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Part of the impact of serialized storylines is the wait between installments. With that gone, the story might still be good, but the whole experience in between chapters -- thinking about it (maybe even obsessing about it), talking about it with friends, letting excitement and anticipation build -- is missing.
Reading Dark Phoenix over a couple of hours just would not have been the same. It would have flown by too fast with no time to ponder what happened.
It's the same way with any serialized artform. If decades ago on TV, they shot JR Ewing and then 45 minutes later, they revealed who did it, it would not have been the cultural and ratings bonanza that it was. It would have been just another episode of Murder, She Wrote. The fact that there was about 8 months in between the shooting and revelation was what made it the highest rated television episode in history at the time.
X-Men : 1st Class was a reboot of the X-Men franchise with really a cast of not well known actors taking roles. Beyond Fessbender and McAvoy , Jennifer Lawrence wasn't the major star yet she would become til a year later. Kevin Bacon hadn't made a big film since 2003 with Mystic River.
In all the film did basically right where the average was really. It wasn't the end of the 1st big stars of X-Men ala Last Stand . But it did fall $20 million less than what X-Men Origins did .
It also became a home video buy as it did $66+ million in home video sales. The film was supposed to start Vaughn's trilogy of films as he detailed. Building to Days of Future Past but Fox jumped the gun as we saw. In the end the film was pretty well received box office , home video and critically.
"The story so far: As usual, Ginger and I are engaged in our quest to find out what the hell is going on and save humanity from my nemesis, some bastard who is presumably responsible." - Sir Digby Chicken Caesar.
“ Well hell just froze over. Because CM Punk is back in the WWE.” - Jcogginsa.
“You can take the boy outta the mom’s basement, but you can’t take the mom’s basement outta the boy!” - LA Knight.
"Revel in What You Are." Bray Wyatt.
I thought it was one of the better movies in the foxverse.
for me it's ultimately about both films failing to measure up. the fact that one failed to measure up by a much larger margin is a secondary issue compared to the primacy of both films failing to match the source material. the "Akira" manga is so utterly superior to the film that I can't ignore that. I'm not going to pretend that "Akira" is some form of cinematic perfection. it's a better adaptation of the source material than Snyder's "Watchmen"... but for me, both films fall short of the books that inspired them.
for me, after reading the book, and watching the film again I felt like "Akira", the movie, should have been 20% cooler.
after seeing "Watchmen" I felt like it took too many liberties in the wrong way and not enough liberties in others. it should have been... I dunno.... 70% cooler. there were a few good scenes. Snyder is a memorable visual stylist - but I don't think of him as a good story-teller. it feels like he's making feature-length music videos sometimes. but, I got to give him props... he was definitely taking some risks and trying to be ambitious. so I can respect him for that. I just didn't enjoy any of his films.
Its pretty true that 1st Class is not a bust. In fact the film was supposed to start a new trilogy of films (that plan was thrown to the side) and they would build a new cast towards Days of Future Past. (Vaughn planned a young Wolverine appearing and wanted Tom Hardy as the character). Had they did Apocalypse after 1st Class that film with a new cast and all likely does $400-450 million domestically. Which falls in line with a lot of the X-Men and Wolverine films. (before Logan and Deadpool).
When Fox launched the X-Men what is wild is that film beyond Stewart , Halle Berry and McKellen did $296+ million worldwide. Pretty wild. But they built slowly as Jackman became a "name" actor as we saw.
Yes the circumstances were a lot different as we know. Disney built a spread universe of films. By the time Winter Soldier happened ...Captain America as a character had appeared in a huge team film (The Avengers) and was part of a wide universe of films. There was a build to that and the box office demonstrated that with over $700+ million worldwide.
1st Class itself was featuring a brand new cast , brand new characters and didn't have films as a lead in to build to a huge team arc . So yeah things was different for sure.
In the end though the film wasn't a bust and wasn't a huge hit. It did decent and started a new trilogy of films as we saw.
"The story so far: As usual, Ginger and I are engaged in our quest to find out what the hell is going on and save humanity from my nemesis, some bastard who is presumably responsible." - Sir Digby Chicken Caesar.
“ Well hell just froze over. Because CM Punk is back in the WWE.” - Jcogginsa.
“You can take the boy outta the mom’s basement, but you can’t take the mom’s basement outta the boy!” - LA Knight.
"Revel in What You Are." Bray Wyatt.
Yes and no there are similarities and differences and again the bench mark for a hit was way different even in 2011 than today I think both films would be viewed differently today with those numbers but if I compared First Class to a film it would Bumblebee it made a profit and brought critics and fans back onboard a dwindling franchise and that's a success IMO.