Days of Future Past The Official JANUARY JONES/Emma Frost Thread

[josh8]

I think Jones did perfectly fine and didn't seem at all like she was just trying to make a buck. My only problem with her portrayal was that on a few occasions she did seem a little too friendly with her smiling. Emma's supposed to be seductive... but not in the nice way. Dunno if I would fault Jones or the director/writers. But it's not a big problem because since none of them are diehard fans they can't get the same perspective as having read the comics for years and years.

Emma's character seems to be picked apart the most because she's such a scrutinize-able character. Kind of larger than life.

I did however think her introduction was weak, but that's Vaughn or the cinematographer's fault. She just showed up.... kinda like how Scarlett Johansen's Black Widow just showed up at the diner in IM2. "Hi, I'm Black Widow". <sits down>

 

[By your Command]

Three pictures, and she's making the same dead, void, pointless face in all three. Pretty much sums up her acting abilities. She may be the worst actress in a major role in the whole series.

You have to take into account that in the first picture in the movie she is smiling a lot throughout that scene. The second one is a promotional picture and in the third one she is actually in the background. I still don't understand when the January Jones backlash began, but I can at least tell you that she is ridiculously hot, and that her Keanu-Meter has experienced different facial expressions in the past.

 

[josh8]

Oh and I must add that she was absolutely stunning in the movie. My friend (a girl) could not stop talking about how good she (and her rack) looked.

 

[psyonic]

If you watch Mad Men, in season 4 she is a real ***** but in earlier seasons she is just a housewife with no real presence but except to cook dinner, take care of her children and look pretty for her husband, but later when she finds out her husband is having affairs, she divorces him and she really does become a cold ***** at times. Interestingly enough, the Cuban missile crisis was also a topic of discussion in a few of the episodes.

 

[Specter313]

Looks fine to me. She is supposed to look cold and aloof and unemotional. It just screams Emma Frost, in my view anyway.

Those two words I have never seen used to describe Emma Frost. Cold, yes. Unemotional? Hell no! Emma at times has been cold, calculating, *****y, seductive, devious, snarky, deviant, bitter, vengeful, malicious. NEVER have I read anything where she was just plain old "aloof and unemotional". You do not become one of the top and most recognized females in the Marvel U or one of the most requested characters for a live action adaptation by being "aloof and unemotional". Emma Frost is anything but.

 

[Sun_Down]

Those two words I have never seen used to describe Emma Frost. Cold, yes. Unemotional? Hell no! Emma at times has been cold, calculating, *****y, seductive, devious, snarky, deviant, bitter, vengeful, malicious. NEVER have I read anything where she was just plain old "aloof and unemotional". You do not become one of the top and most recognized females in the Marvel U or one of the most requested characters for a live action adaptation by being "aloof and unemotional". Emma Frost is anything but.

Word. It's just people trying to justify their lust for Jones.

 

[By your Command]

Word. It's just people trying to justify their lust for Jones.

Emma was not the only character in the movie that suffered changes, I really think her uncharacteristic Emma-ness worked for this movie version of Emma Frost. Anything else is just people trying to justify their hatred of January Jones.

 

[X-Maniac]

Those two words I have never seen used to describe Emma Frost. Cold, yes. Unemotional? Hell no! Emma at times has been cold, calculating, *****y, seductive, devious, snarky, deviant, bitter, vengeful, malicious. NEVER have I read anything where she was just plain old "aloof and unemotional". You do not become one of the top and most recognized females in the Marvel U or one of the most requested characters for a live action adaptation by being "aloof and unemotional". Emma Frost is anything but.

Well, cold sounds pretty much the same as unemotional to me.

 

[X-Maniac]

Word. It's just people trying to justify their lust for Jones.

I can assure you I'm not lusting after Jones.

And that is 'word'.

 

[JP]

I can assure you I'm not lusting after Jones.

And that is 'word'.

LOL.

 

[Specter313]

Well, cold sounds pretty much the same as unemotional to me.

You can be cold and still show some actual emoting on your face instead of the blank look January constantly gave.

 

[X-Maniac]

You can be cold and still show some actual emoting on your face instead of the blank look January constantly gave.

Her performance must be what the script stated and what the director wanted, regardless of your dislike for Jones.

 

[Specter313]

Her performance must be what the script stated and what the director wanted, regardless of your dislike for Jones.

Oh please. If that were all it took to excuse bad acting and poor direction, then Catwoman would be considered a pinnacle of comic book movies.

 

[X-Maniac]

Oh please. If that were all it took to excuse bad acting and poor direction, then Catwoman would be considered a pinnacle of comic book movies.

That's entirely different. Catwoman had one main character.

There were many other characters in First Class. Jones wasn't even a main character, she was a henchwoman. Other actors in the film - Fassbender, McAvoy, Hoult, etc - were fantastic, so Vaughn isn't some dolt who just doesn't care how they perform. He must have wanted that version of Emma.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Having a good directors does not atomically guarantee a good performance. Francis Ford Coppola may be a fantastic director, but Keanu was still terrible in Dracula. Some thing are just not in the director's control.

 

[Heretic]

I dont "hate" Jones. I've never actually seen anything she's ever done, and had very little idea of who she is except...I think I saw her on a Maxim cover, but I dont read that Magazine.

She wasn't acting "cold"...she looked bored. I don't mind that they change characters a bit..but whatever they intended for Emma, Jones didnt deliver it...unless they wanted "stand there and look like a cardboard cutout".

And again...I don't find her that attractive. Emma, to me anyway, is more of a classic Playboy type model or whatever, with curves...not the modern day trendy stick thin actress (which, many of these types are pretty darn hot).

I remember rumors during X3 that some chick I'd never heard of named Ashley Hartman (I'm going by memory, I'm probably wrong) was possibly going to be Emma...and at that time I Googled her and she looked more the part to me then than Jones does now.

 

[Specter313]

That's entirely different. Catwoman had one main character.

There were many other characters in First Class. Jones wasn't even a main character, she was a henchwoman. Other actors in the film - Fassbender, McAvoy, Hoult, etc - were fantastic, so Vaughn isn't some dolt who just doesn't care how they perform. He must have wanted that version of Emma.

Then it was terrible direction on top of terrible acting if you're going to go that route. You don't have to be a "main character" to turn in a good performance. As you referenced Hoult, you know this, same goes with people like Lawrence. Being a henchperson doesn't excuse turning in a lazy performance. At least Azazel and Riptide could at least look like they were interested in what they were doing. Just look at Mystique and Toad in X1. They barely said anything and still people couldn't stop talking about the impacts they had, especially Mystique and she only had one line. Quite frankly, it almost makes me think there's some credence to the rumors going around.

Either way, I'm done explaining this to you. I don't have to justify my opinion, and I have the right to voice it.

 

[SuperSoldier985]

I don't recall a single damn comic where Emma just seemed by bored by her entire presence in living. January Jones seemed to look at the role as just a paycheck because put not effort into the role at all and was just nothing like Emma Frost in the slightest, which is a shame because the writing for the character is very Emma. She just can't act the role.

I say kick her to the curb in the sequel and recast her.

Those complaints that you are making don't have much to do with Jones as an actress but moreso the writing of the character..

 

[X-Maniac]

Then it was terrible direction on top of terrible acting if you're going to go that route. You don't have to be a "main character" to turn in a good performance. As you referenced Hoult, you know this, same goes with people like Lawrence. Being a henchperson doesn't excuse turning in a lazy performance. At least Azazel and Riptide could at least look like they were interested in what they were doing. Just look at Mystique and Toad in X1. They barely said anything and still people couldn't stop talking about the impacts they had, especially Mystique and she only had one line. Quite frankly, it almost makes me think there's some credence to the rumors going around.

Either way, I'm done explaining this to you. I don't have to justify my opinion, and I have the right to voice it.

Of course, I just didn't see it the way you do. I'd have to see a lot more of Jones as Emma Frost to assess her acting, and have never seen mad Men. To me, she felt like Emma. To you she didn't. Fair enough.

 

[Specter313]

Those complaints that you are making don't have much to do with Jones as an actress but moreso the writing of the character..

Um, he kinda says right at the end there that we can see in the writing itself that they had the basic idea of Emma down. Jones just didn't deliver. I've said the same, there were quite a few things Emma would do from the comics, but Jones did not deliver them the way she would in the comics.

 

[mclay18]

I personally thought January Jones just phoned in her performance. Alice Eve would've been so much better, she could've pulled off the aloof and seductive side without looking bored.

 

[EnDz0n3]

This is just how January Jones is. She simply can't act.

For all the faults that people have said about Hally Berry as Storm, at least she had some good line deliveries: her scene with Nightcrawler in the X-jet in X2 where they talked about faith; her scene with Senator Kelly right before he dies.

And this coming from one of the people that did not like Halle as Storm.

I have to say that Jones' delivery about it only being rightfully called war if both sides have an equal chance of winning is very cringe-worthy. This is one of the many faults of Vaughn in the film, IMO. This film also had very awkward transitions.

 

[Deaths Head II]

I did like not like Halle Berry as Storm either but she is leagues above January Jones.

 

[DACrowe]

I quit reading X-Men comics (as well as most comics) years ago around the time Jean Grey had just died for the umpteenth time and Emma was joining the team, but not a real leader (much less apparently Cyclops's new psychic stand-in wife). So, I recall her as the conniving, posh, femme fatale, evil ***** who was part of the Hellfire Club. That's not the Emma of the comics now, but to be fair that isn't the movie Emma either.

I viewed her as simply a Bond henchwoman. She is there to look pretty, follow orders and be seduced by Bond (I guess ERik can try for that in the sequel). To that extent she worked. Now, this is no fan service I realize. But in the context of what the role required she was passable. As an individual performance though it was bland, wooden and boring. It will be that way in the sequel, as well.

 

[Prison Mike]

I honestly don't think January is a bad actress. The role doesn't call for an Oscar performance. I thought she delivered her lines decently. No one stood out as a bad actor in this movie for me.