REVIEW: Deadpool & Wolverine

SPOILERS FROM THE START

Thoughts on The New Mutants

 In the latest of my "occasionally catching up on the films I've seen lately" series, I'm taking a look at New Mutants, the Fox comicbook movie that has been stirring in development hell a while. This was supposed to be released in 2018, but the continual messing around by more than one production company delayed it by two years. The original idea, to make the The New Mutants comic series into a full-fledged horror film was kiboshed by Fox's cold feet. The film was rewritten and reshot, then changed back again after the horror-themed trailers gained a good response, before Disney bought up Fox and demanded yet more reworking to make it marketable under their brand.

The result is a very brief 94-minute film, with a botched sense of tone. Still, I found a lot to enjoy. The first couple of acts work really well as a genuinely unsettling asylum horror, riffing on the enduring fear of being unjustly imprisoned. It balances this with the superpower stuff pretty well, particularly since the New Mutants' power sets are mostly pretty horrifying anyway. The final act has the same problems many superhero movies have, going all out with the action at the expense of the tone and coherence of the film, but overall it works. It feels like there's a much stronger film in here, though, and I hope that it proves popular enough that someday a director's cut is released. Sadly, the fact that it finally limped to cinemas in the middle of the pandemic means it'll probably be put down as a failure regardless.

This is officially part of the X-Men movie universe that started back in 2000, and after twenty years audiences are familiar enough with that for a mere handful of references to reassure them this is the same world. Just having people manifest powers spontaneously as a fact of life makes everything much more streamlined.

The cast is excellent, and the interpretations of the characters is strong. Blu Hunt is the star, playing Dani Moonstar (Psyche or Mirage in the comics), a teenaged girl of Cheyenne heritage who manifests her powers when her village and family are destroyed by a demon bear. If this seems ridiculous, then the writers agreed, taking that strange supernatural villain from the comics and reworking its nature very cleverly. I mean, it's well signposted, so I won't reveal the exact nature of Dani's story here for anyone who is going to watch it still. In any case, I liked what they did with the idea and thought Hunt was solid in the role.

Dani is then taken into a hospital/prison/training camp for adolescent mutants whose powers threaten them and their loved ones. Maisie Williams, probably the most recognisable of the young faces here, is excellent as Rahne Sinclair, a Scots girl shunned by her Christian community because of her mutation. Her name in the comics is Wolfsbane, and she's basically a werewolf (I guess the inference is that all werewolves must have shared the same mutated gene, but this is never explored). She and Dani form a close friendship that develops into a very sweet and tentative romance, which is a new development to the comics but works very well onscreen. It adds more weight to the anti-fundamentalist Christian narrative as well.

Anya Taylor-Joy is also excellent as Ilyana Rasputin, aka Magik. She's initially characterised as the surly mean girl, but her character has much more depth than that and has been through real trauma and abuse. Her memories of it clearly aren't meant to be accurate depictions of what she went through, instead manifesting as some of the most horrifying imagery in the film. The fact that she's very sexualised as a result of her abuse actually makes the character uncomfortable to watch, since to begin with she's clearly meant to be the sexy lithe one and this forces you to question how you're viewing her. 

Ilyana has a strange rewrite in the form of Lockheed, the dragon companion that is associated with Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde in the comics. It's not clear exactly when this is set (X-movie continuity being a minefield anyway), so they could have included a recast young Kitty here, but instead, Lockheed is reimagined as Ilyana's soft toy hand puppet, essentially her safety blanket. Her reality warping, dimension jumping powers do give us a "real" Lockheed eventually though. What's missing is her brother, Colossus, who was apparently part of an earlier draft. Still, it's hard to see how he'd fit in here.

Brazilian actor Henry Zaga plays Bobby da Costa (Sunspot in the comics), who's a rich boy jock but is a very vulnerable character once you get past the bravado. His fire-based powers are a standard superhero ability, but the script really looks at how terrifying and destructive they would really be. His character turned up briefly in the future segment Days of Future Past, so presumably this is a good few years before that. I understand there was some controversy over Zaga's casting, since Sunspot is supposed to be of mixed race and Zaga isn't, but to be honest this didn't seem to be part of this version of the character's story at all. 

Charlie Heaton, who's definitely a new big thing since Stranger Things, is Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), and plays him with a broad Kentucky accent. I really liked his character in this, more openly vulnerable than the others but tremendously brave when it came to it. I imagine that, had the Fox X-Men films continued, he would have graduated eventually to X-Force as in the comics, along with maybe some of the other cast members.

The wonderful Alice Braga plays Dr. Reyes, the teens' doctor/captor, and manages to make her both sinister as hell and quite sympathetic. Like in the comics, she can generate powerful forcefields, even using them to maintain the border of the hospital, which is a cool concept. She's normally a heroic character in the comics, so it's interesting that they've made her a villain here. She works for the Essex Corporation, which ties this film to Logan, which is presumably many, many years later. 

While I found the early part of the film very atmospheric, it's still a fairly low-rated film, whereas the initial idea was clearly to go for an R-rated release like Logan and Deadpool. Still, you can get away with quite a lot on a PG-13/UK 15 rating these days, and there are some really disturbing moments. Again, there seems like there's a lot of unrealised potential here. The plan was to make this the beginning of a new trilogy of films, and the ending is left open in a way that could easily be followed up, but this really looks like the last gasp of the Fox X-Men franchise. I mean, it's thirteen films over twenty years, if you count the two Deadpool movies, so that's an impressive innings, but it's fizzled out now and there's no indication that Disney wants anything to do with the series. Well, with the exception of a (presumably toned-down) third Deadpool and recruiting Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine (which is highly unlikely). Any new X-Men projects will be a separate thing, and we'll never get to see the screen manifestation of Mr Sinister. On its own merits, though, The New Mutants works well, but it's inarguably a middle-of-the-road comicbook movie. A shame, because it tried something different and has a lot to enjoy.

REVIEW: X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Catching up with the movie reviews. Some spoilers to follow:

REVIEW: DEADPOOL 2

It is, I'm afraid, impossible to review this one properly without resorting to SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk, because the SPOILERS start immediately, and they might spoil things. They're spoilery like that.

Crazy like a Fox

So, Fox has sold it's huge catalogue of creative properties to Disney, leaving it to focus on sport, news and other propaganda opportunities. This isn't particularly surprising, in some ways. Disney has been hoovering up properties over the last ten years, acquiring Marvel and LucasArts among others, making it the heavyweight in the tentpole blockbuster game. Fox's TV and film output has been increasingly at odds with its far right, conservative news output; The Orville is a good example of a show that doesn't always get it right but at least tries to show strong women, same-sex relationships, interracial relationships and gender fluidity in positive lights. Fox News, on the other hand, is world-famous as the most right-biased news network in the United States and a major factor in the proliferation of homophobic, transphobic, racist and misogynistic opinions held by the contemporary Republican party. There's a weird schism there.

Soon, 20th Century Fox will, bizarrely, no longer be owned by 21st Century Fox, but by the Walt Disney Company. Rupert Murdoch will be another fifty billion dollars richer and Disney's movie empire will stretch even wider. Unsurprisingly, it's genre fans who are talking about this aspect the most, seeing that many of the most popular fantasy franchises will now be owned by Disney. Having already acquired Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Disney now own the Alien and Predator franchises. Most notably for comicbook fans, Marvel studios now have access to all of the properties previously owned by Fox, including the X-Men and all associated characters such as Deadpool and Cable, plus the Fantastic Four and their associated cosmic beings.

Although Fox will be releasing its immediate output including Deadpool 2, New Mutants and X-Men: Dark  Phoenix, any further productions for these characters will involve Disney/Marvel, including around a dozen TV and film productions already in various stages of progress. Fox's plans for the FF have been in stasis since the dreadful 2015 movie, and presumably Marvel will be making the most of having their first family back in their creative hands. Marvel still don't own the screen rights to all their characters. Spider-Man is still owned by Sony and is used by Marvel Studios under agreement, with movies focusing on subsidiary characters, such as the finally-happening Venom movie, wholly under Sony's purview. Marvel will continue to use the Hulk as a supporting character, but a Hulk-focused movie won't happen unless Universal agree to a new deal on the character; currently, Universal hold the distribution rights on any Hulk film and will not let up on this, while Disney will never let another studio distribute one of their tentpole movies. There's been a long interest on both sides in making a movie for Namor, the Sub-Mariner, one of Marvel's oldest properties, but the rights situation there is complicated (and any Namor film now would look like it was ripping off Aquaman anyway). While Marvel own the Malibu comics rights, film rights to Men in Black, their only real hit, still rests with Malibu's former owners, and they're probably not letting them go, although it's easy to see how keen Disney would be to get their mitts on those.

One area of concern amongst fans is that Disney is not known for R-rated movies, but for more family-friendly affairs, which doesn't bode well for the future of the Alien and Predator franchises, nor the more adult-oriented direction that has made such a hit of Deadpool and Logan. This isn't something that I'm too worried about; Disney have already announced that they've no plans to take the R-rated franchises in the other direction, and they're canny enough to make the most of what works, for maximum exposure and profit. We just won't see "Walt Disney" splashed all over these films' posters.

I am, like most Marvel fans, hugely enthused that we might finally get the movie the Fantastic Four deserve. I actually quite like the first two films - they weren't good, by any stretch, but they were fun, goofy movies, and some risible miscasting aside, they were enjoyable. Still, the FF should be getting huge, cosmic crowd pleasers like Guardians of the Galaxy, not small, moody affairs like Fant4stic. No, what I'm not keen on is the idea of the X-Men coming into the MCU.

This might seem odd. This is what every Marvel fan has been dreaming of, right? Wolverine joining the Avengers! Spidey and Deadpool! Iron Man fighting Doctor Doom! The thing is, Marvel's comic universe is hugely overstuffed, with increasingly unwieldy crossover events involving every-single-bloody-title making any series hard to follow and franchise involvement overly expensive. I barely buy Marvel comics anymore because of this. The MCU is already reaching breaking point, and the announcement that the fourth Avengers movie will signal something of a cut-off point for the interconnected approach is no bad thing. The X-Men movie universe has been its own thing for the last seventeen years, playing fast and loose with its own continuity and trying new things. It messed it up as often as it got it right, but at least it's been interesting. Moreover, the X-Men mythos is rich enough and diverse enough to maintain its own universe. Bringing all this into the MCU, recasting most of it again, no doubt, making mutants just another group of super-people like they are in the comics will actually be creatively damaging for the franchise.

Still, it will probably keep Disney off Universal's back for a while

REVIEW: THE GIFTED 1-1) "eXposed"

The only non-DC/CW comic-related series I'm reviewing here, this is Fox's new X-Men-related series. Aside from reminding me that I still haven't watched Legion, about which I've heard very good things, this is a great opening episode that promises an interesting take on what is now a well-worn subject. I haven't watched the second episode yet, but I ma very much looking forward to it on the strength of this. The X-verse is big enough and has enough characters to generate new spin-offs for years, as long as the creators can do something interesting with them. While it's important that The Gifted distinguishes itself from the X-Men movies, it's a good idea to have Bryan Singer helm the pilot. There's a darker, grungier feel to this than the movies, but it still feels like part of the X-verse, even though it's very unclear how - or even if - it fits into the continuity there. Not that it has to matter, given how shaky the Fox movie timeline was even before the timeline changes, but this might just fit in as an earlier part of Logan's timeline, after the X-Men are destroyed but before mutants are weeded out.

The cast are all fairly impressive in this pilot. Amy Acker is always a favourite, and Stephen Moyer is very strong as the anti-mutant police officer Reed Strucker. It's a set-up with some effective built-in conflict: the family headed by someone who prosecutes mutant criminals, and then lo and behold, the two kids turn out to be mutants with psychokinetic abilities. I like Reed is clearly torn between his oath and his family, but quickly and decisively chooses to go on the run with them because he knows exactly how badly the kids will be treated. Immediately after young Andy's powers manifest while some jocks are kicking the shit out of him, everything goes to hell, and the news is branding them as unknown mutant terrorists. Sentinel Services - complete with its own mutant-hunting robots - is sent out to detain them without charge, and in seconds, one of them has a gun trained on a teenaged kid. While the X-Men franchise has been used to explore all sorts of discrimination and outsider groups, this is so far pretty blatantly about racism and kneejerk reactionism. You only have to look at how many black kids are shot by white cops who supposedly felt threatened to see how this would go down in the real world. (It might have been interesting to show Andy deliberately blowing up the school as a lashing out against his bullying as a parallel to the epidemic of school shootings in real world America, but I guess that would have made him far too unsympathetic a character).

The mutant vigilante team are fun, although we don't get to know them very well. Even Marcos/Eclipse (a new character, not from the comics), who is the de facto leader gets little fleshing out, but then this is only the first episode. His power set is pretty cool so far: not only can he generate light energy as a weapon, he seems to be actually full of light, which bleeds out of him when he's shot. It's good to see Blink reintroduced after her short appearance in Days of Future Past (more Blink-and-you'll-miss-it there), and Jamie Chung's a favourite too. I like that these kids aren't portrayed as straightforwardly the good guys, either. They're obviously fighting against real injustice, but people die because of their actions, and they're not left unquestioned. There are some interesting hints for the future, as well. Polaris is clearly set up to be a major character once she appears, which brings possible links back to her father, Magneto, and presumed half-brother, Quicksilver. The multiple images of a wolf-like creature are interesting foreshadowing, too. (I'm guessing nothing to do with Wolfsbane or the Demon Bear, what with these lined up for The New Mutants movie).  Definitely one to follow.

FILM REVIEW: LOGAN

"An excellent farewell to Jackman's long run as Wolverine."

Batman has been played by eight actors in live action films since 1943. Superman by five, Spider-Man by four. Most of the X-Men, in spite of the seventeen years of continual film production in a (broadly) consistent universe, have been played by two or more actors. But it's hard to imagine anyone else playing the Wolverine.

Some day, of course, someone else will play Logan. Fox won't let the character lie forever, and if they ever let the X-Men rights slip, Marvel would snap them back up and make a Wolverine film like a shot. Whoever takes on the role is going to have a very tough time winning over Hugh Jackman's fans. On paper, he is totally, notoriously wrong for the part. A short, stocky, beaten-up little bruiser being played by a strapping, handsome actor, who was best known for musicals prior to getting the part. Nonetheless, Jackman has been note perfect throughout his appearances in the X-Men franchise, from starring roles to cheeky cameos. He's the only actor to appear in all of the X-Men and Wolverine films - you can even include Deadpool in that, if you want to count the paper face mask Wade sports at the end. 

Logan is to be Jackman's final time as the Wolverine. This is probably for the best; there's only so long anyone can play an ageless mutant. Taking inspiration from the Old Man Logan storyline is something that Jackman himself campaigned for for some time, although seemingly he was mostly interested in the "old man" part of that than anything else. Indeed, very little from that questionable comics series has survived, beyond the future setting, the aged Logan and the road trip format. It's 2029, and no mutant has been born for over a decade. Logan is working as a chauffeur, of all things, trying to earn enough money to get out of the States. He is, along with the vampire-like mutant Caliban, caring for Professor Xavier, who is having psychic seizures that are devastating to everyone in the vicinity.

It's not a jolly setting, and it doesn't appear to be either future shown in Logan and Xavier's last mission together, Days of Future Past. But then, the writers X-Men franchise has never worried too much about continuity. Logan exists in relation to the previous X-Men films, but set apart as its own story. Nonetheless, the script assumes a certain knowledge of the basic set-up of the X-Men's world, and the nature of both Logan and Xavier's characters. It would be possible to come in cold and pick this all up, but it's not intended to be watched like that. It's a reflection on Wolverine's character, how he's developed through the films, and how he can be expected to deal with the decades of horror and violence he's experienced.

Logan is an extremely violent film, with decapitations, gunshots to the head, brutal beatings and murders aplenty. While I might sound like a scratched record, I am amazed that it has been released with a 15 certificate in the UK (an R-rating in the States, which isn't quite the same but still more permissive than I'd expect). Not too long ago, Logan would definitely have been rated 18. I don't think it's too violent, though. Indeed, it's honestly violent, in the way that, say, Tarantino films usually are. Violence is horrific and should be treated as such, and a less visceral version of Logan would blunt the message of what violence can do to someone.

The film hinges on Logan's two core relationships: with Xavier and Laura Kinney. Both call back to the first X-Men film in 2000. While X-Men saw Xavier take Logan in and bring him back to some semblance of civilised behaviour, here we have Logan caring for the decrepit Xavier, looking after him both for his sake and the sake of anyone else in the local area. The second relationship, with his genetic daughter, Laura, mirrors his paternal relationship with Anna Paquin's Rogue in X-Men. However, there's no element that calls back to the Logan-Jean Grey relationship, although a line referring to Jean was reportedly cut from the final edit. It's hard to see how such a relationship would have worked in this film, and it works better focusing on a relatively small core group of character. Nonetheless, it's a pity that there was no room for Liev Schrieber's Sabretooth in the film - the one good addition to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and a character who is inextricably tied up with Wolverine's story.

Both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart give exceptionally good performances as aged, sick versions of their now familiar characters. With Logan slowly dying from the adamantium that has been poisoning his system for decades, and Xavier dying from straightforward old age, there's an sense of impending death throughout the film. The Logan-Xavier relationship is one of exhausted commitment and responsibility, tempered by genuine fondness and good humour. Hearing Stewart swearing his tits off throughout the film is worth the ticket price alone. Surprisingly good is Stephen Marchant's performance as the ghoulish Caliban, bald and albino and sickly, an outsider to the pairing but one who helps hold it together.

Really, though, it's Dafne Keen's performance as Laura that makes the most impression. In spite of having no dialogue for much of the film, the Anglo-Spanish actress, at only eleven years old, gives the most remarkable performance of the film. She easily holds her own alongside Jackman and Stewart, no easy feat at all. She possesses both raw, terrifying instinct and heart-rending vulnerability. Laura Kinney has been a huge success in the comics, first as X-23 and now as the new Wolverine, and it's easy to see a great future for Keen as both an actor in general, and as an ongoing star of further X-Men films.

Logan's journey is at once both cynical and hopeful, giving up his less realisable hopes of escaping with Xavier to his adoption of Laura's own dreams, finally helping her achieve her freedom. It's also, as the X-Men films have always been at their best, about family.

SPOILER-HEAVY AFTER THE BREAK

REVIEW: X-Men: Apocalypse

SPOILERS INSIDE!

REVIEW: DEADPOOL

Deadpool shouldn't work as a character. Created by the notoriously shit Rob Liefield at the height of his nineties excess, Deadpool is hyper-violent, puerile and deliberately offensive. As a comicbook title that repeatedly breaks the fourth wall, mocks the conventions of its medium and genre and pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable for the format, it certainly shouldn't work as a movie. Languishing in development hell for a decade, the film has been the personal mission of Ryan Reynolds since he fell in love with the character when, in one issue, he was referenced as a potential lookalike (“Ryan Reynolds crossed with a shar pei,” was the actual phrase used). Reynolds could have been forgiven for dropping the project when he signed up to play the character in the disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film that completely missed the point of Deadpool almost killed any potential the character had for screen success. Yet, seven years and a well-judged test footage leak later, here it is: a faithful, hilarious and already hugely successful Deadpool movie.


It's only February, and Deadpool is probably already the film of the year. Utterly vulgar and excessively bloody, bursting with truly hilarious moments alongside exploding guts, gratuitous nudity and, somehow, a genuinely sweet love story, the movie captures the spirit of the comics at their best. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and it's most definitely not suitable for the tween-to-teen target audience of The Avengers and its ilk, and it's a breath of fresh air in a climate of endless and increasingly interchangeable comicbook movies. Reynolds is absolutely spot-on in the part he was born to play, silencing anyone who thinks he can't be funny. The knowing postmodernist style of the comics is present and upfront, with the story told, alinearly, by Deadpool to the audience, while he isn't ripping the piss out of himself, the guy playing him, the directors, comicbook movies as a whole and anyone who crosses his path. The decision to animate Deadpool's mask – allowing his emotions to show through, just like in the comics – is inspired. They should really do the same thing with Spider-Man when he comes back.

Deadpool's lover, Vanessa, is the second-most likeable prostitute Morena Baccarin has played, and the two leads have excellent chemistry, through each foul-mouthed yet tender moment to the next. (Although, frankly, I think their relationship develops a little on the slow side. Also, their banter almost descends into the “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch at one point.) Equally spot-on is T.J. Miller as 'Pool's best mate Weasel, as is the wonderful Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Deadpool's elderly, coke-nosed roommate. Ed Skrein is great too; a protagonist as violent as Deadpool needs a truly loathsome villain, and Skrein's sadistic turn as Ajax, ably supported by Gina Carano as Angel Dust, is more than up to the task.

The characters I'm desperate to see again, though, are the X-Men: Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, played by Stefan Kapicic and Brianna Hildebrand, respectively. Finally, they've got Colossus right; gigantic, unstoppable, Russian through-and-through and a complete boy scout. NTW, on the other hand, is sure to be an instant favourite with everyone, a sullen goth with no time for any of this shit who wipes the floor with anyone stupid enough to underestimate her powers. If we ever get that X-Force movie, Deadpool, Colossus and NTW are all surely going to be on the team (along with Cable, naturally). It does raise questions, though. Is Deadpool part of the X-Men movie franchise? Well, clearly, yes, although it exists in its own, tangential reality to the canon. Obviously it doesn't fit with Origins: Wolverine, but that seems to have been pretty much dropped from continuity anyway. In any case, it's rather pointless worrying about continuity in a film where the main character not only references the rest of the franchise's actors and complains about the timeline being too confusing, but actually makes a fourth-wall joke whilst breaking said wall.

The action is, of course, spectacular, with brilliantly choreographed fight scenes that are both funny and brutal. It's all the more impressive when you consider that the already tight budget was being slashed even as they were filming, necessitating last-minute rewrites. Really, though, Deadpool's all about the humour, uncompromisingly, violently hilarious all the way. Deadpool winks and wanks his way through the movie, winning more fans than ever, and the sequel is already in the works. However, let's not forget the real hero of this film: Dopinder, the taxi driver. Make sure Karan Soni is in the sequel as Deadpool's exclusive driver.

REVIEW: Fantastic Four

I wanted to like this film, I really did. I was highly suspicious of the idea of a dark, gritty, realistic take on the Fantastic Four, the most colourful and inoffensive of the Silver Age comic book heroes. Yes, they faced monstrous threats, and yes, there were tragic elements – Ben Grimm's self-loathing due to his transformation, most notably – but it was essentially cosmic fun in primary colours. So getting Josh Trank to make a dark sci-fi film based on the property did not appeal to me. But then... I read about the production, Trank's vision for the project, saw the trailer which promised a genuinely different look at the franchise. I was ready to enjoy a completely different Fantastic Four. Then the reviews started coming in, and I wanted to enjoy it all the more, because everyone else said that I shouldn't. Unfortunately...


Fantastic Four is a failure. A qualified failure, to be sure, but a failure nonetheless. It's a real pity, because there seems to be a decent film buried in there somewhere. Trank has taken to social media to defend himself, suggesting that the studio hacked the film to pieces, and I can readily believe that. There's clearly a massive chunk of the film missing; as other critics have pointed out, it seems to entirely lack a second act. Or perhaps the second act is there, but the third act was that incoherent last fifteen minutes. I don't know; the whole film is so lopsided it's hard to tell. Nonetheless, Trank cannot be without fault here. The film is grey, slow and uninteresting for far too much of its truncated runtime. The cast, all of whom are perfectly excellent actors, lack the material to show this, and are severely lacking in chemistry. At no point did Sue and Johnny come across as brother and sister, there was no spark between Sue and Reed, supposedly set to one day fall hopelessly in love, and nothing made me believe that Ben would risk his life at a moment's notice for his childhood friend.


The relationships of the Four are the foundation of the comics' appeal. They are a family, joined by blood, marriage, friendship and trust. It's a great idea to see the early days of these relationships, the foundation of this family, but there's really very little sense that this is what we're seeing here. Even the childhood meeting of Ben and Reed, both troubled in different ways and unappreciated by their families, sets this up well but is carried forward poorly. There's no substance to these relationships. The only character who really does anything to hold the dynamic together is Reg E. Cathey as Dr. Franklin Storm, who convinces as a father, or father figure, for Sue, Johnny and Reed, and to a lesser extent, Victor (of whom more later). If it wasn't for his classy performance, it'd be hard to buy into anything we saw these kids accomplish.


Some fans have taken exception to the choice to have much younger versions of the Four than in the original comics, based more closely on the Ultimate Fantastic Four series that retold the characters' origins in a more modern setting. Personally, I feel this works, or at least could work, particularly the updating of their roles as interdimensional explorers, rather than astronauts, which feels very much of its time. However, it's no surprise that the film came out so depressing and dreary. The Ultimate comics line started off as an updated take on a classic romp, and ended up as pretentiously grimdark as Watchmen fan fiction. Aside from a handful of genuinely funny asides, this film is an utterly joyless.


There are elements there that are clear steps in the right direction. Reed is an astonishingly advanced child, far more intelligent than anyone else in his school (admittedly not saying much, considering how breathtakingly stupid the staff there are). As an adult, he's enthusiastic but emotionally illiterate, yet compassionate. Johnny is intelligent and capable but at risk of letting his more anarchic, fun-loving tendencies take over his life. Those are the right traits for these characters. On the other hand, Ben displays very little character once he's grown up, until he is transformed into a CGI behemoth. What a waste of Jamie Bell. Sue is at least characterised as a scientist, contributing to the mission, which is a step up on previous portrayals, but she is also lacking in character, and for Pete's sake, they don't even take her on the mission. I'll say that again: Sue Storm is not included on the mission of discovery that creates the Fantastic Four. Apparently it's a boys only club, since Victor von Doom goes in her place. She gets zapped with powers anyway, but for crying out loud.


There are some very odd decisions in the script, as well. Making Sue a Kosovan orphan, giving Ben an abusive older brother (and forever sullying his catchphrase in the process), making Doom an aggressive emo IT guy. Just really bizarre story choices. At least the purported hacktivist backstory got dropped in production, but how can they get Doom so wrong again? He's really a very simple character. He wants three things: to rule the world and remake it as he sees fit, to prove he's better than Reed, and to win Sue's affections. Simple, easily explainable character traits. How can they get someone as good as Toby Kebbell and lumber him with such a waste of a character, eventually reducing to nothing more than an angry superbeing who wants the destroy the Earth for some ill-defined reason. Possibly revenge, possibly general lunacy, possibly something to do with his political beliefs that really doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure, the last battle was so rushed I lost the plot completely.


Trank intended to make this film a tribute of sorts to the work of David Cronenberg. As a big Cronenberg fan, I was entirely up for this; the Four's transformations are potentially horrifying and it would logically be a nightmarish experience before they got used to them. There's so much material for Ben, in particular, that would benefit from that approach. Apart from some visual nods to such Cronenberg classics as Scanners and The Fly, this approach is clearest in the mutations of the Four after their first catastrophic mission. Even this is woefully underexplored, though. There's clearly so much more material with the Four learning to accept and use their abilities that was excised to get this down to TV movie length. It's a shame, because a lot of what we do see is visually fantastic. Johnny truly is a Human Torch, the fire burning from within his body, while at last the Thing truly looks like a man of rock. Although, god, give him some pants. I have no desire to see the Thing's thing, but being confronted by its absence is almost worse. No wonder he's so angry at Reed. The mission to the other dimension is also visually interesting. Doom goes and pokes a river of what is seemingly some kind of living energy – having seemingly been trained by the Prometheus school of science – causing all the chaos in the first place, but this too is barely explored beyond the cool visuals. This strange otherplace is named Planet Zero, not the Negative Zone as in the comics. Perhaps it is so called because it is, in fact, the zero point between the positive universe as the Negative Zone? Or possibly it's called Zero because there's virtually nothing there. Where the hell's Annihilus when you need him?


After the overblown, chaotic ending, the Four appear to have bonded into a super-team, although there is no sense that they've earned this camaraderie or even really learned to work that well together. No one addresses that Ben has been killing people on behalf of the US military, that Johnny was keen to join him, or that several quite important characters have been killed off. Everyone seems to have forgotten the various betrayals of trust that led them to the situation they are now in. We cut to credits, after which there was a surprising lack of any extra scene or teaser. But then, they probably realised they weren't getting a sequel. Although not unwatchable, and featuring some interesting ideas, this is a grey, dreary take on what was once an exciting property. This should have felt like a rival to Guardians of the Galaxy, not The Dark Knight's embarrassing younger brother. The 2005 film wasn't great, but at least it was fun.



More grim than Grimm, this was a missed opportunity. 

Casting Call: X-Men Universe updates

Deadpool is coming! R-rated and set for February next year, this is looking good, with set photos and teasers already starting to appear, and Ryan Reynolds himself tweeting updates to keep fans interested. As well as this, casting updates are coming through for the next X-Men film proper, Apocalypse, expected May next year. Looks like X-fans of the nineties and noughties (like yours truly) are set to be entertained.

DEADPOOL

Brianna Hildebrand
Ellie Phimister/Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Not many people will recognise the name, but Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a favourite amonst certain fans. Created by Grant Morrison for his excellent New X-Men run in the early noughties, Ellie Phimister was one of the new generation of mutant students, a heavily made-up goth with exceptional powers of clairvoyance and precognition. While never a major character as such, she was significant, and managed to play an important role in ongoing developments despite dying twice. Her mutant name, as it happens, is cribbed from a song by Monster Magnet. Relative unknown Brianna Hildebrand is set to play NTW in the Deadpool movie.

T.J. Miller
Weasel

Weasel, whose real identity is, improbably, Jack Hammer, is Deadpool's best mate and long-suffering sidekick. He has no powers, but he is a genius, albeit a socially awkward one. He also went to the same school as Peter Parker and Jessica Jones, not that Fox will have the rights to make any reference to this. Still, nice bit of trivia. Deadpool and Weasel are quite often at loggerheads, including one period when Weasel was tasked to bring his comrade in while posing as superhero House. T.J. Miller is a stand-up comedian and actor, although his best known film role, in Cloverfield, was almost entirely off-camera. This will be his second stint as a Marvel character; he recently voiced Fred in the excellent animated feature Big Hero 6.

Morena Baccarin
Vanessa Carlysle/Copycat

The stunning and very bankable Morena Baccarin comes fresh off her stint on Gotham to join Reynolds on the short list of actors playing both Marvel and DC characters. Baccarin is set to be Deadpool's love interest (lucky girl?), Vanessa Carlysle, who comic fans will recognise as the mutant Copycat. A shapeshifter, not unlike Mystique, Copycat can adopt the form of her targets right down to the genetic level, so that she is able to duplicate their powers as well. She took the form of the X-Force agent Domino in her first appearance, and we later found out that she became a mercenary to escape a life of prostitution after she met and fell for Deadpool. Later, however, she was captured by the Weapon X facility and altered to become one of their agents. I would expect much of this to make the transition to the film, since it seems to fit with the overall plot of Weapon X victims and escapees. Of course, given her abilities, Baccarin may not actually be Carlysle's true appearance...

Ed Skrein
Ajax

The villain of the movie, Ajax, whose real name is know only to be Francis, is a mysterious and deadly individual was part of the Weapon X project. He experimented on numerous victims, taking pleasure in harming those he took exception to, most particularly Deadpool. Of course, in Deadpool's case, he's created an enemy who is virtually unkillable. Indeed, Ajax's attempted murder of Deadpool may be what costed him his sanity in the first place. A genetically and cybernetically enhanced agent, Ajax has the usual superhuman strength and endurance, plus superhuman speed and an incredible tolerance to pain due to having the bulk of his natural nervous system removed. He also has an intuitive capacity which allows him the edge in combat. Ed Skrein is an English rap musician who has segued into acting of late and looks to be on the brink of making it big in that field. He's best known as Anthony Walsh in The Tunnel but also appeared as Dario Naharis in the third season of Game of Thrones, before being recast in season four.

Unknown: 
Colossus/Piotr Rasputin

Joining Deadpool, Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Moira McTaggart, Angel, Gambit and possibly Wolverine in the list of returning characters is Colossus, the powerfully built mutant with skin of steel. What we don't know, however, is who is playing him. Daniel Cudmore played the part as a student of the Xavier School in  X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past, but he is not set to return for Deadpool.

X-MEN:APOCALYPSE

Ben Hardy 
Angel/Warren Worthington III

No surprise at seeing this character included in X-Men: Apocalypse. Warren Worthington was one of the five X-Men in Professor Xavier's original team, but didn't appear in the movie franchise until X-Men: The Last Stand, in which he was played by Ben Foster. Given that Apocalypse is set a good twenty years before The Last Stand, this might pose some continuity problems, but perhaps we're better off forgetting all that nonsense, especially as this is a fresh timeline and all. Angel was a significant part of the Apocalypse storyline in the comics, and the corresponding arc on the hugely popular 90s X-Men cartoon series. In this storyline, Warren loses his wings, and in his desperation, agrees to side with Apocalypse in return for a new pair. Apocalypse's genetic techniques cause Warren to grow a new pair of wings formed from a sort of semi-metallic material, and as a side effect, his skin turns blue. Changing his codename from Angel to Archangel, he becomes Apocalypse's Horseman of Death. Production art for both the feathered and metallic versions of Angel has been released. Ben Hardy, aged 25, is off Eastenders, but I shan't hold that against him.

Olivia Munn
Elizabeth Braddock/Psylocke

Breaking news, this one. Olivia Munn's casting seems to be dividing people. As I can make outm, she's been in some poor productions but is generally regarded as a decent actress. Psylocke is one of the more popular and more powerful mutants in the X-Men roster, so seeing her join X-Men: Apocalypse is no huge shock. Her backstory is complicated, to say the least. Betsy Braddock is the sister of Brian Braddock, aka Captain Britain, and first appeared in his Marvel UK title in the seventies. She displayed powerful telepathic abilities, but fighting alongside Captain B. she was blinded.

In the eighties, she was brought into the X-Men franchise in The New Mutants, whereupon she received both bionic eyes and her codename, Psylocke. Her abilities increased, including teleportation and the manifestation of "psy-blades" - purple telepathic energy blades. Later, Psyclocke merged with her enemy, the ninja Kwannon, so that the modern Psylocke is actually in the body od a Japanese warrior. Also, she's died and come back to life, just like everyone else in Marvel. I think we can expect her backstory to be simplified quite drastically in the movie. I think we can count on three things: purple hair, purple psy-blades, and possibly a relationship with Angel (and American actress playing an Englishwoman and an English actor playing an American, of course). Psylocke has actually appeared in the film franchise before; Meiling Melancon portrayed a version of her in X-Men: The Last Stand, albeit in a minor fashion and without much in the way of Psylocke's characteristics.

Lana Condor
Jubilation Lee/Jubilee

Jubilee is the most nineties of X-Men characters, probably most famous for her major role in the animated series, so seeing her turn up in the eighties-set Apocalypse is going to be strange. Props though for casting an actual Asian American girl to play her. Lana Condor is so new to acting that IMDB have absolutely nothing on her except her height. She's clearly an actual teenager though, which is refreshing. Jubilee has the mutant ability to generate plasma streams, i.e. fireworks, making her an especially glam mutant. The character had entirely missable cameo appearances in the first two X-Men films, but it looks like she'll be a proper character this time round.

Casting Call: Fox-verse - X-Men and Fantastic Four

Miles Teller
Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
The Fantastic Four (August 2015); Fantastic Four 2 (July 2017)

Josh Trank's FF reboot is rapidly approaching, and we've still seen very little promotional material for it. At least a teaser trailer has been released, which seems to suggest a harder science-fictional take on the source material, although the shaky, handheld-style footage expected from Trank is noticeably absent. It appears that this version will be based heavily on the Ultimate Fantastic Four series, with teenaged character who gain their powers when traversing another dimension in a scientific experiment, rather than travelling into space. Miles Teller is 28, perhaps a little old for such a role, but this isn't unusual for Hollywood. Teller has an awkward charm, which is just right for the ingenious but often unconfident Reed Richards. Richards was played in the 2005 and 2007 Fantastic Four movies by Ioan Gruffudd.

Kate Mara
Sue Storm/Invisible Girl
The Fantastic Four; Fantastic Four 2

The oldest of the four leads, Kate Mara is 31, so they're really stretching that young hero angle. Best known for House of Cards and American Horror Story but with a string of film credits to her name, she's also been  the most outspoken in regards to the new movie, stating that she was advised not to read the comics to cloud her interpretation of the script, and that she and all the cast are focusing on making their characters "real." Bizarrely, some internet madmen are attacking her appearance in the trailer with her natural brunette hair. Far better than casting a Hispanic actor like Jessica Alba and altering her to look Aryan, surely. Seriously, some lunatics are suggesting that the casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Melissa Benoist as Supergirl as evidence of discrimination against blondes.

Michael B. Jordan
Johnny Storm/Human Torch

The Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 2

Easily the most controversial casting decision on this list, I'd say this is also the best. Having worked with Trank already on Chronicle, and Teller on That Awkward Moment, there's already a good working relationship in place, and Jordan is easily capable of playing a charismatic yet vulnerable young man. At 28, he's perhaps getting a little old to play a teenaged character. If anything, it puts me in mind of Donald Glover's campaigning to play Spider-Man - another black American actor keen to play an iconic but caucasian character, who is fast getting too old to do so. Inevitably, some people are up in arms about this casting. Frankly, any logistical arguments are farcical. There's nothing in Johnny Storm's character that suggests he has to be white, and the only problem is that he is the brother of Sue Storm, who remains white. Even this is easily dealt with with a simple rewrite; they could be half-siblings or stepsiblings, or Johnny could be adopted. Hardly an insurmountable narrative problem. Johnny Storm was previously played by Chris Evans, who was the best thing about the 2005 Fantastic Four, but is now, of course, Captain America.

Jamie Bell
Ben Grimm/The Thing
The Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 2

English actor Jamie Bell is best known for Billy Elliot, but has action movie background in Jumper and King Kong. He's an unusual choice for the normally beefy Ben Grimm, who was previously played by Michael Chiklis. The look of the post-transformation, rock-like Thing has been a closely guarded secret, with an early leaked image being retracted and only the briefest glimpse in the trailer. Incidentally, all four leads are contracted to appear in Fantastic Four 2 in July 2017, but the production of that film will hinge on the success of the first, so I don't think we can consider it confirmed.

Reg Cathey
Dr. Franklin Storm
The Fantastic Four

Also known best for House of Cards, Cathey plays the father of Sue and Johnny Storm. The mainstream comics version of Franklin was a surgeon, estranged from his children, but the Ultimate Universe version was a regular character who worked on the supersoldier programme with Dr. Molhevic (the Mole Man). Expect some elements of this to be worked into the script, but not the supersoldier elements, which belong to Marvel.

Toby Kebbell
Victor Domashev/Doom
The Fantastic Four

First things first: Toby Kebbell is amazing. Another English actor, Kebbell played Kobo, the damaged and eventually villainous bonobo character in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It's probably safe to call him the next Andy Serkis, and his motion capture and voice skills should come into good use as the masked Dr. Doom. He was also excellent as a disturbed character in Black Mirror. However, news of the rebooted version so encouraging. The original version is one of the big bads of the Marvel universe, of course, a despotic ruler whose real name is Victor von Doom. The Ultimate version was changed to something slightly more sensible, Victor van Damme. So Victor Domashev is fine. It's just... he's being described as an angry blogger. "Doom" is his online handle. That's just so appallingly naff I can hardly compute it.

Tim Blake Nelson
Harvey Elder/Mole Man
The Fantastic Four

Tim Blake Nelson previously appeared in the MCU as Samuel Sterns. His appearance in The Incredible Hulk ended with him beginning his transformation into super-brained mutate The Leader. Clearly he was set to appear in the next Hulk film... which never happened. Now he's hopped over to Fox's franchise to play Harvey Elder, who, in the comics, is the freakish supervillain Mole Man, ruler of the Moloids and creator of numerous monsters. The Ultimate Universe version goes by the name Arthur Molekevic, a scientist employed at the Baxter Building where the FF are based. It's likely that, despite the name change, the movie version will be more like the Ultimate version, but as both are monster-breeding biochemists, it's clear Nelson's character is being set up as a future villain for the franchise. Expect him to have a major role in the sequel should it come to pass.

Ryan Reynolds
Wade Wilson/Deadpool
Deadpool (2016), X-Force (unknown)

Hurrah! Deadpool is finally getting an actual movie, thanks to some clever sorts who leaked that test film that got huge acclaim. Reynolds, of course, played Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which completely destroyed the character by turning him into a sort of conglomerate of all the cool bits of other mutants with none of the actual appeal. Or a mouth. However, Reynolds is now back in the role, which should actually have proper Deadpool stuff, like breaking the fourth wall and being funny. I really hope Deadpool turns to the camera and apologises for Origins: Wolverine. Everyone's second favourite Canadian mutant with a healing factor is set to get his own film next year, so they'd better get a wriggle on, before hopefully appearing in an X-Force movie further down the line with other popular characters such as Cable.

Gina Camaro
Angel Dust
Deadpool 

Actress/MMA fighter Gina Camaro is set to play Angel Dust, a reasonably obscure character who is one of the Morlocks, a group of underground mutants with generally useless powers such as the ability to alter adrenaline levels, which is was Angel Dust can do. Still, with Camaro playing her, she should be good at fighting. She's also supposedly going to be starring in a movie adaptation of Rob Liefield's shit comic, Avengelyne.



Channing Tatum
Remy LeBeau/Gambit
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Gambit (2016?)

Cajun charmer Remy LeBeau was the sexiest male cartoon character of the nineties in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by Chris Potter, before finally making it to the big screen played by the generally awful Taylor Kitsch in Origins: Wolverine. After rumours that he would be back for Deadpool, it was confirmed that Gambit would in fact be returning to our screens in 2016 in Apocalypse, before spinning off into his own movie. Both of which are supposedly going to be filmed in time for this extremely X-Men heavy year, which seems unlikely. Channing Tatum is set to take the role, after years of saying how much he'd love to play him. General consensus is that he should be pretty much perfect for the role. We might also expect him to appear in the proposed X-Force movie if Gambit is successful.

Sophie Turner
Jean Grey
X-Men: Apocalypse

The Game of Thrones star is set to play the young Jean Grey in the 1980s set X-Men: Apocalypse, as one of the mutants tutored/recruited by Professor Xavier. Famke Jansen previously played the older Jean in the 2000s X-Men trilogy (with dreamscape appearances in The Wolverine and a cameo in Days of Future Past). Jean was one of the original 'first class' of X-Men in the comics, in which she initially used the codename Marvel Girl. Sophie Turner is a truly excellent choice for the role.

Tye Sheridan
Scott Summers/Cyclops
X-Men: Apocalypse

Another first class recruit and eventual leader of the X-Men, Cyclops was played in the X-Men trilogy by James Marsden (also with a cameo in Days of Future Past). A teenaged version appeared briefly in Origins: Wolverine, played by Tim Pocock. Tye Sheridan is not an actor I'm familiar with, but a brief tells me her is well-regarded for his performances in The Tree of Life, Joe and Mud.

Of the other original class of X-Men, Hank McCoy/Beast is already part of the team, played by the excellent Nicholas Hoult. Warren Worthington/Angel and Bobby Drake/Iceman both featured in the initial 2000s trilogy as young characters, precluding their inclusion in these retro-set films.

Alexandra Shipp
Ororo Munroe/Storm
X-Men: Apocalypse

Sometimes leader of the X-Men, Storm doesn't date back quite as far as Cyclops and Jean Grey, but she's still a longtime member of the team, first appearing in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975, the first major black female hero in mainstream comics. Having been played by the dreadfully miscast Halle Berry in the X-Men trilogy and Days of Future Past, the younger Storm is now to be played by Alexandra Shipp, who is best known for playing the popstar Aaliyah. She's probably very good, but I note this another mixed race American actress. It's not like there aren't plenty of black African actresses who could play the character.

Oscar Isaac
En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse
X-Men: Apocalypse


Apocalypse is an ancient mutant in the Marvel universe, possibly even the first mutant, born over 5000 years ago. With complete psionic control over the matter of his own body, he is almost unstoppable, a monstrous monomaniac determined to rule the Earth (which he does in the timeline of the Age of Apocalypse). He was briefly played by Brendan Fredder in the post-credits scene at the end of Days of Future Past, building a pyramid psychokinetically while his four Horsemen looked on. Lauded Hispanic actor Oscar Isaac is set to play the mighty mutant in his eponymous film. Why Apocalypse did not figure in the initial timeline of the X-Men films is uncertain; perhaps the changes to history in Days of Future Past may have had more extensive repurcussions than we've seen. Maybe the slumbering Apocalypse was destroyed by Sentinels before he awoke in the initial timeline, whereas in the new timeline he is free to awaken and threaten the world.

Who the Horsemen of Apocalypse will be is as yet unknown. In the comics various mutants and mutates have taken up their roles over the years, with both Wolverine and Gambit taking on the role of Death. Seeing that they're both set to appear in Apocalypse (Gambit a definite, Wolverine a very likely), could we be seeing one of them being corrupted? 

UPDATE

Cody Smit-McFee
Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler
X-Men: Apocalypse

Long-rumoured to be appearing in this film, Nightcrawler was previously played rather brilliantly by Alan Cumming in X2. Now the sequel/prequel/whateverquel has its Nightcrawler, to be played by 18-year-old Smit-McFee, best known for voice work including Paranorman, but with live action credits for Let Me In and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Good to see they're casting young with this; Nightcrawler's age was inderterminate in X2, but he's have to very young in the eighties. Looking forward to see what the guy looks like in blue.