Top Five ways X-men: First class can be awesome

Friday afternoon I’ll be checking out First Class and the word on the street is that it is fucking amazing. I’m excited, but skeptical.

I’ve been quite critical of all the X-men movies in the past. There has been only one “good” movie and the was X-men 2. My brother, and most other fans of the comics and cartoons, claim that the second movie is “as perfect as an X-men movie can get”. Bullshit.

The reason everyone says the second one is perfect is because no one has really seen what a perfect X-men movie looks like. Spiderman 2 is a great movie, there is no doubting that, but I still think a great true “super hero” comic book movie is still to be seen. The Hellboy movies are really good and for some reason I don’t think Dark Knight counts as a comic book movie – it is a masterpiece crime drama from Christopher Nolan’s mind more than a super hero movie.

1.  The movie needs to have logical battles, not just epic battles:

An image that always sticks in my head – because I got into X-men through the cartoon and then went backwards went into the comics – is this :

There isn’t much to say about this point beside that making the “X-men 3 has epic battles” excuse doesn’t apply. Most of those mutants were garbage and the characters weren’t established and the battle was totally unorganized. This was due to about a dozen different reasons that I’m not willing to go into here. But the battles must be organized, mutant powers must be addressed, and the “individual dramas”, Magneto vs. Xavier for example, must be logically organized. This isn’t Normandy in Saving Private Ryan, it is organized, logical battles between mutants and occasionally humans.

2.The powers need to be used correctly and for narrative interest:

An audience member should never be able to figure out a way a mutant can used her/his powers to get out of a situation and the characters cannot. Only excluding context such as the character is inexperience or injured.

X-men comics and the cartoon approaches this issue perfectly, but so many comic book movies fall down is there area. The best example I can think of (not in the comics, because it is too easy to just post a series clip) of their powers being used perfectly in a thoughtful, accruate way is :

Around 4 minutes + is what I’m referring to here. Watch how each characters’ power is thought out and used individually to some success and failure. Again, each power is tested or at least referred to in some capactiy. They eventually work as a team and use each one of their powers to take down their target, Juggernaut

3.  The movie needs to sidestep the “Origin Problem”:

I don’t think I really have to explain this one, but I’ll try my best, as fast as possible. Origin stories are boring and redundant and “reboots’, as Hollywood loves to call them, always end up being fucking boring. Enough said. They need to get to the point and do it fast.

4. Magneto needs to be the great villain he always has been:

Ian Mckellen was a disastrous choice for Magneto. Disastrous. It was one of the most bizzare, poor, and nonsensical casting choices of all time in a super hero flick.

Magneto was recently named number 1 comic villain of all time by IGN.  This is not a mistake. Magneto really is that great.

Fassbender is a very good choice for the young Magneto and, if they play his physicality right in the later films, will work great in future entries. All of this is pending on how well his ruthlessness comes off – his physicality and powers have to be intimidating.

5. The women need to be strong and sexy – not just vunerable:

A huge part of the comics and cartoons was how sexy the female characters were and none of the X-men movies have ever properly addressed this. The women should not be victims or in some way inferior. This is not because of some feminist agenda, but because that just isn’t how the X-men comics ever worked. Some of the most poweful mutants in the X-men comics were females. Just look at all the female mutants from the first three movies: They’re all garbage and ancillary. Granted, Jean Gray takes on tremendnous power, but nonetheless is a victim.

-Collin