While I'm glad that Singer is back to working on X-Men, I'm still a bit skeptical about it. To me if feels like there just trying to milk the franchise for all its got with the Origin movies.
This is my biggest concern. In fact, that's exactly how I felt when I left the theater after watching Wolverine......
I honestly had ZERO desire to see a Wolverine sequel ( and I'm a Wolverine fan )......and I wasn't too enthused about any of these purported Origin/spin-off movies. I felt that the whole franchise had grown stale.
That being said......in some ways....I'd rather see X4....since there were a lot of loose ends left in X3 ( is Cyclops really dead or not, was the "cure" permanent, what really happened to Xavier, etc. ).
I'd rather have a continuation of the story, instead of multiple tangential retreads.
Of course, we don't know what First Class will be about. As we learn more, we may discover that they are indeed using this to "reboot" the franchise.
I hope that's the case.......but if Fox ( and Singer ) insist on retreading through the same old issues with the same characters........I think they're going to be in for a rude awakening.
X3, while it made a ton of money, was not as critically successful as X1 and X2. Wolverine made money too, but it was not exactly a rip-roaring success either ( especially critically.... )
I mean......the X-men franchise is now almost a DECADE old. Add another 1 or 2 years by the time First Class comes out, and if they do X4, another 1-2 years after that......
So...unless Fox fastracks these projects NOW....if X4 ever does come out....it's going to be at least a good 6-8 years after X3 before we get to PROGRESS the story......and by then the X-men franchise would be pushing 15-20 years old.
From a logistics and practical POV, the original actors/actresses won't be able to reprise their roles because they'd be much older. And even if it's not the same actors/atresses, do we really want to see the same character TYPES ( Jackman's Wolverine, Halle's Storm, etc. ).
Like, if First Class is indeed a prequel to the other X-films, we might get a younger Storm, but she's still going to be Halle's Storm character, because that's who she's going to become when she gets older. It's the same character......just a younger version....do we really want to see that after all these years?
IOW....this is NOT a young franchise anymore. Fox and Singer need to consider their next plans very carefully. Especially with fresh franchises ( like Iron Man, Avengers, Green Lantern, etc. ), out now or in the near future, Fox and Singer need to find a way to make the X-men franchise new, fresh, and relevant again.
And, if they are going to make the First Class characters "different" but still make it a direct prequel and thus tie it into the later X films....did Singer ( and Fox ) NOT learn from SR and Nolan's Batman films?
SR tried to have it "both ways" by being a "vague sequel" to the Donner films. It couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to be something entirely different or something familiar and nostalgic. It wasn't ( and still isn't ) clear as to where and how it fits into the timeline of the Donner movies. And what's the status of the SR franchise???
Nolan, OTOH, made it very clear where his Batman franchise stands. It was a complete reboot, a clean break from the prior Bat films. It wasn't some vague prequel that presented a different take on Batman but still somehow tied into the Burton/Schumacher films.
And isn't the premise of Batman Begins similar to what First Class is supposed to about? The early, "formative" years of Xavier, Magneto, and the students......their origin story which has never been depicted on screen before.....
Which model does Singer ( and Fox ) want to follow?
If they're going to make it a prequel, make it a direct prequel and keep the characters and universe consistent. But, then they run the risk of becoming stale and repetitive and boring, and being boxed in/confined by what takes place in the later movies......
If they're going to make the characters "different," why not go all the way and use this opportunity to reboot the whole franchise and revitalize it, before it truly does become old, stale, and repetitive?
I have no problems with prequels, we never did get to see how the Professor go tthe school up and running and all that. I'd love to see an actual X4, especially if they rotate in soem of those otehr conspicously absent X-men we haven't seen yet. Why do a reboot when a simple roster change could breathe new life into the series?
