NOTE: There are a few X-Men: First Class story spoilers in this post so you may want to hold off on reading it until you see the film.
I was reading Alex Billington’s brief comments on X-Men: First Class and when he wrote, “Bryan Singer and director Matthew Vaughn have revived the franchise in the prequel X-Men: First Class,” it got me to thinking… Did they really revive the X-Men franchise or did they make a movie that pretty much requires no more X-Men movies be made?
On my review of the film one commenter reacting to the “B-” I gave it said, “Seems like your rating is a little low for all the praise you’ve given it Brad.” One of the reasons for my rating (which I don’t believe to be low), other than everything I mentioned in the review, is because the film, while good, doesn’t necessarily seem to have much reason to exist outside of giving us a starting point for the characters we met in Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000 and followed to completion in X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. If anything, I’d say it gave us way too much if we’re going to talk about a franchise revival.
X-Men: First Class plays more like a two-hour television series premiere. The best suited follow-up would be a series of one hour episodes as this new batch of X-Men team up to combat against Magneto until we finally get to the year 2000 and they battle it out at the Statue of Liberty.
By the time First Class is over Professor Xavier is paralyzed from the waist down, Magneto is running off with Mystique and the world is afraid of mutants. Uh, this sounds like we’re pretty much right where we started in 2000. So, as far as I can tell, the franchise has run its course.
I understand there are several X-Men comic stories to pull from to tell yet another story. I’m sure mutants had something to do with the JFK assassination, the first man on the moon, the creation of the internet, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the AIDS epidemic and Elian Gonzalez, and perhaps this is where we’re headed. Considering the fact one of X-Men: First Class‘s biggest problems was the development of the younger mutants, their involvement in sequels interests me very little outside of them being used for their powers and not exploring who they are as people.
The one viable option I see is the one I mentioned in my review, which would be to embrace director Matthew Vaughn’s Bond-esque treatment of the material and play future installments similar to the James Bond franchise. Character progression would be thrown out the window and we’d head to the days of Blofeld where Bond would simply have to take down Blofeld’s minions and foil his plan for global domination. The only difference is it would be a team of mutants serving as both the Bond-like gadgetry and the protagonists versus Magneto and whomever he recruits to his cause each time around.
There is still the anticipated Wolverine sequel to think of, which could potentially be quite interesting should Fox ever settle on a director after losing out an opportunity to have Darren Aronofsky really turn the franchise on its head. Other than that, what’s left? Do you want to see a sequel to X-Men: First Class or did it feel like one was enough for you as well?
