X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

[The Joker]

So the trajectory of Mystique's character is most likely influenced by Lawrence's rise to fame from 2011 onwards. I think First Class was able to sign her on before she became an Academy award nominated actress.

Makes sense, and was readily apparent following First Class. Lawrence's star was most definitely on the rise at this stage in her career, so why wouldn't Fox at least exploit that star power to their benefit? As a result, her role in future sequels was expanded upon to give her more screentime.

That's one thing that glaringly differentiates Rebecca Romijn's Mystique, with Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique. The former was a key player in the original trilogy, sure, but not necessarily one of the character's that was really zeroed in upon with any of those three films. Where the latter enjoyed a rather expanded upon character arc to where not only did her allegiance's change back and forth due to personal experiences and her own perception's changing, but also diving into a much more deeper relationship with Xavier AND Magneto (and you can add Beast in there as well). Having close ties to several characters, rather than the devoted loyalist to solely Magneto that was presented for the overwhelming majority of X1-X3.

But as what's been stated before in this thread, Jennifer became a star, and that's show business.

[Gotham Knight]

Dark Phoenix is bad. I really tried with this one, but the problem is Simon Kinberg. First and foremost, he is not a director. There is a strange emotional disconnect throughout the film that hovers over most of the actors (Fassbender excluded) that ranges from confusion to apathy. It affects how the movie flows because you don't get any real punctuation to pivot you to the next scene. It's a kind of strange monotony that can only be the fault of the one yelling action. 

The other issue with Kinberg is that he seemed to forget X-Men: Days of Future Past and what it set out to resolve. This is bizarre considering that he was the scribe on that movie. Though I think the explanation could be as simple as he was also the scribe of (and was defending the honor of) The Last Stand, which DOFP pointedly spends its runtime seeking to avert because it takes the issue of it being a crappy movie on as an in continuity issue. It's not a bad movie, it's a bad timeline, where our characters made bad decisions. It's just a twist of figuring out who it was exactly that messed up. You think it was Mystique, but actually it's Charles and suddenly you realize that the movie has set it's sights not just on helping Chuckles but also holding him accountable for the bull crap he pulled on Jean Grey that set X3 in motion. Brilliant! And you realize that this has been in play all along. Charles is a POS in First Class. He's a high falutin, pretentious know it all, whose actions actually cause some of the harm in that movie. Remember where he 'outs' closeted Henry McCoy? What an ass! He's way too forward with his interventions and doesn't leave enough to choice. DOFP says, alright, in order to save the future, Charles learns that lesson now in the 70s and done! It's resolved.

In that resolution lay Dark Phoenix's death knell. We have a situation where Kinberg has decided, in essence, to just do X3 again! So he remakes the movie and has this idea that Magneto and Charles switch places. On Magneto's end it sells pretty good and kinda props up some of the movie because Mags has been flowing in this direction naturally. Charles is just making all of the same mistakes again, it makes one wonder what the hell DOFP was all for. We did all that just to play out the same stupid story that didn't really work last time and while we're at it James McAvoy looks bored, tired, and seems most of the time to have lost contact with the character.

[Kamdan]

I think First Class was able to sign her on before she became an Academy award nominated actress.

Lawrence got cast because of her Oscar nomination for Winter's Bone. It's all part of the latest trend of comic book movies following the Superman casting model. That's the only reason we've seen the likes of Mickey Rourke and even Michael Keaton appear in them.

[thecolorsblend]

Is this becoming an all-purpose X-Men movie thread?

Watched The New Mutants the other night. I put off watching it because the reviews were such an acid bath. But I must say, I rly enjoyed it. I don't see what's supposed to be so terrible about it. People who know more about New Mutants comics than I do assure me that a lot of stuff was practically ripped out of the comics and used directly in the movie. No idea if that's true. All I know is I think the movie is incredibly underrated.

The New Mutants film is not X2, let's be clear on that. But it's also not even close to being Origins: Wolverine either.

[The Joker]

Is this becoming an all-purpose X-Men movie thread?

Works for me.

Just for fun.

FLASHBACK 1998. Wizard Magazine casts X-Men.

[The Joker]

FLASHBACK 1997. Wizard casts "Generation X" movie




I remember a little bit of the tv movie "Generation X" that aired on FOX just a year (1996) prior to Wizard publishing this fan casting, but ultimately felt it was rather unremarkable. The Konami X-Men arcade made a brief appearance though, and that was the highlight for me. 

[thecolorsblend]

That's a pretty good cast when you think about it. By 1997, Wizard's fancasting wasn't for laughs anymore. A Generation X movie with that cast could've been pretty awesome. I watched a lot of Party Of Five back then and since Lacey Chabert and I are pretty close to the same age, obviously I had a major crush on her. So, she would've been a selling point for a Generation X movie all by herself for me.

[Edd Grayson]

Here's how I'd rank the X-Men films. Not counting Deadpool movies. Haven't seen The New Mutants and Logan yet.

1. X-Men: First Class
2. X-Men: The Last Stand
3. X2: X-Men United
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past
5. X-Men (2000)
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
7. Dark Phoenix
8. X-Men: Apocalypse
9. The Wolverine

[thecolorsblend]

Haven't seen The New Mutants

It's worth it. Very different from the standard superhero film.

6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
...
9. The Wolverine

I'm... not sure I understand this ranking.

[Edd Grayson]

The Wolverine was not a very good film to me at all.

Origins: Wolverine, while not great, was better.

Thanks for your recommendation.