X-Men: First Class, and Ideas for the way it should be handled.

BamKapow.com ran a comment from X-men producer Lauren Schuler Donner about the possibility of rebooting the X-men movie franchise. This is nothing new; in fact the people behind the Fantastic Four movies have been talking about a reboot for a good month now, and the idea of X-MEN: First Class the movie has been floating around for a little under a year. What is new however is that it would be a flash back heavy movie leading the characters back into the X-men movie universe. This is all brought on by the fact that the Wolverine movie is expected to be huge and a boost for the Marvel machine. I loved the first 2 X-men movies, and even though the 3rd was totally mishandled and brought to light the terrible acting skills of most of the people in the movie by trying to cram 3 different story arcs into a 2 hour movie, there were still some cool parts in it. And Wolverine, without sounding to much like a fan boy, looks really really cool. Having Sabertooth and Wolvie as half brothers aside, I think they’re going about his back story as best as they can. That being said I don’t think that should set a standard for every X-movie from now on. I think that finding a way to bridge what’s already been done with the first trilogy and bring in new mutants would be the way to go. Here are some ideas.




NEW MUTANTS

Bring in a whole new crop of mutants. As far as the movie verse in concerned Xavier is dead for the time being. Jean and Scott are both gone and Magneto has been “de-powered”. They could spend the first half of the movie recruiting a new team. You could even throw some dark teenage angst in it to try and keep up with the standard that has been somewhat unfortunately set by the Dark Knight and Watchmen. It’d be a decent idea because you could establish the remaining X-men as teachers and find a way to get people to invest in these new faces. They’re starting a new volume soon anyways so it’d be a cool tie in for comic sales.

Mutants I’d want to see: Wolfsbane Karma Sunspot Cannonball Elixir



Marauders/Morlocks/Mutant Massacre

This one might be a little tougher because of the amount of big names crossing over, which would have to be kept out of the movie. But I think with the right writer it could be pulled off. They had a group called the Omegas in the 3rd movie that were similar to the Morlocks but not exactly so they could still be used. A lot of the major players are already established in the movieverse (Angel, Kitty Pride, Night Crawler) and it’d be a good way to bring in some new people. And if Wolverine does well you could have Sabertooth show up. You could bring in any number of Morlocks and only play up the few you wanted for sequels. That plus the Marauders would allow for another huge cast movie like Xmen3 but with better direction. Also with the inclusion of the marauders into this movie you could set up for Sinister in a sequel which could lead to any number of stories.

Mutants I’d want to see: Psylocke (she was killed in X3 but next to no one knew it was her so it’s a possibility) Night Crawler (returned and revamped) Sinister (at the very end and not directly) Callisto, Mystique (as marauder) and Harpoon


Operation: Zero Tolerance

Now this one would be the easiest transition and the hardest to write, especially for fear of alienating comic fans while attempting to appeal to the movie fans. X1 and especially X2 and X3 were very government heavy, and X3 came closest to what I think could be done with the anti mutant group idea. We got a glimpse of a Sentinel in the danger room in the 3rd movie and I think if it was done correctly wouldn’t come across as corny. Xavier’s mansion is well known the government by now so a siege of the school wouldn’t be out of the question. Iceman has a pretty big part in this story leading his own little group, and that would be a good way to bring new kids to the fore front. On the other side, Bastion, because of his relative obscurity to most people, could be handled in any number of way, as well as the Prime Sentinels he’d be rolling with. They could even throw in the whole Graydon Creed assassination but really shouldn’t be touched on in anything more than a flash back or montage in the beginning of the movie. Also the idea makes me really wish that Marvel still had the sole right to this franchise because this could be a good way to meet up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and bleed into other movies.

Mutants I’d want to see: Jubilee, Marrow, Chamber, Synch

I just read to on io9.com that the movie will indeed be flashback heavy. I really hope this is just pre production bluster. If you’ve got any ideas, mutants you want to see or just general content feel free to post them. As always be safe.