X-Men: Apocalypse has found its Psylocke. Director Bryan Singer revealed on his Instagram that Olivia Munn has been cast as Betsy Braddock, a.k.a. Psylocke. There have been some weird stories about Psylocke’s body getting modified or merged with another person (or something like that — it’s comics), but it’s likely that this movie will simplify things and keep the character as she’s most popular: a psychic ninja. It’s a big role for Munn, but she did give a good performance on The Newsroom, so this casting seems solid. Read more…
Pretty much no one liked the version of Deadpool that appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Since having their hopes dashed with that film, fans have wished for a Deadpool movie that is accurate to the fourth-wall breaking comic book. Fox was experimenting with the idea, but with not much happening recently, the project seems to be dead. But wait: director Tim Miller’s fabled test footage (animated in CG by Blur Studio) has surfaced, and it’s surprisingly great. Ryan Reynolds returns as Deadpool, but he’s much more fun to watch, cracking jokes and illustrating his enemy’s upcoming death. Can we please have a movie like this? I don’t care if it’s tied into X-Men, I just think it would be fun to watch. Maybe the renewed interest in this test footage will give the project a boost? Read more…
Here’s the third and most lengthy X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer yet, featuring a large amount of plot explanation. You know, just in case time travel is confusing. Granted, it’s not always done well, but I’m sure this doesn’t look very simple to the average moviegoer, so I can understand the desire to market it this way. However, given some recent allegations regarding Bryan Singer, I’m not sure I want to give him my money anymore. I think I got most of the plot from the trailer anyway! I’ll check it out on Netflix someday. It does look like a competent culmination of all the X-Men films so far, though, so if you want most of the plot, check out the trailer below. Read more…
The upcoming film X-Men: Days of Future Past isn’t even out yet and already Bryan Singer is announcing the next one: X-Men: Apocalypse! In fact, it has gotten a release date too: May 27th, 2016. Guys, I get that you need to make an X-Men film every few years to keep the rights, but calm down. At least wait to find out if we all hate or love Days of Future Past first! I have high hopes for it like most, but let’s not jump to conclusions here. Oh well, at least fans will be happy to hear that Apocalypse will finally be showing up and wreaking havoc. I expect next week we’ll hear the announcement of the NEXT X-Men film, scheduled for release in 2018. Read more…
We’ve finally got a trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to X-Men: First Class that promises to unite the cast of the original trilogy with their younger selves (and probably create a new unified timeline without those pesky contradictions). Bryan Singer, the director of the first two films as well as a producer/story contributor of X2 and First Class, is again directing and producing the film, which should give some hope to those burned by X-Men: The Last Stand. The plot involves Wolverine being sent back to his younger self (still played by Hugh Jackman, on account of the whole “not aging” thing) to help ensure the survival of both time periods. It’s looking like a fun flick that hopefully won’t go up its own ass with time travel nitty-gritty. Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 25, 2013 in Comic Books
Some superpowers are really silly. We all joke about Ant-Man or Squirrel Girl, but in the end, we like those heroes because of their character, not necessarily their superpowers. But what if you saw someone hating on a popular superhero’s powers. Like say, Wolverine. I’m sure you could come up with some ways to make fun of even fan favorites, like Gambit! Well, that’s exactly what the Pete Holmes Show is doing, with their Ex-Men series. I feel like Holmes is trying to own the “geek humor” market. At least he seems to have a genuine appreciation for the original works! Watch the clips below. Read more…
With the recent release of Star Trek Into Darkness and the constant buzz surrounding 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII, the franchises continue to be big in the public eye. But if these two franchises were stars, how bright would they be? The New Yorker has charted the two franchises, as well as several other prominent franchises throughout the past few decades, to see which franchise has raked in the most money. Unsurprisingly, James Bond wins that, due to there being 24 films in the franchise. But when ranked by what a franchise’s average film earned, Star Wars was the clear winner, as well as in franchise profitability. (Even the prequels couldn’t ruin that!) Since we can’t embed it, you can see the full chart here and find where your favorite franchise wound up. Read more…
Here’s a messy story floating around the internet right now: recently Joss Whedon teased that a certain brother/sister duo would show up in Avengers 2. Everyone jumped up in excitement at the idea that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver could show up, and then EW claims a source confirmed that this would be happening. So far so good, but the messiest part will be the rights. Fox owns the rights to X-Men, but Disney with the Avengers rights puts these two companies in the odd position of both being allowed to use the characters. Will Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver simply never mention their past or father? Or is Disney playing the game for the long-haul, hoping to somehow strike deals with Fox eventually? Like I said, it’s messy, and will probably only get worse as time goes on. Read more…
I feel like this movie has been in production forever, but here it finally is, the first trailer for The Wolverine, the new Logan-centric X-Men movie that will hopefully make people forget about X-Men Origins: Wolverine back in 2009. It seems Wolverine is now mortal (whatever that means), but he’s still capable of slicing up ninjas and the Silver Samurai. Does this make up for the bad X-Men films, or are people still putting their hopes on X-Men: First Class follow-up X-Men: Days of Future Past? Read more…
The latest film in the X-Men saga, Days of Future Past, has started gaining steam with director Bryan Singer announcing some new casting. Well, actually, it’s an old cast, coming back: Anna Paquin, Ellen Paige, and Shawn Ashmore – aka, Rouge, Kitty Pride, and Iceman form X-Men: The Last Stand. They’ll be featuring along with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence. Basically, this next X-Men film is going to be packed with big-name actors from future and past X-Men storylines. The general gist of the story is the future version of the X-Men team contact their past selves to prevent a terrible event in the future. A little vague, and with enough potential for a sort-of reboot? Yup! We’re good here. Read more…
Have some nostalgia for the original X-Men cartoon? The delightfully 90s original opening has a certain charm to it, like so many older cartoons. Perhaps it’s just because we grew up with them, but no matter. Kyle Roberts and his buddies have put together a remake of the 1992 X-Men opening with action figures and drawn backgrounds, the heroes leaping into plastic-y action. I’d argue with their use of the word “stop-motion,” because some of this seems more Flash than stop-motion, but it’s still an impressive and fun video nonetheless. Watch it below the break! Read more…
It’s been a while since Patrick Stewart played Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, in the X-Men films. X-Men: The Last Stand was his last take, with subsequent films focusing on Wolverine and then recasting James McAvoy in the role for X-Men: First Class. Of course, First Class did pretty well, so there’s a sequel planned — and Stewart is back on board. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 12, 2011 in Comic Books
Project Rooftop is a blog dedicated to superhero fashion, but it’s usually more about costumes than couture. In this case, though, artist Kevin Wada has taken several X-Gals and converted their costumes (and powers) into high fashion. All of them are pretty out-there, but then again, so is pretty much every single superhero costume ever conceived, and this is high fashion, so that’s hardly Wada’s fault. He definitely brings the color of these outfits to life, with Phoenix’s crazy hair and Lady Deathstrike’s kimono as highlights in an already-stellar lineup. I’d love to see some of these superpowered supermodels work it on the runway. Read more…
I saw and thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class this summer, with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Xavier and Magneto (respectively) proving highlights of the experience. But, you know, no movie is perfect. There’s always something missing, something just a little bit off. And, thanks to this deleted scene, I finally understand what was missing from First Class: Magneto in drag. Watch the clip; you kind of had to be there. Read more…
If you’re a Star Trek fan, then chances are good that you’ve been waiting for this day for what seems like an eternity. But the moment is here: just in time for the long holiday weekend, you can catch the entire original Trek series on Netflix Instant, along with the entirety of Next Generation and Voyager. Start and stop as you please! Marathon it! Iron-man it! It’s a matter of honor now. But Trek isn’t the only nerdy thing to watch this weekend — Netflix has also added the entire X-Men animated series for your viewing pleasure. For viewers new to the series, you’ll probably want to stop watching riiiight around when Cable shows up. Hey! Just like the comics! Read more…
Ever since I saw Lady Gaga’s “horns” — an addition she made for the release of her single “Born This Way” — I’ve thought that she would make for a pretty good character in X-Men. The question is just whether she’d be on Xavier’s side, or Magneto’s.
No, no– it’s not about Batman raping hicks. Or hicks raping Batman. It’s a French fan-made film about a Batman getting on in his years but still suiting up for one last fight…against Wolverine.
Yeah. I said Wolverine.
Seriously, who cares about Superman versus Batman? Watch the epicness after the jump– the important part starts up at about 4, 4:30. Before that is introspection in French, which is apparently a requirement of all French cinema. Read more…
I’m going to give you a rough review of X-Men: First Class, but before I do that I’m going to give you the highlights:
1. It’s better than it looks.
2. That’s mostly not due to special effects.
3. Michael Fassbender completely works as Erik.
4. January Jones completely works as Emma Frost…as written in this film.
5. Xavier is kind of a dick Read more…
There were several reasons to worry about the latest entry into the X-Men film franchise, X-Men: First Class. You could worry about the film being fast-tracked and barely having its filming done in time for release. You could worry about it being set in a time period removed from our own. You could, especially, worry about it being the latest entry into the X-Men film franchise. But it looks like Marvel made a wise choice in director Brian Vaughn (Kick Ass) — early reviews are overwhelmingly positive, stating the film’s script and stars do a great job in reviving the series and shedding new light on familiar characters. It even gets a favorable James Bond comparison in Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. Sounds good to me. We’ll know for sure as more reviews come out in the next few days, in time for First Class’ June 3rd release. Read more…
Like many of you, I had some fond memories of the X-Men animated series which aired on Fox during the mid-’90s. It wasn’t nearly as good as Batman: the Animated Series, but at the time there really wasn’t much on the air in the way of comic-based cartoons. With the announcement of the upcoming X-Men anime which will be airing in Japan, I made the mistake of watching a few of these “classic” episodes. Read more…
Seems like we’re seeing lots more anime adaptations of quintessentially American IPs, like Supernatural, coming out of Japan these days, and a lot of them are through the animation studio Madhouse. Their latest offering, an X-Men anime, has all the hallmarks of such an adaptation — achingly beautiful hero (Cyclops), a whole lot of fire, and a Thundercats character. Wait, no, that’s Beast. But you can’t deny that there’s a family resemblance there! I think that X-Men is actually a property that might work well in anime, with its mix of character drama and over-the-top action, so I’ll be interested to see the final product. Read more…
Finally, the first trailer for X-Men: First Class has been released. Apparently filming is still ongoing, or was up until recently, even though the film has a release date of just four months from now. You wouldn’t know that from the trailer, though, which actually looks pretty good! We see Magneto and Xavier being pals, Azazel bamfing around, Emma Frost going all diamond on us, and some short shots of other X-Men like Beast and Havok (the latter mysteriously present in the 1960s). The movie’s plot seems to revolve around the Cuban Missile Crisis, which would definitely be a compelling point in history for mutants to reveal themselves. Here’s hoping the movie can be completed in a satisfactory manner before June. Read more…
I really want to like X-Men: First Class, but past news about the film had me worried that it would meet even my lowest expectations. A badly-photoshopped and unauthorized pic of the film’s cast in their X-Men uniforms had me even more concerned. It appears that Fox agreed, releasing three new promotional stills showing the cast in their ’60s duds in response. It didn’t really strike me until the seeing the image above just how well-suited Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are to play Magneto and Xavier, respectively. And yes, that’s January Jones in the catsuit as Emma Frost. As to how the movie will actually turn out, who knows? They’re still filming, which hardly bodes well for a movie that’s supposed to come out in June, but Matthew Vaughn is a good director, so I have faith. At least the film got me to utter one phrase I once thought impossible — “and Azazel is in this movie.” Read more…
Having managed to run the most popular X-Men characters into the ground in a mere four films (“mere” given the sheer volume of characters to make use of), Fox’s X-Men: First Class is starting to look like one of those movies that’s the fourth or fifth flick in a popular movie franchise, where the movie gets released directly to DVD and stars an entirely different (and cheaper) cast than the original. Read more…
