FILMonBLU-RAY: X-Men - First Class (Review)

X-Men: First Class
2011 - 20th Century Fox
Released on Blu-Ray & DVD on September 9, 2011

# of Discs: 3 (Blu-Ray, DVD + Digital Copy *Target Exclusive version comes with DVD disc of the movie*)
Runtime: 132 Minutes

Fox's fifth journey into the X-Men part of the Marvel Universe takes the audience back to the very beginning of the story. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS covers the years skipped over by the first X-Men movie from the time young Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) discovers his mutant ability in a German concentration camp to the meeting of Erik and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the eventual formation of the first team of X-Men to the inevitable taking sides between the professor and Magneto.

Along the way they cross paths with the global meddling Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his Hellfire Club, saving the world in the 60's and facing the truth that homo sapiens fear the homo superior (mutants) too much to trust.

The recreation of the concentration camp scene from the first X film was a definite visual highlight of the early part of the film and seeing young Erik's anger awaken his latent mutant ability for magnetism. Then the film takes it to the next level by connecting that moment to the villain of this film Shaw, putting him in a position of power in the German force under the alias Schmidt and immediately displaying his evilness as he tries to figure out what triggers Erik's magnetic ability.

Following Erik's revenge journey globetrotting across the world hunting down those connected to the camps in his search for Shaw could have been a film on its own. The director's decision to channel James Bond with Erik really came through in these moments like when he went to the bar and took down two former German soldiers who had escaped punishment.

And as a nod to the previous films in the franchise, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS included cameos from two stars from the films. When Erik and Charles are going around recruiting mutants, they stop in at a bar where they come upon a drinking Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who tells them rudely to go away which they promptly do. And when Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is in Erik's bed trying to get his attention she turns into an older version of herself (Rebecca Romijn).

In the special features included with the movie was the "Children of the Atom" documentary that covered the entire production of the film from behind the camera, to the conception and the casting to the locations and the sets, it is a thoroughly entertaining and informative peak into the film that is just as worth watching as the film is. There is also a bunch of extended and deleted scenes that help flush out some of the moments of the film that might have felt too brief in the final cut.

If there is an X-men movie to watch, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is it. While it may be confusing to someone not familiar with the X-Men movie universe and the changes that have been made in comparison to the source material in the comic books, the spirit of the world and its characters is right there in the film. And those that liked the previous four X films will definitely fall in love with this one, as it takes the best of those films and pays tribute to them by building the foundation for that world. This Blu-Ray is worth adding to your collection for the film alone, the special features put it over the top. A must buy.

Look to buy the X-MEN: FIRST CLASS Blu-Ray over at Amazon for $21.99.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Uncanny X-Men #535 (Review)

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson
Cover by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

By happenstance, UNCANNY X-MEN #535 was the first comic from the stack of comic books for the second week of April that I read, and outside of the other uncanny title to come out there was not much competition for the top spot after I had read that book.

Continuing from the previous week's .1 issue, the series now only has one main pilot as writer Kieron Gillen has taken over the reigns. A new storyline starts, bringing back the elements from Joss Whedon's ASTONISHING X-MEN run of several years ago. Agent Brand of S.W.O.R.D. has returned from the end of her own series to bring a vital request for help from the X-Men. Unfortunately Beast does not get an inclusion, but as one of my favorite X-related characters it was nice to see Agent Brand again.

Brand is back because remnants of Breakworld are making their way towards earth and of course because the X-Men and specifically Colossus were reasons why this could be a problem she got them involved. Magneto tags along and his fascination with the remnants of the bullet Kitty Pryde had been stuck in will surely play a part in the future of this story. It is interesting to find him so passionate about it while everyone else has it on the backburner outside of trying to find a cure to Kitty's constant phase status.

The interior art and cover are provided by the husband wife team of Terry and Rachel Dodson and the book just looks beautiful thanks to their efforts. The cover is reminiscent of a sci-fi epic image, with Kitty and Colussus taking feature spots in it, possibly a foreshadow of parts of the story yet to unfold.

It has been over thirty issues since Matt Fraction's influence came over the X-books and I welcome a change of the writing guard as it has been awhile since I was eagerly reading issues of UNCANNY X-MEN (outside of the Second Coming event) and while I am not entirely familiar with Gillen outside of his S.W.O.R.D. work, I am enjoying the cast he is working with and look forward to seeing what the story will end up being about.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Cyclops #1 (Review)

Written by Lee Black
Art by Dean Haspiel
Cover by Roger Cruz

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99

The moment I picked up and read Marvel's CYCLOPS ONE-SHOT I knew that I had found the top book from the last week in March's comics stack. What made it stand out from other stellar releases from the week like CAPTAIN AMERICA #616, INCREDIBLE HULKS #621 and the JIMMY OLSEN ONE-SHOT was the fun and humor found in the pages focused on a character that rarely gets to seen in such a light.

Unlike the main X-books that are mired in continuity and the the gritty realism of the era the stories are now written in, writer Lee Black took everyone's favorite optic-blasting mutant back to his younger first class days to present a fun, adventure-filled story that works well in that perceived simpler time.

In the story called "The Bicycle Thief: Or How Cyclops Got His Groove Back", readers are treated to a well-rounded portrayal of Cyclops. He goes from sharing his feelings after a rough day with Zelda the cute barista, to chasing after Batroc the Leaper and his crew that led Cyclops into bizarre situations like having to steal a bike, finding himself in a Hydra warehouse, visiting a pet store being used as a super-villain storage unit, before coming face to face with the criminal mastermind behind it all, Baron Zemo. Over the length of the adventure, Cyclops finds himself having fun and being able to relax in a way his teammates had been able to during battles when he had not.

To match the timing of the story, the art reflected a style reminiscent of the earlier X-MEN: FIRST CLASS series, even going so far as having the cover drawn by the first class artist, Roger Cruz.

I almost wish this was a start of a series instead of just a one-shot, because it proved that a solo title for Cyclops can be entertaining and honestly there are just not enough fun, all-ages titles covering the big characters from Marvel. Sometimes you just need to step away from the events and enjoy a simpler story you can finish in one go and that is when releases like this CYCLOPS ONE-SHOT are a welcome gift to the week. Give it a read, you will not regret the time taken.

FILM: Marvel Movie Surge (Commentary)

On July 14, 2000, when the first X-Men movie was released into theaters there was no expectation for the comic book movie market that had been dormant outside of a handful of Batman movies over the previous ten plus years to explode. Yet we sit here ten years later finding multiple comic book releases flooding into cineplexes with Marvel out in front leading the charge.

While DC and Warner Bros are only just starting to rev up their movie adaptations of DC stories (Green Lantern, Superman 6 and Batman 3 on the way), Marvel has three comic book films coming in the summer of 2011: Thor in May, X-Men: First Class in June, and Captain America: The First Avenger in July.

All three are from Marvel's big name franchises, the first movie for both Thor and Captain America (not counting the 1990 direct-to-video Captain America movie that I have enjoyed in the past) and the fifth movie under the X-Men banner. These are safe bets to garner a mainstream audience and with the rising ticket prices all should easily cross $200 million domestically in the U.S.

But for every The Dark Knight, there is also a Jonah Hex, where a smaller and even more niche comic book franchise gets greenlit into a film and the quality of the product begins to wane in an attempt to change the material enough to get a mainstream audience to even look at the film.

Marvel has had their own misfires (Elektra, Punisher: War Zone) and with a solid decade of having produced a steady stream of Marvel films, including three Spider-Man movies (a fourth is on the way), two Fantastic Four movies (a third/reboot movie is being talked about) and the previously mentioned four X-men films (with fifth out in 2011), Marvel has widened their adapting gaze at their entire comic book library and as a result I fear audiences are in store for some films from smaller books that won't have the built-in brand name audience to support their creation.

Instead because of the interconnected universe that is created with comic book companies like Marvel, it would be a better idea to introduce the movie adaptations of these smaller characters by making them a part of a much bigger film. Marvel did this smartly already with the Fantastic Four sequel, where instead of giving Silver Surfer his own film that would probably not do well as the character has not been able to even support his own solo title with this generation, they took the character and his story and made it the defining tale to be told in the Fantastic Four film, surrounding the newcomer with characters the public already knew and loved.

Marvel President Kevin Feige has talked about possible movies with Iron Fist, the Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, all titles not starring top tier characters of the Marvel universe and I have to think that it would be best for some of these characters to be introduced in other Marvel films (like Black Widow was in Iron Man 2) and even then the subsequent films should be created as films solely on their own merit and the inclusion of the superhero should be secondary with absolutely no need to focus exclusively on the character's origin unless its ancillary.

I know that the Avengers movie has been cast and moving towards production but with this being a Marvel movie-centric commentary I wanted to mention my idea for dealing with the problems Marvel had with Edward Norton. Now Marvel merely recast the role for the Avengers movie but with my love for continuity between films and the fact that they had already recast the character once in the last five years I would have liked for them to have gone in a different direction.

That direction being exchanging the Hulk's spot in the Avengers with his just as gamma-radiated cousin, She-Hulk. Bringing in Jennifer Walters would give movie audiences a different perspective to the powers and prison of the Hulk, and it would help balance out the male to female character ration that is awfully lopsided for the Avengers film. In the way that James Cameron and Avatar made giant blue women attractive, Marvel could have used similar technology to bring everyone's favorite green gal to the screen and be visually appealing at the same time.

Unfortunately that is a path that was not chosen and with how much trouble Marvel has had with the Hulk franchise, I can't see another Hulk film in the foreseeable future let alone a chance to introduce She-Hulk, unless they decide to go that route in following Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. films. Either way, next summer will be a good measuring tape for Marvel's movies and whether there can be such a thing as overexposure in the movie industry.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's Marvel themed picspam.

TV: 2010 SDCC News Highlights

Over the last weekend several industries traveled down to San Diego for a series of panels and interviews for fans that unveiled plans for the following year. Here's some of the interesting TV news to come out:

--Felicia Day is coming aboard the Syfy series "Eureka" for 10 episodes next season. The charming, web-friendly actress has won over the web and seeks to spread her influence to the tv market.
--A new Transformers animated series is coming, Transformers Prime with a cg skin and will reunite the voices of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker in their classic roles of Optimus Prime and Megatron.
--The Smallville panel on Sunday confirmed that the big baddie for the final season is indeed Darkseid. Expect a future blog post on my dream season 10 for Smallville. Kryptonsite has started posting interviews from SDCC with the actors.
--During the Chuck panel, it was revealed that the role of Chuck's mom would be played by Linda Hamilton ("Terminator 2"). If the show can carry the lighter, fun feel that the extended part of season 3 had, Chuck should gain good momentum towards a fifth season.
--Out after SDCC but worth including, G4 is teaming up with Sony to create 4 animes based off Iron Man, X-Men, Wolverine & Blade. All stories veer towards a Japanese storyline and I wonder just how interesting American audiences will find it. Perhaps short stories/movies ala the Animatrix or the Batman animes would have been a safer bet.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's picspam on a TV theme.