Penn talks fan reaction

[CapBeerCino]

"Every time I go online and I read these people talking about 'X-Men 3.' I mean some of the vitriol I hear about that, which I think is just crazy and out of proportion to what they're watching. It makes it hard on me sometimes, because I'm the only one in the process who really goes online and reads all that *****.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=5506

 

[Crimson Warrior]

I understand being frustrated but as a writer, for high profile films for the matter, you have to be able to take criticism better than that. But he did have the guts to do it, and apparently he still faces it, so I will have to give him that.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I totally agree with senor Penn, the reaction to X3 is out of synch with the quality of the film. It's an average film.

 

[Spidey]

He has a chance to redeem himself with the Hulk. If that delivers in the same manner as another Batman Begins, the fans will treat him as though X-Men 3 never even happened.

 

[The Kid]

Ok, we'll stop bashing x3 but...

HOW ABOUT YOU DON'T MAKE A LAME MOVIE FIRST, GUY?

 

[Mike059jig]

LMAO.....its wonderful news that he knows about the complaints.......

The way the fans were mislead he should of seen this coming...but he should learn something from this....

 

[BobJM]

"Every time I go online and I read these people talking about 'X-Men 3.' I mean some of the vitriol I hear about that, which I think is just crazy and out of proportion to what they're watching. It makes it hard on me sometimes, because I'm the only one in the process who really goes online and reads all that *****.

Penn, always expect the worse. You put out some stuff that was, not necessarily bad but, not as good as the material that was given to fans in X1 and X2. This type of reaction should have been expected on your part.

 

[the a1ant]

Penn, deal (or avoid) the critics (professional, and fans alike) but don't call people's comments ****, publicly, cause it adds fuel to their fire. As a writer, there will always be critics blasting away, like with many other writers...especially those writing a comic book film.

He said he grew up as a comic book geek, so he shouldn't be too surprised at how vocal dedicated fans are, lol.

The script wasn't horrible, but not my favorite of the three. There was some bad dialogue, and bad choices (Wolverine taking over for Cyclops, with Cyke dying - Rogue cured) but I don't know if that was all Penn/ Kinberg's fault, or just the studio demands.

 

[flavio_lebeau]

I don't blame Penn that much. In all his answers in the x-verse, he was never/almost never misleading. He showed up after the movie, he had absolute no control over the creative process. He acknowledged that if he could, the third act would be entirely about Phoenix, he wrote the firebird. His blame, to me, relies only on the actual dialogue, which is subpar for the most part. X3 has the best scene of the trilogy and the moment that most screams "X-Men" to me, but it's still a bad written movie. Is it high above most super-hero movies? Nope, not high above, maybe on par with most, but it's down below X1 and X2.

But anyone who knows the fan community must know that 99% of the times people will complain, no matter how great your work is. It's just the nature of fans. No one pleases the crowd. Some people want to see the X-men in spandex, you can't help that. I mean, people complain about movies like Sin City, X2 and 300...although X3 is worthy of complain. Maybe not as much as what goes around here, but still...

 

[04nbod]

its not entirely his fault but i feel he should have been more vocal. As a 'fan' he should have known the contoversy caused by killing the first xman and the natural leader, by making wolverine the focus again and curing rogue. Either he should have told fox the score or left the project with his integrity.

 

[Obsidian]

Gotta give props to Penn for not lying to us as much as Simon Kinberg did. "Cyclops fans won't be disappointed"..and all that made me despise the man.

 

[Spidey]

Gotta give props to Penn for not lying to us as much as Simon Kinberg did. "Cyclops fans won't be disappointed"..and all that made me despise the man.

Turns out they weren't disappointed after all. More along the lines of homicidal.

 

[flavio_lebeau]

its not entirely his fault but i feel he should have been more vocal. As a 'fan' he should have known the contoversy caused by killing the first xman and the natural leader, by making wolverine the focus again and curing rogue. Either he should have told fox the score or left the project with his integrity.

he didn't know if Rogue would get cured or not. It was decided on the last minute by Ratner to have her cured. This fact makes the job of the writers even more...pitiful. They had no decision at all if Rogue would get cured, Cyclops would survive, etc.

 

[Neto Magnus]

oh boo hoo. The man gets paid thousands of dollars to write these movies. It's a dream come true for anyone. If he can't take comments from people on the internet then he shouldn't be a writer anymore.

 

[X-Maniac]

Well, of course, X3 promised us a huge amount - Beast, Angel, Danger Room, a more gutsy Storm, Magneto's war, Dark Phoenix. That's a helluva lot to deliver in one movie. Some things were bound to be less fully achieved than others.

By contrast, X1 and X2 never really promised us anything. Disappointment is less when the promises are less. X1 and X2 never promised anything epic, in fact the plot of X1 is totally made-up for the movie. X2 gave us Nightcrawler, a Phoenix subplot and a Deathstrike cameo. Neither of the first two movies said they'd give us anything epic, climactic or world-shattering.

In X3, I thought Beast was brilliantly done - we saw all the necessary elements of the character (all that was missing was him hunched over test-tubes in a lab... and that could have been done as part of his visit to the cure facility, but never mind...). Angel was also very well done, perhaps with too brief an arc for some. The Danger Room served several purposes but the execution of the sequence and the Sentinel didn't succeed entirely (It needed more going on in it, and more work done on it). Dark Phoenix and Magneto's war were fairly well done, but not perfect.

Bryan Singer did so much set-up in the previous movies, hinting at things like Magneto's war and Phoenix, that the third movie had an almost impossible amount to achieve and deliver. It was never going to be 100% successful with all the elements it included. I'm still glad we got to see Beast and Angel and new baddies like Juggernaut, Callisto, Arclight and Multiple Man. Phoenix was fine until the part between marching on Alcatraz and finally freaking out on the island - she did and said nothing in that time to indicate feelings, motivations, doubts, conflicts, turmoils.

I'm sure the pressure is great on writers who are adapting existing material with a devoted fanbase. You're never going to please everyone.

 

[Mike059jig]

Gotta give props to Penn for not lying to us as much as Simon Kinberg did. "Cyclops fans won't be disappointed"..and all that made me despise the man.

And Penn was cementing the fact that Cyclops role in X3 was gonna happen if singer was directing it too with comments like " Wolverine was written into cyclops role since X-men 1"...those answers he gave after the movie cause alot of controversy and outrage

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

I totally agree with senor Penn, the reaction to X3 is out of synch with the quality of the film. It's an average film.

Agreed.

While as a fan of the movie, I will be the first to point out many of the actual flaws of the movie, the reaction from many people isn't even so much "I don't like the movie, here's why", it's almost like "Well, I'm not supposed to like it, so let me thumb through it to find every remotley noticeable error to justify my opinion"

BTW, that's not to say that anyone who hates the movie is just mindlessly *****ing. That's not the case at all. I happen to love the film, but as an X-Men fan, I can see why X-Men fans COULD be very disappointed with this film, to the extent of total dislike.

But there is a difference between disliking (or hating) a film and total and utter over-reaction.

 

[The Kid]

This reaction is completely justified for the following reasons:

THE MOVIE WAS RUSHED

THE MOVIE WAS MADE FOR $$$$ MORE THAN GOOD QUALITY

THEY GOT THE MONEY, SO WHY IS THIS PENN GUY COMPLAINING? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

WE DON'T WANT THEM TO DO THIS AGAIN.

THE TRAILER SHOULD NOT BE BETTER THAN THE FINAL FILM

IT'S AN ADHD INSPIRED BRETT RATNER ACTION FILM WHEN IT COULD HAVE EASILY BEEN MUCH MORE.

SO KEEP BASHING IT. BASH IT SO HARD, FOX FEELS IT.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

I don't know if I truly buy the explanation of "Logan was written into Cyclops role since X1." In my honest opinion I believe Singer would've fought harder for Marsden, the source material, and possibly would've created a balance since it was going to be about the Dark Phoenix saga.

Is it a 100% fact that Singer would've done this? No. But I believe he wouldn't have backed down from the suits and make a complete mess out of a story that could've been amazing.

Penn says he doesn't understand the backlash? You mean to tell me that in his eyes those who hate the film are overreacting? How about those who defend the film as if their life depends on it? Maybe there's overreaction on both sides of the spectrum?

If he's as big of a "comic book geek" as he claims to be, then he must surely know and understand that when a movie bastardizes a great story, great characters, and messes up the theme in general what kind of reaction does he expect to receive or see on the internet? Just recently I met a guy at this video store and he asked me if I read comic books, I explained to him that I did and still do, and he asked me "what did you think of X3?" I said "X-Men: The Last Stand?"

He went on to say how he hated it and feels that it's right next to Ghost Rider, Catwoman, and Elektra in terms of the bad quality and blasphemous way when it came to how the source material was handled. I disagreed with him about it being worse than Ghost Rider, Catwoman, and Elektra, but I agreed with him that the movie sucked and deserves every negative backlash it has received.

Granted what's done is done, what's in the past is in the past. However, I'm happy to know that judging from early reviews that Spider-Man 3 will be what X3 should've been; which is emotional, epic, dark, and powerful.

 

[Theweepeople]

Great thread. This proves that all the criticisms of the X3 haters were not made in vain. This encourages me to continue criticising X3, other bad comic book movies, and the people responsible for this garbage.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

This reaction is completely justified for the following reasons:

THE MOVIE WAS RUSHED

THE MOVIE WAS MADE FOR $$$$ MORE THAN GOOD QUALITY

THEY GOT THE MONEY, SO WHY IS THIS PENN GUY COMPLAINING? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

WE DON'T WANT THEM TO DO THIS AGAIN.

THE TRAILER SHOULD NOT BE BETTER THAN THE FINAL FILM

IT'S AN ADHD INSPIRED BRETT RATNER ACTION FILM WHEN IT COULD HAVE EASILY BEEN MUCH MORE.

SO KEEP BASHING IT. BASH IT SO HARD, FOX FEELS IT.

Amen.

From the looks of things it appears that the negative reviews, the heated debates, and the outrage from the fans who love the comics are getting to them apparently.

So as Wey said, keep bashing the film and don't stop. The more we complain and express our viewpoints about the film, the more it'll get under their skin and possibly make a way for them to lose the rights to the X-Men.

 

[Neto Magnus]

and people thought I was crazy for making this ...

^would that be over-reacting on my part?

 

[Theweepeople]

Gotta give props to Penn for not lying to us as much as Simon Kinberg did. "Cyclops fans won't be disappointed"..and all that made me despise the man.

I give Penn props for not lying like Simon but, he is still a hack for co-writing a script that appears as though it was written by amateurs.

 

[BMM]

While I do feel there is some unecessary over-reaction, I don't know why anyone is surprised by it. It was present well before the movie was released during the script leak...

I remember the outrage displayed during that time... and the funny thing is that, save for a couple of things, very little was changed from what had been revealed.

Can you imagine the reaction from fans if they hadn't had a year to prepare themselves for what they were going to see onscreen?

 

[LastSunrise1981]

and people thought I was crazy for making this ...

^would that be over-reacting on my part?

Hahaha, I love what you did with that picture. It's funny, sad, and true at the same time.