What don't you like about The Fox X-Men Cinematic Universe

[TheSpectacular]

Title says it all. We have one for the MCU, so why not Fox?

 

[Flint Marko]

The complete disregard of continuity, for one. I've also never liked how it's focused pretty much entirely on Wolverine, Professor X, and Magneto throughout every movie.

 

[Quasimod0]

The team element feels lacking to me; the closest they got was in First Class. The team doesn't really feel like a family to me.

Too many side characters with absolutely no personality/lines.

The films have had no expendable villains upon which the X-Men can truly unleash their powers. We got a little bit of that in X-2, but not enough. The Sentinels would've been perfect for that, but I feel like that opportunity was wasted.

There's been no cool shots that made me wanna stand up and cheer, "That's the X-Men!! "I wanna see an epic team shot in X-Men: Apocalypse.

 

[Majik1387]

The mostly boring costumes and some pretty horrible wigs.

The nit-picky fans.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

After DOFP, it's hard to complain.

However, I am worried about Apocalypse's look for the moment.

 

[BoredGuy]

The costumes I don't mind, as we're accustomed to them, but a little more personality to the suits now that other studios have shown Fox how well it can be done would be nice
but there have been some terrible looks over the years: Apocalypse, Juggernaut, Emma Frost, anything from Origins

Lack of villains
Lack of good team battles
Lack of screentime for characters anyone gives a s*** about
too much Magneto, Wolverine, and Mystique (and I love Wolverine)
flimsy film-to-film continuity
hit-or-miss casting

and it annoys me that they either beat you over the head with the minority/outcast allegory, or they only pay the weakest of lip service to the idea, depending on the film

 

[Blind_Lawyer]

I don't know. I actually find the X-Men franchise to be one of the most solid around.

X-Men 3 was certainly weak, and Wolverine Origins was just atrocious, but all the rest were damn good in my opinion.

My biggest gripe is their portrayal of Deadpool in Will.I.am Origins. The Merc with a <i>Mouth</i> has his mouth sewn shut. Huh?

Anyway, the new Deadpool movie should take care of that, so yeah...other than 3 (which is tolerable) and Wolverine Origins (which was a mess top to bottom) I'm happy with the X-Men films. Maybe if I'd read a ton of X-Men comics I'd feel differently. Who knows?

 

[Fincher]

- I think X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past should have been a reboot; I don't think the new series benefits from being connected to the old one.

- Origins: Wolverine

- January Jones as Emma Frost

Really, it would be easier for me to name problems with individual movies because I don't particularly see overarching problems with the whole series.

 

[Frankeh]

Boring costumes
Too much Magneto at this point. It won't be a crime if Fassbender is a supporting character, damnit, which is what I hope will happen from Apocalypse onwards.
Bad handling of continuity
Team battles haven't annoyed me as much since we've been in a prequel era without the team members that I love (and even then it was well done in First Class IMO, DOFP had the problem that the future was a backdrop for the past story and therefore the characters were there to be expendable), I was fine with what we got in X1 and X2, and now that the core members are back for Apocalypse I'm hoping for good things.

 

[Erzengel]

Too much Magneto as the enemy.

Too much Wolverine as the central hero.

No, expansion for tertiary characters. It's pretty much Wolverine, Magneto, Xavier and Mystique. Secondary characters Beast, Storm, maybe Iceman, Rogue and Jean.

Marginalization of Cyclops.

Very few, good all out mutant on mutant action scenes.

Awful Wolverine Origins movie. Terrible X-3 movie.

 

[def28]

-The lack of proper development with essential X-Men like Cyclops and Storm for over the course of 15 years.

-Not including Rogue's physicality or tough personality in X1,2,3 and DOFP: Rogue Cut. Also, relying on her needing to be saved in pretty much every film.

-Pre mature deaths with major X-Men characters like Emma Frost, Cyclops and Psylocke.

-Lack of team communication.

-Mute to two line speaking characters with zero personality like Deathstrike, Sabertooth (X1), Deadpool in origins, Riptide, Sunspot, Bishop, Colossus, Warpath etc.

-Too much relying on Magneto as a villain.

-Sentinels do not have a recurring role in the world and were underused.

-The black costumes

-Weak fights outside of X2, the future DOFP scenes and The Wolverine. The series really needs some stronger one on ones besides Wolverine fighting Deathstrike and Shingen.

 

[First Avenger]

-Costumes
-Continuity
-Cyclops'mishandling
-Too much focus on Wolverine
-too many mute characters
- very little Team dynamics
- weak action scenes

X2,FC and DoFP are still beasts though. And Origins imo is the only terrible movie.

X2,FC,DoFP (great)
X1 (good)
X3 (average)
TW (a little boring but good)
XMO (awful)

 

[Fosterson]

The complete disregard of continuity, for one. I've also never liked how it's focused pretty much entirely on Wolverine, Professor X, and Magneto throughout every movie.

This sums up my feelings exactly.

 

[Flint Marko]

I also feel they dropped the ball with Wolverine in his solo outings. Origins is still one of the worst CBM's I've ever seen, and The Wolverine was a step in the right direction but still lacking in many areas. It's the most forgettable and inconsequential superhero movie in quite some time. I'm hoping Wolverine 3 will make up for it, especially since it'll be Hugh Jackman's last time in the role (whom I have zero complaints about).

 

[Infinight888]

Everyone else pretty much summed up my opinions on the matter. I'll just add Gambit and Storm.

Was there anyone, ever, who wanted a Gambit solo movie? No? I didn't think so. There is literally no reason to make this movie. On the other hand, Fox has one of the most popular female superheroes in Storm, who has a very interesting backstory which they could explore. But no. Despite being one of the most popular X-Men behind Wolverine, she's not going to get a solo movie until at least after we've already had three Wolverines, two Deadpools and one Gambit movie.

To be clear, I'm not complaining about the obvious sexism of having six solo movies about white guys before one Storm movie. I'll even say that Wolverine and Deadpool are even somewhat justified. Wolverine is the most popular X-Man and Deadpool plays better on his own than with a team. But there is no excuse at all for doing Gambit before Storm. No, what I'm complaining about is the fact that Storm is a great character, one that could have her own solo film, and she has been completely underutilized. Even in the movies she did appear in, she was never given any real development or character arcs. She was just a chick who shot lightning.

 

[TeeKay]

Here we go...

-Total disregard of source material.
Its too much of 'Wolverine & the X-Men' show. If you wanna have him as the central character, that's all well and good but the problem is other characters become cardboard cut outs.

-Lack of team dynamics. You don't even feel like they're a team at all. DoFP was a step in the right direction in that regards but still left much to be desired.

-Cardboard cut out characters are wasted. There have no personality and are barely characters. Quicksilver is the exception to the rule before anyone points him out.

-The films have become formulaic and predictable. Magneto being the villain EVERY SINGLE TIME. I love Magneto, he's a great villain but lawd have mercy he's either the main villain or he works with the X-Men until the end then betrays them.

-The mis-handling of 'important' characters like Jean,Emma,Cyclops.I'll never forgive Singer for especially Cyclops.

-Lack of world building and foresight. It really seems like sometimes they're making things up as they go along. The X-Men universe is big and they haven't really done anything to showcase that imo. I hope Apocalypse and New Mutants is in the right direction.

-Weak action scenes that showcase team dynamics. They need to take a look at what Whedon did with the Avengers in terms of how they operate as a TEAM. Like someone pointed out, we still haven't gotten a team shot where the X-Men are fighting as one.

-The less said about continuity the better.

-Their obsession with black leather costumes. Its post Spiderman and Avengers. LET THE BLACK COSTUMES GO yeesh.

But I'll admit, despite all that, X-2 and FC are great films. Because let's face it, great movies put storytelling before anything else. And IMO FC, and especially X-2 succeeded in that regard. They may have not made a big impact nor transcended the genre but they're still better than most cbms coming out today.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

1. The complete and utter disregard for any but a handful of characters. Now, I know that certain characters are going to take precedent over others. Marvel does this too. Iron Man and Captain America clearly have more to do than the lesser members of the Avengers. But the other characters, from Black Widow down to characters like Falcon and Vision, still get their moments in the sun and more importantly we are given reason to care about them. I do think First Class was a step in the right direction, but in every other film in the series, if you aren't one of the top 3 or 4 characters you might as well not exist. For a team franchise, this is a gigantic problem.

2. The complete and utter disregard to continuity. I'm not a huge stickler for continuity. I can live with minor things not matching up. There is a lot to keep track of after many problems and some times a little continuity has to be sacrificed for the story. But this franchise goes far beyond that. Emma Frost is an adult in the 60s, killed off-screen, and then a teenager in the early 80s? Bolivar Trask is killed in 1973 and then a member of the President's inner circle in the present? Moira MacTaggart is an American CIA Agent in the 60s and then a young Scottish doctor in the present? Magneto and Xavier have their breakup resulting in Xavier being crippled in 1962 but are still friends and Xavier can walk when meeting Jean in the 80s? These mistakes are simply unacceptable.

3. The repeated objectification of female characters. In First Class, every major female character is forced to strip down to practically nothing at some point. Mystique has been walking around naked the whole time for years. And when that doesn't happen they are frequently either damsels in distress or end up staying in the kitchen. The Fantastic Four films do this too, so this is a company wide problem for their superheroines. Just compare how Moira is treated in First Class to Peggy Carter in the MCU. For a franchise that is based around promoting equality, the treatment of the female characters as second-class citizens is disturbing.

4. Killing off characters left and right for no reason. Emma Frost, Banshee, Azazel, Angel Salvadore, Cyclops, Senator Kelly, Henry Gyrich, Xavier, Callisto, Psylocke, Kid Omega (who couldn't be further from the comic book Quire if you tried), Riptide, Toad, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, etc. This ties into Problem #1 in that if a character isn't one of the small handful of important ones they are completely disposable. Several of these don't even get the dignity of an on-screen death.

I actually really like the X-Men franchise. X2, First Class, and DOFP are three of my favorite superhero movies. But there have been and continue to be some major problems with the franchise.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I'm going to limit this to the X-Men line because they're all the matters. Others have said the biggest complaint already - it's the liberties they take with continuity. Granted, everyone changes things, even Marvel. But there's some pretty big things that are changed that just prevent things from playing out in the comic. Havok is a good example. I think they're somehow going to find a way to make him Scott's brother, but certainly not his younger brother. Even then, the age gap will be very large. This is going to make Corsair next to impossible to pull off. Another example is the Hellfire Club. X-Men: First Class pretty much shot that idea in the foot.

I also wish it was a little less grounded. Granted, I think Days of Future Past went a bit in that direction, but I mentioned Corsair. I would love to see the space side of things with the Starjammers, the Shi'ar, and the Brood. Hell, I wouldn't be opposed to Longshot and the Mojoverse.

Overall, I like the X-Men films quite a lot, but the first thing will always be a source of a little bit of disappointment.

 

[Quasimod0]

1. The complete and utter disregard for any but a handful of characters. Now, I know that certain characters are going to take precedent over others. Marvel does this too. Iron Man and Captain America clearly have more to do than the lesser members of the Avengers. But the other characters, from Black Widow down to characters like Falcon and Vision, still get their moments in the sun and more importantly we are given reason to care about them. I do think First Class was a step in the right direction, but in every other film in the series, if you aren't one of the top 3 or 4 characters you might as well not exist. For a team franchise, this is a gigantic problem.

This is a big one for me. The great thing about the MCU, is that it allows even the side characters to have multiple moments to shine. They don't just get an action scene, but usually also some great character stuff as well. I mean say what you will about the MCU, but they know how to make side characters still feel important. Even Maria Hill in Avengers got a bit of action, plus plenty of dialogue.

And for some reason, the X-Men are still focusing on Mystique of all characters. Who would have ever imagined that Mystique would be a top 10 major player main character across multiple X-Men films? Not me.

 

[Blind_Lawyer]

I would like Colossus to appear in one of these movies. That would be cool. That big Ruskie!

But serious, why not do him right in one of the movies?

 

[Saitou Hajime]

And for some reason, the X-Men are still focusing on Mystique of all characters. Who would have ever imagined that Mystique would be a top 10 major player main character across multiple X-Men films? Not me.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the large focus on Mystique if they at least captured a fraction of the spirit of her character in the comics. Instead we got a couple of MINOs that's either a semi-mute henchman or a woobie anti-hero, both directions which does a disservice not just to the original character but also the two actresses that played her.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I would like Colossus to appear in one of these movies. That would be cool. That big Ruskie!

But serious, why not do him right in one of the movies?

Let's see how Deadpool handles him.

That being said, I'd like Illyana in New Mutants, so it would be cool to see Pietro done right (and maybe the two could be seen together at some point).

 

[kedrell]

^Do you mean Piotr? Pietro is Quicksilver and they already dumped that name for him by making him American and calling him Peter.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

I too, dont like that they focus so heavily on Wolverine. I dont even think I love Hugh Jackman for the role. He's far too gentlemanly to me. And he's very statuesque. Bleh.

Anyway, Professor X and Magneto should have the central roles (which they often do) but Wolverine as the baddy with a heart of gold only works if there's a goodie in a main role too (aka Cyclops) so thats the second thing I dislike. Ruined Cyclops and dragged Jean down with him.

I think they've mostly fixed the continuity with DoFP (otherwise that'd be my next complaint). Which also may have fixed the stuff mentioned above. Only time will tell.

Individual movie stuff I don't like:
1 - handling of Toad/Sabretooth, the costumes, Anna Paquin
2 - handling of Cyclops, the costumes
3 - handling of wolverine/cyclops/phoenix/angel/magneto/mystique/professor x/juggernaut, the costumes
origins - handling of wolverine/gambit/deadpool
first class - annoying young characters (banshee, havoc, angel) stupid villains (emma, riptide)
wolverine - oversaturation of wolverine at this point, kinda boring
DoFP - almost nothing lol. great film

 

[Blind_Lawyer]

Let's see how Deadpool handles him.

That being said, I'd like Illyana in New Mutants, so it would be cool to see Pietro done right (and maybe the two could be seen together at some point).

They're not using Daniel Cudmore and his totally awesome American accent that we've heard in movie after movie with his whopping six lines of dialogue. Aww...

I don't know who Andre Tricoteux is from a hole in the wall, but the fact that they re-cast the role does hint on Piotr being...well, Piotr. One can hope.