It seems like it's all go with the superhero movies these days, and I promise to cut down on them in the future, but I couldn't resist notifying you guys of this one.
The first trailer for 'X-Men: First Class' has hit the 'tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4_ra9VneUc&feature=feedu
In case you didn't know, this is the prequel picture to the original X-Men trilogy, and will show a younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr as they work together to train young mutants in their powers, before the divide occurs between them.
Now, we have a chequered history with the X-Men franchise when it comes to film. 'X-Men' (2000) was great, because it gave us a really satisfying rendition of the classic comic book story that many people loved, and brought it to a wider audience. It was even one of the first real superhero flicks to hit the screens, at least in modern times, and did a big part in starting off the craze. It did well at the box office, too, grossing $157,299,717 in the USA alone. Maybe that was the main reason for the sequel, 'X-Men 2' or 'X - 2' (2003). This was also a good picture. I don't know if I liked it as much as the first, which was a nice, rounded off story, but this one was also nicely balanced and well told. It also had Nightcrawler, one of my favourite characters from the comics. It was all good. We were cruising along quite nicely.
And then 'X-Men: The Last Stand' (2006) came along.
And it all went to defacation.
You can ask anyone who has had the displeasure to see the third film in the trilogy, and the 90% that have brains of their own will tell you that it was just horrible, because it was. The director of the first two films, Bryan Singer, had stepped back from the series (to instead direct the averagey 'Superman Returns')and left it in the less-than-capable hands of Brett Ratner. Never trust a man called with a name like Brett. 'Nuff said.
There was a nice little gap in the flow of X-Movies after that, as if to give the population of the world a chance to recover and sleep off the effects of the movie before, and then we were presented with an offering of spin-off picture 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (2009). It did little to rekindle my faith in the movie franchise, to be honest. It had some nice action scenes, and story-wise there wasn't too much to complain about, but they infamously slaughtered the character of Deadpool, making him a simple monster, which broke the hearts of the many fans he had from his own comic book series. In those, he was a wise-cracking merc, more than a little mentally unstable, with a penchant for breaking the forth wall, and he is, to this day, probably the funniest comic book character to me. So in 'Origins', when they made him a mute killing creature with adamantium blades coming out of his arms ("What is this I don't even"), I know I wasn't alone in being highly dissapointed.
So now, a couple of years on, it seems like they're trying again. This time they're once more going back to before the original trilogy, and no, this film won't include Wolverine in any way (not too much of a bad thing, in my opinion. He's got his own spin-off film now, after all...). The trailer looks interesting, and I like the casting of James McAvoy as a young Charlie X himself, and we'll have to wait and see for Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr. As a heads up, we're also going to be seeing Mystique, Emma Frost, Beast (again), Sebastian Shaw, Havok, and Banshee. And some Nazi Soldiers. These aren't such common names to the audience members who don't know the comic prior to the films, but maybe this could be taken as a good sign: maybe this film is an attempt to redeem the confidence of the comic book fan in the X-Men films. Either way, it'll be nice to see some less well-known characters being exposed to the viewing public. The question becomes then, do we have enough faith to give the franchise one more chance? Well, I think I've got it in me to give them one more chance. But don't let me down, will you, Marvel?
'X-Men: First Class' is set to hit cinemas June 2nd 2011.
- J. Boulton
