Fatigue Sets in With an Icy New Look at 'X-Men: First Class'
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Photo: 20th Century Fox via EMPIRE
Empire just debuted the above image from Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, one of the many superhero movies hitting theaters this year.
Empire tells us that featured in the pic are Kevin Bacon as Shaw, the leader of decadent mutant bastards, The Hellfire Club – and January Jones as his right-hand woman, the telepath Emma Frost in their secret lair.
Empire also writes that this image is "yet another indicator that Matthew Vaughn's 60s-set prequel will have a visual flair that sets it apart from the previous X-movies." Really? I'm sorry, but I was talking about all the superhero movies coming out this year last night at my Rango screening and someone said to me this film looks like it may be the best of the lot. I winced at the thought, after all, haven't we already seen all these people in action? Do we really need to go back and hear about their origin story? Didn't Bryan Singer already do a bang-up job introducing the origins of Magneto?
One of the main reasons Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise has done so well and continues to be highly anticipated is do to his creation of a world of characters. Gotham is just as much a character as Bruce Wayne and the baddies he's up against. Iron Man did a good job creating a character and a personality, but the second film didn't do a good enough job expanding the universe for most people's tastes. With First Class it just looks like it's the same old characters and the excitement we are supposed to feel seems like it's supposed to be centered on the fact these characters are on screen, and not because of who or what they are.
This is obviously just me feeling a bit of superhero fatigue at the thought of discussing so much spandex over the next few months and the months we've already been through, but I wonder, are any of you are feeling the same thing?
X-Men: First Class hits theaters on June 3 for a look at the first trailer I've added it directly below if you missed it before.
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I'm 100% with you on superhero fatigue Brad. I just feel like they're getting closer and closer to the bottom of the barrel in the genre and the films are less and less appealing. X-Men does appeal to me more than most, but I agree that it should be about telling a good origin story than just more face time with the characters. Matthew Vaughn is a talented director, but I'm in the minority in that the trailer didn't do much for me other than just look like another X-Men movie, albeit with younger, different actors.
It's a bit depressing to me that we've just wrapped up three or four months of debating the great films of 2010, and now the next six months will largely be filled with debating summer tentpoles, most of which just don't look very good. Sure there are likely to be a few bright spots (most notably for me Harry Potter) and maybe some films will surprise and be good, but I don't see a Toy Story 3 or Inception on the horizon this year.
Definitely getting superhero movie fatigue. It feels with things like The Avengers project and other superhero characters that that's all that Hollywood is churning out just now.
It's currently less than four years since the last Spider-Man film was released and it's already being rebooted (I know that's an eternity in movies nowadays but that's just a conveyor belt now) and while I liked the X-Men prequel trailer it wasn't anything that blew me away. But………it's just another sign of the conveyor belt.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of the films have been really good/excellent (X1, X2, Batman Begins, TDK, Iron Man, even for me Superman Returns was not THAT bad) but there's as many mediocre ones out there and the further down the comic book heirarchy they go, the worse some of the movies will be. Unless you can get a really good team to elevate and make it something good.
There are 5 superhero films over the next 2 years that interest me, as things stand:
I'm interested to see how Marvel does with creating their shared universe through Thor, Captain America and then ultimately The Avengers. It's an ambitious attempt that adds an extra layer to the proceedings for me. I know people around these parts are highly skeptical of it all, but everything I've seen just adds to my curiosity to see if they can actually pull off the wild fantasy of Thor, the pulp action of Captain America, and combine it with the high-tech science fiction of Iron Man.
I'm naturally interested in seeing how Nolan ends his Batman run, even if I'm not quite as in awe of his films as many seem to be.
Finally, the more I hear about it, the more interested I am in seeing what Aronofsky does with Wolverine. It sounds like it may be the first X-man film to stand alone, and really feels like the first forward progress for the series since Singer left and Rothman hired Ratner to end the series (before realizing there was way too much money left to be made to end it.)
What kills my interest are the reboots and prequels… that's where my fatigue sets in. If the story isn't moving forward, what's the point? There may be a quality team behind the next Spider-Man, but starting back over from the beginning kills my enthusiasm for it. Superman also feels like a retread at this point, with rumors placing the story in the character's early days as a hero (not to mention the fact that it's being made at all is mostly due to legal issues with the character rights.) Green Lantern feels like Thor and Captain America, minus the ambition to create a shared universe…. which kind of makes it just another franchise to throw out and see if it sticks.
There's no question that people will reject some of these films simply due to the glut of them hitting the screens, but I think there's still room for the good ones to do well. We'll see.
It's not my kind of movie at all, but it's got a great cast.
not at all.. no boredom or tiredness here.. they may be all superhero movies.. but we could say that about all movies all the time.. ie: talking animal animation (hello Rango) or talking about more government chase movies (hello adjustment bureau).. I'm looking forward to both of those movies, just saying it's the genre. Every trailer you see is to some genre and the formula has been done before.
Nope; not really bothered by it. As long as the story is a good one and well told, the costume designer can put whatever they want on those people. Far as I'm concerned.
I understand the superhero fatigue, but to say that you're not interested because "it's the same characters" is weird seeing that only a handful of characters actually are returning in this movie. Beast, Xavier, Mystique and Magneto (off the top of my head) are the only ones that are returning, everyone else, ESPECIALLY the ones in this picture are brand-spanking-new. So why are you saying its "the same characters"? These are completely new ones.
The only superhero movie I currently am planning to see in theater is Green Lantern. And that will depend on reviews. I am no longer an automatic fanboy/girl for this genre. Too many bad products. Too many alternatives (if I want bad superhero movies I can find them in the straight to DVD section).
JJ is such a waste in anything but Mad Men. I'm totally NOT excited that she is in this.