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May 26, 2005 worldwide: the third coming of the X-Men. A new director and lots of new (or old depending on how you look at it) characters.
Although the release is quit a way off, you can still check out the very cool “announcement teaser”. There are also a number of photos of the cast online at the official movie site (designed in crap-o-vision Flash Animation) or you can check out the exact same photos (minus colossus for some reason) at the official marvel site in the media section (not really designed at all, but at least there’s no flash to bother with). Or you can check out high resolution versions at superherohype.com
The afore mentioned photos are rather lame since they are just profiles of the cast from the neck up. You can’t really check out their costumes. countingdown.com has what appears to be concept art and a few other images as well, and a metal Colossus can be found at canmag.com.
The Plot
According to imdb.com:When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart), and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier’s former ally, Magneto (McKellen).
The cast and crew
- Director: Brett Ratner.
- X-3 will be under the direction of a new mind, Brett Ratner. This guy’s resume includes such hits as Rush Hour, Prison Break… um… Rush Hour 2… and uh, Madonna: The Video Collection 93:99. Ouch. We could be in for a very bumpy ride.
- Writers: Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg
- Well, even if the director isn’t the greatest choice, the writers are good, right? right?? Uh no, wrong. ZAk Penn has given us Inspector Gadget, Behind Enemy Lines, Elektra and the Fantastic Four… oh, and X-Men 2: Mutants United. Kinberg has written such fine classic material as xXx: State of the Union. I realize that I should possibly cut Penn some slack since he did write X-2, but I wasn’t thrilled with the flick to begin with… although he wasn’t stupid enough to write the line “What happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightening? The same thing as everything else!” (so dramatic), so that gives me plus points automatically.
- Ashley Hartman
- IMDB lists Ashley Hartman as playing the part of Emma Frost. While introducing Emma Frost might seem like a bad idea since she didn’t come along until later, I have decided that continuity has gone out the window for all of the X-Men movies and you just have to take them for being alternate stories with bits of the comics mixed in. Not that cool, but whatever… it’s Hollywood. By the way, Hartman was (according to IMDB) contestant #32 on American Idol and had a role on the OC. She was also in Maxim and has a creepy doppleganger at Rutgers (a state university in New Jersey).
I’m not entirely sure what to think of this movie myself just yet. The trailer is awesome, and beast looks fairly cool. Angel looks amazing and I’m glad to see the Phoenix Saga will be explored… albeit loosely. After all they’re putting Moira MacTaggart in the show, but from what I can tell, no Banshee. Juggernaut will make his debut, but no Black Tom Cassady. I’m fairly certain that this photo from the trailer is of Cassady Keep, which would be in keeping with the original story line. If you’re going to do a Pheonix Saga story, why bother putting some of the starring cast from the comic in, but not all? And why bother mucking with the overall story? I really enjoyed the comic version and am afraid to see it translated on the big screen.
Of course, the cast of characters is dependent on IMDB being correct, which is up in the air as far as I’m concerned.
Something else that worries me: a massive amount of new mutants. IMDB has a list of the entire cast and crew and it seems like a bit of an overload on characters. I don’t want this to turn in to the original Batman movies, attempting to introduce as many characters as possible. Then again, X-Men has always relied on a large group of mutants, so we’ll just have to wait and see what the outcome will be.
It will also be very interesting to see how the write Nightcrawler off since Alan Cumming won’t return for another film.
Khaled beat me to it (curse you!), but I'm going to throw my two cents in regardless.
I saw X-Men: The Last Stand (AKA: X-Men: A Desperate Grab at Quick Cash) the day after it was released. I was out of town at the time and unable to use my website…
If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out the Ghost Rider Trailer at apple.com.
Ghost Rider is a character that I'm not too familiar with so I'm not the greatest judge as to whether the trailer looks good or not on that level (maybe some of you fans…
Last month I wrote a review on Batman: Defenders of the Night, a fan film that was... interesting to say the least. Recently I was able to get the creator / director / writer / star of the film, Kourosh Rahimpour to sit down and answer a few questions about…
Man, it’s about time they get ArchAngel in there, considering that he was one of the original X-Men. I suppose the first few movies wouldn’t have worked without Wolverine, but how about a little homage to chronology for the hard-core fans, eh?
Agreed, however I’m going to have to correct you (sorry Nathan)… you are half correct.
Archangel isn’t in the movie and wasn’t on the original team. However Angel was. Angel became Archangel at a much later date. First he was engaged in a battle which lead to getting his wings broken, infected and ultimately amputated.
Apocalypse eventually got a hold of Warren (Angel’s real name) and used some genetic manipulation to make his wings grow back… but in metallic form.
Angel then took on the name Death and became part of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
He then quit the horsemen and became Archangel.
Later he shed his metal wings for feathers again.
That shot of Angel looks really good. Each time out the special effects seem a touch smoother/believable. Perhaps we can hope the same for the writing.
JL, you sound a little like a frustrated comic writer. Pardon my ignorance if you’ve already been published (i’ve been away from comics for too long now), but are you submitting stories to publishers?
Memer
I’m not entirely sure how to take your question, but I’ll indulge you just in case you’re being serious:
no, i’m not.
I would like to say however, that I am a frustrated movie watcher. Movie makers rarely do justice to a film. Everyone is so focused on money that they lose site of the reasons we go view their work.
give me M Night or David Lynch over Brett Ratner any day.
yeah, i was being serious, if clumsy in phrasing my question.
sounds like you should prolly stick to film festivals. even if a movie’s crap at least it was done more for love an not commercialism.
Memer:
I’d say you’re right there… except I live in a crap part of the states that gets zero culture.
Independent films are definitely the way to go, though.
That picture of “Ashley” with a creepy doppleganger is a completely different girl than the Ashley Hartman (model/actress) in the film.
www.ashleyhartman.com
Jenni:
Good call! I was nearly certain it was the actual model / actress from the film!
oh wait, no I wasn’t. It was just a joke :)
[…] May 26, 2006 (Currently filming): This will surely be the worst of the X-Men trilogy. Of course if I were a positive person I would say it has the potential of being the best: new director, new characters, new writers. But I doubt this is going to do X-Men 3 any good. After all the people lined up for production of this flick aren’t the cream of the crop. You can read my full rant on the matter if you’d like. […]
X-Men: The Last Stand (movie) 300×250…
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hmm I don’t understand why someone who obviously doesn’t really like comic book movies would rant pointlessly about everyone. lol kinda goofy i was tryin to find something useful hear but don’t look like that will happen
what i dont get is, is that they were having this HUGE debate about who was going to play Gambit, then they just completely kill him off. it really pissed me off