Days of Future Past Are you tired of Wolverine being overexposed?
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TeeKay
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Been reading the last couple pages. I'll just paste what I said in another thread. Am I tired of Wolverine? I'm more tired of Wolverine being the centre of the X-men films than I am of his character. I don't mind Wolverine getting his solo flicks, that's all well and good but the problem is after his has starred in his own flicks, he comes into the ensemble X-Men films and the movie centres around him again. The Iron Man comparisons are a bit ridiculous (I don't mean any disrespect there).
The problem with comparing Wolverine and Iron Man is that the data destroys the argument before it even begins. Iron Man was the first character to appear in a cinematic universe which was building up to a crossover. 2 of his movies came out before the Avengers, therefore we weren't introduced to his character through the movie. In fact, all the characters in that movie, other than Hawkewye are fleshed out and well introduced before we even see them in Avengers. So while RDJ (And the Hulk) obviously steals the whole movie, no one gets UNDERDEVELOPED or UNDERUSED, other than Hawkeye, and to a minor extent Thor. The thing about it is, even though Thor was underused, he already has another movie in a little over a year, not to mention the fact that the villian in The Avengers is personal for Thor. Thor gets the most one on one fights of anyone, and he is obviously the strongest (even puts the smackdown on Iron Man, it'd foolish to say he wasn't gonna kill him eventually). The movie doesn't revolve Iron Man except his own films.
Now when you juxtapose that with the X men franchise, it isn't even close. We are introduced to literally 90% of the characters through Wolverine in the first movie. There is next to no serious dynamic between any of the characters that doesn't involve Wolverine, and all significant dialogue is centered around Wolverine, other than the speeches by Magneto and Xavier. We're even led to believe that Wolverine is the main plot point, but even after that bait and switch, Wolverine STILL gets TWO one on one fights (he pretty much gets the only fights in the whole movie) but he then is the one to almost single handedly save the day (No one else could've done it...Oh wait, Jean should've been able to do the whole thing...whatever). This dynamic changes in X2, where Wolverine becomes the driving force of the whole movie, but other characters are 'partially' more fleshed out. I say partially because storms speech to Nightcrawler, and Bobby's situation with his parents are great moments, but really Bobby and Nightcrawler are the only ones who have anything particularly significant to say in these movies. That's not to say that no one has anything to do, it's just that it's insignificant to the 'Wolverine Show'.Every X-Men film evolves around him except First Class. Infact, X-Men: DOFP is pretty much 'Wolverine and his Friends AGAIN.' Btw, it's my most anticipated CBM coming out this year despite my disdain of Wolverine being the centre of the X-Men films.
So when you STOP and think about it, while Wolverine and Iron Man are both featured more prominently than any of their cast mates, Iron Man's usage doesn't actually turn his supporting castmates into plot point placeholders and cardboard cutouts of actual characters. Iron Man shines the brightest, but he never blocks out the sun to the point that you don't even notice other people are relevant to the movie. I adore X-2 and FC more than the Avengers, but imo, the Avengers handled the group dynamic more. Something that's soley lacking from the X-men films. Just my two cents.
The problem with comparing Wolverine and Iron Man is that the data destroys the argument before it even begins. Iron Man was the first character to appear in a cinematic universe which was building up to a crossover. 2 of his movies came out before the Avengers, therefore we weren't introduced to his character through the movie. In fact, all the characters in that movie, other than Hawkewye are fleshed out and well introduced before we even see them in Avengers. So while RDJ (And the Hulk) obviously steals the whole movie, no one gets UNDERDEVELOPED or UNDERUSED, other than Hawkeye, and to a minor extent Thor. The thing about it is, even though Thor was underused, he already has another movie in a little over a year, not to mention the fact that the villian in The Avengers is personal for Thor. Thor gets the most one on one fights of anyone, and he is obviously the strongest (even puts the smackdown on Iron Man, it'd foolish to say he wasn't gonna kill him eventually). The movie doesn't revolve Iron Man except his own films.
Now when you juxtapose that with the X men franchise, it isn't even close. We are introduced to literally 90% of the characters through Wolverine in the first movie. There is next to no serious dynamic between any of the characters that doesn't involve Wolverine, and all significant dialogue is centered around Wolverine, other than the speeches by Magneto and Xavier. We're even led to believe that Wolverine is the main plot point, but even after that bait and switch, Wolverine STILL gets TWO one on one fights (he pretty much gets the only fights in the whole movie) but he then is the one to almost single handedly save the day (No one else could've done it...Oh wait, Jean should've been able to do the whole thing...whatever). This dynamic changes in X2, where Wolverine becomes the driving force of the whole movie, but other characters are 'partially' more fleshed out. I say partially because storms speech to Nightcrawler, and Bobby's situation with his parents are great moments, but really Bobby and Nightcrawler are the only ones who have anything particularly significant to say in these movies. That's not to say that no one has anything to do, it's just that it's insignificant to the 'Wolverine Show'.Every X-Men film evolves around him except First Class. Infact, X-Men: DOFP is pretty much 'Wolverine and his Friends AGAIN.' Btw, it's my most anticipated CBM coming out this year despite my disdain of Wolverine being the centre of the X-Men films.
So when you STOP and think about it, while Wolverine and Iron Man are both featured more prominently than any of their cast mates, Iron Man's usage doesn't actually turn his supporting castmates into plot point placeholders and cardboard cutouts of actual characters. Iron Man shines the brightest, but he never blocks out the sun to the point that you don't even notice other people are relevant to the movie. I adore X-2 and FC more than the Avengers, but imo, the Avengers handled the group dynamic more. Something that's soley lacking from the X-men films. Just my two cents.
Reading through this thread I find alot of the nitpicks and criticisms fans aim at comic book movie franchises (well certain ones anyway) are ones that were birthed from the source material.
No matter how interesting or compelling a majority of the X Men characters are the cold hard fact is that Wolverine was THE face of the X Universe for 2 decades before the first film came out and for a studio aiming for the widest audience possible combined with a director who found his way to that world through an animated series and not the comic books it's no surprise, as Zak Penn stated, that from day 1 the creative decision was taken to make him the forefront of these films. The comics had and have done their best to make all those heroes equal and yet Wolvie remained, and still remains, the only X character to have held his own title steadily. Fans in their droves back in the 80s weren't clamouring for a Storm or Cyclops book (no matter what some of you might say) but they sure as heck wanted more Wolverine.
A character who was introduced in a team book then 12 years into it's run (more or less) and yet became so popular that there are people, as kids pre-movie, who may have first been introduced to him independent of the X-Men comics. THE AVENGERS is handled better largely because of Joss Whedon's fandom (there was going to be no female presence on the team until he objected for example) and the convenient fact that some of the other characters have had solo movies . The quality of the picture, or lack of it if the movie turns out to be a dud or dissapointing, doesn't rest on your favourite characters being exposed more also.
Even with THE AVENGERS consider the character who stole the show from Stark....The Hulk, who along with Spider Man, was at one time, and for people of a certain age, still is their most iconic hero who with 2 movies, a live action tv series that led to three standalone tv movies nearly a decade after it wrapped and numerous animated shows and animated movies is the definition of overexposed.
No matter how interesting or compelling a majority of the X Men characters are the cold hard fact is that Wolverine was THE face of the X Universe for 2 decades before the first film came out and for a studio aiming for the widest audience possible combined with a director who found his way to that world through an animated series and not the comic books it's no surprise, as Zak Penn stated, that from day 1 the creative decision was taken to make him the forefront of these films. The comics had and have done their best to make all those heroes equal and yet Wolvie remained, and still remains, the only X character to have held his own title steadily. Fans in their droves back in the 80s weren't clamouring for a Storm or Cyclops book (no matter what some of you might say) but they sure as heck wanted more Wolverine.
A character who was introduced in a team book then 12 years into it's run (more or less) and yet became so popular that there are people, as kids pre-movie, who may have first been introduced to him independent of the X-Men comics. THE AVENGERS is handled better largely because of Joss Whedon's fandom (there was going to be no female presence on the team until he objected for example) and the convenient fact that some of the other characters have had solo movies . The quality of the picture, or lack of it if the movie turns out to be a dud or dissapointing, doesn't rest on your favourite characters being exposed more also.
Even with THE AVENGERS consider the character who stole the show from Stark....The Hulk, who along with Spider Man, was at one time, and for people of a certain age, still is their most iconic hero who with 2 movies, a live action tv series that led to three standalone tv movies nearly a decade after it wrapped and numerous animated shows and animated movies is the definition of overexposed.
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I feel like leaving him out for the team movies will the make X-Men movies incomplete in a way.
ShadowBoxer
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It's getting to the point where Wolverine should take a side seat to other characters in future X men movies. Meaning he should only be around during action scenes and maybe during some story moments but there shouldn't be much time with him. Characters like Cyclops ( if he ever comes back) gets more story development instead. Wolverine and Rouge were the main focus in X1, X2 again Wolverine had the most screen time dealing with him and Stryker. Then he was once again a leader with storm in X3. Then he got two solo movies....
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