Yeah what Christopher said. It originally was done as an adaption of Jeff Parker's First Class comic. It's been since confirmed that some of Magneto's story was taken from the abandoned "X-Men Origins Magneto" and incorporated into his treatment.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (Casting, Rumors, Pics till release)
- Thread starter Obiwanshinobi
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I actually don't find the X-Men: First Class title especially appealing, mostly because the second part of the title is rather bland and doesn't provide much clear information. It does vaguely suggest that this might be about a beginning or an origin or something, but not very explicitly, and then there is the idea that it might be about a lesson or training, but that's not very exciting. Then I guess there is the (perhaps unintentional) connotation that the film will be "first class," "top of the line" or "classy" or whatever, but that's cheesy.
I also wonder how appropriate it will be for the actual film. Overall I'm not sure why this movie wasn't turned into a reboot, rather than a prequel, marketed as such and given a more catchy title. But whatever, sweet trailer
I also wonder how appropriate it will be for the actual film. Overall I'm not sure why this movie wasn't turned into a reboot, rather than a prequel, marketed as such and given a more catchy title. But whatever, sweet trailer
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I think it works fine. It's pretty well known that X-Men is a franchise about a school for mutants, so the dual meaning of "First Class" should be pretty clear in that context. And I don't take the second meaning as saying that the film is first-class, but rather that the characters, the students, are first-class, the elite, the best of the best.
Overall I'm not sure why this movie wasn't turned into a reboot, rather than a prequel, marketed as such and given a more catchy title. But whatever, sweet trailer
Because Bryan Singer wanted to do a prequel. He's heavily invested in his versions of Xavier and Magneto and had more that he wanted to say about those characters.
Out of curiosity, are you getting this information from interviews or some other source, or deducing it from the direction taken with the film? Regardless, a reboot-style movie would certainly have afforded Singer with every opportunity to say more about Xavier and Magneto.
^Sorry, I shouldn't have phrased that so much as a factual statement. It's what I've gathered from articles and interviews I've read, but I can't cite a specific source.
And yeah, maybe a reboot "could've" let him do that, but he chose to do it this way. A lot of the time, the only answer to "Why are they doing that story the way they are?" is because it's what the creators wanted to do, what felt right to them, nothing more complicated than that. Another director would've made a different movie, but Bryan Singer is making this movie, and the ultimate answer to "why" is that he's Bryan Singer and not somebody else.
And yeah, maybe a reboot "could've" let him do that, but he chose to do it this way. A lot of the time, the only answer to "Why are they doing that story the way they are?" is because it's what the creators wanted to do, what felt right to them, nothing more complicated than that. Another director would've made a different movie, but Bryan Singer is making this movie, and the ultimate answer to "why" is that he's Bryan Singer and not somebody else.
^ Fair enough, but my original question basically assumed all of that and was more of a shorthand way of asking "Was it a good idea?" or implying that I'm not sure the prequel format was the best possible choice. We won't really know until the film comes out.
I suspect Singer may approach this the same way he did Superman Returns -- making a film that draws on previous films in the series and reflects their continuity, but reinterprets or disregards aspects thereof as it suits the story being told now (e.g. retconning the events of the first couple of Superman films to c. 2000 instead of c. 1980). So neither a straight prequel or a complete reboot, but something in between.
I saw a trailer for this this past weekend when I saw B:LA.
It actually looked pretty good and interesting, I wasn't anticipating it considering the crap-fest Wolverine and X-Men 3 were but this, this I could like.
It actually looked pretty good and interesting, I wasn't anticipating it considering the crap-fest Wolverine and X-Men 3 were but this, this I could like.
^^ Christopher, Singer has already been on record as recently as yesterday (while answering fan questions) that this isn't a reboot. It's a prequel.
The Superman Returns comparison is actually what makes me a bit nervous about this movie. Granted, that script had a variety of huge problems, but doing a belated sequel to the original films was probably a mistake to begin with, however much it may have seemed like a good idea to the creators. A reboot was in order, i.e. a movie that didn't assume the audience already knew and cared about the main characters and didn't depend on what had come before.
X-Men: First Class is (I guess) a much less (though still somewhat) belated prequel, but I could see it having some of the same problems. Hopefully, it will simply have a better script and work better as a standalone movie than SR did. I think that is probably what Christopher is suggesting may be so with the idea that it will be somewhere between a "reboot" and a "prequel."
X-Men: First Class is (I guess) a much less (though still somewhat) belated prequel, but I could see it having some of the same problems. Hopefully, it will simply have a better script and work better as a standalone movie than SR did. I think that is probably what Christopher is suggesting may be so with the idea that it will be somewhere between a "reboot" and a "prequel."
Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (his co-writer on Kick-Ass) have done revisions on the script. Admittedly the script has gone through a number of writers but there have been no problems reported by the studio or anyone involved with the script. Jamie Moss wrote the first draft of Singer's treatment.
Not that I recall. Harris and Dougherty were there from the start and helped Singer develop and refine the story.
@KB24 I assume it's the first trailer that's playing. That's the only one out there aside from the Russian trailer.
@KB24 I assume it's the first trailer that's playing. That's the only one out there aside from the Russian trailer.
I think the idea is probably not to worry about labels and cubbyholes like that. Fans obsess about those things, about different categories of continuity, a million times more than creators do. Creators are just concerned with telling the best story they can. Continuity is just a tool in the box. If drawing on earlier works about the same subject or mythos as your story can help the story, then you do so. If going in a different direction from those earlier works helps the story, then you do that instead.
And it's not uncommon to do both in the same work. Look at the actual comics canon. Marvel rewrites its own continuity all the time, updating everything to keep characters roughly the same age even when they've been around for nearly half a century, even while pretending it's all a single consistent reality. So why would it be so unprecedented for the movies to do the same, to keep some elements of the continuity while rewriting others?
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^ I'm not at all sure that fans are the only ones who think about these things. Fans aren't the ones, for example, that popularized the "reboot." Creators did, or at least studios and producers. It's an identifiable approach to adapting a property that has already been seen on screen, and a prequel is another identifiable approach, though the two can perhaps overlap to a degree.
So, I don't think it's a case of fan continuity obsession, but more a case of trying to get a handle on what angle this movie is taking. "Prequel" according to the producer, though what that actually means in this case is of course up in the air. Frankly, I think most fans (let alone casual movie-goers) couldn't care less about continuity with the previous X-films at this point and would just as soon see the X-Men start over from scratch, which is why the "prequel" choice seems a bit odd.
EDIT: refered to Singer as director by accident.
So, I don't think it's a case of fan continuity obsession, but more a case of trying to get a handle on what angle this movie is taking. "Prequel" according to the producer, though what that actually means in this case is of course up in the air. Frankly, I think most fans (let alone casual movie-goers) couldn't care less about continuity with the previous X-films at this point and would just as soon see the X-Men start over from scratch, which is why the "prequel" choice seems a bit odd.
EDIT: refered to Singer as director by accident.
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Bryan Singer isn't the director of this movie. Matthew Vaughn is. Singer is the executive producer and came up with the story treatment for the film. Flemm brings up a good point though, if it was just a fan thing regarding continuity then there wouldn't have been a conscience decision to ignore "X-Men The Last Stand" which Vaughn and Singer are doing with this film.
It's the original one we saw here in the US. It was awesome getting to see it on the big screen.
It's the original one we saw here in the US. It was awesome getting to see it on the big screen.
It sure was!
I know the posters are fucking stupid, but the trailer is awesome.