Akela Explains It All: Bryan Singer And The X-Men Franchise

By Akela Talamasca on October 16th, 2009

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A bit of possibly-great news for fans of the first two X-Men movies: Bryan Singer has expressed interest in returning to the franchise. Opinion over the success or failure of the third film — “X-Men: The Last Stand”, directed by Brett Ratner — seem to be all over the place, with people in agreement or disagreement, usually over the same plot points and scenes. It cannot be argued, however, that the first two films were vastly different in tone than the third, and if nothing else, the studio might have done better to hold off with filming the third until Singer was free to direct, making a good cap to the trilogy.

Singer’s handling of “Superman Returns” might have been his pet project, but from most accounts, it didn’t approach the same power and conviction of the X-men flicks. It could be argued that he works best with an ensemble cast, as witness is crowning achievement, “The Usual Suspects”, and doesn’t fare so well with a more singular cast, as shown by the easily-forgotten “Apt Pupil”. So one might think that a return to form might be the best thing for both fans and director alike.

Regardless, Singer was definitely leading his mutants to a conclusion, and Ratner has closed that storyline for better or for worse. To continue down that path — what many know as inspired by the graphic novel “God Loves, Man Kills” — might be overkill for the subject. When, then could the potential “X-Men 4″ storyline contain?

In my mind, the X-Men stories worked best on two levels. First, there was always an inherent soap opera quality to Chris Claremont’s scripts. There was a lot of angst of course, but it wasn’t always just about feeling alienated from the rest of non-mutant civilization. The characters had, for the most part, their own lives outside of being superheroes. This was balanced by the second level of the fiction, which was that of the need to venture forth to find new mutants and help them learn how to co-exist with humanity and train them to control their budding powers. So while it might feel at first like a setback to return to a “business as usual” atmosphere after the epic events of the third film, it might be a good way for Singer to get his hands back on the wheel and ease his fans back into the thematic continuity he engendered with the first two films.

The question now is, which mutants to pursue next? Which classic storyline to follow? Unfortunately, the larger arcs that immediately spring to mind involve space: meeting the Shi-ar Empire, Cyclops’s father leading the Starjammers, the Alien-like race called The Brood, etc. While purists might love to see these concepts brought to the screen, I can’t imagine a more destructive element to bring to Singer’s carefully-constructed aesthetic. Those stories were always pretty epic, but in the space opera sense: a lot of guns blazing, swashbuckling derring-do, and a whole host of crazy locations and characters with apostrophes in their names.

Singer seems to work best on the smaller sets, with slightly more intimate themes. On that score, perhaps a visit with good old Proteus, or knocking heads against the Hellfire Club. Anything that brings in the larger world and reminds audiences that mutation isn’t an isolated phenomenon would be good for Singer to explore.

And perhaps worth consideration: how will the fourth film tie in to whatever the hell it is they’re doing with the “Wolverine” franchise? Will there be tie-ins and crossovers? If they’re not careful with their strategic planning, Marvel could write themselves into an unfortunate position with all of these spinoffs going on; “X-Men Origins: Magneto” is still in development, remember, and they’ve announced a “Deadpool” movie to come. This could get needlessly convoluted.

Finally, is there a chance of mixing up the team a bit? Lose Beast in favor of Nightcrawler’s return; drop Storm, or at least get someone else to play her (my choice: Iman); and maybe drop in someone new, like Thunderbird, perhaps, or even a raw recruit from the New Mutants like Karma or Psyche? This for the sake of the non-fan audience who would be most excited to see new powers in play.

So, yeah. Kind of excited to have Singer back, but apprehensive about what might come next. In a way, this is an even bigger job for him than developing the original and delivering a good sequel, both of which he knocked outta the park. Has he learned anything from working on Superman? Can he slip back into what he had with the first two films? Has the audience burnt out on mutants in general? Final question: is this good news or bad news?