Tag: X-Men (11-20 of 69)

Jun 6 2011 01:20 PM ET

Summer Movie Body Count: 'X-Men: First Class' schools the competition on best deaths

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Image Credit: Murray Close

Week 5 of EW’s 2011 Summer Movie Body Count continues with X-Men: First Class. For those of you who do not possess memory-related superpowers, here’s a reminder of the rules. SPOILER ALERT: Things are about to get messy!

Note to self: Next year, fight to do Summer Movie Body Count on the next installment of Kung Fu Panda. Because in the first five minutes of X-Men: First Class, we had two men dead after Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) crushed their metal helmets like beer cans at a frat party (while they were wearing them!), one dead mom (you can’t have a superhero movie without a parental tragedy), and a holocaust. The latter doesn’t count toward our overall total, however, because the deaths happened off-screen. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 4 2011 10:00 AM ET

'X-Men: First Class': How much should superhero films follow the comic book?

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A few years ago, 20th Century Fox realized they needed a way to extend the cash-cow X-Men franchise into infinity and beyond, so they decided to create a new X-Men prequel. This prequel would focus on the relationship between two iconic X characters, tracing how they went from best friends to mortal enemies. Although based on comic book mythology, every aspect of this relationship was reinvented for the film: How the two characters met, their history of working together, the nature of their friendship, how they became nemeses, everything.

But this prequel would also need to introduce a new variety of mutant heroes and villains — action figures must be sold, spin-offs must be spun, attractive young actors need work. So the prequel would feature a cavalcade of characters plucked, apparently at random, from nearly half a century of collective X-Men history. Most of these characters had never even interacted in the comic books. Almost everything about them — motivation, age, general temperament, personal history — was altered to fit the resettled movie timeline. The average moviegoer wouldn’t notice any of this. The average comic book fan would be driven mad. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 3 2011 11:40 AM ET

Movie Math: 'X-Men: First Class' is everything you like about the franchise... plus 'Muppet Babies'!

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Image Credit: Murray Close; Attila Dory; Everett Collection; Francois Duhamel

Class is in! And today in EW Movie Math 101, we’re taking a look X-Men: First Class, the fifth (yes, fifth!) movie in this still-alive franchise. So let’s take a closer look. Pay attention, there’s a pop quiz at the end. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 3 2011 11:00 AM ET

PopWatch Dictionary: 'Preboot.' (Example: 'X-Men: First Class')

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Image Credit: Murray Close; Attila Dory

Everyone knows what a sequel is. Everyone unfortunately knows what a prequel is. Everyone who doesn’t know what a reboot is will feel very confused at the multiplex next year. But in the nightmarish franchise laboratory of modern Hollywood, the Boys in the Back Room have created a horrific new subspecies that harnesses the power of the fourth dimension to pump new energy into a fading film series. The name of this monstrosity? The preboot (noun, origin unknown unless someone is stupid enough to claim it). Like the common prequel, the preboot takes place chronologically earlier than previous films in a series. But unlike a prequel, the preboot is not intended to lead directly into those earlier films. Instead, a preboot purports to restart a franchise in an entirely new direction. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 29 2011 05:32 PM ET

'X-Men' movie round-up: Producer teases upcoming 'Deadpool,' 'Wolverine,' 'X4,' and 'X5' projects

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Do you love the X-Men? I mean, really love the X-Men? Would you be happy living in a world where approximately 40 percent of all films released in theaters was some sort of X-Men sequel/prequel/spinoff/reboot/remake/spinboot? Then, my friend, the future belongs to you. Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer of the X films, has an extended interview in the new issue of Empire magazine in which she teases a host of upcoming X projects. Of course, the X-Men comic books have been a spin-off factory for decades now — in the ’90s, essentially every X-Man had their own solo comic series, even X-Man, who wasn’t really named X-Man, but that’s another story I wouldn’t dream of boring you with. Given that the last couple of big-screen X projects have featured a veritable carousel of potentially spinnable characters (Hi, Gambit! Bye, Gambit!), it’s unsurprising to see that there are a few different projects currently in the planning stages.

First up: The long-rumored Ryan Reynolds Deadpool project, a non-spinoff spinoff to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. READ FULL STORY »

Feb 23 2011 10:00 AM ET

Comic book fans: What are they saying about the slew of new superhero films?

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superheroesImage Credit: John Schwartzman; Jay Maidment/Marvel Studios In this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, we took a look at the superhero-heavy diet Hollywood is serving up to moviegoers for 2011 and 2012. It’s a regular binge of masked celebs, served with generous helpings of high-profile directors, hand-battered in sequels and reboots and deep-fried to golden crispiness. Most audiences will devour this repast of capes and tights. But what are crime-fighting movie fans with more discriminating tastes expecting?

We asked Ahmad Childress, Managing Editor of Crave Online, a media outlet that oversees such fansites as Super Hero Hype and Film School Rejects, to get his take on what comic book enthusiasts and the diehard fanboy-and-girl communities are saying about the upcoming deluge of villain-pummeling epics.

“The thing that usually polarizes people first is the casting,” Childress says. “That always gets debated to death out of everything.”

Read Childress’ take on the buzz surrounding each upcoming superhero flick after the jump:  READ FULL STORY »

Feb 9 2011 04:50 PM ET

Wolverine or Batman? Who's on your mind?

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Wolverine and Batman share an unusual amount of superhero DNA. They’re both gritty, deadly serious, and brutal. With chips on their shoulders. In fact, you can Google “Batman versus Wolverine” and stumble into a wormhole of passionate nerd debate over which hero is superior. If you’re a comic book connoisseur, you’re practically required to have an opinion on which surly crusader would survive an imagined confrontation in a dark alley. So it’s revealing to see which comic book icon you initially recognize in this clever piece of art. Close your eyes, empty your mind, and make the jump: READ FULL STORY »

Jan 14 2011 11:19 AM ET

'The Green Hornet' kicks off the Year of the Superhero today. Will audiences flock to second-tier characters?

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2011-superhero-yearImage Credit: Zade Rosenthal/Marvel Studios; Michael Muller/Marvel Studios; Nels IsraelsonDo you love superheroes? I mean seriously love superheroes? Then 2011 is your year, my friend. Today marks the long-delayed release date of The Green Hornet, and this summer we’ll be treated to four major comic book movies: Thor, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, and Captain America. All of those movies are positively begging audiences to love them enough to qualify for a trilogy, and Thor and Captain America are both essential cogs in Marvel’s beautiful vision of an Avengers movie mega-franchise. But considering that all of these films are based on characters who aren’t very well-known to the masses, it’s worth asking: Is 2011 the year that superheroes achieve total cinematic domination? Or is it the year that the superhero genre stumbles? READ FULL STORY »

Oct 14 2010 06:45 PM ET

Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver sign up for paranormal activity. Hot Hollywood Trend: Psychics!

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Sigourney-De-NiroImage Credit: Bob Charlotte/PR Photos; Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesYes, moviegoers, Mr. Taxi Driver is talking to you — WITH HIS MIND. The two-time Oscar-winning actor has signed a deal to play a psychic in the movie Red Lights, directed by red-hot Buried helmer Rodrigo Cortés, Variety reports. The film — which will begin shooting in February — also stars Weaver as a shrink, who will no doubt be all skeptical and wet blanket-y about De Niro’s supernatural flair.

Psychics of all sorts seem to be pretty popular these days. Matt Damon is courting Oscar buzz with his turn as a spectral communicator in Clint Eastwood’s new movie Hereafter, opening tomorrow. Meanwhile, on the telly, Simon Baker plays a former fake psychic who uses his supreme mental powers to help solve crimes on CBS’ The Mentalist. And over on ABC, Kay Panabaker plays a teenaged mind-reader on the superhero family drama No Ordinary Family. Coming next year, my favorite comic book telepath — Professor Charles Xavier, leader of The X-Men — returns to the big screen in director Matthew Vaughn’s franchise prequel reboot (title: X-Men: First Class) starring James McAvoy as the mind-scanning mutant. Why so many psychics right now? It probably has something to do with our deep yearning for blah blah blah during these blah blah blah times. Actually, it’s probably a coincidence or just lazy Hollywood trend chasing. But feel free to overthink this and post an alternative suggestion below.

Read more:
Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon, and tsunamis: Is ‘Hereafter’ too soon or right on time?
‘No Ordinary Family’ recap: Liar, Liar, Secret Identity
James McAvoy signs on to ‘X-Men: First Class’

Oct 14 2010 10:00 AM ET

Ryan Reynolds says Deadpool could beat Wolverine. Who is the ultimate X-Man?

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Deadpool-WolverineImage Credit: James Fisher(2)Rough estimates indicate that there are an estimated 547,000 characters who are considered “X-Men.” I am not effing with you. (And that doesn’t count future selves, alternate-reality duplicates, and omniscient trans-universal bird clones.) And X-Men fight each other all the time: because of mind control, because of puberty, or because they just plain don’t like each other. None of the fights are ever particularly decisive — they’re a family, after all — but it still takes some serious mojo for Ryan Reynolds to unilaterally announce that Deadpool could kick Wolverine’s shiny adamantium butt. After all, unless I’m forgetting anything, Deadpool has fought Wolverine in comic books, movies, and television, and always lost. (Although who ever really loses when both characters can heal from decapitation?) Still, Reynolds’ cheerleading can’t help but make you wonder: Which X-Man would stand triumphant in a knock-down drag-out fight?

You may disagree, but I think this comes down to three contenders whose powers are not based on line-of-sight (to counter telepathy): READ FULL STORY »

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