Nightcrawler
Rogue
Fittingly, Nightcrawler’s foster sister (adopted daughter of
his biological mother Mystique, actually) faced the same problem he did in the
adaptation process. In the panels Rogue
is a force to be reckoned with. Not only
is she the skyward bound muscle of the team, but she’s also bold, high
spirited and fearless. She’s the epitome
of a contemporary zealous Southern fireball.
She fights hard and plays harder and sometimes they’re the same
thing. As arguably the secondary
protagonist in the first three X-Men films, Rogue is shy and reserved; the most
sullen teenager at a school full of teenagers with all rights to be
sullen. To be fair, in either iteration
Rogue is entirely justified in her timidity, as is Nightcrawler. Fate dealt her a bad
hand. In a world that hates and fears
mutants she has the potential to be among the most hated and feared for no
reason other than attributes given to her at birth. Her “super power” is to absorb the life force
of anyone she touches without volition, leaving them dangerously injured,
perhaps fatally so, while she takes on their super powers along with a giftbox
of their personality and memories. As
far as superpowers go, it’s one of the worst to be sure, almost tragic, but Rogue’s
ability to be so vibrant in the face of her grim circumstances is a key to what
made her a fan favorite to begin with.
Currently there are no plans for Rogue to appear in future X-Men movies,
even the one starring her main love interest Gambit if it ever makes it to
theaters.
Cyclops
It’s tough to be the boss sometimes. Head honcho’s like Charles Xavier get all the
glory while a midlevel bureaucrat like Cyclops (Scott Summers) gets the shaft
from both sides. Traditionally Cyclops fills
the position of the X-Men’s field leader, the one who makes all the tough and
boring decisions, which makes him unpopular with fans and fictional characters
alike. He’s seen as a white-bread preppy
square. A narc. Zeppo Marx.
An L7 weenie. That’s why a
handsome eggshell named James Marsden was given the film role and he
reciprocated with the least charismatic performance of his career. In defense of both James and Scott, Cyclops’
façade is so densely milky white that it’s hard to see under the surface, but
that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything there.
Scott’s had a tough, strange life.
First his parents died (kind of) in an aviation accident that left the
young Scott with PTSD severe enough to rob him of control over his eye
beams. Once they manifested he had to
live with the knowledge that he could maim or kill most anyone by literally
looking at them the wrong way. Then he
was put in charge of a small army of child soldiers while still a teenager
himself because apparently Professor X couldn't find any adults to take the job. He’s spent the rest of life as
a lieutenant and public face of a well-intentioned but technically militant
civil rights group. In the past decade
or so of comics the pressure has finally started to get to him. He’s become something of a controversial
figure in the Marvel Universe. All the
Malcom X comparisons Magneto has always been saddled with are now more
appropriate for Cyclops than they have ever been for the iconic villain. Tye Sheridan's performance in Apocalypse has a charmingly dorky quality mixed with a difficult situation and new found loss that puts him closer to the comic book version but, like Nightcrawler, this is just the beginning for the new Cyclops. Only time will tell what he will grow into.
Storm
If it were 2000 and you had the opportunity to cast one of the biggest black superstars of all time as an iconic black character of course you would jump at the opportunity. That’s probably what Bryan Singer thought when he cast Halle Berry as Storm but apparently it’s the kind of thing that works better on paper than in practice. Excuse the pun but in the comics Storm (Ororo Munroe) is a force of nature. The very elements follow her command like a pious man obeys the word of his god. In fact, when she was a young woman in an African desert she was worshipped as a deity after she developed the ability to bring rain at her whim. Before that she roamed the streets of Cairo as a pickpocket, where she first met Professor Xavier who later recruited her into the X-Men. Storm quickly became a tent pole of the team and eventually became the leader even though she didn’t have powers at the time. This is a woman who commands respect by her mere existence and is a major player of whatever game she takes part in. In the movies she is barely present. She’s little more than the electric muscle while a romantic triangle and teen angst take center stage. Her role in the films amounts to about as much as beautiful wallpaper that throws lightning at people sometimes. Regal posture and a noncommittal accent does not make a queen. The Storm in Apocalypse seems to be on the right track but, again, it's hard to tell based on such little screen time. As long as she keeps the Mohawk I think it will turn out alright.
Multiple Man
We tend to treat “unique” and “interesting” like synonyms
but one of Marvel’s most understatedly interesting characters is just a face in
the crowd. Actually, he is the
crowd. He’s the Multiple Man and his
mutant power is to create duplicates of himself. They’re mostly exact copies, perhaps with a
slightly exaggerated personality quirk or sometimes a wildly different
disposition all together. For most of
his existence Jamie Madrox was hardly at the forefront of the mutant universe,
notable for an interesting power but not much else, but in 2005 he opened up a
private investigation firm as the lead of the X-Factor series and quickly became much more nuanced. X-Factor
delved deep into the psyche of the entire team of gumshoes but especially the
identity confusion of a man who is literally many men at once. So many that he’s lost track of some of
them. By the time he’s found them and
reabsorbed them they’ve lived entire lives with years’ worth of experience and
growth. When they recombine the original
Madrox takes in it all. He’s got so many
voices rattling around in his head he’s like if the United States of Tara
actually made up the population of a small country. In defense of X-Men: The Last Stand (hear me out) X-Factor had only started a year before the movie premiered. The new and improved Jamie Madrox was still
in the early stages when he made his one and only live action appearance as a
thug who’s most interesting attribute was having robbed multiple banks at
once. That doesn’t nearly do justice to
the quirky psychological noir that Madrox was at the center of in the years
since. It isn’t likely that Madrox will
be showing up in any movies again in the near future which may be for the best
because it would be very difficult for the medium to give him the
representation he deserves. However, he
might be better served on a TV show like the upcoming Legion on FX.
Kitty Pryde
Part of the problem with Rogue’s cinematic depiction was
that she was changed from an adult to the young audience’s proxy, a position
much better suited to one Katherine Pryde.
The original X-Men were all teenagers when they were created but they
grew up pretty quickly. That’s a shame
because no demographic is more drawn to the idea of outcasts than young
people. Enter Kitty Pryde in 1980; just
an ordinary teen girl with a taste for pop music and the ability to walk
through walls. She was smart but not in
an alienating way, levelheaded but creative and spirited, strong but far from
indestructible, just intangible sometimes. Over time Kitty grew up too, but it worked really well. In the past few decades Kitty Pryde has
matured from a relatable teenager to a relatable adult. She’s taken on more responsibility and become
as much a leader to the X-Men as Cylcops, Storm or Wolverine. Her portrayal in the movies Last Stand and Days of Future Past might be considered relatable but only in the
sense that she’s a blank slate capable of showing whatever piece of yourself
you want to project onto her. She’s
missing the creativity and individuality that made Kitty Pryde jump off the
page. Another instance of an underused
actor, she was played by Ellen Page who came to be seen as the epitome of a
cool, clever teenager thanks to her role in Juno
a year after Last Stand was
released. Eight years later Days of Future Past hit theaters with a
noticeable difference from the comic book storyline it was based on. In the iconic two-issue story a much older Kitty Pryde is
sent from the future to prevent a world changing assassination but in the movie
she sends Wolverine in her stead. Many
fans were disappointed to see Kitty’s big moment handed over to the already
omnipresent Wolverine. So far there
don’t seem to be any plans for Kitty to appear on screen again.
Emma Frost
On the surface, Emma Frost and January Jones have a lot in common. They’re both blonde, pretty, and they have
names that suggest a coldness that can be found in their personalities, or in
Jones’ case in the personality of her Mad
Men character Betty Draper. However,
when Jones played Emma Frost in 2011’s First
Class she exhibited an entirely different kind of coldness than the Frost
fans have come to know and love to hate. First Class Frost is cool, distant, and
unshakable but comic book Frost is more of a frozen hearted witch and she would
take that as a compliment. First Class Frost is Sebastian Shaw’s
doting lackey but comic book Frost would sooner call his sideburns stupid and
threaten him with psychic and/or physical violence before she would put ice in
his glass if she were between him and a freezer in the middle of the
desert. Emma Frost is famous for her
sharp tongue but she hardly says a word in the movie. She’s little more than Shaw’s diamond
skinned, telepathic muscle but any decent version of Emma Frost wouldn’t be
caught dead doing anything other than running the show or acting like it. Unfortunately, it seems Jones won’t get the
chance to redeem her version of Emma Frost since the character was declared dead before
the events of Days of Future Past.
William Stryker
2003’s X2: X-Men
United remains one of the most acclaimed superhero movies ever and for good
reason. It’s well made and perfectly
captures all of the themes that make the X-Men
interesting like oppression, prejudice, and teenage alienation. That’s partly in thanks to the decision of loosely
basing it on a fantastic comic book story, the 1982 graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills written by Chris
Claremont with art by Brent Anderson.
The loosest part of the adaptation process is the villain, William
Stryker. In the graphic novel he’s a veteran
turned fanatic televangelist but in the movie he’s a high-powered military
scientist with little-to-no religious affiliation. Feel free to assume there weren’t any
Christians protesting against “taking the ‘God’ out of God Loves, Man Kills” but maybe there should have been. A devout Stryker would be a perfect foil for
the pious Nightcrawler, emphasizing the spectrum of influence religion can have
on people. It can be as healing as it is
corrupting but no good can come from ignoring the harmful aspects. Regardless, Brian Cox did a fantastic job
portraying Stryker in X2 but the
character most recently appeared in Days
of Future Past as a young man played by Josh Helman who returned for Apocalypse, both times largely lacking
in religion.
Beast
This is more a matter of personal preference than anything
but I have a very specific idea of how Hank “Beast” McCoy should act and
recently I haven’t seen much of it.
Beast is largely defined by being very smart, knowing it, and flaunting
it. Ever since First Class he has been portrayed by Nicholas Hoult who plays him
as quite mild mannered. He also
displays a different kind of intelligence than I like to see from Beast. Hank McCoy is usually shown as a brilliant
scientist and inventor, which is fine but I prefer to see a Beast who is also a
great lover of the arts. He should be
verbose, his speech as eloquent as his mind is sharp. He should quote Shakespeare at the drop of a
hat and reference Rimbaud upon picking it up. Beast should be the smartest guy in any room
he’s in and he should know it, but that room could just as easily be in a
sports bar or a think tank. In other words, he should be a lot like Frasier Crane. Casting Kelsey Grammer in the role was easily
the most inspired part of Last Stand save,
perhaps, a brutally affecting scene in the first few minutes. Not that Nicholas Hoult is poorly cast. He does a wonderful job as this version of
Beast. He also seems perfect for my
preferred version of Hank based on his
breakthrough role in the British series Skins. He displayed a Beastly amount of confidence as the cocky little shit Tony
Stonem, and he’s British, so I assume he can recite The Merchant of Venice from heart.
Just once I’d
like to see him decked out in blue fur asking “if you prick us, do we not
bleed?”
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