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Bryan Singer On X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, Asks Donner To "Hold" X-MEN 4, Had Lunch W/ Jackman About...???
Merrick here...
L.A. Times has an interesting conversation with Bryan Singer and Lauren Shuler Donner about the past, present status, and future of the X-MEN film franchise. They're a few interesting points in the piece, including a coy allusion to Singer having recently met with Hugh Jackman about....something. WOLVERINE, maybe?
Read all about it HERE.
Of particular note: Singer speaks to the focus of the currently-in-development X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (which he looks to be directing), and pointedly states his interest in a third X-MEN sequel (i.e. X-MEN 4) to Lauren during the course of the interview. There was previously scuttlebutt regarding Singer's return to the franchise after his absence from the despicable X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, but it's interesting to hear the possibility mentioned as pointedly as this.
Re: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS...
The premise has compelling elements to it, Singer said. "Just doing younger mutants is not enough. The story needs to be more than that. I love the relationship between Magneto and Xavier, these two men who have diametrically opposite points of view but still manage to be friends -- to a point. They are the ultimate frenemies."
Re: X-MEN 4:
Singer turned to Shuler Donner and said of "X-Men 4": "Hold that one off for just a little, I'm fixated on the other one right now." She nodded and answered, "I will, I will ... I'm holding it open with high hopes. It's totally different [from 'First Class'] and it will be so interesting for you."
Meanwhile, Singer remains attached to/involved with variety of other projects, including JACK THE GIANT KILLER and a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA film which would re-launch that franchise's original mythos for the big-screen (at least, as far as I know he' still attached to that one). It'll be interesting to see which, if any of these, will float to the top. With so much on the table, seems like something's gotta give...
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The premise has compelling elements to it, Singer said. "Just doing younger mutants is not enough. The story needs to be more than that. I love the relationship between Magneto and Xavier, these two men who have diametrically opposite points of view but still manage to be friends -- to a point. They are the ultimate frenemies."
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IF they do it right. X2 is still one of the best EVER. Singer has the ability.
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Amateurish piece of shit.
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Jackman has never really captured the barrel chested, compact, raging animal that defines Wolverine.
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...I considered tearing it up after that Superman bullshit.
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Mar 18, 2010 10:57:38 AM CDT
THAT GUY IN FIGHT CLUB WHO RAN THE BAR WHERE THEY FOUGHT IN THE
by donlogan
...He should've been Wolverine. Anyone know his name?
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I reckon he could pull it off.
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This guy still thinks he's making a Battlestar Gallactica film. How much coke is he on. Seriously, we're in the age now where 3D spectacle and visual storytelling are going to be paramount for these kind of movie. Singer sucks at action and he's really not that great with story either. We all know he doesn't actually give a shit about the X-men or superheroes in general. These movies have and always will be cash-ins for him. There's just a portion of fandom out there too stupid to see that.
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After the last show, it isn't needed for another 20 years.
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Leave Wolverine out of anymore X-Men related movies.
The most overrated superhero to come out of the comics. -
The comics have sucked since the early 90s, and the movies have sucked since XMen 3 was excreted into the collective mindtoilet. LET IT GO. MOVE ALONG. NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
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I've heard that movie called a lot of things, but never "dispicable".
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and sequels at the same time (or, at the very least, Singer will be alternating between the two)? "this year a prequel, next year an X3 sequel, then after that a sequel to the prequel"I had thought the reason for doing X-Men First Class was to reboot the X-Men film franchise by going back to the beginning. X-Men 3 was bad - 90 minutes of missed opportunities.
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Let's completely alienate the BSG Redux fanbase by rebooting it thereby ensuring it's Epic Failure. Duh.
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Each one of these films was a fucking abortion. Scenes from #2 were..."ok". I hate reboots but I would give them a pass this time. Burn em all and start over.
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how the hell is he gonna fix all of the dumb shit from the 3rd? Dead Jean Grey and Xavier.... what the hell would he do with a setup like that?
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But at least Ratner wasn't afraid to show the full scope of the X-Men universe and their powers. X-Men 3 is the only movie where we actually see them fighting as a team. It's the only one that has characters like Magneto, Storm and Jean Grey finally using their powers at the level they do in comics(I hate the zombie make up bullshit they did with phoenix but it's true). I guess my point is that even a shitcan hack like Rattner knew that if you're doing superheroes you shouldn't shy away from big action and hide behind "realism". Jesus, Singer pulled that shit with Superman even and ruined that franchise. God know what shit he'll do to X-Men this time. Why relaunch a franchise with the same Director? Oh, yeah this is Fox we're talking about. Never mind.
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Donner has no credibility when she speaks about these movies.(THANKS FOR FUCKING UP DEADPOOL IN WOLVERINE. WAS IT YOUR IDEA TO FUCK UP HIS ORIGIN AND SEW HIS MOUTH SHUT?) Singer got cocky after making a pretty good X2, left FOX and fucked up the most famous superhero of them all Superman. (Brandon Routh waiting to take your order at a local McDonald's near you.)A new bar has been set in Superhero movies and neither FOX or Bryan Singer have the skill to even come close to matching the new standard.
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Why not just make the X-Men 3 he would have made after X-Men 2 as if "The Last Stand" never happened? Given what's happening these days with rebooting everything, this would actually be a more original option than most things going on these days. Plus the outside chance of Drak Phoenix being done properly, how could we possibly lose?
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See above.
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You mean Cyclops and Jean Grey.
If you were dopey enough like me to sit through the ending credits you would've discovered Xavier alive in another body.
I wasn't crazy about the films just because they made Cyclops such a tool and made Wolverine the backbone. -
I assume they are into irony over at Fox
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that occured in X3. But like I said, they don't understand these characters or have the skill to fix these movies.Buy back the rights Disney.
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But the X-Men series was slaughtered by FOX and its writing staff. One day they will learn that selling back to Marvel would have been the best thing possible for this franchise.
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Just get the Watcher from "What If" at the start to say, "You know that X-3 movie? Pretend it didn't happen and now watch this.". It works for the comics ...
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I don't necessarily know if Jackman is the problem... maybe it's the writing. I mean, he did fine in 1, but by 3 (and Origins) he was basically reduced to a lovesick puppy dog.
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This person should only direct X-men movies because everything else he makes into a gay Belarusian disco I walk into one time where all a men are naked and having sex with each other and some are crying because of feelings.
Subscribe to The Fucking Shit Movie Website For People Who Are Not A Bitch and win a official T-shirt and bag http://tinyurl.com/ya46hs9 -
WE WANT SENTINELS IN THE FOURTH MOVIE. That and the third never happened!
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Get rid of the cast....the previous story and start over....but no origin story. Just as X2 picked up in mid run, do so here. It is done in comics all the time....
it's called a change-over...the film goes on and nobody in the audience has any idea. -
...Like whoever just said it, X3 was fun, had GREAT action, and they were actually fightin... the only real good thing from part two was Pyro... and the only real bad part of the third is Cyclops death, everythin else was good
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Brokeback _______(insert any phrase here).
Fuck you and your shitty website. -
Just actually MAKE a movie, ok?
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Mar 18, 2010 11:34:20 AM CDT
Original BSG mythos? Stupid helmets and shitty robots?
by royston lodge
No thanks.
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Just to be clear.
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If you consider EVERYONE flying through the air on wires "great". Or Juggernaut squaring off against...Kitty fucking PRYDE. OR Magneto moving a fucking bridge for no reason (travel my ass McBain) other than to eat up all the effects budget leaving Dark Phoenix to simply grow varicose veins as her "power". Fuck that piece of shit movie and to anyone who supports it: Darwin is coming for you.
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His two films were cardboard cut outs with no heart or poetry. They were the very definition of "workman-like" films. And Joss Whedon took one hell of a shit on the first one. Remember when Richard Donner was attached to direct? If only he did.
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Unless it's a completely new storyline. The TV series was great.
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Unless it's a completely new storyline. The TV series was great.
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Singer's just spinning as many as he can, before they all fall and break.Poor ,Poor Singer-COMPLETELY OVERRATED DIRECTOR(I do love The USUAL SUSPECTS though...).Please don't give him more x-men films.All he does is re-hash the same mutants as modern day allegory for gays or other societal outcasts.Sure, good for 1st film...but please stop.
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I just hope they get a much better young actor than was used on X-Men Origins Woverine to play Scott/Cyclops. I think Singer is smart to come back to the X-Men fold but for Wolverine 2: Japanese Boogaloo I think newly minted Oscar gold herself Kathryn Bigelow should get a chance.
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But Fox definitely fucked up Fantastic Four. And based on all of Donner's comments this far regarding new XMen films, I don't trust her one bit.
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You say the funniest things! :)
I was happy they killed Cyclops. He was a little whiny emo brat. Of course so was everyone else by that point. The rest of the movie was overdone but unnecessary, and nearly every scene felt like it was in a set. They just killed characters off willy-nilly, no particular reason, and left you with one of the most ridiculous endings of all time that did not make me want to see a continuation of the story. At all. It was a mess. -
I was wondering the same thing. A BSG movie seems pointless. The thing that made BSG so great is that it was a continuing story, week after week, that allowed it to explore all sorts of cultural, technological, and (yes) religious possibilities (though I suppose that falls in line with "cultural"). You can't do that in two hours, so what's the point?
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Come on. Stop kidding yourselves.
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and he won't sing and dance Broadway style between films!
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Justified or not, it's true. Now he's being handed a franchise that's pretty much D.O.A., whereas he had the world by the balls after X2.
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i just agree with "the Comedian" and "Thanos0145" posts.
As a Marvel comic books fan, i was so disappointed when i saw what Bryan Singer did with the first X-men. This guy just did not understand what he is talking (filming) about !
and if they want "reboot" the franchise that really means that the three first X-men films were pure shit !
And Brian, please....just leave Battlestar Galactica alone?! -
It was called Wolverine.
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Only two lines written by Joss Whedon made it into the movie. So how exactly did he take "one hell of a shit" on it?
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you know this to be true
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...Hey, x3 was fun to me and had better action... sure people died, but ya gotta have some consequences wit claws, optic blasts, and hurricane punchs! That movie was the best... and jean tried to rape wolvie lol
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I hope you're right. I don't say this very often, but I hope no one does a BSG film.
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Actually that film was Wolverine 4. They made 3 "Wolverine and His Amazing Friends" movies before it.
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No one wants it, you WILL NOT surpass Ron Moore's take. Just let it go.
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Yeah, that scene was awesome :) Doesn't make it the best though. I've no problem with people dying. People die for no reason in real life, but in movies, you're supposed to have this little thing called a "plot". IDK, there just seemed to be no point whatsoever to the movie. I mean, at least with the first two, you could see it was going somewhere. The third didn't conclude anything, but did it really continue anything either? You spend all this time investing and getting to know these characters, and then they just kind of kill a whole bunch of them at once to do what... make room for new ones? Very unimaginative.
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Let's get it right. Hey, remember the Misfits and Samhain? They were cool bands. His "solo" efforts? TERRIBLE. Loved watching him get his a** kicked by that dood from that other crappy band, though. That was CLASSIC.
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How dare ye disrespect the first X-Men... w/o it the likely hood of many of the comic movies would have never happend though some of them shouldnh't have, lol.
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You know there is a director formerly associated with this project (The X-Men Films) going back to the early 90s. This guy just directed the second biggest hit sci-fi hit in the history of your studio. Now of course, this guy is an ego maniac and would balk at the idea of directing an X-Men movie at this stage of his empire building but you could probably get him to supervise the X-Men franchise the same way WB is apparently going to get Nolan to do with Superman. Just get James Cameron to Godfather the X-Men franchise. Shit he can do like Spielberg in the 80s and ghost direct the films if he wants. Come on Fox, we all know this makes sense.
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He can't do characters. At all. And X-Men is all about the characters. Plus, I really can't take any more of his ego.
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But if he's just there as a producer he can't do that much damage. The ego probably would fuck it up though.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Singer ends up directing Wolverine 2. I'm just happy that we'll a decent X-MEN film again. After Origins and X3, this franchise is now on life support.
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Let FOX have the movies to ruin, and do X-Men right with a TV show. Season 1: Early team fights magneto. Season 2: Proteus, Hellfire club, special guest star Wolverine. Season 3: Wolverine in the main cast, dark phoenix. Season 4: Sentinals and Days of Future past. etc, etc, etc. MAKE IT HAPPEN, Disney!
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Nuff said..
Where is the new F-Troop movie talkback anyway? -
The marauders slaughtering mutants in the cellar. Half of the team end up hospitalized. Some die. Some come back, scary as hell. Apocalypse and the 4 Horsemen. Bring in the First Mutant. Apocalypse.
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There's just too much of a chance that he'd stick his hand in everything. Which is fine, as long as he leaves the writers alone to develop the characters. Which you know he won't.
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..I used to think that "Billy"
from Predator would've made an awesome Wolverine. -
Singer can write circles around James Cameron. James Cameron is the king of visuals but his penmanship has a lot of room for improvement. X-MEN isn't about the visuals. It's about the complex relationships between the characters.
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Proof reading your posts is a virtue.
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But yeah, I'm a little sick of Wolverine myself. Give the other characters some breathing room! Unpussify Gambit and Beast. Bring in Jubilee. Stop the whole Storm mental issues thing. For chrissake she's an Amazonian goddess!!!! Literally, people worshipped her. Yet she was reduced to a simpering, scared little child. Recast Storm with some heavily-accented big-busomed ebony-skinned warrior woman!
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material for a genius like Cameron.And Cameron wont allow himself to get involved with garbages.Let him alone to make his next masterpiece,either Alita or Avatar2.
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Exactly :) That was what was the huge problem with X3. It was all visuals, and had no plot or interraction between the characters besides "oh, people died, I'm sad".
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re Joss Whedon. One of his lines was Storm to Toad: "Do you know what happens to toad when it gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else". Tht line alone ruined the movie for me.
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i am all for a Bishop movie.coolest mutant in the Marvel universe.The question who is fit to play him?
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So they'll reboot Spider-man but they won't reboot X-Men? these films are terrible. Singer coming crawling back after he tried to give supes a hand job is sad. X-men needs to be restarted fresh. set it in the sixties with the crazy ass blue and yellow costumes. none of this hot young teen twilight bullshit, just make a kickass period piece superhero film. use the Incredibles as a starting point for inspiration only... stop pussyfooting around with highschool drama already. fuck. oh and keep Jackman away from wolverine, his version is a leading man type like eastwood, not a surly little hothead who simply wants a beer and to be left alone, that is until you fuck with him... go read Meltdown - that's what wolverine should be like. beer gut, huge forearms (since they house bionic blades)... a short hairy little prick that isn't the star, but the asshole that shows up to bail you out of a brawl and you're glad as shit that he did.
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X-Men is not garbage. People took an awesome property and MADE IT garbage. And Cameron is not a genius. What was Avatar but a shitty story that someone threw $500 million worth of technology at? Anyone with a good graphics team and shittons of money could've piloted that thing and produced what we saw. Some people may have actually made it better.
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give wolverine his goddam costume already ! enough with the eminem wife beaters. blue and yellow or brown and tan, i don't care take your pick... give him his mask!
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A behemoth that comes barreling through the walls to save the day like he's the fucking koolaid man? Please, thank god you're no where near the films production.
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Wow. Really? Of all the things that could ruin the movie for you, that was it?
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Would he still have the jerry curls?
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it's called adding character, personality to Wolvie, none of these films have that. and if i were near these films they'd surely be better. you must be jackman's presonal fluffer... that means you're too close to the source to make you objective.
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You again, huh? The ending was fine. It wasn't perfect, no, but it certainly didn't ruin years worth of amazing Sci-Fi. All these people who constantly complain "God did it" seriously need to grow some imagination and get over their gut reaction to anything religious (before you bitch, I'm an atheist), and maybe spend a few hours watching the shows that previous decades got saddled with.
Oh, and even if the ending WAS as horrible as you like to complain it is, what is a MOVIE going to do about it? Redo the ending and lose all those people who haven't watched every single BSG episode? Reboot it and try to squeeze all of the elements of the series into 2 hours? -
No more coke money for this guy. Nuff said.
And if James Cameron should do a superhero flick:
SUPERMAN
The only choice that makes sense. Until Nolan proves me wrong. -
Boring. "Yeah, sure, Bri, we're holding it for you!"
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Cameron and Avatar is totally wrong,but you are also clueless.
But you are right about one thing:
The studio turned the X-Men into garbage.Which means that the whole franchise needs a healthy reboot in order to have a chance to bring us good movies with these great characters.
BUT Hugh Jackman and his Wolverine is the real star of the franchise,the fans want him so the studio will wisely continue with the current franchise and the current main character/protagonist,and keep milking it safely.
Now i think that Wolverine2 will be a better film that the original one,but as First Class is concerned its just the last card for Singer to regain his former status in Hollywood.Which means the movie wont be very good. -
A few really bad mistakes were made in the beginning. Halle & Famke... both way to old for their roles. Tha doesnt mean they couldnt be recast though I guess. And yes FOX totally fucked up Xmen. But I would have liked to have seen a younger cast from the beginning to see the team grow up together over time through the various different movies. I really think studios can learn from the Potter series. Just imagine a new Xmen movie every 2 years telling a consistant continous story. We could have 7 or 8 films in a decade.
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That father-daughter thing was just so forced and stupid. I hate practically everything about X1.
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She's a decent actress but she's strictly TV, and they slotted in B or C-level people into those major roles of Scott and Jean. James Marsden is great now, but no one knew that then and Famke was too old and not a great enough actress.
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most suitable for a comic or a tv series.NOT a movie franchise,because they are a lot of characters involed in their stories.There is not enough time for proper character and story development.Thats why i think that the first 2 xmen movies,as they are,they remaing good adaptations of the comics.They are not perfect but they managed to pull out a very difficult adaptation for the big screen.
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but because of the script and Kevin Spacey's performance, both of which (not coincidentally) won Oscars. The direction didn't. Not that Oscars are proof of that much, but sometimes the winners are worthy of recognition. Strangely enough, I don't hate Singer's Superman as much as most around here. At least they got the theme music right, and Routh really wasn't bad, although they stupidly tried to copy the plot of the Donner original, which was the most completely asinine decision they could've made.
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Bring Cyclops back from the dead, make him more of a leader/central character instead of Wolverine, keep Colossus, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde, add Gambit, and have them go up against the Hellfire Club with some Sentinels thrown in for good measure. See? It's not that hard, even if you're Fox...
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I thought it was great, more comic based than the previous two drama films but totally entertaining, sure the deaths where odd, but overall I liked it.
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Nothing but pain and sorrow and talkbackers saying "But it's fun if you turn your brain off!" (and no I'm not looking for Shakespeare here). When does MARVEL STUDIOS get the rights to THE X-MEN? Wake me when they do.
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is what's needed here. That's probably the best part of the comics is the continuing soap opera, long story arcs with big pay offs and character development that you aren't going to get in a 2 hour movie.
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...Ay yi yi, i thought i had unique tastes... to each their own (except for idiots, then you get no own)...
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really that bad? I have season one on blu ray and was wondering if I should even start watching it. I have heard from many that it ended really badly. Any advise?
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His solo efforts weren't "terrible", at least not after the original line-up of Christ/Biscuits/Eerie Von collasped after IV was done. It was THEN it went to shit and he got Emperor's New Clothes syndrome like Rob Zombie, George Lucas and Howard Stern.But it doesn't hold a candle to The Misfits, and Samhain I only liked one of their albums "November Coming Fire".
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That should do it.
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Lookign back on X-men 1, it was only good because it was one of the few decent comic films. I thought X2 was great and still holds up as a great comic film, but I Think Hayter's script is much of that. I do find SInger's directing very low energy and emotionally forced. Not bad, of course but I think some other directors could do great thigns with x-men.
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BSG's eneing is great. Only immature pussies without imagination don't like it.
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... but she would be a far better Storm then Halle Berry ever was. And please, this time no bad wigs, Zeo already has the necessary long hair for real, just paint the actress's hair white and be done with it.
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I don't agree with you on your little opinion about Singer (all that worked on the first two X-Men movies happened BECAUSE and not despiste Bryan Singer). Howeve,r i can't disrespect anybody who uses "Vermithrax Pejorative" as anick. Dragonslayer, i like that movie too, and i think it has the coolest movie dragon since ever.
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I didn't hate the BSG ending either. I think it's worth your time. But I have to qualify my opinion - I had maybe a two-finger grip on the show's mythology. I've got the broad strokes, but I didn't obsess over every little detail.
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even if the wolverine film had been FANTASTIC, it was still based on some recent ret-con of wolvie's origin story. i like the classic x-men stories, can't be bothered with what's come in the last 10-15 years and don't want to see movies based on them.
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on Bluray, then by all means, watch it! The quality of the show's ending may be debatable. However, what's not in question is how awesome the first season is. Even if Season 1 is all you decide to watch, it's still worth it. Experiencing it for the first time on Bluray? You lucky lucky bastard.
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If X-Men First Class is less a prequel and more a continuation of what happened in the original trilogy, it could be really cool. Almost like the New Mutants and X-Men 4 focuses more on the main team, so they run side by side with guest appearances. Prequels just suck.
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He had his chance to stick with X-Men and chose GAYMAN RETURNS instead. FUCK'IM!
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Wow. You couldn't come across as more of a closet-case if you tried.
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was James Marsters was tied to a couple of movies and had a limiited schedule
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seriously? how do any of you retards like this guy as a director? what a hack! he is the worst... xmen 1 and 2 sucked. they were just cool because the where, well, x-men movies!
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Mar 18, 2010 2:50:31 PM CDT
singer.fucking.sucks. he will ruin wolverine 2.more.
by the_one_man_gang
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Mar 18, 2010 2:55:14 PM CDT
please give the rights back to Marvel.please, you assclowns.
by the_one_man_gang
fox blows.
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The ending was fine in my book. The series as a whole had a lot of filler episodes though.
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I'll watch it. I got for christmas and was wondering whether to Ebay it seeing how the ending seems to have polarized many. Just catching up on Fringe and then I will dive in. Seeing as this is about Singer on x-men, I say reboot. The first two films were decent, not great. They altered too many characters. Cyclops was a giant pussy who, along with Xavier, served no purpose other to get captured and finally killed. Storm sucked thanks to that useless Diva Berry. The whole series revolved around Wolverine and everyone's reactions to what that character did. We need an X-men movie that focuses on the team aspect. And it needs to be epic in scale. In summation, we need a reboot of this series. Who cares about a prequel when we all know where these characters end up in the third film which shall not be named here. And the Wolverine movie was completely disposable and unnecessary. But being that this is Fox, we all know they won't listen to the fans. They will churn out whatever they think will sell tickets regardless of coherence or respect to the source material. So I personally have no hope that this will be any good. Dump Singer and start anew.
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although she will probably need to fight off Singer for the priveledge.
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Thanks for ruining Superman, putz!
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Oh, right, sorry, you all think Jackman is straight because he's married with kids.
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singer, mckellan, marsden, jackman, cumming. surpised it wasn't a musical.
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it can be the most awesome repulsive grotesque horror film of all time. it would make cronenberg turn white with fright.
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...Singer should team with Christopher McQuarrie and do a sequel. Inglorious Basterds shows that a movie about a team of roughnecks/tough guys on an impossible mission still works.After that Singer will have his pick of any project he wants.
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was incredible and satisfying in my opinion. It fit the underlying original tone that crept into the episodes. Like a modern day Narnia type of myth. It harkened back to the emotional fate of Starbuck episode of the original series (at least that's how I remember it!). None of Singer's movies have ever rang true for me emotionally. None so far.
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X2 had "too much talking". I loved Kelsey Grammar. But it was too much mashed into a film that was way shorter than X2. Also the climax sucked. Singer managed to make a much more dramatic and attractive third act in the tunnels of a DAM than Ratner could on a fucking battlefield.
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nuff said
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right.And Jim Phelps was the mastermind behind their mission.
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...What happened to her? she was sexy in bond but somehow grew neanderthral brows... plus playin a transgender doesnt help me find you attractive
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"The Horror, The Horror"
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I remember the talk back the day it came out and all you fucks were on here lining up to suck Singer's dick. Now all of a sudden he's a hack? Fuck fans! Fickle shits. There wouldn't be a Dark Knight if X-Men wasn't successful. Bow your fucking heads!
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Singer's best movie is still the Usual Suspects. It'd be nice to see him do something original again. Okay, make that something original WITHOUT Tom Cruise playing a German soldier. Junior X-Men, X-Men 4, Battlestar Galactica... not seeing much attached to the man's name that wasn't either a comic book or a TV show. Never mind that the last thing we need is a BSG movie after having just had a BSG TV show. Come on Hollywood, give us something new. What are they gonna do in 20 years? Make remakes of remakes?
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What is with most of you in here? X2 was a fantastic movie. To those claiming he'll 'ruin' Wolverine 2 - get a grip. Maybe they'll bring back Hood and Ratner to make you happy. At least Singer knows how to make the characters work and be relevant.
Also, those praising Cameron; he is overrated. Stories are bland, all he can do is pretty visuals and making money. I doubt he could have made X2 as well as Singer did. Singer is the only saving grace for X-Men under Fox. -
The first X-men, while not really great, did a great job in introducing the franchise to the big screen. The only REALLY bad move on it was casting fucking Halle Berry. Everyone else, I thought, was good enough for their roles, but Jesus, Halle Berry just CAN'T ACT! It's a good thing she's got looks, 'cuz then she really wouldn't have anything going for her.Anyways, like I said, X-men 1 = good, but not great. Then we have X-men 2, which is perhaps one of the best superhero films ever. I understand if some people don't like Wolverine being the "protagonist" of the film, but I didn't mind it. And you know what? For such a high number of characters to handle, Singer did an amazing job developing them, and WTF are some people here saying that he can't direct action well? X-2 isn't only the best X-men film so far in terms of story and characters, but also because of the action sequences, especially for that awesome Nightcrawler fight at the beginning. You fanboys are just being over-demanding assholes. Now, with X-men 3, that's a whole 'nother story. In fact, I really don't like mentioning its existence. And the Wolverine movie? Well, thank god I DivX-streamed it, or else I would've needlessly wasted $8 or so.
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we must be talking about different movies. back in the day it only seemed good since there wasn't much to compare it too. looking back on it, it's pretty unwatchable... it's got more in common with Dawson's Creek than it does with any awesome superhero film.
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"What have you done for me lately?" Bunch of undeserving, spoiled brats.
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everyone turned on him after the mediocre Superman film he did. I would personally love to see him on the X-Men franchise again since I loved the first two.
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Singer is a solid film maker, X2 was great and paved the way for more comic-book awesomeness on the big screen. I´m cautiously optimistic. But seriously...no x-men 4, there is no way you can build anything from x3.In First Class, Cyclops deserves to be ALIVE and a bad-ass leader.
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Or did common sense prevail and someone high up can the idea?
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Ususal Suspects is his only great movie...after that he dived into big budget mediocrity never to return.
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Yet all fanboys are being shouted down for having that opinion. You need to take some medication you paranoid asshole.
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that is all
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And take some medication for your hysterical blindness, chump.
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Giant laser shooting sentinels, no wire-fu, a strong third act, dream-like team battle sequences, more suspense, Oscar nominations, audiences crying from the drama, double the box office. If you think Cameron can't do better than X1 and X2 you need to go back and watch some James Cameron movies. And don't get me started on Singer's interpretation of Superman. Fucking embarrassing.
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show me more than 3 people since you want to bash all fanboys for having this opinion. Oh that's right, barely anyone said it. The burden of proof is on you since you were first to make allegations, you ranting gas bag.
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I guess you've never heard of GUNS OF NAVARONE or the MAGNFICENT SEVEN? A team on an impossible mission is a genre that predates MI.The "o" in your name/handle clearly stands for zero knowledge of movie history.
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Just for pre-production. But it would be a 4-hour long opus in glorious 3-d. Though it tickles the imagination of what could be and what shouldn't be. Cyclops dead...wtf....
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Can't believe all the hatred being directed at Jackman, SInger and the X-Franchise. Why? Singer resurrected the hero genre after Batman & Robin left it in ruins, Jackman was fantastic - a total unknown doing a good job and now they're all wankers? Jeesus.
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Mar 18, 2010 6:12:19 PM CDT
I would much rather have Josh Whedon redo the franchise
by chuck_chuckwalla
In retrospect, Singer's X movies were okay, just a notch above X3. And let's see actual X-men costumes on the actors fer christ's sake. I'm sick of the black leather bullshit.
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So you went back recounted (skipped all the Singer is a hack comments) and now the burden of proof is on me? Try again.
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.. said that? Terminator, Aliens ( the daddy of group character interaction) The Abyss, even True lies had interesting characters for a straight action comedy.
Also the idea that "Anyone" could have made Avatar is asinine in the extreme. Why didn't they? Plenty of directors have huge budgets so where are the other $2.6B grossing movies? Oh yeah there are only two, one was from an era where there was basically no TV, Not home video, no Xbox, no internet and films could be in general release for a year and re-released several more times to buff up their grosses. Oh and an era where watching films with "happy, contented slaves" was acceptable. The other, was directed by James Cameron. Sure anyone could do it.
Avatar is one of the greatest films ever made, for several reasons; One of those is the reason that anyone couldn't make that film. Cameron had the vision and the will, and resources to drive film tech to a point where he could make that film. Who else is doing that? Zemeckis with his instantly outdated mo-cap toons? Of which only one has actually been any good.
There's far to many people confusing a "simple" plot with a simple story. The plot is familiar, both from our own sorry history and from fictional version of history and pure fiction but so was Goodfellas, The Hurt Locker, Romeo and Juliet, The Hobbit The Princess Mononoke, Hero, Infernal Affairs, Crouching Tiger and so on. Diction in Avatar fits the characters and the film even tells us that much. Most of the beauty in Avatar, aside from the stunning creations of Pandora by the apparently limited Cameron, is both between the lines and in the visual, the movement colours and so on, very much like a Sukiyaki or Kurosawa film. The Cameron can't write decent dialogue thing is bollocks and the lie is given to it by a viewing of pretty much any of his films other than Titanic. But no, sure Jake should have turned into Henry the Filth to make his battle speech, that would have been in character right? -
it took three. and since X-men would be easier to make Cameron could do it in under two. Too bad he doesn't take sloppy seconds. He could make a classic X-men movie.
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That's the big secret
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whats with all the bryan singer x men 1&2 bashing when those films came out everybody on this site was kissing singers ass x men 2 is probably the 2 or third best superhero movie of all time and fore the record i liked superman returns yeah it needed more action a physical treat to superman but i thought it was good filmmaking.
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before your allegation and one after. Hardly a dependable representation of fanboys. That's three people out of how many talk backers? Admit it. Your blanket statement was flat out wrong.
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i meant physical threat to superman
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Or any Bryan Singer threads in the last, oh, 3 or 4 yrs?
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Avatar is two things: tech-porn and eye-candy. Yes, any of the films you mentioned could be accused of "familiarity" in their stories, but few are as poorly-hidden as Avasnore. Few are as densely populated by stock, cardboard cutout characters. Few are as shallow in their metaphor. As for your b.s. about "where are the other blah blah money money", are you taking into account the fact that 3-D glasses bump up the money? Or that Avasnore was more an "event" / "experience" than a film?
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Cameron would make a "classic" X-Men movie? Gimme a break. He hasn't made a great movie for 19 years (his last was T2). Also his scriptment was Spider-Man was beyond shitty. And anyone who thinks he can write needs a brain transplant. Avatar was the most hokey, cliched, unoriginal hack crap I've ever seen. "I see you?" Yeah I see thundersmurfs and Home trees (barf) and six legged horses (double barf).
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For God's sake, do the Phoenix saga right, bring in Isabella Rossellini as Lilandra, and undo the fucked up off-screen death of Cyclops (and pathetic on-screen deaths of Phoenix, Xavier, and Psylocke!
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X1 had a stronger first act but X3 had a better 3rd act. Both had wire fu and weak dialogue. If X3 didn't kill off major characters it would clearly be better. And Superman Returns canceled any good will Singer earned with X2. With good reason, Superman Returns is a disaster. The little bastard child, Kumar shanking Supes, the forced jesus symbolism, Superman stalking Lois then crying, Superman doing nothing but lifting shit, the maroon leather cape, casting a boy toy to play Supes who looks like a buff Jason Schwartzman, the retarded New Krypton plot device, bad pacing, miscasting Lois Lane, the list goes on. Fuck that movie.
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Mar 18, 2010 6:48:38 PM CDT
They'll definitely stick a Sinister cameo in First Class...
by shermdawg
...to set up a return of Scott and the others in X4. But yeah, I too, would love a reboot, but in the form of a tv series, and not under Fox.
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end up making absolute shit?
It's one of the great questions of our age. -
Congratulations, you just won the 'Most Moronic Post of the Thread' award. Well done, it takes some doing.
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He's the greatest action sci-fi director ever. Period. He would make an X-men movie that would put all the wannabes to shame. People hate Avatar because it's popular. People wished failure on Avatar before it was released. It was hailed by critics, nominated for best picture, started the 3-D craze, earned more money than all three Spider-man movies combined and created a huge fan base. The haters lost. Cameron is the best at action sci-fi. Look at his filmography. Half the movies are certifiable sci-fi classics the other half are memorable blockbusters. Singer is not on Cameron's level. Not even close. Usual Suspect's was a fluke and his only hit was X2. Cameron made the biggest movie in history. His next movie was even bigger. Wake the fuck up haters. Cameron is the king of sci fi-action and the king of blockbusters. Singer dreams of being Cameron.
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Cameron disciples like yourself have given him God-like status and you are unable to tolerate any criticism at all of him. You screw up your ugly little faces, stamp your little feet and whine like babies. Post T2, Cameron can't write for shit. Fact. Get over it.
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Nerdrage, as they used to say in the nineties, check yo self before you wreck yo self.
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Cameron is a master. Sooner you accept this, the less you'll embarrass yourself in the future. Cameron can't write? His last two movies were both critical and commercial successes grossing more than all the X-men and Spider-man movies combined. Before that every other movie he made was a classic. Cameron can't write? The last two movies were the biggest blockbusters in history and were nominated for best picture. Most directors wish they could write and direct movies with half of the success as Cameron. Fact! Get over it.
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of the blockbuster but then Cameron made Titanic (1.8 billion) and Avatar (2.6 billion). Cameron is king now. Back to back record breakers; domestic, overseas, and worldwide. Completely unprecedented. Stop denying the man's creative power and foresight.
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wish they could spend $300m on their movie and throw it all at the screen. Avatar and Titanic were event pictures. People went to see them for a visual experience, for a spectacle. Cameron does spectacle well, but that doesn't he wrote them well. He is the Cecille D. Mille of our age - all big productions and tin foil glitz. Do you honestly think Avatar made it's money on the strength of its story and characters? It's making hardly anything since it's been kicked out of 3D theaters by Alice In Wonderland.
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Nuff Said.
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@ Adelai Niska, bee152, grendel69
Here's the Cliff Notes, guys:
Niska's idea for the seasons 1-4 of a TV series
Season 1: Early team fights magneto. Season 2: Proteus, Hellfire club, special guest star Wolverine. Season 3: Wolverine in the main cast, dark phoenix. Season 4: Sentinels and Days of Future past.
+ bee's idea for Mutant Massacre & Apocalypse for season 5 + grendel's idea for movies to be done every two years Harry Potter-style with a young cast...starting in the 60's as a period-piece(sorry, couldn't find who said that) -
That's a five picture deal or about one hundred episodes of a hit TV series.
It's just that easy guys, save yourself an assload of money on writers and development, respect the source material, make some decent movies, and make a ton of cash. -
see above
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...Singer's going to revamp BSG right after the damn TV series ends??? Th' FUCK? Now it's more like: Shit... that gamma-ray-bursting the 'fridge of a fucked up finale: Singer may as well revamp it to get the rotten smell out of the franchise. Also, after X-Men 3 and then that fuckwad of a movie Wolverine: Yeah Yeah Whatever, Singer might as well be involved in and direct all the X-Men product he wants. Can't do a Superman movie for shit, though...
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Why is it Fox will keep X4 on hold for Singer, but wouldn't do the same for X3? And am I the only one sick of seeing the Xavier/Magneto relationship as the backbone plot of these movies? Or the only one sick of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine?? The fact that Wolverine doesn't age and could be used over and over for these movies (Oh wait, they've already done that) makes me sick. Time for new blood from the ground up!!
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...Is reasons why black actresses have it hard out here... cuz my impression is there are only two black actresses (and actually, both are not even full black)...
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I agree with most as far as Singer being a disappointment.Xmen (plural)were alright but many things were missing.Hated Superman returns..fed up with too cool Wolverine.And ***WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP FORGETTING THAT BLADE WAS THE FIRST MARVEL MOVIE.***
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They need to get that dog breeder chick from Pushing Daisies.
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She wouldn't need to wear one of those fake ass looking wigs that Halle Berry wore in X-2. Zoe wouldn't be crying over her characters screen time unlike Halle. On top of that, she's a better actor than Halle too.
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Uh...didn't Halle Berry win the best actress oscar? How does that make Zoe a better actor? And when Halle was 30 she was waaay hotter than Zoe is now. Just my opinion.
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1. Please either leave the X-men alone or do something new with it.
2. A Battlestar Galactica re-boot ???
are they fucking serious LOL...I hope it has a muppets camio ...."PIG'S IN SPACE!!!!!!!"
Oh and 3. Singers a prize TWAT...... -
Xavier and Magneto are part of the X-men story , but not even the most important part , why can't they do something new with this F.F.S ?>?????
Singers X-Men was shit . -
Forgetting all the things that aren't going to happen for a moment (such as Cameron going down off that throne in his head to resurrect X-Men) and let's focus on what's to be done. Let Singer do First Class to re-boot X-Men. If he has to re-cast it and take the Ultimate X-Men route of re-booting the timeline. Then (and only then) have him do Wolverine 2 or X-Men 4.
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Once again. Cameron for SUPERMAN
He could do that whole "save the planet" thing that the general audience dug in Avatar.
Gotta have a message to be a gamechanger!
He could do belivable romance between Clark & Lois. (Not overdo it though. This ain't Titanic.)
And the FX and action would be top notch.
Once again, i nominate bald Nic Cage as Lex Luthor. Nic Cage as Superman was a joke, Cage as Luthor...THAT i could buy.
And it would save the hair and makeup budget on wigs for cage.
No "luthor w shitty con-artist schemes" and "Hilarious sidekicks" though.
Do Alan moores version, where Brainiac takes over his body w the "skull helmet".
Bill Paxton as Metallo. -
Since that movie is already on the way, I think it would be cool to have Brian Singer come back and end Wolverine on a high note. The story seems to have loads of potential that could be realized in the right hands.
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Mar 19, 2010 12:04:29 AM CDT
Why not give ALL the X-MEN derived films to Singer?
by dailysportspages
In much the same way that Nolan has been made the controlling producer on all Justice League related movies and Favreu on all Avenger related movies.
Put Singer in control of everything X-Related.
Allow him to pick the writers, directors, cast, and help make all of the stories work within one big X-Universe.
You can start with First Class.
Have Bishop show up PRIOR to the young X-Men forming in order to warn Xavier about how his actions over the next few decades (the events of the X-Men movies) ended up responsible for the horrible future he comes from.
A future that was forever damaged by the untimely death of Xavier before he was able to finish his goal of having humanity and mutantkind live in peace.
His death only emboldened the anti-human sentiments within mutantkind.
Strengthening the position of those who wished to take advantage of just such a predicament.
With that little piece of information you can have a brand new X-Men series of movies.
A more proactive Xavier with the opportunity to use more comic book stories, and the gift of not having to be beholden to the past movies.
Those movies all become an alternate universe in a way.
Xavier can now have a completely different set of students.
Namely the original group of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel, and Beast.
And all recast with younger actors of course as this is an origins story.
Its a soft reboot in much the same way as Star Trek was. Using an existing plot element from the X-Men comics.
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Mar 19, 2010 12:20:04 AM CDT
Singer = most dissapointing director of the 20trh century
by colt19801980
How do you go from the brilliance of Usual Suspects, critically acclaimed, oscar winning, to mediocre amateur hour classics like Apt Pupil, X1, Superman Returns? It's like somebody else directed Suspects and Singer took credit. I think Singer knew he was mediocre so he took as many big blockbuster pop culture flicks as he could to keep working. There's no other way to explain it.
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he even guest starred in one episode as a director.he seems a cool guy to me.
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....USED to be able to write compelling characters. He cant anymore. Last movie he made that I liked Was T2. Instead of rebooting Spiderman why not do Xmen. Im tired of these guys going back and trying to fix properties they fucked up.IF they did them right the first time they wouldnt have to come back 5 years later after dismal failures saying we're rebooting such and such. Problem is the studios dont know shit about the poperties they own - so we get bullshit Conan (upcoming film WILL be a abortion), Fantastic Four and Dardevil attemps because of breaindead decisions. Trying showing some respect for the material youre adapting instead of looking at it as a cash cow. Hire a good creative team and stay the hell out of their way (Spiderman3, Xmen TLS). Make a good film where word of mouth gets around = people will pay to see it. Example: Batman Begins. Fantastic Four and Xmen are especially good examples of lost potential.Xmen has a rich history full of memorable characters... we got 3 movies that all take place in a few months time. Theres enough there to make 15 Xmen movies. Im so through with Fox and you can add SONY to that list as well. The reviews for First Class have to be stellar for me to consider seeing it.
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X3 utterly fucked up the slate of characters available for an X4. Maybe some inventive writing and a few fresh/unused mutants could make it possible, but I am skeptical. They did somehow preserve Prof. X in some dying dude's body after the credits, though.
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You would think with that having Cyclops as the lead, it's gotta set up a return in the next flick, right?
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...is the movies. Never got into the comic books beyond the act of purposely avoiding them whenever I was in my LCS. That being said, I really liked the first two movies. The third one, didn't like that mess at all. Because of my distaste for the third X film, I still haven't bothered to check out Wolverine. I would, happily, check out another Singer X film.
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Yes, even without the 3D "bump", which people have been willing to pay, it's still the third highest grosser of all time worldwide. Take a look and you'll also see a pretty decent number of people who upgraded, i.e. went to see the movie in 2D were blown away by the story and visuals and went back to see it in 3D; and 3D viewers who went a long way (or a short way) to see it in IMAX.
As for stock characters many a film, including those on the list, have a focus on just 1 or 2 or 3 main characters and have the others floating in the background, seeming stereotypical or generic. It is in fact one of the downsides of moviemaking as opposed to TV or literature, there's far less time to flesh out a dozen or more character. Even then the best TV shows still mainly focus on say 6 - 10 characters etc.
One of the more interesting "urban facts" I've found when writing about Avatar for Sci-Fi is that women have responded to it more than men. That's not to say all women loved it or that all men hated it but you get more women / girls stating is is one of, or the best film they've ever seen; say more 9 - 10 out of 10 to men's 8/9 out of ten. The people who don't like the film are, as we all know, in the significant minority. Of course when you have a film seen by so many 5% - 10% is a fair number of people but it's still a very significant minority.
Yes the film was an event and an experience, my review said as much, but films are supposed to be event, they are supposed to have a reason to exist as films rather than TV movies or stage plays. It's just about the most cinematic film ever made, yes because of the expensive and ground breaking visuals, but also because of the way it transmits much of its pull, it's emotional aspects visually, bot in the way Pandora responds to its inhabitants to the way the flora and fauna behave. Everything has a reason to exist, the mise-en-scene in this film is second to none, given the nature of its filming method that's to be expected but there are many films that had the potential for a similar lever of auteur ship and simply failed the test. There's a massive imagination here and it's sad to see people so willing to believe that anyone could have done the same. Nobody has, nobody has come close to it. In a Miyazaki film the colours are so significant that he can takes months getting the right shade of blue, because ALL the visual elements are significant. This shade of blue now = benign or happy, a warning shade and a full blown end of the world shade. Visuals are very important and the story of any good film is not just about the spoken words it's about reading between the lines and the visuals this object here, that person there, standing, crouching. Let's not forget that the film won awards, Oscar included, for its cinematography; this in a film where the line between what is real and what is manufactured is a massive achievement, . The screen writers' guild nominated Avatar because they recognise those facts, any of you out there posting who are writers should know this too.
You're also overlooking the fact that this was a risky venture for Cameron, who spent significant amounts of his own time and money forcing the tech needed to make this film (primarily a test shoot for Battle Angel Alita). Making one of the biggest films of all time (I'm talking cost and time here) with a set of characters that people don't like seeing as the main focus in movies, non humans. It may continue to work when it comes to animation but in live action films the “heroes” being non human and the bad guys being human is a tough sell, even for something like Hellboy. Worse still they are blue with tails; even the Lord of The Rings, which also had the advantage of being based on one of the best known books of all time, had people that kinda looked like people and lots of human lives at stake. Getting people to care about 3 meter tall blue aliens was by no means a certain thing. So you counter balance the unfamiliar with the familiar, a plot involving the exploitation of both nature and a technologically inferior group, (well know for happening all over our planet from B.C to today), and a group of humans who are trying to stop it, or at least temper it. Fill it with allegory and metaphor for the issues we face today, some obvious many not so obvious. Telegraph your charters behaviour later in the film by giving examples & explanations earlier in the film. Make them consistent and the reaction of other characters to the main protagonists realistic within the terms of the film. Explain either visually or through exposition why things are the way they are. The other creatures have six limbs, hexapoda, show why that could be useful, show that it isn't just an attempt to be different to spend more of your effects budget.
It's the 4th month of release for Avatar now, it's old school style of money making, relatively sedate opening weekend followed by weeks of minimal drop off or slight increases clearly demonstrate that the film has hit on the right emotional and visceral notes in a seriously large number of people. People of all ages, sexes, nationalities and levels of intellect. Why that bothers so many of the minority of people who just liked the movie or who hated it I don't know. Is the film trying to do a good thing? Yes it is. Does it entertain people, something a film like this HAS to do,? Yes it does, clearly and there's all the more evidence of that from the fact that so many were willing, if not happy, to pay extra to see it. It's not a Roland Emmerich film for crying out loud.
It's probably too late for this talk back but I'd love to see what specifically you guys who don't like Avatar don't like, with examples. I don't mean the things that every film will have, where it just didn't click for you, you do don't like slapstick, you don't find Airplane / Naked Gun style comedies for example; the real Film studies, film critic point of view. Plot and story are often not the same thing, whilst the bones of the film, the plot, are a comfortable Lawrence of Arabia / Dances with Wolves / Princess Mononke and yes both the “true” and fictional accounts of Pocahontas, the flesh, the blood the life of the film is something else entirely. Fresh and original in concept and execution. From the queues and unobtainium to Pandora itself and what makes all of the characters within the film who see the Na'vi and the scientist as Tree huggers, including Jake, so very, very wrong. So bring on the critique, I genuinely would like to know if there's something different here to the arguments I've countered by readers in the U.K; oh and Sweden where for reasons unknown I've picked up a few avid readers. (Met you know who you are)
I'd like to the fuller cut of Avatar, see how many elements got more time. The Jake on Earth and fighting "for the weak" against the strong, as in the screenplay and hinted at in the trailer. Maybe they people who thought more than the big 4, (Jake, Neytiri, Dr Augustine and Eywa) should have been given ggreater depth will be rewarded with eexactly that. I'm -
Oh and X2 was widely regarded as the best ever comic book movie until the Dark Knight came along. Singer did the best he could with the , relatively, low budgets he was given. As such he was able to concentrate heavily on the character moments, which are / were the life blood of the X-Men comics. The entirety of the trip to poor old Bobby's house is superbly written and acted (Iceman's brother apart). “have you tried not being a mutant?”. That's just classic.
X3 had almost double the budget of X2 and close to treble that of X1. Only a small part of that was standard movie inflation. Singer got the short end of the stick budget wise and many scenes, like the Danger Room for X2 simply couldn't be afforded. Anyone who thinks the nightcrawler attack, Pyro losing it, Magneto's escape and the Tornado jet fight or Wolverine defending the mansion / fighting Deathstrike are examples of poor action direction has very, very high expectations. X2 with a comparable budget to X3 would be the same film, but with more “cool” stuff, like The Danger Room and I imagine a lot more X-Men vs. Soldiers and other Mutants. Even without all of that we still got a brilliant amount of subtext, Te Gulf War mkII and all that that entailed with Bush and Bush senior, fathers and sons, the erosion of civil rights and liberties both in America and Abroad, the return to a McCarthy era paranoia post 11th Sept. There's tons of beneath the surface content in that film and it has as much action as it could afford; more than that the action they did shoot was of the highest calibre.
Professor X isn't dead at the end of X3
Blade is credited with sparking the current superhero boom, kick-starting Marvel characters on the big screen.
Singer is attached to sever Sci-Fi movies because he's a geek and loves Sci-Fi. He also seems to be on a mission to make / remake his favourite old movies / shows. Superman, Logan's Run, Battlestar.
Superman Returns is terrible, if for no other reason than that it doesn't even play by its own rules but Singer is no hack. One bad movie and one dodgy but serviceable one don't make him crap.
Battlestar was always heading for an ending of that nature and I'm not sure why so many people hate it, given the nature of the show. -
Forget it. It will have none of the charm or truly scary moments like the original. And, probably, none of the kinkiness of Judith Meredith's journey to the dark side, as plagiarised so blatantly (but beautifully)by the Raimis in 'Army of Darkness'.
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X-Men
Xavier: Ralph Fiennes
Cyclops: Sean Faris
Marvel Girl: Kristin Stewart
Beast: Emile Hirsh
Angel: Ben McKenzie
Iceman: Brett Harrison
Brotherhood
Magneto: Paul Bettany
Mastermind: Giovanni Ribisi
Quicksilver: Adam Gregory
Scarlet Witch: Emma Stone
Toad: Random Stuntman
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Well said, dude, well said indeed!
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You'd to know what's wrong with Avatar? If you are a professional reviewer (I very much doubt it) you should know very well what's wrong with it. But there are about 50 rotten reviews of Avatar at Rotten Tomatoes and each one is on the money, so I suggest you take a gander. Also, your view of Avatar is completely slanted. It is obviou you are a Cameron fan fanatic posing as a writer to give yourself more credibility (which is quite pathetic). And who cares what Avatar was nominated for? It didn't win any of the prestigious awards in the major categories - Oscars, BAFTAS, Critic's Choice and the numerous Guilds. It won the Golden Globes, but the Globes are the dirty secret of the awards season, voted by foreign journalists who would sell their vote for a party invite. You Cameron fans really NEEDED Avatar to win Best Picture at the Oscars to give credence to your claim it's a great film. But it didn't win so all you have to brag about is Avatar's box office and some straw poll that "9 out of 10 women" love it like you're trying to sell a new shampoo. You are pretty pathetic.
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It just is!
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and umbral_shadow:
there is no thing such as "professional" reviewers,just guys who turned their personal opinions into a job.and all the negative criticisms i have read about Avatar,are in their majority totally unfounded.Avatar has its flaws,but when i hear ie that the actors sucked,i just sit and laugh with the ignorance of the "professionals".
and lets not forget:
AVATAR BO 2.7 BILLIONS !!!!!!!!!!!
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what is it? a magazine? you write reviews there? or is it a movie site?
i am interested to read your reviews because you seem a very educated person as Cinema is concerned. -
My main problem is that I fundamentally can't root for cartoons over humans. Seeing guys getting ripped out of their ships by flying snakes is mildly disturbing to me. I know, I know, they're the bad guys, but are they really? And then meanwhile, the Na'avi are perfect Stage Indians (well, post-Costner Stage Indians) that are completely in harmony with nature and their planet and blah blah blah. They don't have any personal flaws to overcome, they're completely homogeneous, and kind of blandly designed. Everything in Pandora is alive and immersive, but none of it has any real grit. The only thing that sells it is the cinematography (real camera moves in 3=D space) but that's not enough to actually make a compelling movie. The real comparison is with that other film in which the human becomes an alien and leads them against their oppressors, "District 9." Those aliens are ugly, dirty, and have real weight to them and the world in which they inhabit seems real. As for the final "It made the most money ever so that means it must be good," no, that just means it has mass appeal. I'm sure more Coca Cola is sold per year than water but it doesn't make it good for you. People just like because it's candy. And that's what this is. Sugary pop fluff.
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You can't overestimate the public's appetite for vapid entertainment. Vapid, vacous eye candy sells. Fact. Just look at that other 3D turd Alice In Wonderland eating up the BO. It's already made half a billion dollars in under three weeks. If box office equates to "good" then we may as well all give up and go home. You have to look at what Avatar won in terms of prestigious awards - Oscars, BAFTAS, Critic's Choice and the Guilds - and it came away with ALMOST ZIP, NADA, NOTHING.
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specially the first one. The only good part in that was the introduction of Wolverine, when he's a dangerous asshole in a cage. If someone had told me I'd hate the wolverine character after seeing him in a movie I wouldn't have believed it. Now I can't stand the guy. I need to read Days of Future Past to cleanse myself and see the light once again. Anyway, the only good part in the second movie was the introduction of Nightcrawler. That's it! Let's not even mention how they messed up the third one. You all know. Basically, they should have kept the original costumes, cause it would've showed at least some respect for the comics and the fans. Imagine Spiderman without the original costume...bullshit. If they promise us our heroes on screen, I don't want cheap imitations in new costumes. None of the mutants in those movies, except Xavier, were similar to their comic counterparts. And even Xavier was just Picard in a chair. Where was Cyclops? Honestly, he wasn't in the movies at all. Storm, Cyclops and COLOSSUS weren't in the movies! I just saw bunch of pretty people faking it, not the characters we all know and love. Ian McKellan's Magneto sucked monkey dicks, sure the dude is a supreme actor and rocked the fucking heavens as Gandalf, but He is not Magneto. Shit, just reboot the franchise, or make a tv show with a fan of the comics in charge of production.
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He's too big and even his second-in-command, Bigelow, is also too big thanks to The Hurt Locker, though given her work like Strange Days, Point Break and Near Dark she'd be my next choice. I say give it to Neill Blomkamp or the Wachowskis and let them go nuts. What FOX has never understood is that IF YOU SPEND REAL MONEY AND TIME AND GIVE THE PROPERTY THE RIGHT ATTENTION AND CAST AND CREW, IT WILL MAKE BANK. A big-budget, big-deal X-Men would conquer.
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It's funny you mention Blomkamp and then go on to say Fox needs to up the budget. Blomkamp made District 9 for $30 million and look how impressive that was. They could downsize the budget even further for a X-flick and he'd make it look like they spent $200 million on it.
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Arguable I suppose but then perhaps you forget the pure ass kickery of the first 15 minutes of X2? That scene is probably one of the best live action 'X-men' moments ever captured on film.That said, I do agree he's not the best choice as there's just too much baggage, for good or worse. He can't possibly get out of it and it will colour the entire process. Singer most definitely has talent tho so I forsee 2 possibilities: meager, somewhat underwhelming ala Superman Returns (would be a monumental failure for Xmen franchise) or he'll grindstone it and impress all of us.I don't mean to praise the guy that much but don't forget that he was one of the guys that gave us serious comic book movies in the midst of the need to be tongue-in-cheek by the fucking poseur directors of comic book movies and their "big money or not, it's for kids and thus is silly" disdain for the material.
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was won for acting hood. The Oscar's should exempt nominations for any actor who has a role that:
1. Has to act retarded
2. Has to act ghetto or hood
3. Has to act autistic
4. Has to act in any combination of the above -
x-men ARE misfits and outcasts. the allegory to other societal outcasts is the foundation of the story, so of course there would be automatic parallels to minorities and gays.
also, people who like comic books making fun of gay is just... gay. c'mon.
and finally, i liked all 3 X films. great casts, emotional situations, and fun. -
Mar 19, 2010 1:32:26 PM CDT
Singer's orignal plan was to film X-Men 3 & 4 Back to Back and..
by merlin_ambrosius
His original script treatment was for film 3 to deal with Jean Grey's death, rebirth and evolution as the Phoenix. Film 4 would have introduced a new character, The White Queen, a role intended for Sigourney Weaver, who begins to tamper with Jean's mind causing her to become unbalanced and transform into the Dark Phoenix. It would have ended with her pleading with Scott to kill her and when he does she is reborn in space as a being of pure energy reminiscent of the Star Child in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Instead we get 90 minutes of terrible wire work, bad dialogue, bad special effects, no phoenix effect, and, according to Brett Ratner, he brought in the cure and danger room Sentinels because he didn't feel there was enough material in the Phoenix / Dark Phoenix storyline to base a whole movie around. Plus he felt the Phoenix effect to be unfilmable. Seriously there are fucktards and there are fuckatrds and Brett Ratner is their King.
I personally loved X 1 & 2. And thought the ending where Charles Xavier looks out the window and hears birdsong (audible on the DTS track) and tells the class that everything was going to be alright before teaching them about "The Once & Future King", followed by the site of a reflection of the phoenix flying over Alkali lake was the perfect setup for this.
Superman Returns may have been hopelessly mediocre especially in light of the first five seasons of Smallville which developed the characters in whole new ways (Michael Rosenbaum completely redefined Lex Luthor for example) but Bryan Singer had the right idea: Igonre X3 and make his own sequel. And besides every great director makes a bad movie once in a while. Check out Piranha 2, The Phantom Menace, the two Matrix sequels, Alien 3, Hannibal, and the list goes on and on!
And I agree with everyone if Halle Berry want's to play diva and demand more screen time, then Zoe Saldana would be terrific as Storm.
Also, to all those people who complained that in X1 too much screen time was devoted to Wolverine, that's because the studio demanded that Bryan Singer change the script to accomodate the X-Men's most popular character. So it really isn't his fault that Cyclops had nothing much to do. James Cameron and George Lucas might be studio proof, but most director's aren't.
And for all you pasty faced morons who keep yelling fag... I remember when you all were screaming about how casting an (openly) gay man as Gandalf was going to ruin the Lord of the Rings. Apparently you all still haven't moved out of your parent's basements or in some cases, closets!
Frankly I think the X-Men would rule as an ongoing HBO mini-series like True Blood, Rome or The Sopranos. But as long as FOX has control over the franchise that may not happen, unless Marvel still owns the TV rights. -
I agree with everything in your post. Well played, Sir. Except for the apostrophe in "want's." It is not a contraction. But I nitpick.
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Thanks for saying so, and I plead guilty to being a member of the grammar checker generation. But I will keep that one in mind.
Oh and "Logan's Run" was canceled because of "The Island" which 'borrowed' liberally from the original "Logan's Run", as well as from several other science fiction movies and novels. -
FOX fucked up Xmen, not Singer.
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Mar 19, 2010 2:31:17 PM CDT
comic book movies have come A LONG way since X 1 + 2
by the_one_man_gang
admit that you thought they were good because someone actually made an x men movie, and you were amazed at that fact..
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Same as with a lot of other franchises.
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Mar 19, 2010 2:37:07 PM CDT
I Continue To Like X-Men and X2 Irregardless of Movies that Have
by merlin_ambrosius
My enjoyment of Batman Begins and The Dark Night has not effected my feelings towards the first two X-Men movies which still hold up for me. Any more than, say, my enthusiasm for Star Trek 2009 has stopped me from loving The Wrath of Kahn!
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Should do the BLACK PANTHER movie. Sci fi epic in Africa?
Yeah, i think he could pull it off. -
Cheers guys. All I ever do is give my opinion, as far as possible without insulting people. If it's more a case of putting an argument I'll do so, but not everything people like has to be "good" and not everything people dislike has to be bad. Also liking or disliking anything is not indicative of intelligence or stupidity. Well except for not Liking Miyazaki films of course, that's just a crime.
The issue here is people feeling a need to say that because they don't like Avatar it has to be a poor or average film. I've said why that isn't the case several times and I'll look at the responses to my request and answer them, or agree with the criticism if they are given with any kind of evidence or examples. Of course because it's mass entertainment people tend to forget film is art and you'll never, ever get people to agree on all things when it comes to art; it's just a need to differentiate between a dislike of or sense of apathy for a thing and that thing being crap. Again we aint talking Uwe Boll here, the criticism is totally out of proportion with the reality of moviemaking.
Thanks again, now onto the answers and negatives -
Should be equal parts Smallville and Buffy. Episodic, mutant-of-the-week, with an over-arching "big-bad" following the comic books but updating and expanding stories, combined with in-depth characterization. Season 1: Prof X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel taking on Magneto's Brotherhood and investigating new mutants every week. Vanisher, Blob, Unus, Juggernaut, Sentinels. All the classics. Ends with Magneto taken away as a specimen of human mutation by an alien collector. Season 2: The X-Men expand their powers (Bobby's ice-form, Jan's increased telekinesis), discover new civilizations (Savage Land), fight the Mimic, Magneto, and Juggernaut again, as Xavier trains them to fight his nemesis, the alien invader Lucifer. Ends with Jean being transferred to Mtro College. Season 3: turn the random crappy silver age supervillians into weird X-Files-ish investigations of giant insects, self-styled Aztec Gods, hypnotists posing as wizards... Temporary additions of Mimic and Banshee as the X-Men rescue Prof. X from Factor Three. Ends with the "death" of X and the X-Men going their separate ways. Season 4: The X-Men are scattered across the country, but reunite when Mesmero tries to use Lorna Dane, aka Polaris, as Magneto's daughter to lead a nation of mutants. Cyclops' brother Havok joins, powered by the Monolith, captured by the Sentinels, attacked by Sauron, rescused by Magneto's Savage Land Mutates. They return home to find Prof. X alive and preparing to fight another alien invasion.Season 5: Believe it or not, I think John Byrne's Hidden Years could be transformed into good stories, if they were drastically rethought and rewritten. There's good ideas in there. The Brotherhood's Circus, the Promise, Beast discovering his Beastly nature. Also add some stuff from the X-Men's lost years: the Beast quitting, working at a lab, and mutating into the furry Beast. Magneto creating the Ultimate Mutant and being destroyed. The X-Men rescue mutants from being kidnapped by the Secret Empire. The X-Men have graduated from students into true heroes. At this point a whole new cast can come in for the next five seasons. Storm and Wolverine and Nightcrawler Colossus and Phoenix and all that Claremont stuff. A completely different show. Whatever.
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Umbral Shadow
Avatar is 82% Fresh, 87% with top critics and 88% with the RT community, but you think I have a need to read the 12% because they are the only ones who got it right? I counter that by suggesting that you read the vastly superior in numbers amount of positive reviews and get some balance there.
Whilst the number of people who think insults, personal insults at that, are both necessary and an argument within themselves, grows which each passing internet year calling me pathetic does nothing to strengthen your argument. There are many people who seem to have way to much time on their hands and you may be correct, posing as a writer to gain credibility would be pretty lame. Of course the main reason it would be lame is simply because it implies a complete lack of understanding of the nature of credibility. It isn't given by someone saying they have a particular pastime or job; that just gives them your ear and their argument / opinion some weight. The credibility comes from a reasoned and well argued opinion, right or wrong, popular or unpopular. Let's be clear on the difference here; I make reference to writers knowing what makes a good screenplay, hence the screenplay for Avatar getting nominated. (Oh and it is an honour to get nominated, I know people get all cynical about that but I tell you now, if I write a screenplay or a book or even an article that get nominated by my peers I'll be so over the bloody moon I could plant a Union flag on it on my way down. In fact I remember how cool I felt getting nominated for things as lame as co-worker of the year or manager of the year, but the writers' guild! Directors' Guild, BAFTA Cannes, Equity most of us, even those of us dreaming of or working towards a career in the movie world won't even get as close as waiting tables at the ceremony, so yes those nominations mean something, Just check those films, the very good films, that didn't get nominated this year or in previous years.) I'm not calling myself that kind of writer, I'd like to be some day, as many of you may do, but I'm not, and I'm not one of those delusional people who call themselves “unpublished writers”. I write opinion and reviews as well as articles detailing some background work for Sci-Fi and fantasy related films and TV shows; also when I'm allowed to I force some comic book (er Graphic Novel) themed stuff in too. I do write, for my own amusement and because, like most true movie fans, Sci-Fi geeks and mouthy bastards I love to engage in a good debate about the things I love or feel passionately about. I don't expect people to agree with everything I say or like everything I like but I do challenge them back up their opinion IF what they are doing is is stating things as facts, as reasons that something is bad as opposed to just not their cup of tea.
As answer to both your cleverly disguised attempt to see if I'm a real boy and to a much greater extent for Ominus' query and sharp assertion that “professional” critics are just people who lucked into getting a job talking about movies. I can't even say that it's doing the thing they love because, like so many of the implausibly bitter posters around the net, they don't seem to actually like movies at all. On a side note I'd love to be on the rotten tomatoes list of critics but I'm a looong way from that yet. I'll have to get all Harry Knowles on you now As you may have been able to tell I'm a film fan like any other. Yes I took Media Studies and Film Studies at college ( aged 16 – 18) and Media studies at University. I had the smallest amount of Journalism training and then my life took many detours. I started dating my wife in my first month at Uni and 6 weeks later we were engaged. My Wife was doing a three year Nursing course so I worked outside of the whole film / TV / media thing until she was finished She got her diploma 2 years ago and now that she's all settled and being a great Nurse she's getting paid to upgrade her diploma into a degree. So Having worked for an internet company, with a lot of cool anti fraud stuff to do I was looking forward to getting back to my ambitions; either to teach Primary school or get involved in the media world,. But alas I got a random infection sometime in December 2007 I went to work on the 21st of January 2008, lasted about half an hour and was never well enough to go back. I spend a lot of time sitting, or lying, around at home as getting around is sometimes impossible and usually painful. But last year I got lucky, I was doing as much as I could at home and I got the chance to write blogs and articles for NBC' Universals UK Sci-Fi channel website. Don't worry we are joining our American big brother by becoming SyFy in a few weeks. It's pretty cool, I send in various items and also get asked to write around a specific theme, get some preview DVDs or streams to watch and write about. It's great fun and best of all something I can do from the discomfort of my own home. I don't pretend I'm the next Mark Kermode but I bet I could debate him to a standstill on some things. I have social networking relationships with a fair amount of the website's members and I get to debate about things I love with other sci-fi nuts. I even had a great argument with my editor, who gave Avatar a 4 out of five, about the dialogue in the film. He thought it was too generic and I countered that it was meant to be, in both diegetic and non-diegetic terms. I'm a long way from being a Rotten Tomatoes reviewer or having my on TV show but It's a start, it's fun and gives me something to do other sit around being in pain and putting off my Japanese studies and Yoga. Yes Yoga, it's almost as if it was created as a way for people with serious pain issues to get exercise.
To your last points. I can't speak for these Cameron fanatics you're on about but I fail to see how I needed Avatar to win best film at any awards ceremony to somehow prove it was good. As listed above there are several excellent films that have never come close to winning an Oscar, several actors and directors too. The film was nominated multiple times for multiple awards. That's vindication enough, if I was ever looking for any vindication, which I didn't. As for bragging, what on Earth are you on about? It's a movie, not a football team; how can I Brag about its success? I can use its success to further my argument to say that not only are your 50 negative critics in a massive minority, but to add to the overwhelmingly positive critical opinion AND the opinion of the film makers' peers, I.E the Directors' Guild, writers', cinematographers' BAFTA the Oscars and numerous others AND YES on top of that the film is likely to end up somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2.7b dollars. That's phenomenal, even in adjusted terms. All of those facts combined are evidence enough; although you can add as well as the incredibly high opinion of people that saw the movie. Sorry but the Emperor's new clothes are fake, he's altogether as naked as the day that he was born. That doesn't mean you have to like the film, clearly you don't, although you still haven't actually addressed why; that's only significant because you are throwing comments about its quality as opposed to it just not floating your boat.
You talk about being a James Cameron fan as if it's some kind of dirty word. The man has made some of the best science fiction movies ever. The least of his films, True Lies, is a very good scion comedy and yes, he's written and directed two of the 3 most successful films of all time. Avatar is the most successful film of all time outside of North America. You can't knock it, I'm not bragging, I'm not his friend or in hiss family, I'm just telling you some cold hard facts. Being a fan of Cameron's work is easy; being disingenuous to the man who gave us The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss (spec.ed) T2, True Lies (fun) and two films that have so far out grossed any other film of the modern era as to make a mockery of statements like people will rush out to watch rubbish films en masse”. Sure they do, fairly often but not to the tune of $2.7b, and yes there's one time when you can use box office in an argument. Making a lot of money doesn't equal a good movie and making hardly any, in fact losing money, doesn't make a film bad. But contrary to what too many net fanatics think making a lot of money doesn't equal a bad film either and a film that can gross 2.5 times the dollar amount of the third, in straight dollars, highest grosser then there's a fair chance it might not be too bad.
Your straw poll gag is erroneous in the extreme. Not only have you failed to understand the point of the statement but you've completely misread it too. It's not a poll, there's no 9 out of 10 women. It was simply an observation based on my experience here, with women and girls I know personally and with a lot of thee women I either chat to online (facebook Twitter etc.) or who commented on my reviews. That's all it is and I mentioned it to see if anyone else had seen a similar patter. Ironically enough several weeks after I'd made that observation EW stated that the film did appear to be reaching women at a deeper level than men. Just an observation.
On that note I find it odd that you , erroneously, have a go at random people (and me I think) for trying to use Box office to show that Avatar is a good film whilst getting all happy because Avatar hasn't won any of what you consider to be the top awards so is therefore not that good a film.
Finally, I'd love to know what it is about Avatar and Cameron that has so embittered you that you need to insult a total stranger who happens to have a view that doesn't match your own. So I like Avatar, so what? Even if I just think it's nice fluffy fun and no more, why does that threaten you? I state why I happen to believe that it is an extraordinary film you disagree but fail to say why and treat me like shit at the same time; but you think I have the problem?
Relax and you may find we have way more in common than not, it's just one film, one that you don't even like, so why let it waste anymore of your lifee? -
totally tired of this tire-tread being a producer, I would like to see him work at taco bell.
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Glad to see somebody here finally mention Jack The Giant Killer!Terrific movie.Not only was Torin Thatcher good,what about Kerwin Mathews as Jack?Truly superb.They dont make 'em like this anymore.If you liked the the old Ray Harryhausen movies,especially The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad or Jason and the Argonauts,you will enjoy this.special fx look kinda ropey now,especially that sea monster at the end.But a remake could be good.
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