“X-Men: First Class” just hit shelves on Blu-ray and DVD, a good reason for Hero Complex contributor Jevon Phillips to catch up with one of the top influences in the X-movies: producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Donner was excited about the release, mentioning that “every drawing and concept art and costume change” were saved to help fill out the release for fans.
- Alternate Blu-ray/DVD covers – ‘X-Men: First Class’ (Fox)
Jevon Phillips: This installment was one of the best-reviewed films in the franchise, why do you think it connected so well with critics?
Lauren Shuler Donner: It was a couple of factors. First, we grounded it with a real historical event, and didn’t skirt around the fact that this story would’ve taken place in the early ’60s. By basing it around the Cuban Missile Crisis, it gave it some credibility and took itself very seriously. Second of all, I think we reinvented the franchise, making it feel a little bit more James Bond and a little bit less comic book. And then lastly, we just cast it well. All of our actors were incredible and gave those characters a reality that I think the critics really appreciated.
JP: For the story itself, and with all of the X-Men stories that were out there, how did you choose to tell the story of a prequel?
LSD: It sort of happened during “X2.” During a lunch break, I said, ‘You know, wouldn’t it be funny if we could see young X-Men. Like a young Cyclops and a young Jean Grey, as they first visited the mansion. We all thought it was dynamite, but then you get consumed with the movie that you’re doing. Years went by, and Simon Kinsberg went into this executive’s office and said ‘Hey, there’s this comic book — ‘First Class’ — that would make a really good X-men movie.’ Then the executive e-mailed me and said ‘Hey, I figured out how to do young X-men.’ And that’s how it happened.
JP: What, for you, is the draw of doing comic-book based films? Or is it just that you like the X-Men?
LSD: Well, I like all kinds of comics. But I find, that of all the comics out there, the X-men are some of the most well-drawn characters. Psychologically complex, and in may ways, psychologically damaged — which makes sense — and that makes me want to go on a journey with them and makes them, to me, very compelling. They’re all very flawed and they’re all very real in that sense. So since you’re going into a world that doesn’t exist, the only way for me to do that is to ground it, and I find that with their characters, there’s a lot to work with.
JP: With the new Blu-ray/DVD release, there’s lots of featurettes and behind-the-scenes stuff on there. Do you have any favorites that may or may not be told on the DVD?
LSD: Favorite stories can’t be told! But we had a really good time. The cast got along very well, which you’ll kind of see in the Blu-ray. Everybody dances around and everybody fools around. Hmmm, but specific stories…?
JP: How about the Hugh Jackman cameo?
LSD: That was a fun day! But that’s Hugh. He came at the end of the shoot at a time when everybody was tired and worn out and just making this huge effort to finish the movie — and he just comes in there with his sunny disposition and all of his energy. I mean, I don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna, but he was just a breath of fresh air.
JP: You have Wolverine and an upcoming Deadpool possibly … do you think that any of the characters from “First Class” could break out for a solo movie?
LSD: Well, you never know. At one point we were going to do the Magneto movie, but it was always Magneto and Charles. They’re two sides of each other, although they were raised very differently. Could any others spinoff? I really don’t know. I think this particular strain, this franchise, is going to work as a team.
JP: You said that you were into comics … with the DC relaunch and everything, do you have an opinion of how things are going in comics?
LSD: I’m not qualified to speak about DC, but I am a huge fan of Geoff Johns. I am such a fan of his. I would just say, in general, that this business, and yes comic books are a business, that there’s always many voices in a decision. It’s not one single voice. I think that Marvel has Kevin Feige driving what movies they’re going to do, and that’s a very good thing for them. They’ve followed their own comic book timeline and that’s really, really smart. So, the state of comics today — I think they’ll go digital like books and business in the rest of the world.
– Jevon Phillips
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One of the biggest disappointments about this film has to be the wasted opportunity to have the definitive depiction of the Hellfire Club. What compelling reason was there to include the randomly chosen Azazel and Riptide (who weren't even in the Hellfire Club in the comics and have zero character development) at the expense of Harry Leland, Donald Pierce, Tessa and Selene who were needlessly were left out.
I agree. It ain't a hellfire club story without Jean either. They basically took the villain – Shaw – out of the story he is known for and transplanted him into some other random story they concocted for the film.
The stories are fine to begin with.
They do not need to be changed much beyond what is necessary for an adaptation.
Stop making up your own stories and slapping the X-men brand on it.
This is true; Azazel was the best thing in the picture, but he's an immortal and ancient; he wouldn't need to be a minion to Schmidt. If 'they'd known Azazel's backstory there would have been some friction between Mystique and Azazel onscreen for the fans. It would have been smarted to start a prequel in the 50's and stay with young Xavier and Erik, have them meet as teens post war instead of as 30 somethings; then First Class would have been more like Spiderman and less like Ibsen.
There are many X-Men members, villains and enemy teams that weren’t included in the previous films which they can utilise in future X-Men prequels/sequels and give us new stories while leaving Magneto out of some films.
The early moments of the film – the child Erik during World War II, and then the adult Erik tracking down people, almost like 007, were well done. Then the movie spiraled into self-aware hipness, annoying departures not only from comic book continuity but from the continuity of previous "X-Men" films, historical inaccuracies and just poor photography and film-making. The acting of the leads was good
This movie was good but it was not X-men
There were so many lifeless scenes of the X-Men lined up and staring at things; a model plane, incoming nukes, rubble, the television — anytime you need to rely on TV-watching for a plot device you know you're in trouble. The casting was excellent but the choices the writers and director made caused the film to run slow and long. Just a small thing like wasting time showing three men clink glasses and then slurp beer, then set the glasses down caused a pivotal scene to lose valuable steam. When three men face certain death they don't pause to slurp beer; simply cutting from the glasses clinking to the men slowly putting down their drinks would have added energy and tension to that scene. Instead we get three supposed wired tight men swallowing and slurping beer awkwardly when they are supposed to look bad-ass. Fire the editor, the DP (the film looked murkey and blown out), fire the writers and director and start over fresh with Singer and Donner bringing in some real big screen creative talent instead of tv writiers. Agent Cody freakin' Banks; sheesh!