Fox's X-Men Movies Are Better Than Marvel Fans Will Admit
Jun 9, 2019 16:11:34 GMT
darkpast likes this
Post by DC-Fan on Jun 9, 2019 16:11:34 GMT
Saw Dark Phoenix yesterday. It's obvious that critics didn't like Dark Phoenix because the movie was more serious and wasn't dumbed down with lame jokes and 1-liners throughout the movie. Dark Phoenix is a good movie, the best CBM of 2019.
After 19 years, the X-Men franchise has come to an end. Here's a great article about the legacy of the X-Men franchise:
Fox's X-Men Movies Are Better Than Marvel Fans Will Admit
After 19 years, the X-Men franchise has come to an end. Here's a great article about the legacy of the X-Men franchise:
Fox's X-Men Movies Are Better Than Marvel Fans Will Admit
with the mutants soon to join the MCU thanks to Disney's purchase of Fox, it's worth noting what a debt the MCU owes to the X-Men. After all, it was the mutants who paved the way for the MCU and the modern day superhero movie golden age.
After the 1990s were dominated by Batman, in 2000, Marvel finally got into the blockbuster movie game with Bryan Singer's X-Men, which introduced the concept of mutants to moviegoers and made a star out of Hugh Jackman, who would go on to play Wolverine for 17 years. Singer's 2003 sequel, X2: X-Men United, is still heralded as one of the best superhero movies ever.
Looking back on the last two decades of X-Men films, here's how they paved the way for the MCU
The Original X-Men Trilogy Pioneered MCU Storytelling
It was the X-Men franchise that brought the Marvel formula to the movies. Jean Grey's death in X2: X-Men United launched years of frenzied fan speculation about whether the next film would adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga. Post-credits scenes are an MCU staple, but X-Men: The Last Stand did it first when they teased that Professor X could come back from the dead and that Magneto's powers would return. Logan suddenly meeting a resurrected Xavier and Magneto in The Wolverine's post-credits scene set up Days of Future Past. These moments fueled excitement for the next installments of the X-Men franchise, just as the MCU would later tease Thanos in their buildup to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Marvel President Kevin Feige got his start as an associate producer on X-Men, and the lessons he learned benefited the MCU. The era of Stan Lee cameos also began in X-Men.
they place emphasis on the flaws and inner turmoil of their characters, which makes Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and even Thanos relatable and loveable. But X-Men led the way in that regard; the mutants are troubled souls alienated from society because of the 'curse' of their powers.
Fox's X-Men Movies Have A Clear And Focused Theme To Explore
The X-Men movies have consistently communicated its central theme that mutants are a persecuted race hated and feared by humans. Charles Xavier's dream is that humans and mutants can co-exist, while Magneto feels mutants should assert their dominance over the world and homo sapiens. That core conflict, which has evolved through different permutations, has sustained the entire saga but it also allowed the audience to ask themselves who they would stand with and what their values are.
However, X-Men movies range from asking the biggest questions about the genocide of the entire mutant race, to deeply personal stories like trying to save Jean Grey from her darkest impulses being manifested by the Phoenix Force or an older Logan trying to do one last good thing for his gravely ill mentor Professor X and his 'daughter' Laura before he dies. All throughout the saga, mutants have been mistreated, enslaved, and weaponized as the X-Men movies hold up a mirror to abuses inflicted upon people in the real world. The X-Men still play into the superhero genre's tropes of costumes, superpowers, and saving the world from villains, but beneath the action-packed conflicts are persistent themes, difficult questions, and no easy answers, which makes X-Men movies a cut above other superhero flicks.
X-Men Went Places Other Franchises Wouldn't
the X-Men brought the very concept of the superhero team to movies. Before X-Men, superhero movies were about a lone caped crusader defending one particular city and only Christopher Reeve's Superman was truly a global superhero. X-Men changed all of that with its very first scene depicting young Erik Lensherr's trauma in World War II Auschwitz. The movies' scope continued to grow, taking the X-Men to San Francisco in The Last Stand, before the X-Men movies started playing with alternate history: Logan, who was born in the 19th century, fought in both World Wars and Vietnam before taking on ninjas in Japan in the first two Wolverine spinoffs. X-Men: First Class depicted the Cuban Missile Crisis, Days of Future Past went from Russia and China in the future to the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, and by X-Men: Apocalypse, the story jumped from Poland to Egypt while nuclear missiles hovered over the entire world.
X-Men: First Class was a groovy 1960s international Cold War thriller that predated Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Days of Future Past melded a Terminator-inspired post-apocalyptic time travel/sci-fi film with a 1970s period piece, and X-Men: Apocalypse attempted to bring the sensibilities of X-Men: The Animated Series to live-action. Even Dark Phoenix is a risk; an outright copy of X-Men: The Last Stand that aims to have more depth and dimension. Not to mention the brilliant Quicksilver superspeed sequences in Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse outshine everything Avengers: Age of Ultron did with the same character. In spite of their flaws, the X-Men movies deserve kudos for their willingness to boldly take chances instead of always sticking to convention and playing it safe.
the timeline still flows, more or less, factoring in the existence of alternate timelines like Logan's future and the inexplicable redundancies like how X-Men Origins: Wolverine introduced Emma Frost, which was then retconned when Emma Frost was played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class. X-Men's creative control passed from Bryan Singer to Simon Kinberg, among others, and it has never been as consistent or detail-oriented as the MCU's, but even Marvel Studios has made staggering timeline errors like Spider-Man: Homecoming claiming to be set '8 years' after The Avengers.
the First Class reboot was still successful and Days of Future Past was an ingenious reset that wiped X-Men: The Last Stand out of continuity. What's more, First Class' recasting addressed the advancing age of the original cast and breathed new life into the franchise; McAvoy and Fassbender successfully replaced Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as Xavier and Magneto while the franchise scored Jennifer Lawrence to play Mystique before she became one of Hollywood's biggest stars. The success X-Men had in recasting their characters is the blueprint for what the MCU will need to do when they inevitably have to recast Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, not to mention recasting the X-Men for the third time when they debut in the MCU.
X-Men can proudly boast its status as one of the most provocative and innovative superhero movie sagas that helped inspire the MCU's success - and it's better overall than its detractors will admit. Dark Phoenix may mark the end of this incarnation of the X-Men but the mutants will one day rise again in the MCU. The new crop of X-Men will then have to overcome the shadow of Fox's X-Men and the unforgettable stories, characters, and moments they left behind.
After the 1990s were dominated by Batman, in 2000, Marvel finally got into the blockbuster movie game with Bryan Singer's X-Men, which introduced the concept of mutants to moviegoers and made a star out of Hugh Jackman, who would go on to play Wolverine for 17 years. Singer's 2003 sequel, X2: X-Men United, is still heralded as one of the best superhero movies ever.
Looking back on the last two decades of X-Men films, here's how they paved the way for the MCU
The Original X-Men Trilogy Pioneered MCU Storytelling
It was the X-Men franchise that brought the Marvel formula to the movies. Jean Grey's death in X2: X-Men United launched years of frenzied fan speculation about whether the next film would adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga. Post-credits scenes are an MCU staple, but X-Men: The Last Stand did it first when they teased that Professor X could come back from the dead and that Magneto's powers would return. Logan suddenly meeting a resurrected Xavier and Magneto in The Wolverine's post-credits scene set up Days of Future Past. These moments fueled excitement for the next installments of the X-Men franchise, just as the MCU would later tease Thanos in their buildup to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Marvel President Kevin Feige got his start as an associate producer on X-Men, and the lessons he learned benefited the MCU. The era of Stan Lee cameos also began in X-Men.
they place emphasis on the flaws and inner turmoil of their characters, which makes Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and even Thanos relatable and loveable. But X-Men led the way in that regard; the mutants are troubled souls alienated from society because of the 'curse' of their powers.
Fox's X-Men Movies Have A Clear And Focused Theme To Explore
The X-Men movies have consistently communicated its central theme that mutants are a persecuted race hated and feared by humans. Charles Xavier's dream is that humans and mutants can co-exist, while Magneto feels mutants should assert their dominance over the world and homo sapiens. That core conflict, which has evolved through different permutations, has sustained the entire saga but it also allowed the audience to ask themselves who they would stand with and what their values are.
However, X-Men movies range from asking the biggest questions about the genocide of the entire mutant race, to deeply personal stories like trying to save Jean Grey from her darkest impulses being manifested by the Phoenix Force or an older Logan trying to do one last good thing for his gravely ill mentor Professor X and his 'daughter' Laura before he dies. All throughout the saga, mutants have been mistreated, enslaved, and weaponized as the X-Men movies hold up a mirror to abuses inflicted upon people in the real world. The X-Men still play into the superhero genre's tropes of costumes, superpowers, and saving the world from villains, but beneath the action-packed conflicts are persistent themes, difficult questions, and no easy answers, which makes X-Men movies a cut above other superhero flicks.
X-Men Went Places Other Franchises Wouldn't
the X-Men brought the very concept of the superhero team to movies. Before X-Men, superhero movies were about a lone caped crusader defending one particular city and only Christopher Reeve's Superman was truly a global superhero. X-Men changed all of that with its very first scene depicting young Erik Lensherr's trauma in World War II Auschwitz. The movies' scope continued to grow, taking the X-Men to San Francisco in The Last Stand, before the X-Men movies started playing with alternate history: Logan, who was born in the 19th century, fought in both World Wars and Vietnam before taking on ninjas in Japan in the first two Wolverine spinoffs. X-Men: First Class depicted the Cuban Missile Crisis, Days of Future Past went from Russia and China in the future to the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, and by X-Men: Apocalypse, the story jumped from Poland to Egypt while nuclear missiles hovered over the entire world.
X-Men: First Class was a groovy 1960s international Cold War thriller that predated Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Days of Future Past melded a Terminator-inspired post-apocalyptic time travel/sci-fi film with a 1970s period piece, and X-Men: Apocalypse attempted to bring the sensibilities of X-Men: The Animated Series to live-action. Even Dark Phoenix is a risk; an outright copy of X-Men: The Last Stand that aims to have more depth and dimension. Not to mention the brilliant Quicksilver superspeed sequences in Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse outshine everything Avengers: Age of Ultron did with the same character. In spite of their flaws, the X-Men movies deserve kudos for their willingness to boldly take chances instead of always sticking to convention and playing it safe.
the timeline still flows, more or less, factoring in the existence of alternate timelines like Logan's future and the inexplicable redundancies like how X-Men Origins: Wolverine introduced Emma Frost, which was then retconned when Emma Frost was played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class. X-Men's creative control passed from Bryan Singer to Simon Kinberg, among others, and it has never been as consistent or detail-oriented as the MCU's, but even Marvel Studios has made staggering timeline errors like Spider-Man: Homecoming claiming to be set '8 years' after The Avengers.
the First Class reboot was still successful and Days of Future Past was an ingenious reset that wiped X-Men: The Last Stand out of continuity. What's more, First Class' recasting addressed the advancing age of the original cast and breathed new life into the franchise; McAvoy and Fassbender successfully replaced Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as Xavier and Magneto while the franchise scored Jennifer Lawrence to play Mystique before she became one of Hollywood's biggest stars. The success X-Men had in recasting their characters is the blueprint for what the MCU will need to do when they inevitably have to recast Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, not to mention recasting the X-Men for the third time when they debut in the MCU.
X-Men can proudly boast its status as one of the most provocative and innovative superhero movie sagas that helped inspire the MCU's success - and it's better overall than its detractors will admit. Dark Phoenix may mark the end of this incarnation of the X-Men but the mutants will one day rise again in the MCU. The new crop of X-Men will then have to overcome the shadow of Fox's X-Men and the unforgettable stories, characters, and moments they left behind.