From Comic to TV Cartoon to Big Screen - X-Men: First Class - Review

Normally this is Hollywood's thought and we get more and more diluted sequels until taking dip. Either that or go for the now trendy "Reboot" starring a young, hip cast of up and coming early twenties prettyboys and prettygirls.

They decided, this time to go with the reboot. However, with a twist. Instead of churning out some soulless cash in they decided to make a proper movie, hiring Mathew Vaughan, the director of the excellent Layer Cake and recent critically acclaimed Kick-Ass. A bold choice, as these were serious and adult movies. Not exactly the person you would expect Hollywood to give the reigns of one of their summer tentpole blockbusters. Vaughn then wrote the story with Jane Goldman and Bryan Singer.

They then decided to fill the cast with hot young actors who can actually act! James McAvoy one of the hottest actors in Hollywood after his turns in Atonement, Wanted and The Last King Of Scotland played a young Charles Xavier while the equally hot Irish/German actor Michael Fassbender, fresh from stealing the show in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and taking on the challenging role of hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger. (Even if he was in Jonah Hex. We won't hold that against him). Kevin Bacon played the bad guy (Which should help in your next round of "Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon"). Rose Byrne and January Jones and others filled out the younger roles ably.

The story was articulate: Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis it charts the creation of the X-men and Michael Fassbender journey from Nazi concentration camps to his eventual Magneto persona. As a result, Fassbender gets the meatiest role. His character arc is, by far, the most interesting. We see the torture of his youth in concentration camps and his relentless pursuit of revenge afterwards. He is always a charismatic and sympathetic character. Who doesn't want to see Nazis get their just deserts?

He is also the character most at ease with his powers, encouraging his fellow mutants to embrace their differences rather than hide them. If there is one flaw in his performance, it is his accent. For some reason, as the film goes on, his Irish accent becomes more and more apparent. While he never sounds like Jackie Healy Rae (Fassbender's father is from Germany but he was raised in his mother's home of Kerry) by the end of the movie his accent is pretty obvious. At least it is for an Irish audience. It probably isn't so apparent for others.

The action is slow to start as the film really is about the creation of the X-men so we see the introduction of various characters familiar and unfamiliar to viewers of the movies (All will be familiar to the comic readers of course) but once the action starts it comes thick and fast: flying submarines, nuclear missiles, and mutants aplenty.

All in all Fist class is a surprisingly mature comic book to TV to big screen film with a decent cast and director and story. I'm looking forward to checking out the sequel. Oh, and it has the best cameo EVER and it's not even the ubiquitous Stan Lee!

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Are Comic Book Movies Dying Instead of Thriving?

June has marked the release of one of the year's most critically panned movie. No I'm not talking about the mediocre movie The Hangover Part II. I'm not talking about the brilliant X-Men: First Class. As much as it pains me to say it, Martin Campbell's Green Lantern may become the worst disaster for comic book movies since the likes of The Fantastic 4 hit cinemas. And it was all going so well this year...

As I've mentioned before about the likes of Thor and X-Men: First Class, comic book movies have needed to drastically improve in order to survive at the box office. Throwing a special effects extravaganza at audiences just doesn't cut it anymore. Movies need to develop interesting characters, and generate a good story before worrying about spectacular special effects. That's where comic book movies are struggling. With so much choice now for comic book movies, the films can't afford to be lazy. Thor told a great father-son story, First Class added some historical gravitas to a superhero story whilst Green Lantern fails on just about every level...

Terrible plot holes, bad pacing, boring characters (unlike the comic book versions) and a bland story keeps Green Lantern's feet firmly on the ground. It's also an example of how a generic 'popcorn' superhero movie just doesn't cut it with critics and fans alike. If Green Lantern bombs, DC will probably shy away from moving forward with projects such as The Flash and Wonder Woman. This could cause serious ramifications for comic book movies because; Marvel's on screen catalogue of comic book characters will eventually run dry. With no alternative to go to, fans will inevitably get bored of Marvel throwing every B-List character under the sun at them. The same goes for DC's Batman and Superman franchises. They will eventually run dry and DC will have nothing left to offer.

That's what's most disappointing about the Green Lantern movie. There was so much riding on it, and despite having Green Lantern wiz Geoff Jones behind the scenes; the movie has killed off all momentum for DC. Yes they have The Dark Knight Rises coming next year, but considering that's up against Marvel's Avengers, don't expect it to reach the heights of The Dark Knight.

If the genre is dying, every upcoming comic book movie needs to be unique. The initial awesomeness of seeing Marvel's finest united on screen will undoubtedly hold off bad reviews, but other projects such as Spider-Man, Wolverine and Superman might not be so fortunate unless they give the characters and the story proper attention. It's time studios take these movies seriously. From the moment the initial GL trailer hit the net and viewers were treated to a classic Ryan Reynolds 'I KNOW RIGHT' scene, it was clear Warner Bros weren't treating GL seriously. And that's why the genre is struggling. It needs more X-Men: First Class, less Van Wilder in space.

2012 will be make or break for the comic book movie genre...

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I'm Thinking: Are Comic Book Movies Ruined by Actor Face-Time?

It seems a general trend in comic book movies that no matter who the character is, the actor portraying he or she needs a consistent amount of face- time. I began to dwell about this issue recently after watching the Spider-Man trilogy. It seemed Tobey Maguire would lose/remove his mask in almost every fight scene? Was Maguire's constant face time worth ruining the secret identity aspect to Spider-Man's character entirely? Surely someone would recognise Peter Parker in one of those moments from the films. I'm hoping Sony has learnt from this and we won't see Andrew Garfield loose his mask in every action scene. Though, based on his rising fame from his work on The Social Network, we probably will.

It's not just the Spider-Man franchise that has been plagued by actor face-time damaging the aspect of the characters. In 2003 audiences who saw Daredevil would have witnessed what has become a classic comic book movie cliche, where the superhero removes or looses his mask in the final battle. Though In Daredevil's case, Ben Affleck's need for face-time was just one of the many issues wrong with the film.

The X-Men franchise had one of the most popular comic book characters of all time stripped off his mask completely. Yes, I am talking about Wolverine. Sure it would have looked a bit daft to have Hugh Jackman running around in a mask, but on the other hand was the decision for him not to wear one really based on this? Or was it based on studios not wanting to cover one of their high profile actor's face? If done right, (Batman Begins style), Wolverine wearing a mask would have worked on screen. Especially since mutants would surely want to keep their identities a secret. Wearing masks would have portrayed that beautifully.

It doesn't seem like persistent face-time in comic book movies is going to slow down anytime soon. For anyone that has seen the Iron Man films would know Ol Shellhead rarely keeps his mask down in the films, despite the use of clever camera shots of RDJ inside the helmet. For me as soon as you see the hero remove his mask or helmet, the fights over. And in the Iron Man films, the fights were never long.

There's been a bit of fan-boy concern over how Chris Hemsworth is rarely seen wearing his helmet in the Thor movie. For a Norse God\warrior, wearing a helmet would seem like a daily essential. Especially since minor characters (Heimdall, royal guards) etc in the film seem to manage it. Whilst I haven't seen enough of Captain America: The First Avenger to judge, one can only hope Chris Evans doesn't lose his helmet as seeing as it's a World War 2 film, Captain America could easily be shot in the head.

This isn't a huge problem right now, but with the comic book movie industry thriving, it soon could be.

And don't even get me started on Ryan Reynolds and his mask in the Green Lantern.

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