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X-Men 3: Directors Roulette
Tyler Durden

X-Men fans all around the world were shocked last summer when Bryan Singer, a man who received most of the credit for the quality of the previous two X-Men instalments, left the beloved franchise in spite of his numerous claims of dedication to it. To realize his importance to the franchise, it is key to look at the critical success of the X-Men series.

When Bryan Singer was hired to bring the first X-Men film to the big screen there was a lot of excitement among comic fans. It was not hard to understand. Bryan Singer’s popularity soared after his second full-length feature, The Usual Suspects, a movie beloved by audiences and film critics alike. The movie snatched two Oscars and brought Singer well-deserved fame. It also showed what he could do with a large cast, foreshadowing the X-Men series and its large ensemble.

This is not to say that there wasn’t a little bit of scepticism about the choice, as Singer has never directed an action-laden, effects-heavy feature before. It also received some criticism from the fans once the first pictures of the new costumes were released and they didn’t match the comic books. However, once the movie hit the big screen all doubts vanished. It was a financial as well as a critical success, setting the foundation for other Marvel Comics adaptations. Certainly, Blade came before X-Men, but it wasn’t until X-Men, that a huge wave of comic book adaptations hit the theatres. X-Men was followed by the record-breaking Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four and, of course, its own sequel, X2: X-Men United. For the sequel, Bryan Singer once again showed his great hand for character and story development as he didn’t just give us more of the same, but took the best elements of the first movie and expanded upon them, adding more character development, a more interesting story and more elaborate action sequences. X2 ended up with an excellent 87% approval at Rotten Tomatoes and is considered to be one of the best comic book adaptations to date. The acclaim and the huge box-office success of the sequel made a third movie inevitable.

All was going well. Most cast members of the second film expressed their interest in a third film and Singer seemed just as dedicated to the franchise as ever. Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer started off the two biggest Marvel franchises and both franchises are considered their children as it was their talent and passion that made the movies as special as they were. The difference is that Raimi stuck with his franchise, while Singer left it rather unexpectedly and took the directing duties of Superman Returns, a DC comics adaptation, Marvel’s biggest competitor. It was sad to see Singer go, but considering how much of a lifelong Superman fan he is, it’s also somewhat understandable.

In any case, it put a dark shadow over X3’s future. There was no doubt at Fox that the movie would still go ahead. But they only had a year left until the planned release date and no director to helm the flick. But in stepped Matthew Vaughn, the director of the well-received British crime flick Layer Cake. Vaughn made the rounds and endured the internet scrutiny for some time, only to leave the film because of several “undisclosed” reasons, one of which was assumed to be script issues. Fox was quick to find a replacement with the Rush Hour helmer Brett Ratner. Not a move that made the X-Men fans particularly happy and optimistic about the franchise’s future.

Brett Ratner is mostly known for his Chan/Tucker-starring Rush Hour franchise. Unlike Raimi and Singer, he didn’t earn great accolades as a director before taking over the franchise, although his Hannibal Lecter prequel/remake Red Dragon did earn some acclaim. Still, it remains a question whether the director of rather fluffy and light films like Rush Hour, Money Talks and After the Sunset can take on this huge franchise and continue the tone that Singer set. Singer’s X-Men films were great entertainment, but they also weren’t fluffy or light-hearted.

There was always a reason to be wary of Ratner as the director, but the notion alone of switching directors during the run of a franchise was concern enough. We all remember when Joel Schumacher took over the Batman franchise from Tim Burton. It is generally never good to change directors for the third instalment of a franchise if one visionary director directed the first two films. Another good example would be the Terminator franchise. Johnathan Mostow did a good job on T3, but it never came close to the first two entries, which were directed by James Cameron. Moreover, X3: The Last Stand simply has too much to live up to acclaim-wise after the great reception of the second film.

Now we still should be fair towards Ratner who ironically was one of the directors lined up to direct the first X-Men movie before Singer was hired. Ratner also spent about a year developing his version of Superman Returns. Ratner is a comics fan and it is always good to at least have a director passionate about his project and knowledgeable about the source material as opposed to just being a director-for-hire (I am looking at you, Tim Story). However, passion for the source material alone won’t bring you very far as it was shown with the Daredevil adaptation (which I personally liked a lot myself, but I appear to be in the minority).

Ratner went into the project with a lot of enthusiasm, all while facing negative buzz. Ratner has repeated assured fans that they will get an X-Men film just as they expect, only more epic than ever. That large scope is already reflected in the number of new mutants added to the cast. Out of the X2 line-up, only Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) is prominently missing, while the rest of the gang is back. They are joined by several additions. Chief among them are Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), Angel (Ben Foster), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Callisto (Dania Ramirez), Multiple Man (Eric Dane) and several others. Furthermore, the famous Danger Room, a mutants training facility is finally making an appearance. These additions caused fear that the movie might be too overcrowded and unfocused.

These fears, for the most part, seem to be gone. Ratner has kept in line with the tone that Singer set. Not all doubts are gone, but as the teaser and the trailer have shown, it might be too early to judge Ratner. At least on the action department the movie should be able to keep up with the predecessors. It remains questionable though, whether Ratner can create a character-driven movie, as opposed to a fun actioner. X3: The Last Stand, which revolves around the fan-favorite Dark Phoenix saga storyline, is supposedly the last entry in the beloved X-Men franchise. We can only hope that the series will find a worthy conclusion despite the chaotic director changes it has gone through.

X3: The Last Stand is scheduled to be released on May 26th.