Herr Logan said:
Does anyone think I should trim Cyclops' origin/recruitment significantly (specifically cutting out some of the first contact scene), and maybe cut out the scene where Xavier presents the visor to him (or relocate and restructure it)? I feel that the less is shown towards the beginning, the creepier he'll seem to the audience. Maybe "creepier" is the wrong word for it; I want him to be
somewhat mysterious, ominous, or at least hard to read a lot of the time. Having his eyes covered all the time, it's not hard to make Cyclops a hard to read guy, and the emotion he shows is probably the least of anyone in the movie. When he grows into the role of field commander through the course of the movie, I want him to come off as a heroic and benevolent, but somewhat scary guy. My version of Cyclops is not above using cold sarcasm with his enemies.
Also, does anyone think I should go ahead and give Iceman an origin/recruitment scene? I think that in the comics Bobby Drake's parents knew he was a mutant early on and his father was pretty upset about it. If I have it that way, he's the one X-Man who has parents who are displeased with their child's mutancy. That is, displeased with the mutancy
in general as opposed to just aversive effects resulting from it, as was the case with Jean Grey. I got the impression that Jean's parents never rejected her for being a mutant, but because her psychic abilities (which had a relatively early on-set) led to a childhood trauma (her best friend dying in front of her) affecting her personally to the point where she was catatonic. Bobby's father is disturbed by his son being a mutant not for any ills it causes the boy, but because he's different. I'm not incredibly interested in writing a scene for Bobby Drake, but if anyone thinks it should be in there, I'll give it a shot. If he doesn't get an origin scene, he'll give mention of his father's attitude at some point in the movie.
The Iceman origin scene would involve him and his girlfriend getting mugged by several thugs, and Bobby would use his powers to defend himself, inciting the police to arrest him as well as the criminals. In the comics, the X-Men bailed him out of jail, but I just can't see Mr. Drake choosing to leave him in jail rather than take him home, even if he was afraid of him. Either he chooses not to call his parents (and I'm not sure that would work, since the police might call them in that situation), or his parents bail him out (or convince the cops not to file charges) and Xavier approaches him at his home. His parents would be somewhat relieved, as well as saddened, by Xavier taking Bobby off their hand and dealing with what they can't.
I've considered combining Iceman's origin scene with the Angel's, having the young couple the Angel saves be Bobby and his girlfriend, but I think that's a cheap, lazy move.
What do you guys think about all this?
Okay, Zev convinced me to name the school the
Xavier Institute for Higher Learning right from the get-go, instead of
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It sounds somewhat more prestigious and it makes more sense if the school takes in college-age mutants and older. The name should be changed in the second movie ('cuz Wolverine ain't no youngster) if it wasn't
Institute in the first.
What about those other issues in the quoted portion above? Surely someone must have opinions!
Here are some other ideas I want to run by you fine people:
Okay, first the set-up--
'
The Uncanny X-Men' features the original five X-Men vs. Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants.
'
Uncanny X-Men 2' features most of the 'Second Genesis' team (minus Thunderbird and Sunfire), Cyclops and Jean as remaining members, and Beast and Angel as reserve members who will be called back to fight (Iceman's out of the game completely, working towards an accounting degree) and Magneto vs. Sentinels, the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, and Dark Phoenix. The trigger-happy Sentinels are powered with plutonium cores, and during an all-out battle with the X-Men, one of them becomes unstable. Jean Grey muffles the nuclear explosion with her telekinesis, and Magneto, who was blocks away at that moment, aids her as best he can. She ends up alive but burned out and comatose. It takes a week or so and she recovers fully, involuntarily (presumably) creating a new costume for herself, taking a new codename (Phoenix) and is more powerful than ever before. Mastermind and the White Queen of the Hellfire Club manipulate Jean with illusions and telepathy, urging her to become more in touch with her baser desires (sex and violence, specifically). The X-Men figure part of it out, eventually, and infiltrate the Club. Big, big fight, resulting in Phoenix flying into a murderous rage and attacking the X-Men. Jean Grey kills herself at the end. Wolverine leaves. After the funeral, held at the Xavier estate, Cyclops leaves, unsure of whether he's coming back or not.
By the end, Beast and Angel are out of the game completely, although they both "come out" to the public with regard to their mutant statuses (the Beast can no longer easily hide his mutancy, since he tested an experimental formula and turned into a gray, furry, more bestial Beast towards the beginning). Banshee is also out, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through, since he strains and/or injures his vocal chords in the fight against the Sentinels. He may stay on in a non-combat capacity.
After a week or so, Wolverine returns, challenging Nightcrawler to a sparring match early in the morning, the only rule being that the "loser buys the beer." He is now wearing an X-belt buckle, which he refused to wear before (it's symbolic of the committment, people!).
This here's the key part:
I know that in '
Uncanny X-Men 3' I want to have the 'Second Genesis' team, possibly without Cyclops altogether (or until the very end, maybe... leaving Storm as field commander and Wolverine her lieutenant), plus a 15 year-old Kitty Pryde vs. Mystique's Brotherhood of Mutants. Mystique's insidious plan is to have the Brotherhood assassinate Senator Robert Kelly, who is supporting the Mutant Registration Act for the sake of national security and is also currently running for President. Rogue is a member of Mystique's Brotherhood (the most powerful overall, because this is the real Rogue, with stolen powers from a character that need not appear in the movie, despite what some people say), but she'll leave them to seek help from Professor X, and subsequently she'll be an X-Man.
The other main storyline I'm sure of is Kitty Pryde training with and acclimating to the X-Men. Though she wasn't an orphan, she has at least two "parent" figures in Storm and Wolverine. She's got a mad crush on Colossus, so that will fill up some minutes, for the sake of faithfulness and to lure all the little teenyboppers who have a crush on whichever muscular, hearthrob actor who plays Piotr Nicholaivich Rasputin.
I'm not sure what else to put in the story, but I'm considering the Morlocks. This could prominently feature Kitty, since Caliban had a stalker-type crush on her in the comics. Callisto, the badass leader, would have the retired Angel kidnapped and brought to her for a shotgun wedding. I figure the same might apply for Kitty once she comes close enough to the "Alley" with the other X-Men. Caliban would of course choose to let her go by the end (not that the X-Men couldn't have forced him to... in the comics they didn't force them because Kitty promised to wed him in exchange for helping the X-Men, and although she welched on it soon after, she stayed "willingly" after they took her off the street and reminded her of her promise). What do you guys think of this?
I have a very, very vague idea of what's going to happen in '
Uncanny X-Men 4'. First, the roster:
- Cyclops returns to the X-Men (if he wasn't with them already in 'Uncanny X-Men 3;'
- Beast (whose fur is now very dark blue), Angel and Iceman return as well; Rogue is now a probationary X-Man;
- Kitty is a full-fledged X-Man and well-trained in combat by Wolverine and in the use of her powers by Xavier;
- Gambit and Psylocke join on as probationary members;
- Jean Grey returns to the X-Men (I'll get to that a little later)
- The X-Men are split into two strike forces--
- Blue Team: Cyclops (leader), Wolverine, Shadowcat, Psylocke, Beast, Gambit, and Rogue
- Gold Team: Storm (leader), Colossus, Iceman, Jean Grey, Archangel, Nightcrawler
- All the X-Men are made to wear the standard uniform blue and gold skintight uniform;*
- Soon after that, most of the X-Men decide they don't like those uniforms and will wear their own, most having some form of identification ("X" symbol)
My idea for Jean Grey returning is that the true Jean was switched with a an almost perfect clone while convalescing from her ordeal with the Sentinels and the nuclear explosion. The clone killed herself to spare her friends (and the entire world) further violence on her part, thinking she was the real Jean Grey but feeling her darker side threatening to resurface, even after Professor X gave it a telepathic beat-down, the likes of which he hadn't dished out since he put the Shadow King in his place more than 20 years prior. Jean gets a clean bill of health and is ruled as being free of psychic tampering (Xavier is taking no chances this time).
A ruthless, sociopathic bio-geneticist with major superpowers named Mr. Sinister is the one who stole Jean and left a clone in her place, presumably to study her. She's been mostly unconscious during the meantime, and she doesn't know why he let her go.
I was thinking of having Apocalypse in this movie, being Mr. Sinister's benefactor and ultimately his master. Sinister would hire the Marauders to slaughter the Morlocks, and while the X-Men are trying to help them (after a huge portion of them are dead by the time they get there), they run into Gambit, who is there for reasons unknown (
We know his reasons, don't we? He's trying to fix a mess he unwittingly had a big part in, to assuage his guilt somewhat). Gambit is accepted into the X-Men as a probationary member. He and Rogue have lots of sexual tension and banter/flirting, yadda yadda yadda....
Psylocke, a British, former intelligence operative with superb martial arts experience and natural Asian looks (I'm not going to bother with the Seige Perilous and the Mandarin and Revanche and so forth... she'll look Asian, speak with an English accent, be a ninja-level martial artist, and have a service record with M15, M16 or somesuch agency, and that will be it), will seek out the X-Men early in the movie on the reccomendation of Banshee, a former Interpol agent that she knows. She's disillusioned and/or dissatisfied with her position and wants something that puts her telepathic and psychical skills to the test. She'll be on the Blue Team, both because that's how it was in the comics and because that gives each strike force one psi-talent each.
There's lots of sexual tension in the Blue Team, between Gambit and Rogue, and also Cyclops and Psylocke. Psylocke has the hots for Cyclops, and he is of course attracted to her (you don't need perfect color vision to see how hot she is), but remains faithful to Jean. Eventually, Wolverine will tell Psylocke to knock it off and find someone else to pursue, like Beast or Nightcrawler. He assumes that Betsy is using some subtle psionic influence (because Scott wouldn't actually display
any amount of attraction to another woman otherwise), and he couldn't stand it if Jean was hurt because some other telepathic minx pushed Cyclops in a position where it's hard to resist.
If Apocalypse is in the movie, then there will also be the Four Horsemen, at least one of which--Plague-- is taken from the Morlock Tunnels, suped up
and brainwashed. Caliban might possibly be chosen also, but not if his designation in the comics was Death. Apocalypse already has his eye on a potential candidate for Death-- Angel. Warren will get greivously wounded during the Mutant Massacre-- losing his wings-- and either be abducted outright or will attempt to kill himself and be secretly saved by Apocalypse (which is what happened in the comics). He'll be suped up, brainwashed and christened Archangel, the angel of Death.
I don't really know what else I would do at this moment. Comments! Please help me figure out what to do with movies 2 & 3!!
* Looks like this: