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

[Guy Gardener]

Wouldn't be called a post-prequel?

i burnt a disk the over day on which I labelled:

"X-Men

-2 - +3"

(Minus Two through to plus Three.)

 

[KB24]

Oh that's a shame Guy

Glad you liked it 24th!

So, anyone want to speculate what the deleted scenes already mentioned for the bluray are? Is it more of Xavier and Magneto or is it the kids crap? Considering it was 2 hours and 12 minutes runtime, I wonder how much could be cut? Is it just little sliver snips? After all, if you're already a quarter of the way in, why did you have to cut stuff? If it is a serious chunk of material, then it is usually billed a director's cut with new footage.

Man, I bet they are going to do a quick release DVD in September like they said already, a bigger bd set, and then I bet there were a scary massive ultimate release come Christmas. Always a gimmick when they just should have had some ^%^&**#$@# merchandise!

People are making damn First Class t-shirts with their online businesses and cafe press crap. Stupid Fox.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Still unclear what action scene it was they had to rewrite because it was too similar to Inception's anti gravity hallway scene.

 

[KB24]

It was some sort of telepathic battle between Xavier and Emma Frost supposedly. I don't know when or where though. Maybe there will be storyboards or something in the video special features?

I don't know why they were so worried about it that they didn't include it. Immortals looks exactly like 300. Everyone is still doing slow motion Matrix bullets. Pirates had the same dead guys as Return of the King. What would have been the big deal?

 

[Broccoli]

I am guessing that it was more than just a passing resemblance for them to consider taking it out. Like, the scenes were so close, they could have swapped them.

Plus, a fight in a spinning hallway while dreaming is pretty specific as opposed to having slower bullets or dead people, which are fairly general. It's about context how those ideas are used, I imagine.

 

[KB24]

Was this the thread with the wheels jokes? I finally found the Popcorn thing where Fassbender and McAvoy make the loser comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoNkz4gb6Xc

About a minute in. They sing later. Scary!


^I imagine they could have still used it and just annoyed people for doing the exact same thing- the way Alien 3 ends exactly like Terminator 2. The only other thinking I can uh, think of, is that it was so damn close that they didn't want to get sued by anybody.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Odd, I don't remember a chestburster poppin out of Uncle Bob's stomach.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yes the rewritten scene (I think JacksonArcher posted an article about it in the news thread) was probably the planned astral plane battle. I don't think they were worried about it being too similar as they were being respectful to "Inception" (maybe that's naive of me to think).

 

[KB24]

I saw this link and thought it ws fun for your finite guys to comb through and cite all the mistakes and inconsistencies.

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film8908


Terminator 2 got it right and did it first. Alien 3 comes out after and has its bad frozen and burst into a million pieces just like the T-1000 and then Ripley goes into the hot stuff just like Uncle Bob. And in the Special Edition Alien 3, no chest burster burts out while she's going down. Doesn't the end of AE automatically make you go, hey, this is just like T2? It does me.

If it is respect, I'm glad. AGain, when I watch Avatar there are parts that just scream every other movie ever. At least First Class is somewhat unique.

 

[KB24]

Okay, not sure if this is super major to anyone really, as this is clearly just a popularity thing, but the 2011 Teen Choice Awards had their nominations and X-Men First Class has a few!

It took me forever to find a site listing the complete nominations- so many just had Potter versus Twilight blurbs yadda yadda. :

http://www.chiff.com/pop-culture/teen-choice-awards.htm

Choice Movie: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Super 8
X-Men: First Class
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Choice Movie Actor: Sci Fi/Fantasy
Robert Pattinson- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Ryan Reynolds- Green Lantern
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Taylor Lautner- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Johnny Depp- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Choice Movie Actress: Sci Fi/Fantasy
Penelope Cruz- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Kristen Stewart- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Blake Lively- Green Lantern
Elle Fanning- Super 8
Emma Watson - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Choice Movie Villain
Bryce Dallas Howard- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Leighton Meester - The Roommate
Ian McShane- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Kevin Bacon- X-Men: First Class
Tom Felton- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Choice Movie Chemistry
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, “The Other Guys”
Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper, “The Hangover Part II”
Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, “Just Go With It”
The “Super 8” Crew, “Super 8”
The First Class, “X-Men: First Class”



I think this may be a little proof that the largely unknown status of the cast hindered the film, as MF and McAvoy could easily have been given a Best Actor SFF nomination, especially over Ryan Reynolds- who is purely a name and flash for Green Lantern. And Magneto and Mystique in the Liplock category? Hello! When are you ever going to have a chance to have a blue girl getting a first kiss? Why not? Jennifer Lawrence could have also had the Actress nom, but alas, kids only know who Kevin Bacon is, which is some comfort, I suppose. What would the world come to if tweens didn't know of Kevin Bacon?!

 

[stj]

Below expectations. The buzz said this was actually good. Despite all the stuff above, things like Kevin Bacon being a non-Nazi running a lab in a Nazi death camp or somehow expecting to sweet talk Magneto after he murders his mother (WTF?) make it really pretty bad.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Oh that's a shame Guy

Glad you liked it 24th!

So, anyone want to speculate what the deleted scenes already mentioned for the bluray are? Is it more of Xavier and Magneto or is it the kids crap? Considering it was 2 hours and 12 minutes runtime, I wonder how much could be cut? Is it just little sliver snips? After all, if you're already a quarter of the way in, why did you have to cut stuff? If it is a serious chunk of material, then it is usually billed a director's cut with new footage.

Man, I bet they are going to do a quick release DVD in September like they said already, a bigger bd set, and then I bet there were a scary massive ultimate release come Christmas. Always a gimmick when they just should have had some ^%^&**#$@# merchandise!

People are making damn First Class t-shirts with their online businesses and cafe press crap. Stupid Fox.

I'm really annoyed with this new trend of putting basic bonus features like deleted scenes on the BluRay release but not putting them on DVD, like with Sherlock Holmes.

And agreed about 20th Century Fox really missing the boat when it comes to X-Men: First Class merchandise. I mean, they only just yesterday got around to releasing the soundtrack. Isn't this usually something that you release before the actual movie?! Plus, none of the Best Buys in the entire southwest region have it. It seems like I can only find it in specialty stores like FYE.

Choice Movie Actor: Sci Fi/Fantasy
Robert Pattinson- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Ryan Reynolds- Green Lantern
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Taylor Lautner- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Johnny Depp- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

[...]

I think this may be a little proof that the largely unknown status of the cast hindered the film, as MF and McAvoy could easily have been given a Best Actor SFF nomination, especially over Ryan Reynolds- who is purely a name and flash for Green Lantern. And Magneto and Mystique in the Liplock category? Hello! When are you ever going to have a chance to have a blue girl getting a first kiss? Why not? Jennifer Lawrence could have also had the Actress nom, but alas, kids only know who Kevin Bacon is, which is some comfort, I suppose.

If I wasn't already convinced that kids are morons, the continued popularity of Twilight would definitively prove it. I mean, sure, lots of crappy movies make lots of money, but how can they justify continuously nominating Pattinson & Stewart for awards!? I feel like I'm stuck in the middle. You've got Twilight contaminating the young people awards while prestigious awards never go to anything fun.

Agreed that Jennifer Lawrence needed a best actress nod. Mystique's story is just so heartbreaking.

And McAvoy & Fassbender would both wipe the floor with all of the actual nominees.
Robert Pattinson? Granted, I haven't seen Eclipse, but his performance in the 1st Twilight surely ranks among the worst performances in the history of cinema.
Daniel Radcliffe? Granted, I think he's come a long way over the last decade. I just don't think there's a whole lot to his performance in The Deathly Hallows, Part 1. (However, his work in The Half-Blood Prince was brilliant.)
Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow schtick was a revelation when he did it back in 2003. Now it's getting old. However, he deserves some credit for carrying through the movie on pure charisma. Ditto in that respect for Ryan Reynolds.

Terminator 2 got it right and did it first. Alien 3 comes out after and has its bad frozen and burst into a million pieces just like the T-1000 and then Ripley goes into the hot stuff just like Uncle Bob. And in the Special Edition Alien 3, no chest burster burts out while she's going down. Doesn't the end of AE automatically make you go, hey, this is just like T2? It does me.

In their defense, Alien 3 was already in production when Terminator 2 came out.

 

[KB24]

I agree BCorpse the way they skimp on the assorted video releases stinks. I know with certain rentals as well you don't expect, hee, the whole Bean, so to speak, but for some of the rental copies that are missing the bells and whistles it is a put off, too. What if there is a really great deleted scene that adds something to the film that renters can't see? Eh.

Yes Admiral was disappointed in the lack of a tie in novel as well. While I have to admit that might in itself be a thing of the past, the lack of visuals or physical material for this film is just screaming out of sight out of mind for a lot of audiences. If anything, some merchandise showing that this is non-Wolverine centric may have helped return the scorned.

Yeah these Teen Awards are totally just a popularity contest with almost no critic merit whatsoever, but it still fails to explain how popularity works! I hate Twilight. Makes a bad name for all of us fans and writers of scary vampires everywhere! Pattinson and Stewart bemoaning how they hate fame and always look like trash just bothers me so much I can't say. Um, you could always, like, wash or something, or maybe like, stop making billion dollar movies to be famous, totally.

Proof the younger kids who would have seen merchandise and subsequently been interested: the Mystique angle. Hello she's blue, if that isn't not fitting in, then I don't know what is. When my nieces were at first interested in the film and then changed their minds because they were 'tired with the guy with the claws' I had to tell them this movie was totally different. You would think kids would relate to a film about teens with body issues. I swear, sometimes I think audiences today would not know a touching, emotional, well acted performance if it bit them in the ass. Fassbender would already be the likes of Tom Hanks stateside if that were the case. Really, why do I like this guy so much now? I saw Hunger, that's why. Was I drooling all over him in 300? No.




True. Were Alien 3 and T2 at the same studio? Alien 3 had no script for its production, either and cut out all the monk stuff or something. Eh, I guess a lot of films come out with similar stuff at the same time. Nowadays, however, it feels like we just keep getting the same movie over and over.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I just saw the movie. It was entertaining and enjoyable. I liked the way they weaved the mutant revelation into real life events.

The lamest part of the movie was the selection of mutants (besides Prof. X, Magneto, and Mystique). And the movie was just occasionally hokey and silly. Kevin Bacon was... Kevin Bacon.

I think people overhyped it, I kind of went in expecting something as dramatic as X-Men 2 based on the reaction but it was not that good.. It felt kind of similar to X-Men 3, though occasionally less cringeworthy. Definitely better than Wolverine.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I saw it again with a pair of friends last night. (How much do I believe in this movie? I paid for their tickets too!)

Sadly, you can only see a movie for the 1st time once, so that giddy surprise was gone for me but it still kicks so much ass!

I love the Argentina bar scene, where Magneto officially replaces Wolverine as the official badass of the Marvel universe.

Also... "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to count to three and I'm going to move the coin."

I love how the movie is a period piece but doesn't really bash you over the head with it. It's period but it's not retro. Most of the science fictiony stuff is still very science fictiony with today's science. The film has a lot of immediacy to it. Other than the Cuban Missile Crisis specifics, it's all just subtle touches: horn-rimmed glasses, old cars, no cellphones, "Pallisades Park," etc. The only times the movie seems overly aware of its period status are in its strained nods to sexism & chauvanism.

BTW, random spot the actor, one of the communications officers aboard the American battleship at the end in Brendan Fehr (Michael Guerin from Roswell).

 

[JacksonArcher]

Yes the rewritten scene (I think JacksonArcher posted an article about it in the news thread) was probably the planned astral plane battle. I don't think they were worried about it being too similar as they were being respectful to "Inception" (maybe that's naive of me to think).

Actually, the scene would have taken place when Charles, Erik and Moira stormed the Russian military retreat. In the final version of the film, Emma Frost simply tries to run away from Charles and Erik, but in one of the earlier drafts of the script, Emma brings Charles and Erik into Emma's mind, which was visualized as a brothel.

Charles and Erik fight Emma there, and Emma mentally throws Charles through a wall, and he winds up in his childhood bedroom and they tussle there. At one point, Emma throws Erik through another wall, and he's back in the concentration camp, which momentarily distracts him, while Emma continues to get the upper hand.

Charles eventually manages to mentally overcome Emma, and essentially throws Erik out of Emma's mind so he can use the bed post to break Emma's crystallized form.

Matthew Vaughn said in the trades they cut it because of the similarity to Inception, but in reality that was Vaughn's favorite scene from the script and he had to cut it because of budget restraints. He mentioned the cut scene and the Inception connection in order to actually convince 20th Century Fox to give him more money so he could reinstate the scene, but unfortunately that never happened.

 

[KB24]

Boo, that does sound a lot cooler. Now that it has topped 320 mil with less theaters can we have that for the sequel?

I agree the period style is done just right. It doesn't look so dated 2010s doing 60s at all- not the way That 70s Show looks 70s via 90s. And there are a lot of 'hey that guy!' guys in this movie.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Thanks for clarifying JA...I always get stuff like that wrong or confused it seems.


I've been thinking about a sequel, as I stated before I'd like to see Sinister used as a villain but another possibility would be The Shadow King. We could see Charles going across the world, using Cerebro to find new mutants and he detects this demonic one with incredible telepathic powers. The film would take place in the 70's. We could possibly see him recruiting Ororo, first encountering her as a street urchin who works for the Shadow King's human form. I dunno. So many possibilities now.

 

[KB24]

Sequel! Sequel! Oh, I mean, Attica! Attica!

I found my Avatar folder again as you can see! I though I'd lost it when I transferred to my new laptop. I made one X-Men picture so far, if anyone wants this or anything else in my folders or photobucket, just let me know. I know they aren't fancy, but I'm not greedy, either. Mostly.



http://www.trekbbs.com/picture.php?albumid=243&pictureid=3104

Actually that soldier jabbing himself with the knife scene in the trailer is one that is cut from the film. Bummer.

 

[G2309]

Yes the rewritten scene (I think JacksonArcher posted an article about it in the news thread) was probably the planned astral plane battle. I don't think they were worried about it being too similar as they were being respectful to "Inception" (maybe that's naive of me to think).

Actually, the scene would have taken place when Charles, Erik and Moira stormed the Russian military retreat. In the final version of the film, Emma Frost simply tries to run away from Charles and Erik, but in one of the earlier drafts of the script, Emma brings Charles and Erik into Emma's mind, which was visualized as a brothel.

Charles and Erik fight Emma there, and Emma mentally throws Charles through a wall, and he winds up in his childhood bedroom and they tussle there. At one point, Emma throws Erik through another wall, and he's back in the concentration camp, which momentarily distracts him, while Emma continues to get the upper hand.

Charles eventually manages to mentally overcome Emma, and essentially throws Erik out of Emma's mind so he can use the bed post to break Emma's crystallized form.

Matthew Vaughn said in the trades they cut it because of the similarity to Inception, but in reality that was Vaughn's favorite scene from the script and he had to cut it because of budget restraints. He mentioned the cut scene and the Inception connection in order to actually convince 20th Century Fox to give him more money so he could reinstate the scene, but unfortunately that never happened.

That does sound like a great scene. I thought the film could have done with showing us something new with Xaviers powers.