales.


    Origins was a box office winner. The Wolverine was the series' best international take upon its release. First Class did just fine, and revived the brand in a big way. Also, the X-Men films are twice as old as the MCU, and less dependent upon the fickle whims of major stars; by that metric, they're doing just fine. How well do you think the Captain America films will be doing eight years from now?


    And even if Disney did offer Fox enough dough to make a sale financially sensible for the former's bottom line, studio execs thrive on, and aim to make, successful movies. Even if Fox's owners at News Corp didn't gobble up most of the payout (and why wouldn't evil old Rupert?), anyone who made that deal with the X-series in its current state would probably find Hollywood a damned lonely place, seeing as they would've put significant players at their own studio out of sure-thing jobs. And if they decided to try to move to another studio, and escape the glares of everyone at their office, who'd want to hire them after that show of loyalty?
     
  4. Masiral

    Masiral Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Professor Charles Xavier - the X-Men. Nothing to do with chromosomes.
     
  5. JWPlatt

    JWPlatt Commodore Commodore

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    Oh.

    What about the women?
     
  6. Lexx Shrapnel

    Lexx Shrapnel Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Where did i say that the Inhumans are mutants? If people were not freaked out about Cap why were they so scared of the mutants? How would Mutant-Human conflict affect how people look at Thor or the Hulk?
     
  7. M.A.C.O.

    M.A.C.O. Commodore Commodore

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    Everyone loves to throw Guardians out there as the example that an unknown Superhero film can work. While it is one example, I don't think Guardian's template can be applied to any other superhero property. Guardians struck that rare nerve of being a fun action series, a likable ensemble cast, mixed with scifi and had a rockin soundtrack to punctuate it's enjoyment.

    Guardians is definitely the POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl, of this decade. I don't think anyone will be able to copy exactly what Guardians did the first time and I don't think Guardians 2 will hit the plateau Guardians 1 did. Like POTC, the trap hole of doing what we did the first time and expecting the same result seems to be where they may likely take the next film.


    X-Men has been a learning experience. Definetely a trial and error franchise but more hits than misses.

    X1, X2, X First Class, The Wolverine, DOFP are all terrific.

    X3 and XMO are the low points.


    X3 because the brain of the franchise (Singer) left to ruin Superman over at WBs. XMO was rushed into production with an incomplete script and a unfinished effects. I believe XMO was made more so Fox could keep the rights. Since Laura Shuler Donner was holding out for Singer to come back and do X4 (which became DOFP) but Singer at the time wasn't interested. When Matthew Vaghun did First Class as a soft reboot/prequel, Singer was brought on as an executive producer for the film. This is what brought him back to do DOFP.

    The X franchise has a good track record. 7 films, with 1 being meh (X3) and another being bad (XMO).

    Marvel has 10 films so far with and not all of them winners. While most are financially successful (X3 and XMO were both financial success), some teeter more on the meh side.

    IM 1- Terrific
    The Incredible Hulk - Ok but Marvel has all but dropped any continuation to this film.
    IM 2- Bad. Basically a commercial for Avengers
    Thor - Meh. Another commercial for Avengers
    Capt Amer TFA- Meh. Another commercial.
    Avengers - Terffic
    IM 3 - Terrific
    Thor TDW- A fun romp and very enjoyable.
    Capt Amer TWS - James Bond meets Captain America? I'm all for it.
    GOTG- Really liked it the first time i saw it but now I can't get over how much they exposit throughout the film.
     
  8. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    I will never agree with the "Iron Man 2 was an advertisment for Avengers" arguement. I don't see how it's any more of an advertisment for Avengers than any other Phase One movie. It's the only franchise that got a sequel before Avengers, so it was played up a little more, but otherwise...?
     
  9. Masiral

    Masiral Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Agreed. And Thor and Cap 1 were also just commercials? That's just ridiculous.
     
  10. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    X-Men = X-Gene, the source of their mutancy. It's down to genes.

    And I think Thor, Captain America and even Iron Man 2 were all solid movies and not Avenger commercials.

    My problem with the X-Men movies is that they just seem to repeat themselves and they don't have the courage to really change things up the way the MCU films do.

    If X-Men were part of the MCU, we'd see real changes like Xavier being outed as a Mutant to the World, the school maybe being destroyed for good, Xavier having to contend with the Government passing mutant laws instead of everything being reset, his students defecting to Government X-Factor teams, etc.

    Instead of the same old "Magneto is up to something" plot.
     
  11. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    "Men" can be used to describe both genders.
     
  12. Timby

    Timby o yea just like that Administrator

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    Hm, yes, those courageous MCU films that are unafraid of changing the status quo ... honestly, The Winter Soldier is the only one of the whole bunch that qualifies.
     
  13. JWPlatt

    JWPlatt Commodore Commodore

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    Heh! How ironic.

    Ut oh... Someoneeeessss in troubllleeeee.
     
  14. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    :wtf:

    Whatever you say...
     
  15. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Iron Man 3 = Tony's home is destroyed, all the Iron Man suits are destroyed, he cures himself. Big changes.

    Thor 2 = Frigga dies, Odin's fate unknown, Thor leaves Asgard for Earth (permanently this time) and ends with Loki winning and ruling Asgard.

    Winter Soldier: True range of HYDRA revealed, SHIELD taken down.

    Compared to how the X-Men movies are all about maintaining the status quo, that's a lot of change.

    Especially considering the only X-men movie that tried to change the status Quo (X3) was disliked.
     
  16. Servo

    Servo Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Because the mutants made them feel weak and inferior. They feared that the mutants were the next stage in evolution, and that it would mean the end for their species and way of life.

    Cap, on the other hand, was given his abilities by men, and serves the interests of men (to varying extents). He's also a reminder that special abilities were not something you had to be born with, but could be given in the right circumstances.
     
  17. Dales

    Dales Captain Captain

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    winter solider ended in an explosion fest like the typical mcu film and it had the plot twist that even a child would figure out. nick was not dead, the winter solider was steve's bff.

    while Winter solider made good attempts to step up MCU films as been serious the third arc still fall to the mcu formula, fight fight and market the next avenger films.
    MCU is just tirinf now. xmen should not go back to marvel.
     
  18. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't feel like these are really that big a deal. For one thing, he can always get another home or live in Stark Tower ( where Project Insight targets him in TWS ). We don't presume that he's going to be living on the street going forward.

    As far as the curing himself thing, that's a change but how much practical effect does it really have? He had already created the new element in IM 2 so he wasn't in danger of dying from the palladium anymore. Other than that, I guess he would have wanted it out at some point ( one wonders why it wasn't done sooner ) but it didn't really affect things.

    The suits being destroyed isn't really significant either; IM 3 itself established there being that many suits in the first place, so it's kind of just correcting itself. We know Stark's going to be using some suits in Age of Ultron - we can see them in the trailers and promotional artwork! An Iron Man or Avengers film with Stark never being in an Iron Man suit just isn't in the cards. ( Does that make Tony's blowing-up-the-suits gesture at the end of IM 3 kind of hollow? Yes, it does. )

    I'm not sure what this is trying to say. It was rushed into production with unfinished effects? When a film is in production the effects would be unfinished by definition. Are you perhaps thinking of the infamous workprint? I assure you that those of us who watched the released film rather than the workprint saw a film with finished effects.
     
  19. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe he meant "unfinished script"? I remember reading an interview with the director where he complained that he was getting script pages faxed to him the day before shooting scenes.
     
  20. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    I doubt anyone foresaw Zola being alive as a 70s computer (even those who knew of his robot body) or that SHIELD was a cover for HYDRA.

    It's better than how X-Men always falls into the "Magneto's up to something bad!" plot which they've done 5 or 6 times by now.

    It's still a bigger change than anything that happens in the X-Movies.

    Heck, DOFP was all about Singer saying "Look, I don't want anything to ever change so I'm resetting it all so it's all back to the way it was at the end of X1!"