X-MEN 3 (Trailer info included)

[ringsyde]

The guys over at Superherohype.com got a first look at the X Men 3 trailer. Here's their summary of the trailer:

The trailer is a montage of scenes from the film. It starts out with a voice over by Patrick Stewart. As he talks about the war of mutants (as well as angels and demons), we see a bunch of very, very brief scenes. Here's what I remember (not necessarily in order):

- The X-Men walking down the hall in the basement of the X-Mansion. We see Wolverine, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and others.
- An exterior shot of the X-Mansion
- Storm walking out of the Mansion doors and looking at a cloudy sky.
- Quick shot of Professor X in a wheelchair.
- A shot of Beast and the other X-Men at what appears to be a funeral.
- A shot of Angel, shirtless and in a lab, quickly unfolding his wings in from of some scientists.
- A quick shot of the President and his advisors.
- Juggernaut in a containment cell.
- A shot of Magneto in the woods flanked by Pyro, Juggernaut, and an Asian mutant among others. Magneto delivers a line and dozens of mutants raise their fists in the air.
- Cyclops screaming at the sky.
- Wolverine meeting Cyclops at Alkali Lake and his glasses flying off and into Wolverine's hand.
- Jean Grey waking up on an infirmary table.
- An X-Student walking through the halls of the Mansion flying paper airplanes with his powers.
- Storm flying through the air, then spinning and knocking people over.
- Storm flying and knocking Wolverine out of the way of debris falling down (in a Danger Room training sequence).
- A shot of Magneto causing a car to fly up into the cab of a truck.
- A shot of Magneto and other mutants walking along the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bridge then starts ripping and bending apart.
- A shot of Jean Grey casually walking towards a door in the infirmary and it violently blowing apart.
- A scene of Wolverine jumping out of a tree and tearing someone apart with his claws.
- A shot of Mystique jumping onto a desk in front of somebody, and her hands are chained together.
- Wolverine falling down in a corner in between two walls and as he's falling he's got his claws sticking out slowing his fall and there are sparks flying from his claws.

The trailer then concludes with the X and Wolverine's claws as seen on the poster. The reaction to it was overwhelmingly positive among us and we applauded it (which was again surreal with Hugh Jackman there seeing it for the first time with the rest of us).

This teaser gives us our first look at Beast in full makeup. The best way to describe it is to say that Kelsey Grammer looks like the Marvel Legends Beast action figure, at least from the neck up. You'll have to freeze frame the trailer in order to get a good look at him (or any of the mentioned scenes, for that matter). However, the scene with Angel is what stood out to most of us who watched it together. Seeing him unfold his wings was an impressive sight.

Originally, I was very worried about the quality of this movie. The director carousel and the lack of interest on the part of the cast seemed to suggest the franchise was doomed. Lately, however, the news has been extremely positive. Patrick Stewart has said that this may be the absolute best superhero fim made to-date, and many of the folks at Marvel and DC comics have pointed to X-Men 3 as one of the movies that will breathe new life and interest into superhero movies.

[Mike M]

I hope that you're right. I've been a big fan of the first 2, and I've been looking forward to seeing what they do for this one.

[pikemojo]

Breath new life into superhero movies? It is not like they stopped making them or even stopped making good ones. Batman just recently came out on dvd and that was great. Fantastic Four is about to come out on dvd and that was a fun movie.
I am excited for this one though. It makes me curious as to whether they have official mutants asigned for some of the parts that were unnamed like the asian mutant with magneto or the kid flying the paper airplane with his powers. Part of what was cool about the first 2 movies is that you could see some young mutants use their powers and get excited because you could figure out who it was.
Kelsey Grammar will be great as Beast.

[ringsyde]

If you look at the money made and the titles signed, this genre is actually slipping. The unfortunate truth is that the market is saturated with superhero movies and television shows.

Granted, Batman Begins did wonders, but many have argued that it didn't break 80-100 million dollars on opening weekend because the fanbase is starting to get it's fill of spandex men (for the record, Batman Begins did roughly 70 million dollars during opening weekend).

Another consideration is that many directors are now shying away from superhero movies. Guys like Quinten Tarantino turned down many a script because of the dreaded hassle of pleasing comic fans and because the Spiderman's, Batman's and Sin City's are being slowly crushed by the Daredevil's, Hulk's and Elektra's of the genre. Others have stated that they hesitate to join in because these movies are now being made with the same rate of speed as teen horror movies were during the nineties, and at some point fans will fall out of love with the superhero movie.

I'm not sure if I agree with these assessments, but I can see this happening if the ratio of respectable films (Batman Begins, Spiderman, Hellboy and X-Men) to trash (Daredevil, Aeon Flux, the last Blade) tips heavily towards the trash.

[hooligans2]

The problem is that there are too many great comic movies like Batman Begins, Fantastic Four, the X-Men movies, the Spiderman flicks, and it somehow seems to make the comic companies think, "Oh, ok well let's just put all the characters we want out there with a movie. People will eat it up." I, for one, am hugely ticked off at them casting Nicholas Cage as Ghostrider. Ghostrider is one of my favorite characters and Cage is mediocre at best. Unfortunately, I think that just like in the past people will start to give up on comic movies because for every X2 or Batman Begins, you have a handful of Elektras, Hulks, Daredevils, and other such garbage. Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

[tafkaga]

The only comic book movies of the last 10 years that are worth watching to me is Spider-Man 1 & 2. I was horribly disappointed by Batman Begins after fully expecting it to be better than its four predecessors. X-Men 1 & 2 were 1-time watchers at best. I have yet to see a comic book film other than Spider-Man that comes close to capturing the characters accurately. X-Men merely gave us a "hip" version of the team, with Wolverine as the tall and ruggedly handsome hero rather than being the short, stocky, incredibly hairy loner that we all know him to be.

[Darth Turkish]

Well Glenn Danzig was interested in playing Wolverine, but when the producers found out he wanted to be drenched in fake blood the entire movie, they realized he was nuts and found someone they could build the franchise off.

[ringsyde]

I'm going to bet that Ghost Rider will be a dud. From the sounds of things, no one is expecting much from this film. Avi Arad isn't even excited, and he almost had to be drugged to stop talking about Daredevil and Elektra.

tafkaga, I can't agree with your assessment of Batman Begins (currently, my favorite superhero movie), but you're right abou the X Men movies. Everyone is hip and sexy, and there are no unattractive mutants. For the record, the long history of Wolverine casting also included Dougray Scott, Robert DeNiro (no kidding), and Val Kilmer.

That said, I think Jackman has made the role his (even though he looks nothing like Logan).

[Darth Turkish]

I feel that even if they take a tier 2 hero (Punisher) or lower (Iron Fist), they can make a good movie. It does not have to be a blockbuster and sell millions. Compare Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith to Serenity. In terms of story, character development, and as an overall film, Serenity was much better, but it did not draw a quarter of Ep III's revenue.

I do not mind studios putting out superhero movies, as long as they are quality flicks. I would much rather see a well thought out and canonnically true film to , say, Captain America than a new blockbuster film with some Hollywood star that is more interested in having his face shown than an honest portrayal of the character.

[pikemojo]

As long as the movies continue to make money they will continue to make them. That is the exact reason that there is a Hulk sequel being made. After box office, dvd sales and merchandise they made a lot of money. All of these elements need to be taken in to effect when looking at how well a movie did. Box office sales are way down all across the board. I think people are looking at movies prices compared to dvd prices and deciding that they are willing to wait 6 months for the ability to own or rent a movie over paying almost 20 bucks to see it with someone.
I am pretty easily entertained and so if a comic movie entertains me I am happy. It doesn't have to be the very best depiction of the character or be completely loyal to the comics. If the characters are close and the story is half way thought out I can be happy. I actually enjoyed Daredevil, Elektra, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and generally alot of other movies that people hated. I like Waterworld for goodness sakes. Obviously I like a movie more and am more willing to spend more money on the franchise if the movie is better in terms of story and character loyalties.

[tafkaga]

Hehe... I liked Waterworld too. Well, I didn't love it... but I didn't think it was half as bad as most people said. Hulk, on the other hand, was so putrid that I had to turn it off within the first half hour. I could not stomach the way they edited it together with different panes and scenes popping up in different areas of the screen. I know they were trying to remind the viewer of a comic page, but it was just too distracting for me to want to sit through.

I agree with Turkish. I am an old comic book reader, and I just wish that they would try harder to make an accurate portrayal of the characters in the movie. The failure to do so is the reason why I can't handle a lot of the movies like the Batman franchise.

Strangely enough I love the Superman series with Christopher Reeves. I know the SFX are dated, that there are plot holes galore, and that Margot Kidder was the worst Lois of all time... but to me they are a lot more fun to watch than Batman Begins or any of the modern day stuff.

[ringsyde]

The official teaser traileris now up at:
www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x3/

I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen so far. Let's hope things keep going in the right direction.

[Chris Ingersoll]

If they manage to salvage even a "good popcorn flick" out of this it should be considered a major accomplishment, considering the amount of crap that went on during (pre-)production.

The trailer looked promising.