As people head out to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine this weekend, the question on a lot of people’s minds will no doubt be, how does it compare to the previous X-Men films? While I’m sure some will claim it is better than X-Men: The Last Stand, it’s still hard to get past the feeling that something is missing. It’s not quite an X-Men movie, even though it wants to be one. With Fox currently contemplating even more X-Men prequels and spin-offs, they run the risk of alienating their audience and watering down the X-Men name to the point of no return. Are they playing with fire?
Perhaps the question is irrelevant in this age of reboots, where studios can easily erase their past mistakes, but I do think the X-Men series is at an important crossroads here. There are a LOT of characters in the X-Men universe, but only a few that can support a standalone movie. Wolverine makes sense, but would a Magneto prequel really draw a crowd? What about the proposed X-Men: First Class spin-off for younger viewers? If you ask me, there are only so many new characters you can introduce before audiences get confused, and only so many times a movie series can change creative hands before audiences stop caring. At that point you just have to make a clean break and start over again from scratch.
What do you think? Do you like the idea of an unlimited stream of X-Men spin-offs from different directors? Would you prefer to see X-Men 4 or is that now impossible? Are all comic book movie franchises simply doomed to die after four installments? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
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