X-Men '97 (2024) Trailer - Review

In the age where studios are remaking 70s/80s movie franchises (that do not need one), here comes some delightful news: the critically acclaimed fan favorite series featuring our favorite mutants is getting its share of the spotlight. Instead of getting remade, the series is being continued with several of the voice actors returning. Marvel Studios already indicated this in the brief Illuminati scene in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

 

I enjoyed the original X-Men: The Animated series for the excellent voice work, characterizations and specifically for portraying Cykes as the leader of the X-Men. This was before Bryan Singer (with adequate support from Hugh Jackman) positioned Wolverine as the most important X-Men figure.

 

Check out the trailer below:

Cykes is front and center in the series, if the trailer is a fair representation. Yes, Wolverine still gets his one liners and brandish his claws menacingly. Still refreshing to see the true leader finally retaining his top spot.

Scott Summers is one of my favorite X-Men - a great leader and inspiring figure. The series is set to further his story line with Jean Grey, who is pregnant (with presumably Rachel Summers). I expect Mr Sinister to make his appearance shortly.

Some of my other favorites also appear - Storm, Rogue and the Master of Magnetism himself. The returning voice actors include Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), Cal Dodd (Wolverine), and Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler).

Magneto and Cykes get new voice actors (Matthew Waterson and Ray Chase respectively). I loved the performances of both Norm Spencer and David Hemblen. Both brought such gravitas to their performances.

I got the same chills after hearing Cykes' line: “To me, my X-Men”. And Magneto's appearance at the end was the icing on the cake.

 

As expected, they are retaining the original style of the animated series. Already, we have got a preview of the Sentinels. We also get a quick look at Daily Bugle headline: “Is Spiderman a mutant?”. This is a reference to the crossover episodes on another classic Marvel animation show Spiderman: The Animated Series: “Chapter IV: The Mutant Agenda” and “Chapter V: Mutants' Revenge”.

 

The only thing about the trailer that struck me as odd is Magneto's face. He looks almost cartoonishly evil. Hopefully, his character will be as fleshed out as the classic series did.

The series premeries on Disney+ streaming service on Mar 20 2024.

Fingers crossed that this will be even better than the original series.

 

Image Sources: Disney+, Marvel Animation

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Dark Phoenix Trailer - Review and Reaction

We got the second trailer for the long awaited and supposedly the closing chapter to the Fox's long-running X-Men franchise. As readers know, Disney bought Fox and the merry mutants are now part of the Marvel group under the supervision of Kevin Feige.

Dark Phoenix is directed by Simon Kinberg, the producer and writer of some of the X-Men movies. Joining the established cast (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee) is Jessica Chastain as Smith.

Check out the trailer below:

The trailer is better than the teaser trailer that debuted a few months ago. The movie still looks a bit underwhelming, but I still enjoyed at least two scenes in the trailer: The first in which Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix is trying to crush Magneto's head using his helmet and the second in which Eric uses his mutant powers on the machine guns for an all out assault on the titular character.

Yes, I am a big fan of Michael Fassbender's Magneto and his performance continues to be the highlight of the series. Despite the fact that he does not look as invested in the role as in the previous movies (especially X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of the Future Past), still he manages to own the screen as the Master of Magnetism.

As for the rest of the trailer, the movie seems to suffer in production values. Looks like Fox was not sure about the movie and made severe budget cuts. The results are obvious and the movie often gives off the vibes of being staged and executed like a TV show. Further, Simon Kinberg is making his directorial debut and may not have the experience to pull off a comic book based  movie which is not only epic but whose main character literally wields cosmic powers.

Among the actors, only Jessica Chastain looks to be having fun. Most of the other cast members either look too serious or seem to be phoning it in. Even the always reliable James McAvoy seems to be on autopilot mode.

Here is what I made of the plot: Jean Grey is manifesting her Dark Phoenix personality and Smith is mentoring/manipulating her. When the X-Men try to reason with her, she (mistakenly) kills Mystique. This would explain the cemetery scene with Beast (who goes on to join Magneto's team), Quicksilver having a go at the Dark Phoenix and most importantly, Magneto forming his new Brotherhood of Mutants to take down the woman, who is responsible for Mystique's death. As can be expected, Prof X tries to stop the baddies from harming his beloved student and has Cyclops and other fellow minded folks to help him on his mission.

Speaking of Mystique, I am glad that the movie (hopefully) does away with her. I have nothing against the character per se, but am not a big fan of the way in which Fox made her the lead character just because of the actress who played the role. Mystique is a great character and I genuinely loved Rebecca Romijn as the blue skinned shape shifting mutant in the original trilogy. I especially loved how they portrayed Mystique: as an integral part of Magneto's team and her animosity towards Prof X and his X-Men.

Click on the link below to buy X-Men: Apocalypse:

Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique neither has the necessary physique to pull off the character nor does her character arc is loyal to the comics. Since the last movie, Jennifer Lawrence has been in full Katniss Everdeen mode spouting motivational speeches like: “Let's go to war”, “You are not students any more. You are X-Men!”. It is just pure nonsense on the part of the studios to have her train the X-Men (Scott Summers/Cyclops is always the leader of the X-Men in my humble opinion) and she should definitely not be the moral compass/role model that Storm (yes the great weather controlling Ororo Munroe herself) should look up to for inspiration. I mean what would Black Panther say to that?

So hopefully this movie would get rid of this monstrosity and cleanse our palate. Simon Kinberg may not be Bryan Singer, but if he kills off this version of Mystique, he earns brownie points.

Plus give me a few great action sequences of Magneto vs Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix and I am sold on this movie. Fingers crossed that Simon Kinberg and his crew/actors can pull of a miracle and give a proper send off to what has been (for the most part) a great and enjoyable movie franchise. Kind of what Logan did for Wolverine.

Click here to read all my posts related to Marvel Comics.

Image Sources: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Bad Hat Harry Productions, Donners' Company, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment

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X-Men: Apocalypse Trailer # 2 - Review and Reaction

The second trailer for the X-Men: Apocalypse is here.

After helming X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer returns to the director's chair. In addition to the  regulars (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult), we have a few newcomers: Oscar Isaac as the titular antagonist En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse, Tye Sheridan as  Scott Summers/Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe/Storm, Ben Hardy as Warren Worthington III/Angel, Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee, Olivia Munn as Betsy Braddock/Psylocke, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler and Tómas Lemarquis as Caliban.

Check out the trailer below:

The trailer seems to take a leaf out of the recent trailers/TV spots for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is very action packed. The special effects in this movie definitely look better than what we have been seeing in the Zack Snyder directed one.

Unfortunately, the comparisons do not end there. Just as the trailers have been mostly soulless and joyless, this trailer also gives off similar vibes. Plus, it does not help that Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique is given way too much screen-time.

This obviously comes at the expense of other more important characters like Prof X and Magneto. The only one to survive the Jennifer Lawrence onslaught and come out relatively unscathed is Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse.

Click on the link below to buy the movie:

The trailer starts off with Erik and Charles repeating a famous exchange between Ian McKellen's Magneto and Patrick Stewart's Prof X in the chess scene in the climax of the 1999 X-Men movie.

The focus then shifts to Apocalypse. We briefly see his origins and cut to the present where he is recruiting his four horsemen: Storm, Magneto, Archangel and Psylocke. These scenes are adequate.

The trailer goes downhill from here as the YA theme kicks in with the song and Jennifer Lawrence in full Katniss Everdeen mode spouting motivational speeches like: “Let's go to war”, “You are not students any more. You are X-Men!”

The action scenes look adequate, but somehow the trailer failed to capture my imagination. The movie looks to have been made by a committee that has provided a checklist to be followed: A movie with YA credentials (to capitalize on the Twilight, Hunger Games, The Divergent series fans). This is obvious in the way presenting Jennifer Lawrence in full-on Katniss Everdeen avatar and a cast full of young faces.




All this has been achieved at the cost of delivering a proper X-Men movie. When stalwart characters like Charles Xavier and Magneto are given a couple of token lines (at the beginning) only to give way to a Mystique who leads the X-Men now, it is clear that the studio's priorities lie elsewhere: making profits at the expense of making an actual X-Men movie.

Bryan Singer has been a reliable director on his X-Men movies and other ones like The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie. His X-Men movies are my favorites in the comic book movie genre, right along with Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, Sam Raimi's Spiderman Trilogy and Richard Donner's Superman.

As a fan of most of the X-Men movies, I hope this one too will be good. But my instincts indicate otherwise. Looks like Bryan Singer has bent to the studio system and has delivered a mass product rather than one borne out of his passion and imagination.

Hopefully, one of my favorite mutants shown above would at least get some money shots showcasing his awesome powers, if not proper character development. Cyclops is the best!

Click here to read all my posts related to Marvel Comics.

Image Sources: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment, Bad Hat Harry Productions, Donners' Company, Mel's Cite du Cinema

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X-Men: Apocalypse Trailer - Review and Recap

The first trailer for the upcoming X-Men movie is here. And it looks promising.

After helming X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer returns to the director's chair. As is typical of a X-Men film, this one has a large ensemble cast. Joining the regulars (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult) are newcomers: Oscar Isaac as the titular antagonist En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse, Tye Sheridan as  Scott Summers/Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe/Storm, Ben Hardy as Warren Worthington III/Angel, Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee, Olivia Munn as Betsy Braddock/Psylocke, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler and Tómas Lemarquis as Caliban.

Check out the trailer below:

The trailer manages to get one's attention without giving too much of the plot (or) crucial plot/character developments away.

Here is a synopsis of the trailer: Jean Grey is having visions of mass destruction across the globe. She is not comforted by Charles Xavier's assertions that her premonitions are just dreams and will not come to fruition. Moira informs Xavier about a mutant who could quite possibly be the very first one to walk the Earth.

Unfortunately, Jean was right in her thoughts and Apocalypse is here. He has a definite purpose in mind: to destroy the world and create a better one in its place. To this end, he recruits Magneto, Storm, Angel and Psylocke to be his four horsemen. Nice touch there with Moira contending that the Bible took this idea from the mutant himself and not the other way around as Havoc thinks.

We get a look at some of the destruction caused by Apocalypse and his horsemen as the X-Men struggle to prevail over such an powerful enemy. The trailer concludes with James McAvoy's Charles Xavier getting his full bald look. McAvoy makes a fantastic Xavier and I prefer his version over Patrick Stewart's. This decision by Bryan Singer wins brownie points for the trailer right away.

If there was one mutant who gets a bit shortchanged, that would be Michael Fassbender's Magneto. He has no dialogues at all (kind of like Henry Cavill's Superman in the Comic Con trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).

On the other hand, if there was a mutant who gets too much attention, that would be Jennifer Lawrence's Raven (not Mystique). The significant aspect is that Lawrence does not have the blue body-paint at any point throughout the trailer. I guess the studio and producers want to capitalize on having Lawrence in the movie rather than the fact that she is playing Mystique. Even the first shot featuring her with others deliberately reminds one of her character Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

The trailer also gives us a look at the new and a younger X-Men team consisting of Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler suited up for action. As a fan of Cykes, I enjoyed the brief but powerful scene of Scott Summers going full optic blast against an unseen opponent/obstacle.

Finally, we come to Apocalypse himself. He looks and sounds very much like what a God-like mutant would do. There were complaints about the character being not big enough in the promotional images so far. Bryan Singer seems to have paid attention and we get a beautiful shot of just how big En Sabah Nur can get if needed. His motto is: “Only the Strong will survive”.




Apocalypse is the main antagonist to X-Men just as how Darkseid is to the Justice League or Doomsday is to Superman. Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder seem to be either clueless or just plain lazy with regards to Doomsday as the recent trailer suggests. Bryan Singer shows us how to pull off such an important super-villain in the right way. Live and Learn, Warner Bros.

Other points of interest: More Quicksilver, which is a good thing.

Bryan Singer's X-Men released in 2000 started the current Hollywood craze for Superhero genre. It is also the longest running Superhero movie franchise. Despite a few hiccups here and there (mainly X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the series has produced some of the best movies in the genre.

Credit to Bryan Singer who has been the driving force behind these movies. He has been instrumental in making the casting choices that have made these movies so great - From the great Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Hugh Jackman and James Marsden to the current crop of actors including James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Evan Peters. Hoping that he would have the same luck with the new set of actors cast as the younger versions of mutants.

The X-Men movies also enjoy a good blend of humor and pathos, like Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie and Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. Unlike both the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies that tend to be too jokey or the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movies that are too serious for their own good.

In Bryan Singer, we trust.

Click here to read all my posts related to Marvel Comics.

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Image Sources: Wikipedia, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment, Bad Hat Harry Productions, Donners' Company, Mel's Cite du Cinema

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