Everyone Wants To Be Like Marvel Part 2: 20th Century Fox

Last time we took a look at how Warner Bros. wanted to copy the success of Marvel Studios and its Cinematic Universe by creating their own with the characters of DC Comics. Today we focus on 20th Century Fox and its Marvel Properties, X-Men and The Fantastic Four.

Back in 2000, 20th Century Fox released X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects), and starring James Marsden as Cyclops, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Halle Berry as Storm, breakout star newcomer Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and thespian Actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as X-Men mentor Professor X and arch-nemesis Magneto, respectively.

The film was a success and came in at the right time. In fact, many attribute the success of this film as well as Blade in 1998 and Spider-Man in 2002 as the spark that kicked off the comic book movie boom we are going through today. With its success, came sequels; X-Men 2 was released in 2003 with many fans considering it not only the best X-Men film to date but one of the best superhero movies ever made.

In 2005, while filming X-Men 3, two major things happened in the world of comic book movies. First, there was the release of Fantastic Four— an adaptation of the Marvel comic team of the same name—starring Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards a.k.a. the elastic Mister Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm a.k.a. The Invisible Woman, Chris Evans as Sue’s hothead Brother, Johnny a.k.a. The Human Torch, Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing, and Julian McMahon as the team’s arch-enemy Victor Von Doom.

While a commercial success, the film was a failure for both fans and critics. Fans cited poor casting (aside from Chiklis and occasionally Evans), weak effects, cartoonish CGI, bad humor and lazy storytelling to be factors. A sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer came in 2007 with the principal cast returning as well as Laurence Fishburne doing the voice of the titular Silver Surfer, but the damage was already done and it was a box-office flop. If these films were released five years earlier they might have been better received, but they were blindsided by a comic book film that would spark a revolution.

Which brings up the second major thing that happened; in the summer of 2005, about a month before Fantastic Four, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was released. It was a commercial success and an even bigger critical hit.

Warner Bros.’ attempt to reboot the Batman films after 1997’s disastrous Batman and Robin was a success that was further cemented with its 2008 sequel The Dark Knight. The one-two punch of these films caused everyone to look at comic book films differently; light and funny was out, dark and realistic was in. It also didn’t help that 2006’s X-Men 3 was not the critical success the first two were. Many attribute this to Bryan Singer being replaced with Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) as director. It was still a commercial success though, and in 2009 a Wolverine-centered prequel was released as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which suffered the same fate as X-Men 3.

For many, it looked like the good old days of the X-Men were over. That is until 2011, when a Cold War-set prequel featuring the beginning of both Magneto, Professor X and the first generation of X-Men was released.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) X-Men: First Class—while the lowest grosser of the franchise—was still a commercial hit and was lauded with critical praise by both fans and critics. Praise went to the writing, the effects, and most of all, the acting. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult were praised for their portrayals of the younger versions of Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X, Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto, Raven Darkholme a.k.a. Mystique, and Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast, respectively.

More good news came when 2013’s The Wolverine, another solo Wolverine movie, was better received than the last solo outing. All this success culminated in this year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Bryan Singer returned to the franchise to tell a Terminator-esque time travel story, in which the older versions of the X-Men are in an apocalyptic future where humanity and mutantkind alike are being killed by the Sentinels, and Wolverine is sent to the 1970’s to team up with cast of First Class to stop the events that would set that future in motion. With heavy fanfare, critical love, box office success and an ending that basically wipes out the existence of X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins means a bright future for the franchise as X-Men: Apocalypse is set for 2016.

But until then we have a Fantastic Four reboot, slated for August 2015, which is said to tie into the X-Men universe. While we do know the cast will have Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell as the titular Four and Toby Kebbell as Doctor Doom, no official photos, posters or trailers have been released, and while story details have been mentioned here and there, we still don’t know exactly what it is about.

Although the route they seem to be taking seems to be so far gone from anything related to Fantastic Four—such as Victor Von Doom being a hacker and the suits meant to be containing the Fours’ powers—that I don’t think anyone will be satisfied with this. Fox doesn’t seem to have much faith in the Josh Trank (Chronicle) directed vehicle despite setting a release date for the sequel in summer 2017.

Fox seems to have confidence in trying to turn a once solo movie franchise into a cinematic universe but they seem to have wavering faith. They have a third solo Wolverine movie set for 2017 and an as-of-now-unknown film for summer 2018 which is rumored to be the crossover for the two franchises.

Next time: Sony and Spidey.