Back in the mid 90's I was convinced to create a blog discussing Sci-Fi / Fantasy Movies, talking about how I would review those movies and what I was looking for. I kept that particular blog current, or at least somewhat current, for over a decade. I found out in March 2014, that my blog provider was shutting down for various reasons, leading me to work to start a new blog. I probably will be moving relevant material over sporadically, especially when I quote it. So don't be shocked to see material from as much as 15 years before the launch of this edition of a geeks view. It, unfortunately, is a lot of work and not just a simple cut past to move the stuff over.
Bryan Singer released a new image today of a potential Blu-Ray/DVD cover for the promised X-Men: Days of Future Past - Rogue Cut.
The extended edition of the film contains approximately 20 minutes of footage that was cut from the theatric release including the Rogue Sub-Plot and several scenes with Mystique.
Bryan Singer also announced that the new DVD would be released on Tuesday July 14, 2015, a date of some significance for X-Men movie fans as the original movie premiered on July 14, 2000, 15 years to the day.
Two mutants come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers.
What the critics said: Faithful to the comics and filled with action, X-Men brings a crowded slate of classic Marvel characters to the screen with a talented ensemble cast and surprisingly sharp narrative focus.
What I said: A very sharp film that had me hooked from the first trailer.
Many people are shocked that again X-Men stands on top of the movie rankings, but I am not own of those. It is important to remember that the formula doesn't just look at 4 items and determines an average but 22 items with a few giving varying weights. This year I changed how my formula worked to lessen audience passion and X-Men still comes out on top, primarily because how passionate its supporters are in comparison to the other Marvel Films. You would need to remove passion as any kind of multiplier in the formula to drop this movie down. In simple terms if you like this film, you really like this film.
Another point that I want to bring up about X-Men is how well this movie has stood the test of time. I would add it isn't just X-Men but a goodly number of films from 2000 look better today than say films of 1999 or 2001, there must have been something in the water that year.
New movie coming out, so the obvious question asked amongst the faithful becomes rank the past movies. The problem of course with the question is you are asking about personal taste without providing guidance as to the criteria.
What if you include box office, or meta critics or ...
So here is my personal list.
1) X-Men 2) X-Men: X-Men United (X2) 3) The Wolverine 4) X-Men: Last Stand (X3) 5) X-Men: First Class 6) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
So now the question becomes how did I get to that point.
In my opinion X-Men when it was released in 2000 changed how Superhero movies are made, told, shown, pick you word. The consequential changes in the budgets, the style, and vision has affected virtually all big budget superhero movies since that point. It is important to remember the previous big-budget Superhero movie was Batman & Robin which attempted to kill off Superhero movies as a viable Genre. With that in mind this is why I give X-Men the top spot.
X-Men: X-Men United aka X2, X-Men 2 or whatever you want to call it IS a better movie than the Original but it did less to change how movies were made which why the original gets moved up a notch. X2 has a solid single primary story arc and virtually every other supporting character has there own individual story arc. It's a great story filling all the parts. There are leaps and bounds in special effects, the sets are outstanding. Bryan Singer expands upon the universe and like only he can gives great, no outstanding, fight scenes.
The Wolverine is the best individual story of the series, it takes a familiar story from the comics and adds in new modern twists. The movie obliviously lacks some of the secondary story lines of the supporting characters over say X2, and did little to introduce us to potential long term characters, in simple terms the movie is too much of stand alone, with today's linked Marvel Universe that's not good enough. Budgetary constraints, unfinished CGI and other minor problems become very apparent as you watch the movie. Some of the 3-D scenes don't translate to 2-D very well and the fight scenes lacked ummm a finishing touch, you know the superhero pizzazz that Bryan Singer would have used. The immersion unfortunately fails in several scenes do to the little things that stand out. As much as I liked this movie it is too bad it didn't do better in terms of ticket sales in the theater.
X-Men: Last Stand is not a very good movie, but it does to this day have the highest box office take of any of the six movies. At 1 hour and 27 minutes the movie is a good 20 minutes and maybe as much as 120 minutes too short for the storylines attempting to be told in the film by Ratner and his team. The effects aren't too bad, the score is outstanding and the cinematography is probably the best of the movies, just can't overcome the problems in the script. On a side note the Dark Phoenix storyline is one of my favorite story lines out of the comics that I show a little Bias in favor of it over X-Men: First Class.
X-Men: First Class is a movie the younger you the more you seem to like the movie, it us old fogies that have problems with it. There are just too many silly story line issues in the film, and not the changes from the Comics but inconsistencies in the film. Too many liberties are taken with History and you don't disbelieve something the immersion fails. I want to add that if you as an audience hold story line against X-Men: Last Stand you have to hold that against X-Men: First Class as well. First Class is stuck in movie hell, it's either 15 to 25 minutes too long or 15 to 25 minutes too short. The story they told should have been either condensed or added to to fill it out.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a failure on soo many levels it a shame you have to include it in the discussion. I will say X-Men Origins did have the bestest Trailer, too bad the movie doesn't even come close.
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