X-Men: First Class

Scott Horowitz: “It ruled.”

X-Men First Class is a great comic book movie. it went back to the feel of the first one where they made you feel that mutants can exist in our world. The cast was superb, and even thought they ignore continuity, it was done very well

− June 13, 2011 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply

Scott Hardie: Just curious, do you mean continuity with the other X-Men movies, or continuity with the comics? I expect little of either; reading the comics years ago taught me not to sweat that small stuff. − June 13, 2011 • more by Scott

Scott Horowitz: they threw continuity away in both regards actually − June 30, 2011 • more by Scott

Erik Bates: I'm all for rebooting a series, but I'm not a big fan of it when the series is so fresh and new in our minds.

It's one thing to do it to Star Trek, which has had a long and successful run, or to James Bond, which has had an even longer and more successful run. But to do it to such a fresh series of movies (albeit an old series of comics), did nothing more than confuse the hell out of me. − June 30, 2011 • more by Erik

Scott Hardie: You'll probably want to stay away from The Amazing Spider-Man then. Or The Contractually Forced Spider-Man, if truth in marketing prevails.

Star Trek wasn't a pure reboot; it did take place within existing continuity. Am I a nerd merely for knowing that, or was it that I pointed it out?

As for the Casino Royale reboot, it was a little odd that Judi Dench once again played M even though this was supposedly a new series with no connection to the originals. I would have much preferred it if, in the scene where she tells Daniel Craig that he's now agent 007, she told him "your name is now James Bond and your previous identity has been erased." Instant new series without violating the old series. Oh well.

About too-soon reboots in general, I'm totally with you. When he dropped Megan Fox, I'm surprised Michael Bay didn't just jettison the other human characters and start over with a new Transformers series but basically the same effects. Would anybody notice the difference? I'm glad that Christopher Nolan is making another Batman movie, because heroic self-sacrifice seems like the right ending for his Batman, and it doesn't matter what he does because Warner Bros. will just reboot the series with some other director afterwards anyway. − June 30, 2011 • more by Scott

Erik Bates: Good point on Star Trek. Not a reboot, technically, but the same outcome of one. They just used good ol' sci-fi work-arounds to make a reboot while still maintaining continuity. − June 30, 2011 • more by Erik

Evie Totty: I KNOW I'M LATE HERE

But. X3 was such a huge piece of crap that they HAD to do something. I think it was more of a 'let's ignore that piece of crap and do a backstory'.

At least that's how I wanna remember it. LOVED it by the way. − April 13, 2012 • more by Evie

Scott Hardie: It's funny... Two years ago, we talked about this movie being a reboot of the X-Men film series. But when I watched it last night, it didn't feel like one to me. It felt like another film in the same series, albeit with a few tiny retcons. There's a brief (and funny) appearance by one of the characters of the other films, and several references to the characters' lack of aging that seem to be made only to justify the timeline. Since the next film will feature both the 1960s and present-day characters, I think it's becoming clear that this was always part of the same series.

Now I have debated on the Internet whether a superhero movie was technically a prequel or a reboot. This is some kind of nerd rite of passage. − May 11, 2013 • more by Scott

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Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

Fun movie. The basic formula of the X-Men movies has become tiresome by now: There's a lot of demonstrating each character's sole power, standing around in dramatic poses, and suddenly changing allegiances as if it matters which side anybody's on. But this one is an above-average installment in the series, funny and brisk with a good cast. The movie gets a lot of mileage out of the 1960s setting, and makes a few good in-jokes about the comics and other films. Having a different villain than Magneto provided a much-needed refreshment. I look forward to the inevitable next film.

− May 11, 2013 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply

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Erik Bates: “It ruled.”

I'm going back through some old reviews that I commented on to see a) why I didn't just write a review, and b) to write said review.

I don't know why I didn't like this one to start with. Perhaps looking at it in light of Days of Future Past, I feel like my reboot argument is cast aside much in the same way that you can't say that the new Star Trek series is a reboot. Days essentially pulled a Trek on us and hit the reset button on history in order to allow for new stories to develop without sacrificing continuity (with the exception of X3, which I think we can all say that we just wish wouldn't have happened in the first place).

− February 24, 2015 • more by Erik • log in or create an account to reply

Scott Hardie: Yeah, agreed about Days and Last Stand. The latter film remains canon but there's no need to bring it up again. I expect the new Star Wars films to take that same attitude regarding Episodes I-III.

Since our conversation in 2011, I have become even more confused about the Bond "reboot" series, thanks to Skyfall wanting it both ways. It's supposed to be an all-new series starting in the present day, since it introduces classic characters like M and Q as if Bond is meeting them for the first time. But other characters treat Bond like a dinosaur of a long-ago era, and he has the same car from one of the Connery films stashed away in a warehouse. What the fuck? It's like two writers each contributed half a movie without consulting the other. − February 24, 2015 • more by Scott

Erik Bates: Even so, I'm absolutely adoring the new Bond films, and I'm hoping there's merit to the rumors of Idris Elba being the next Bond. − February 25, 2015 • more by Erik

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