X-Men TAS vs MCU movies

TAS is what the films should have been.

Now THAT was the proper X-Men!

So which would you rather watch? X-Men TAS or  the Fox-Men movies?

I wish Fox's X-men was more like X-men TAS. Even though I know why they did what they did with Fox's X-men, I still wish they were more like TAS.

Nerfing Rogue and just making her a Mutant Vampire. She had all the negatives of Rogue with none of the positive. For her being part of a group that suit up and go out in the world to fight the bad guys, she has no skills useful in that group. The best she could do is steal powers, but she can't use the powers as good as the original owner. And you have the original power user who is now woozy from her stealing them.

Nerfing of Storm. Now she did control multiple tornadoes in X2 which is pretty powerful, but other than that she's nerfed. Storm is all about control. She has to stay in control all the time. If she doesn't she will cause horrible damage. Yet in X1 she says she can't control her powers well enough to get Wolverine on the Torch. Now I know why they did this. They need Jean to react shocked when she feels her power grow stronger. That's what the weird reaction to it meant. This was a foreshadowing of Jean's powers growing/disturbing her setting up Phoenix. They shoud've done this differently no need to fuck with Storm powers to get that reaction.

The Uniforms. I know why they didn't use the color uniforms. In that time period they couldn't get away with it. People weren't ready for comic book movies to embrace the fantastical. I still wish the black leather was replaced with more comic book accurate uniforms. 18 years later when the whole world embraces the colorful uniforms we still have X-men in drab uniforms or street clothes. Also it's not even the fact that they didn't use the uniforms, but in the first X-men they were dismissive of the uniforms with the Yellow Spandex joke. It's almost as if the makers were calling people childish for wanting comic book accurate looks. That joke never set right with me.

Different Villains: TAS showed how great X-men's villains are. Yet after 6 team movies we've had Magneto 6 times. Now I know he had partners or worked with others but there is so much more out there and TAS showed it.

Different locales: Every X-men movie is set in very drab locales. We did get cuba and Russia, but I would've loved: The Savage Land, Mojoworld, Asteroid M, Shi'ar Home world (the name escapes me) or at least the asteroid the X-men battled the Shi'ar over Phoenix powers, and Genosha. I get why we didn't get these in the beginning, but the best we got is we are getting Genosha now after 18 years. And we might get a space scene in Dark Phoenix.

Continuity: The writers and the show runners of TAS would plan out the whole season. They also would keep in mind how the serial nature of one season would effect the next season. I get why the continuity is fucked up in X-men. The first movie was a gamble and they didn't even know they were going to get another shot at it. Then they did and Singer was able to tie a little of the first movie. (the reaction of Jean when she was using her power to steady Wolverine in 1st one) They were going by the seat of their pants. Then the directors changed. And then we had side movies that went no where. Then they tried to do a soft reboot, but because they included Wolverine it tied to the original Xmovies. Now don't get me wrong I loved First Class and DoFP but I would trade the old characters showing up in DoFP for a planned out cohesive continuity. It's a bad sign when you have to use a movie to reset the continuity because you fucked up so badly.

Metaphor: Fox's X-men mostly get this right. I don't know if it's we had a lot more episodes/time to show how badly society hated mutants or what, but it seemed more prevalent in the cartoon. I never got the sense of how deeply normal people are paranoid of mutants and/or hated mutants as a whole. The hate was palpable in TAS. With the mutants metaphorically being gays/minorities we need to feel that the whole world is against them. At every turn the hate and fear needs to be prevalent because in real life gays/minorities faced hate and fear for most of modern times. Like I said they did try to do this in the movies at least, they just came up a little short. I understand why to you don't want to beat the audience over the head with the metaphor.

One Dimensional Cyclops (and others): I get why they made Wolverine the main star along with Proff. X and Magneto. They are the most popular. So when they rise up some people have to step back. Meaning you get less time to show the other characters. Another great thing about having multiple episodes and seasons is you get to explore each character. While I know they couldn't go in that much depth I would've liked it if say 1 or 2 characters that was in the background in most movies get a little bit extra in another. Cyclops got the worst of this. In TAS he is shown as a caring loving husband, a kick ass strategic leader, racked with guilt over not saving everyone, dutiful serogate son of Proff. X, and worried that he can't be as good of a leader as Proff X, in other words he had layers. He was distilled down in the movies to a stuffed suit teachers pet that loved Jean. That's it and they didn't have the decency to give him a on screen death. The movies treated him like shit. Also why do they keep making his optic blasts heat things up like it's a laser. They are concussive blasts not a laser.

the Fox X-men got the tone right in most of the movies. Even though X2 had some of the problems above it's still a great damned movie. (it fluctuates but it's in my top 20 movies of all time at least maybe top 10) I just think once the public started accepting some of the more fantastical aspects of the Comic Book Mythos and Look the movies should've let some of the more fantastical in. Grounding the characters, settings, and most aspects is fine, almost needed in fact, with so much powers on screen. I just feel that we are in the golden age of comic book movies and I thought we would have more than what we got. This isn't a Ninja with no powers in a bat suit. These are characters with every supernatural power known to man. It's ok to let the freak flag fly a little bit. As to the MCU I will admit that could use a little grounding. Sometimes it's ok to make a small intimate movie. They've tried this with Ant-man. As much as they could. The stakes were smaller and so was the story telling, but it's hard to make that powerset less fantastical. I hope in the future Black Widow is a grounded spy story with personal stakes not ones that effect a lot of people. The MCU needs to reign in the stakes a bit after Thanos. The escalation of threats doesn't get much bigger than trillions of people. In the solo movies the stakes need to involve at most countries or continents that are in danger. With the team up movies the world being threatened is enough.

I still don't think the uniforms in MCU are too bright and colorful. Every time they frig with the color saturation to make it closer to normal they fuck and every color seems like it's bleeding out.

As a lover of MCU, DC (have to just put DC as I'm not a lover of DCEU, but I'm starting to like/love individual movies now), XMU, and the more independent comic book movies; it can be difficult critiquing the movies. I would love it if Feige and Lauren Shuler Donner team up again like they did on X-men. She can bring over what worked for X-men, X2, First Class, DoFP, Deadpool, Logan, and Deadpool 2. Feige can use his experience balancing huge interconnect worlds and planning of continuity. Lauren can find the talent to help ground the X-men in MCU, and Feige with his love for everything comics can push for more comic accurate visuals and concepts. I honestly believe if Marvel Studios allows Laura Donner to work on MCU X-men they we are going to get the best of both worlds. And we might get a MCU X-men that reflects all the positive things of TAS. At least that's my hope.

I don't know. I think she had part in making the X-men movies we got grounded and "realistic." She had to fight hard just to get it made. She knew she couldn't go to her higher ups with plans to make something fantastical. She played the hand she got dealt. Now like I said in my post you would think after 18 years they would've branched out more. It's fine that they didn't and they made some great movies playing in that zone. I just think with Feige as  her boss (after being her associate producer/aide) he will be able to filter her realism. Using her to keep the MCU Xmen grounded to a degree, but not so much it overwhelms the style, mythos, and tone of the MCU. I want those to be worn down a bit with realism, but not so much the movies wouldn't fit in the MCU.

I'm not talking about that just the otherworldly nature that the cartoon went into that the movies never did.

Where the Phoenix story in the cartoon involved them going to space, onboard large space vessels and other planets, coming across the Shia'ar and other aliens etc. The movie had none of the sort.

Where the cartoon had a story of the X-Men going to the prehistoric island the Savage Land where they confronted Mr. Sinister. The movies had nothing like that either.

As for the colour, the comics are colourful, it's a vibrant comic with vibrant locations.



We haven't had anything like that. It's like if Thor movies had all been set on Earth instead of Asgard and all the other places.

Well I wasn't talking about it looking like Batman and Robin.

Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok were colourful with unique looking places like what X-Men would have.

What about this upcoming Aquaman? That's the same, that looks really colourful with a unique looking place. Why can't we have an X-Men movie like that, obviously not the comedy part but the same unique vibrant places.

I'd say the exact same for any Fantastic Four movie that may join the MCU because they go to other worlds and dimensions just the same. 



Well they could probably make it more like Skull Island from the King Kong series, very similar actually.

But it would separate it from the rest. Theres dozens of Superheroes movies, how many of them have Superheroes journeying to a prehistoric land with dinosaurs?

And like I said before, in the cartoon they went there to confront Mr. Sinister. A good villain who hasn't been done in a movie yet.

That would make a good first movie which would separate it from not just the other X-Men movies but the other MCU movies as well.

Especially now Guardians of the Galaxy seems in jeopardy, a series that makes up for it in the wonderous locations department would be a good fit.

This is true when you look at phase 1 films before the first Avengers in 2012 when Disney didnt own them. Iron man 1, Thor 1, Incredible Hulk and Captain America 1 all had grounded stories explained by science with a darker colour schematic compared to the later films after Disney took over. The contrast is clear to see how Disney transformed the MCU into their mould and it doesnt get any more obvious, in when they decided to give Captain America that ridiculous bright blue spandex suit in The Avengers instead of his more military appropriate gear from The First Avenger.

And yet, every movie since then...