Fox Don't Care

This last weekend I finally saw X-Men: Apocalypse (thanks Martin!). It wasn't the worst movie in the world but it wasn't exactly what I would call "good". I thought the plot was actually pretty interesting but the dialogue was so ham fisted at times it almost felt like it was a parody of an action film. I don't think we'll ever know if Sophie Turner was outright bad in it or if she was just sabotaged by the schlockiest dialogue this side of a Star Wars Prequel.

One of the things that stood out the most to me while watching it is that outside of the 4 or 5 main stars Fox really doesn't care anything about the X-Men's supporting cast. Take Angel, a founding member of the X-Men known for his playboy disposition and heroic nature. In this he's a drunken pit fighter. Psylocke, long time X-Man and sister of Captain Britain, is hired muscle, a horseman of Apocalypse and one of like two characters that doesn't have a redemption story. Caliban, the Morlock who is so scared of his own shadow he actually makes a deal with Apocalypse so he can have actual powers that matter, is portrayed as some sort of underground power broker.
Those are the major details, the minor stuff like Havok being Cyclops's older brother instead of younger I can let slide. It's just weird that for like 6 films now Fox (and lets face it here it's mostly Bryan Singer) is happy to just shoehorn any X-Man into any role. Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man is a bad guy, sure why not? Mystique is the X-Men's leader and new trainer instead of assassin and adversary?

Also, Charles sure is forgiving of Magneto for killing all those people he kills in every movie.

I think this is one of the reason fans were so quick to embrace Deadpool. They actually made Colossus Russian. Who'd have thunk it?
Don't get me wrong, Deadpool was a hit because it was a good movie not because it was a slave to the source material. The thing is Deadpool showed you can do both. Hell, every Marvel Studios movie has shown you can do both. Sure they change a lot of the minor details around but in the end Iron Man and Captain America are Avengers, Vision was created by Ultron, Scott Lang is a reformed criminal, etc. These characters have been around for decades now. You can streamline their origins and backgrounds for a film while still keeping what makes them unique and interesting. Marvel's made a billion dollars doing it.

I'm not advocating Fox give up the movie rights to the X-Men (even though that would be great) but maybe it's time to give the franchise to someone other than Bryan Singer. X-Men and X-2 were great movies, he's done as much as he can do right about now. Time to get someone in their with a vision for a simpler less confusing X-Men universe that knows why these characters have been so popular for so long. Maybe see what that Deadpool guy is doing for the next 10 years.