Television X-Men '97 (Disney+) - update: series creator fired days before premiere, "A New Age" trailer

[TwinIon]

On 5/9/2024 at 6:21 AM, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The one weakness of this series is that its breakneck, frenetic pace leaves little room for quieter moments that would more fully lend substance to Xavier's ideal that humanity is worth co-existing with.  Practically every human character with whom the mutants interact is depicted unsympathetically (at best!) which means that Magneto's position is essentially portrayed as the "correct" one by default and Xavier's idealism is portrayed as wishful thinking at best and downright stupidity at worst.

 

I do wish the episodes were a bit longer or that there were more of them so that the pace could be slowed down just a little bit.

The show really does move at an incredible pace. I agree that it feels like it needs to slow down and breathe a bit to fit in some more quiet character moments. On the other hand I often feel like the pacing is to its benefit so you don't have enough time to slow down and ask any questions. I feel like there is a lot going on, especially in the last few episodes that wouldn't work as well if you have to sit with it a while. 

[Greatoneshere]

Since others took the time to rank X-Men movies vs. MCU movies, I'll do the same as well. I believe I've ranked them in the past at some point, but I'll use Kal-El's and GeneticBlueprints 5-point scale this time. Most of the scores won't rock any boats, but where I thought a comment was needed I added one.

 

X-Men Movies:

X-Men: 4

X-Men 2: 4

X-Men: The Last Stand: 2

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 1

The Wolverine: 3

Logan: 5

X-Men: First Class: 4

X-Men: Days of Future Past: 4 (sometimes this feels like a 5 to me, not sure what others are talking about with the ending though?)

X-Men: Apocalypse: 1 (parts of the movie are fine but overall this thing is bad)

X-Men: Dark Phoenix: 2 (I saw this recently, it's not that bad, it's just boring and inert)

The New Mutants: 2 (a lot of potential and I went in wanting to like it but it's not good ultimately)

Deadpool: 4

Deadpool 2: 4 (Deadpool 2 is underrated, surprised others gave it a 3, it is endlessly rewatchable)

 

MCU Movies:

Iron Man: 4

The Incredible Hulk: 3

Iron Man 2: 3 (a 1 is crazy )

Thor: 3

Captain America: The First Avenger: 3

Avengers: 5 (it's a perfect film, elegantly using it's ensemble in a pitch-perfect action adventure team up film, this movie changed the game)

Iron Man 3: 3

Thor: The Dark World: 2

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 5 (again, it's a perfectly paced and executed film with thrilling action scenes, this solidified the MCU's quality at the time)

Guardians of the Galaxy: 3 (I like the film but I'm not in love with the Guardians movies as most are)

Avengers: Age of Ultron: 4 (for a movie forced to do so much, Joss Whedon finds a way to make it all work and still make it feel like a movie, party scene is top notch)

Ant-Man: 3

Captain America: Civil War: 4 (I agree that which characters take which side doesn't fit but each individual scene is made so well for maximum impact)

Doctor Strange: 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: 3 (it's a great MCU cosmos world building movie and it's earnest and there's a lot of character work but it's all a bit boring ultimately)

Spider-Man: Homecoming: 3

Thor: Ragnarok: 5 (I waffle between a 4 and a 5 on this one but the movie is so funny and fun, GeneticBlueprints 2 is crazy)

Black Panther: 3 (Kal-El's 5 is too high for me, two armies smashing into each other at the end and the final fight are both terrible)

Avengers: Infinity War: 5 (infinitely rewatchable, incredible feeling stakes, excellent filmmaking, this is top tier, yes we know no one's dying but still a great movie)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: 2

Captain Marvel: 2

Avengers: Endgame: 4 (I actually think this is a bit of a stepdown from Infinity War, way more fanservice, timey-wimey BS, etc.; still good though)

Spider-Man: Far From Home: 3

Black Widow: 3

Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: 3

Eternals: 3 (real weight to the film, real locations, excellent filmmaking, actual character work)

Spider-Man: No Way Home: 4 (after your first viewing the film isn't as good on rewatch, it's good but it's a lot of fanservice, well done or not)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: 2 (no horror or madness, constant/endless action, little character work, Wanda's character gets ruined, etc.)

Thor: Love and Thunder: 1 (this movie is a perfect example of everything wrong with the current MCU, from Waititi barely giving a fuck to the terrible VFX)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: 3 (it's an interesting movie that actually takes its time but there lacked a certain oomph and the less said about Ironheart the better)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: 1 (like Love and Thunder, just representative of everything wrong with the current MCU)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: 3 (solid movie, solid send-off, Gunn still struggles with tone)

The Marvels: 2 (the movie's heart is in the right place but that's about it; one training/bonding montage and that's it?; 20 minutes wasted on non-sequitor scenes)

 

Based on this scoring model, looks like plenty of MCU films either tied with the first two X-Men movies and a few did do better. Avengers, The Winter Soldier, Ragnarok, and Infinity War came out higher (as did Logan) which tracks for me since I do find those to be better than the first two X-Men movies. The ties also make sense for me. This is an interesting time to rate these two universes with Deadpool & Wolverine coming out soon which will finally bridge these two disparate universes together.

[Spork3245]

Here’s my rankings of the Xmen movies in order of which I’d watch first!

Logan

Days of Future Past

A live video stream of a porta-potty

Attack of the 50ft Woman

Listening to Logan Paul for an hour

Watching Dennis Miller do stand up

Going to the GOP convention this year

Most of the other XMen movies

X3

Dark Phoenix

 

[GeneticBlueprint]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

X-Men: Days of Future Past: 4 (sometimes this feels like a 5 to me, not sure what others are talking about with the ending though?)

 

I think it's when the big third act CGI final battle started feeling a little played out for me.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I think it's when the big third act CGI final battle started feeling a little played out for me.

 

Yeah I agree with that, probably why I waffle as well on whether it's a 4 or 5. So much of it is so well done so it's tough.

[GeneticBlueprint]

5 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Yeah I agree with that, probably why I waffle as well on whether it's a 4 or 5. So much of it is so well done so it's tough.

 

Agreed. Spiderman No Way Home followed that template in some way and I loved that movie too.

[Kal-El814]

5 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

X-Men: Days of Future Past: 4 (sometimes this feels like a 5 to me, not sure what others are talking about with the ending though?)

 

For me personally there are 3 issues.

 

1) The whole movie sets up the crux of the Sentinel program being whether or not Raven becomes a killer. She's nowhere to be seen in the present, I guess things are fine? Making the future of mutant kind being dependent upon Raven and her relationship with X-Men, Charles, Erik, etc., and having her not be a part of the finale is weird. And Raven rescues Logan? As Stryker? But Logan presumable still ends up in the Weapon X program? What actually happened here?

2) Our Logan essentially deletes whatever Logan had existed between the 70's and "now." Who knows how long that Logan and Charles knew one another, but it's long enough for Logan to become a professor at Chuck's school.  Charles is just... happy to see our Logan? Is his friend gone? Our Logan doesn't have any memories of these X-Men, etc. That shit is weird and it only makes sense for the viewer and not for the characters.

3) Charles letting Erik go at the end is fucking insane. They reconnected for a week and Erik broke his word, tried to kill Raven, started himself a lil attempted mass murder with the implication that he was gonna go do a genocide..."good luck with all that!"

 

I don't think any one of these things would have registered individually but them all happening in the last 15 minutes or so felt like they just didn't know how to land the plane.

[MarSolo]

I’m gonna throw an insane hot take: Winter Soldier is the best modern comic book movie of all time to the point I put it above the Dark Knight.

[Greatoneshere]

3 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

For me personally there are 3 issues.

 

1) The whole movie sets up the crux of the Sentinel program being whether or not Raven becomes a killer. She's nowhere to be seen in the present, I guess things are fine? Making the future of mutant kind being dependent upon Raven and her relationship with X-Men, Charles, Erik, etc., and having her not be a part of the finale is weird. And Raven rescues Logan? As Stryker? But Logan presumable still ends up in the Weapon X program? What actually happened here?

2) Our Logan essentially deletes whatever Logan had existed between the 70's and "now." Who knows how long that Logan and Charles knew one another, but it's long enough for Logan to become a professor at Chuck's school.  Charles is just... happy to see our Logan? Is his friend gone? Our Logan doesn't have any memories of these X-Men, etc. That shit is weird and it only makes sense for the viewer and not for the characters.

3) Charles letting Erik go at the end is fucking insane. They reconnected for a week and Erik broke his word, tried to kill Raven, started himself a lil attempted mass murder with the implication that he was gonna go do a genocide..."good luck with all that!"

 

I don't think any one of these things would have registered individually but them all happening in the last 15 minutes or so felt like they just didn't know how to land the plane.

 

I actually agree with all of these as definite issues to the film, but even movies that are a "5" have issues. When watching the film in the moment these aren't really concerns that one is thinking about on a first viewing so are these bad enough to bring it down to a 4? I guess hence the waffling.  

 

1 hour ago, MarSolo said:

I’m gonna throw an insane hot take: Winter Soldier is the best modern comic book movie of all time to the point I put it above the Dark Knight.

 

I think it's definitely in the conversation. I don't think it's better than TDK but they are in the same tier.

[MarSolo]

8 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

I think it's definitely in the conversation. I don't think it's better than TDK but they are in the same tier.

The one reason I put it above the Dark Knight is the action. The fight scenes in Nolan’s Batman films are too frantic, reminds me of Kevin Dunn’s WWE directing style where there were constant camera cuts.

 

That street fight scene between Cap and the Winter Soldier right before the Winter Soldier is revealed to be Bucky is one of the best fight scenes in any comic book movie. It’s so raw.

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, MarSolo said:

The one reason I put it above the Dark Knight is the action. The fight scenes in Nolan’s Batman films are too frantic, reminds me of Kevin Dunn’s WWE directing style where there were constant camera cuts.

 

That street fight scene between Cap and the Winter Soldier right before the Winter Soldier is revealed to be Bucky is one of the best fight scenes in any comic book movie. It’s so raw.

 

Somewhere there's a 3 hour cut of Winter Soldier that's just Cap coldcocking pirates while at a full sprint.

[69los]

Spoiler

What are you going to do, child? Slay me with the 4th of July?

 

Epilogue #1: Definitely not what I was expecting.

 

Epilogue #2

 

Spoiler

So that's how he comes back.

 

[Kal-El814]

I thought the ending was a little clunky and suffered from them trying to cram so much into the previous episodes. There just wasn’t enough time to have the landing really stick and it showed. Not bad really, just the least good episode of what was otherwise a great season. 

[NeoJoe]

8 hours ago, 69los said:

  Reveal hidden contents

What are you going to do, child? Slay me with the 4th of July?

 

Epilogue #1: Definitely not what I was expecting.

 

Epilogue #2

 

  Reveal hidden contents

So that's how he comes back.

 

Spoiler

Proceeds to plasma slice off his tentacles and melt his face. About time Jubilee got that power up!

 

[GoldenTongue]

11 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

I thought the ending was a little clunky and suffered from them trying to cram so much into the previous episodes. There just wasn’t enough time to have the landing really stick and it showed. Not bad really, just the least good episode of what was otherwise a great season. 

As much as I enjoyed the episode in many ways, I'd have to agree with this.  Watching the episode was like the visual equivalent of trying to sip water from a firehose.  Things happened so frenetically that there was hardly any time for moments to breathe, which ultimately served to diminish the weight of what would otherwise have been some wonderfully powerful moments.  Nearly every scene with Xavier and Magneto was spectacular, but there was so little time to appreciate some beatifully nuanced elements, before we were shot cannon-style back into some action elsewhere.

 

It robbed the last ten minutes or so of some dramatic heft that might otherwise have been realized in what was, in terms of narrative, an incredible climax to the season.

 

But kudos for leaving us wanting more - it's been a minute since I've watched a season finale which left me feeling as impatient for the next season, as this one did.

[TwinIon]

I know we have more coming, but this season kind of feels like the writers thought “I can’t believe they green lit this, let’s not assume we get another season and just do it all.” It’s kind of hard to appreciate any given threat when they have to jump around so much and move on to the next, bigger threat, but only after a major reveal and in between some major emotional scenes.

 

That said, for a series that I had zero expectations for, this was quite a ride. Looking forward to some more throwback comic book insanity.

[MarSolo]

After seeing the cameos of

 

Spoiler

Peter, MJ, and Flash watching the tv, give me that Spider-Man reboot.

 

Just drop all the shit from the last couple of seasons with Madam Web, water clones, Black Cat being the second super soldier, Electro being a Nazi secret weapon, Captain America‘s five Buckies and their lame power rings, etc.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

As @Kal-El814 said, "clunky" is the perfect way to describe the series of season finale episodes, along with @GoldenTongue's garden house analogy.

 

The frenetic pace of the series has been there from the outset, but it never really bothered me in the least until the season arrived its denouement when the relative lack of connective tissue and quieter moments really did impact the actual storytelling aspect.

 

Despite these shortcomings, I'd be damned if I didn't say that I wished the second season was starting next week!

[Jason]

I found it a little slow to get into but once it gets going it's really good. Glad I waited until I could binge it, it seems like it would have been a little frustrating as a weekly drop with the short episodes. 

[Mercury33]

This show just really emphasizes how cookie cutter and empty of any real stakes or emotion the MCU films are. 

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

This show just really emphasizes how cookie cutter and empty of any real stakes or emotion the MCU films are. 

 

I mean anyone that died is very obviously going to come back so… whatever.

[skillzdadirecta]

‘X-Men ’97’ Races To Finish Line With Strong Finale Audience

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X-Men '97 managed 3.5M views for its finale on Disney+, Deadline can reveal exclusively