Fans of X-Men: First Class received some good news last month when it was reported Matthew Vaughn would be returning to direct the sequel. Simon Kinberg, who co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand and co-produced X-Men: First Class, was hired to begin work on the script last year, and in a new interview the writer said he wants to do “some things unexpected” with Xavier and Magneto in the sequel.

From MTV:

“I’m a huge X-Men fan. I grew up loving the comic books and it was really exciting to be able to do the origin story of Xavier and Magneto, and getting those two actors, [James] McAvoy and [Michael] Fassbender, were really amazing,” he said. “So being able to explore those characters with actors of that quality will be exciting a second time around, and doing some things unexpected with those characters, which is the plan.”

Kinberg went on to say that while they’re still in the early stages of story-planning, the second film will likely involve a lot more Magneto.

“That’s what was so cool about the first one and what we want to continue,” Kinberg said of exploring the supervillain’s tortured beginnings. “Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he’s a much more complicated character as a young man. He’s someone you sympathize with, you care about you root for even though might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy.”

At the end of X-Men: First Class Erik became Magneto (“I prefer…Magneto”), and while we can expect him to have a villainous side from now on, Kinberg said he’ll have “a sympathetic human side you’ll be able to relate but you’ll also be afraid of him”, which is one of the great things about Magneto as a villain. You can understand his motives, and he’s not your typical ‘take over the world’ type of bad guy.

With The Wolverine now set for a July 2013 release, we can probably expect the First Class sequel to hit sometime in 2014. In which case, filming should begin next year.

Read similar posts to Simon Kinberg talks X-Men: First Class 2 on Filmonic

It’s always tricky to critique a Christmas film.  All of them have the right intentions in mind yet just like any other genre, there can be lackluster efforts.

Arthur Christmas provides a cozy holiday atmosphere with a slight tweak to the fundamental Christmas tale.  But let’s just say this is mechanically speaking, a slippery 97 minute ride.

We begin in the North Pole, where Christmas headquarters is fully operational on Christmas Eve.  The current Santa Claus (voiced by Jim Broadbent), a descendant of the original Santa, St. Nicholas, is on his last mission before he passes over the title to his tactical modernized son, Steve (rigidly voiced by Hugh Laurie).  Unlike the Santa’s before him, Steve takes a more military-like approach to the Christmas delivery operation, as the famed sled has now been replaced by a hi-tech craft; ensuring timely delivery of presents to all the kids in all parts of the world (he keeps the stats on his iPhone to prove it).  Steve takes an arrogant pride in his successful work since being at the helm of mission control, and looks forward to becoming the next Santa.

As the highly trained and agile elves do most of the heavy lifting these days, Santa is more of a figure-head and just coasts along for ceremonial purposes.  But when one a small glitch is Steve’s infallible system leaves a kid in England without a present, Santa’s other son, the clumsy Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy) – who is resigned to answering Santa’s fan mail – insists on fixing the error and getting that one last present to its rightful owner before the sun rises on Christmas day.

To do this, he needs an assist from his 136 year-old Grandsanta (energetically voiced by Bill Nighy), who believes the old-school way is the only way.  Even though he’s a little off-his-rocker, Grandsanta takes Arthur to a secret room where the iconic sled and reindeer have been lying dominant for years.  And just like that, they’re off; despite Steve and Santa thinking they had a successful mission and urging them to not go, for they believe it’s too late.

Well it’s definitely an adventure and the animation is fairly crisp albeit not all that creative.  All the storytelling criteria that make-up the classic Santa Claus lore are on display and fit in nicely with the modernized take at how Christmas is handled in 2011.  Once the adventure begins using the old-school sleigh, reindeer, magic dust, and a young stowaway elf (voiced by Ashley Jensen) that has a pension for making sure every gift is wrapped to perfection, the script travels all over the world in the race to beat the clock (always popping up in spy-movie fashion).  All of this is fun to look at in this fast-paced journey.  Issue that arises is the dialogue is moving faster than the elements on screen.  Following the conversation can be as much as a chore as trying to keep up with a giant Italian family at the dinner table.  Therefore, the punchlines and British-styled humor flies right by both the adults and the younger audience members.  Basically, it’s show-n-go after the nicely placed opening act.

So although the middle-portion is where the excitement should lie, things are just hastily put together and there’s really no flow at this point.  The entertainment & emotional levels are running on auto-pilot until the very last act; which saves the flick from disaster, as we finally receive some true Christmas spirit via the dialogue and character actions.

Initially this has a tone similar to 1985’s Santa Claus.  While keeping with tradition, the story did explore the evolution of Christmas with respects to the time period.  Same goes for this one, yet it never has a true goal or end-point that it is trying to convey (if any).  And even with the tidy ending – and the “Where are they now?” montage – I have never seen so many characters remain incomplete in this type of holiday story.  Perhaps the writers and director were trying too hard to put some edge on this.

Overall, Arthur Christmas is safe & secure for all audiences and does bring in that adventurous tone.  The script and general concept is at times a scattered mess, and this animation was in desperate need for a smoother delivery and/or pacing.  From a reaction perspective, this is the equivalent to opening one of the small presents that your briefly tear through as you furiously make your way toward the big one resting behind the tree.  In other words, you’ll forget about this upon leaving the theater rather quickly.  With that said, the closing sequences right this vibrant extended sleigh ride.

RATING: 3 out of 5 

Read similar posts to Review: Arthur Christmas on Filmonic

A few weeks ago news emerged that X-Men: The Last Stand writer and X-Men: First Class producer Simon Kinberg was in the early stages of writing a script for the sequel. So far he’s the only creative talent confirmed (the cast are already locked), and we’re just waiting to see if Matthew Vaughn will return to direct.

Well in a recent interview James McAvoy said Vaughn is pitching ideas to 20th Century Fox, and everyone wants to make sure they have a good script before moving forward.

From io9:

…I know that with Charles, you either have to write him out of the movie or give him an interesting story. He can’t just become the guy that we saw in the first three movies. He just had two major things happen to him. He’s lost his best friend, essentially, and he’s just been paralyzed from the waist down. Which is just a huge, huge blow to his considerable ego. So he’s got to deal with that.

And I don’t think we can just brush over that and go, “yeah I’m in a wheelchair now,” because Professor X is in a wheelchair. You’ve got to deal with that, I don’t care if he’s a superhero and has brain powers or not, he’s just had a huge part of his physical life taken away from him, by someone he cares about more than anyone else. So he’s got to deal with that. That’s part of the interesting ideas that we’re talking about with Matthew [Vaughn], that Matthew’s very excited about which I think is fantastic, but I can’t really get into them with you because they may (or may not) form the spine of the story.

There’s plenty of story left for Charles in between where he is now and where we’ve seen him before. I hope he isn’t written off.

That’s what Matthew is talking about, he’s come up with a particularly interesting idea, last time I spoke with him. So he’s pitching that to Fox, and they’ve basically just got to write the script.

You can read the full interview here.

It’s good to know that Vaughn is interested in returning and is actively working on ideas. Over recent months it looked like Vaughn would be turning his attention to adapting Mark Millar’s comic books The Secret Service and Superior into movies, like he did with Kick-Ass, but the First Class sequel seems to be further in development than both of them.

It’ll also be interesting to see Xavier dealing with his new situation. They didn’t really have time to touch upon it at the end of First Class as the movie was wrapping up, so to explore how Xavier struggles and eventually accepts losing the ability in his legs will give McAvoy something to chew on as he edges close to Patrick Stewart’s Xavier. He’ll also need to lose his hair at some point, so I don’t think Charles will be having much fun in the next film.

Read similar posts to James McAvoy says Matthew Vaughn is pitching X-Men: First Class sequel ideas on Filmonic

20th Century Fox have yet to announce plans for an X-Men: First Class sequel, but it’s recent success on DVD and Blu-ray suggests there’s a good chance of one happening.

In a recent interview James McAvoy said he’d “be up for it” (although he is contractually obliged to make more), and thinks it should be “cleverer” than just reverting back to Xavier and his X-Men vs. Magneto’s Brotherhood.

From Total Film:

“I’ve spoken to Matthew [Vaughn] about ideas, but I can’t tell you what they are because they may or may not be the story. One thing I liked about our one was that it was different from the other three films where the X-Men are the good guys, Wolverine’s figuring out who he is and Magneto is the bad guy.

“This was a completely different thing. Magneto wasn’t a bad guy, we were friends. We’re now set up to go back to the way the other movies are, so we’ve got to try to be cleverer than that.”

Charles and Eric didn’t part ways on the best of terms, but you could see them sitting down for mutant/human-related discussion in the next film (Xavier doesn’t really have an option with the sitting bit). In X1 Xavier said Magneto helped him build Cerebro, and while Beast was the inventor in First Class they need to rebuild it at some point, and it’ll be hard to build that vast spherical room in Xavier’s basement without help from a metal manipulator.

While promoting the film in June McAvoy said he hopes Xavier “unlocks something in his head – maybe he can’t keep the voices out or something” and “his journey could be about getting himself out of a mess.” Matthew Vaughn also said as “Professor X is in a wheelchair, Magneto needs to have a nemesis he can fight with. Someone that will be his equal”, so we could be introduced to a powerful new villain.

Vaughn is currently developing a few movie projects with Kick-Ass comic writer Mark Millar, but I can see Fox aiming for a 2014 release for the sequel. If that’s the case we should start hearing things next year.

Read similar posts to James McAvoy says X-Men: First Class sequel needs to be more than just Xavier vs. Magneto on Filmonic

You know the summer is officially over when we start getting marketing material for Christmas movies. Today Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman Animations released a new trailer for Arthur Christmas, an animated feature with the vocal talents of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen.

Arthur Christmas reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child’s question: ‘So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?’ The answer: Santa’s exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the center of the film is a story about a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur, with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.

This looks like it’ll be a fun Christmas movie, one i’m sure parents and children will flock to. Arthur Christmas is directed by Sarah Smith (making her feature film debut) and will be released November 11th in the UK, and November 23rd in the US.

Read similar posts to Arthur Christmas trailer on Filmonic

One of the reasons Wanted made $350 million worldwide in 2008 was due to the presence of Angelina Jolie, however her decision not to appear in the sequel apparently killed the project last year.

Universal has obviously been sat on the sequel wondering what to do, but now they’ve made a decision to move forward by re-hiring writers of the first film, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, to get started on Wanted 2.

From The Wrap:

“We just always loved the ‘Wanted’ world and loved working with Universal and (director) Timur (Bekmambetov) on the first one, so we’re excited,” Haas said.

He said he doesn’t know who will direct. The writer said he’d love to work with Bekmambetov again, “but he’s a busy guy.”

“Wanted 2″ is “going to take off after the events of what just happened,” Haas said. “Pick up Wesley a few years later and go back in for another round.”

Universal’s decision to suddenly move forward may be a result of mixed success at the box office this year. The studio had Bridesmaids and Fast Five bringing in the money, but Cowboys and Aliens, The Dilemma, The Change-Up and Your Highness all under-performed, possibly leaning the studio towards sticking with proven material.

Movement on the next film could also be due to James McAvoy’s recent success in X-Men: First Class. After the actor played Wesley Gibson in 2008 he’s mainly appeared in low-budget dramas such as The Last Station and The Conspirator, but with McAvoy (and Fassbender) leading First Class to $350m worldwide it may have given Universal more confidence in McAvoy to carry a Wanted sequel.

Timur Bekmambetov directed the first film which followed a frustrated office worker who learns that he is the son of a professional assassin, and that he shares his father’s superhuman killing abilities

Read similar posts to Universal hires writers for Wanted 2 on Filmonic

20th Century Fox has announced the X-Men: First Class DVD and Blu-ray release date for September 9th, 2011.

Despite a modest opening upon it’s release compared to previous X-Men films, X-Men: First Class is currently sitting at just under $350 million worldwide. It has made just over $200 million internationally, more than X2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and while it’s box office performance in the US could have been better, the strong reviews (86% on Rotten Tomatoes) should pave way for healthy DVD and Blu-ray sales (and a potential sequel?).

According to Crave Online the home release includes hours of special features, including ten X-Men Digital comics including a never-before-seen backstory comic, and a Cerebro Mutant Tracker which is an interactive video database of all those in the X-Men films. I’ll post the full specifications and extras when they are officially announced by the studio.

Matthew Vaughn’s movie focused on Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as they work together with other mutants to stop the Hellfire Club, an international social club for wealthy elites who seek to influence world events to their own agenda. Kevin Bacon played the leader, Sebastian Shaw, along with January Jones as Emma Frost.

The movie also featured Dr. Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), Azazel (Jason Flemyng), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Havok (Lucas Till), Angel Salvadore (Zoë Kravitz), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) and Darwin (Edi Gathegi).

Read similar posts to X-Men: First Class DVD and Blu-ray set for September release on Filmonic

X-Men: First Class actor James McAvoy is in talks to join Danny Boyle’s next film, according to Variety. McAvoy’s recent co-star Michael Fassbender was circling the film in May, but had to drop out, so the 127 Hours director moved on to his on-screen frenemy instead.

The movie, currently titled Trances, revolves around an art heist. An assistant at an auction house masterminds the heist and teams up with a gang of thieves, but suffers a blow to the head and wakes up with amnesia. He is the only one who knows where the painting’s location is and after his continued failure to remember, the gang begins to suspect duplicity on his part and hire a female hypnotist to get into his brain.

McAvoy will play Simon, the shady leader of the gang who partners with the assistant.

The plan is to being shooting in September, but once filming is complete Boyle will transfer his attention to the Olympic Games where he will direct the opening ceremony, and then return to finish post-production for a March 2013 release.

Read similar posts to James McAvoy in talks for Danny Boyle’s Trances on Filmonic

Box office numbers for Matthew Vaughn’s (2D) X-Men: First Class are pouring in, and it looks set to make around $120 million worldwide during it’s opening weekend according to THR. While the actual numbers won’t be known until early next week, First Class managed roughly $56 million at the US box office and $64 million elsewhere from 74 territories.

While $56 million is a significant drop from X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s $85.1 million two years ago, it met 20th Century Fox’s estimates and grossed similar to what the first X-Men film made in 2000. X-Men: First Class was always going to face an uphill battle following the poor reception of the last two movies in the franchise, and while the cast was full of upcoming talent, it was Hugh Jackman/Wolverine free for the first time in 11 years.

With a production budget of around $140 million, making $120 million worldwide during it’s opening means First Class should go on to be a success and warrant a sequel:

“The movie really excelled in successfully launching a brand new chapter in the X-Men franchise, or new beginning if you will,” Fox senior vice president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson said.

Reviews for the movie have been excellent, and it currently has a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Word of mouth may help First Class gain some legs over the upcoming weeks, and the next major competition (Green Lantern) won’t hit until June 17th. Next week Paramount will release J.J Abram’s Super 8, but that’s expected to make only $20/30 million opening weekend.

It’s worth nothing that Batman Begins only made $48 million when it opened in 2005 but went on to make over $200 million in the US. Hopefully First Class can achieve something similar, because it was a damn good movie and the final scene left me wanting more.

Read similar posts to X-Men: First Class makes $120 million worldwide opening weekend on Filmonic

X-Men: First Class is the superhero movie I didn’t even know I’d been waiting for. A hybrid of prequel and reboot, it’s most successful in borrowing the elements that worked best from each of the previous X-Men films and consolidating them into one fluid story. Inspired casting, solid acting, a terrific script, impressive effects, and really great action: what more could you want in a superhero film?

In the recent pantheon of superhero movies – since Bryan Singer’s X-Men hit theaters in 2000 – I’d place First Class under The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, and possibly X2: X-Men United. Considering there have been over 40 superhero movies released since 2000, the high placement of First Class should obviously be taken as a testament to its superior quality. Director Matthew Vaughn not only infuses the film with an inspiring style desperately lacking since Singer turned the director’s chair over to Brett Ratner in 2006, but Vaughn also contributed to the script with his Kick-Ass co-writer Jane Goldman. (Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, the duo behind Marvel’s most recent effort, Thor, co-wrote First Class as well.) Also impressive is Vaughn’s ability to jump from deconstructing superhero tropes in Kick-Ass to effectively utilizing them here in First Class; more importantly, he handles both approaches with equal amounts of skill, able to slide around within the same genre from parody to a more traditional (yet still outstanding) entry.

The casting in First Class is stellar from top to bottom. James McAvoy is the perfect young Charles Xavier. Strong-willed and powerful, he’s easily imaginable as one day growing into Patrick Stewart’s iconic representation of the character. Michael Fassbender continues his slow rise to member of the Hollywood elite as Erik “Magneto” Lensherr, imbuing the character with an intensity and smoldering rage coupled with a willingness to keep an open mind…until his inevitable shift. That’s what’s awesome about this movie: they didn’t stretch out the character development over three films (ahem, Star Wars prequels). By the end of this movie, I was rearing to go for a sequel right then and there, and that’s a rare feeling for me in a big budget blockbuster franchise movie these days. Jennifer Lawrence is splendid as Mystique, pulling a complete 180 from the dirty noirish heroine of Winter’s Bone to the beautiful shape-shifter we see here. Even Kevin Bacon (what’s he doing here?!) was fun to watch, playing it relatively straight – after his Nazi intro – as the villainous Sebastian Shaw, hellbent on nuclear war and complete with a harebrained scheme involving mutant domination of the fallout.

The secondary cast members were also impressive, led by the wonderful Rose Byrne as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert. She’s an actress who’s basically been the real life Hollywood equivalent of Mystique lately, disappearing into vastly different roles in Get Him to the Greek, Bridesmaids, and now this. January Jones was the only weak link, although her stiff and lifeless acting was perhaps more apt here since she’s playing ice queen Emma Frost than in other roles she’s inhabited in her career. Don’t get me wrong, she looked spectacular – she’s just a terrible actress. The rest of the young mutant cast was fine, but not worth mentioning (aside from the technical point that Scott Summers’ brother Alex – aka Havok – is involved in this movie even though this makes no sense in the overall series timeline). One of the largest successes of this film is that Vaughn and his crew were able to assemble the best cast of military character actors ever committed to film. All these guys are in the same movie: Glenn Morshower, James Remar, Matt Craven, Ray Wise, Michael Ironside, Olek Krupa, and Rade Serbedzija.

The main triumph of First Class is the way the writers were able to fit the best elements of each film into one cohesive story. There are the uncertainty issues of growing into one’s powers featured in the first movie, Magneto is essentially a stand-in for Wolverine from X2 (the loner badass of the group), and there is a “cure for bizarre outward appearance” subplot featured heavily in X3 that arises between the smitten Beast and Mystique this time around. The seamless integration of these elements makes me wish Vaughn would have written and directed X-Men 3, but he left the project before Ratner ultimately got his hands on it. Some may argue that this movie makes too many references to what will eventually come in the series (Charles and Erik play chess! Cerebro is built! The Blackbird appears! Charles is paralyzed! Magneto’s helmet! Two famous cameos!), but I didn’t find these as distracting as they easily could have been. I think that’s the clearest sign that this is a really solid script – there are so many winking moments to the fans, but none of them get in the way of the film’s legitimately interesting plot, which invokes historical situations (here, the Cuban Missile Crisis) in a way that no other superhero movie outside of Watchmen has attempted.

X-Men: First Class is a fantastic example of how to breathe new life into a dying franchise, and I’m really hoping Vaughn and the rest of the cast can bring the same magic if they decide to make a direct sequel in the next few years. But even if they can’t recapture the same glory, we can be thankful they’ve already brought us one of the best superhero movies of the past decade. Until next time…

Read similar posts to Review: X-Men: First Class on Filmonic