8 Ways To Fix The X-Men Franchise After Apocalypse

If you in any way side with the critics, you're probably feeling a bit let down by the latest X-Men movie. X-Men: Apocalypse isn't Fantastic 4 nor Green Lantern bad, but when a superhero franchise has reliably been the strongest one out there (sorry Marvel, X-Men is just that bit deeper and more off-the-wall than you), it's disappointing to see it take such a step backwards. It's not critical or audience opinion that matters to the longevity of the X-Men series, however, but the box office, and already X-Men: Apocalypse is shaping up to be a fairly big-hitter. Not Days of Future Past big, but successful enough that another sequel is already in production as we speak. Still, if 20th Century Fox want to revive the franchise's reputation and keep bringing audiences back, the sequel to Apocalypse has to be more warmly-received than its 1980s-set predecessor. So on that note, here are eight ways to fix the X-Men franchise after the latest effort so spectacularly dropped the ball. 8) Stop Jumping Forward A Decade With Each Movie This should be a no-brainer. Every time the First Class series of X-Men movies moves forward a decade, the more farcical it all looks. We're 21 years on from First Class, and funnily enough the cast still only look five years older. Already the plan is to set the next entry in the series in the 90s, at which point the original First Class crew would be comfortably into their 50s and 60s. Unless they actually try to age the actors next time, X-Men: 1993 is potentially going to look ridiculous. Not only that, but the changing period setting is beginning to look like a gimmick, with empty references in Apocalypse to Return of the Jedi and other nuggets of 80s pop culture. Why not just stick around in the 80s for a while now, at least so the actors catch up a bit to their characters' ages? Or why not even take the First Class team back to the 60s or 70s for a spinoff, and explore stories we missed there when we jumped ahead? They at least all still look young enough to jump back in time a little. 7) Embrace The Altered Timeline So we've witnessed the birth of the X-Men and discovered the origins of key characters - now what? If Fox is going to take the next X-Men movie into the 90s, then we've almost come full circle, back to the time period when Bryan Singer's original movies were set. And so far it seems the franchise is being taken in an all-too familiar direction: Charles and Erik as frenemies, Scott and Jean as love interests, Wolverine as a lone wolf, and the team consisting of the same core group. With the timeline altered in Days of Future Past, the X-Men movies don't need to just repeat everything all over again like this. Fox are in a unique position in that, instead of going over ground already covered, they could completely overhaul the series going forward. They could introduce new versions of old characters, offer fresh dynamics and deliver some real surprises. There's only so much you can get out of the old storylines - why not shake things up and embrace the altered timeline? 6) Trim The Cast Days of Future Past, so full of figures old and new, almost buckled under the weight of its many characters - but it just about worked. Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg, not shying away from a challenge, take things even further with Apocalypse, by adding yet more characters and having almost all the old ones return. This time, the gamble hasn't paid off: Apocalypse is just too packed, with the many, many individual actors struggling to make any kind of impact. For the next X-movie, there needs to be some streamlining, or people risk getting lost in the maelstrom once again. There are characters in Apocalypse that don't even need to be there, taking up room that could have been used to develop more crucial players. Fox could do worse than trim the cast down and keep the next movie focused on just a core group of performers, just like X-Men and First Class. 5) Dial It Back Generally Since First Class, the X-Men movies have been getting bigger, and not just in terms of the ballooning cast list. It seems 20th Century Fox's plan has been to make every new film more epic than what's gone before. But where exactly can the X-Men series go from here, after Apocalypse? How do you make a movie bigger than the greatest X-Men villain of all and the threat of the entire world being destroyed? Well, one answer is: you don't. One thing the James Bond franchise has always done well is scaling back when things have started to get out of control. After the bloated Moonraker came the more intimate and gritty For Your Eyes Only; after Die Another Day came Casino Royale. Fox must learn that unlimited growth is impossible, that bigger isn't always better. A smaller-scale X-Men movie could make a nice palate cleanser after the grand mayhem of Days and Apocalypse. 4) Make The Franchise Human Again Bryan Singer's early X-Men films, never just action extravaganzas, were most often about how flawed we are as a species. The mutants in these movies are not the invincible, all-powerful supermen we see in Apocalypse, but frail, scared, occasionally disturbed people who are uncertain about their place in the world. The approach Singer took here made the films feel paradoxically very human; he made the X-Men relatable. The characters in Apocalypse, by comparison, feel distant. They are only superficially complicated, and no longer look and sound like real people, with all their flaws and foibles. The sequel to Apocalypse hopefully won't be so detached from real life. What has always made the X-Men movies stand out before now is how the characters within look more like us than any other cinematic superheroes. Fox should try and get back to that. 3) Take Some Time There are definite signs of fatigue from both cast and crew in X-Men: Apocalypse. The cast, returning so soon after Days of Future Past, seem either bored or in a constant struggle to lend some life to their characters, characters that are frankly flatly written by Simon Kinberg. Perhaps understandably so: Kinberg had hardly any time at all to prepare Apocalypse, and neither did Bryan Singer. It shows, too - the film feels rushed, an opportunistic product made to cash in on the success of Days. Obviously it would be better for everyone if there was more time spent preparing the next one. Apocalypse has been received generally with a shrug by both critics and audiences, with the focus of the ire being how hollow and inessential the film seems. No movie should go to shooting until all the pieces are comfortably in place beforehand. A bit of extra prep for X-Men: The 90s wouldn't go amiss, at the very least to ensure the screenplay doesn't again read like a first draft. 2) Move On From Bryan Singer One director can only have so many original ideas regarding one cinematic concept. Joss Whedon left Marvel after two movies, while Christopher Nolan did three for DC/Warner Bros. before moving on. Bryan Singer has now directed four X-Men movies, and though he has been massively influential on the franchise and superhero cinema in general, the shine has definitely started to come off. X-Men: Apocalypse is proof of that. Apocalypse is the first X-Men movie of Singer's that feels stale. It's evident that the imagination is, understandably, beginning to run dry. They ousted George Lucas from Star Wars when it became clear he'd lost whatever magic he once possessed when making the original trilogy - perhaps it's also time Fox part ways with Singer, and instead hire some new directors with hunger and a desire to bring fresh ideas to the X-Men. 1) Get Weird Again For the most part, X-Men: Apocalypse regrettably comes across like a generic action movie. Unlike the best of the series, Apocalypse feels often like it could have been made by any old hack, lacking as it does both the originality and the personal feel of Bryan Singer's early X-movies and Matthew Vaughn's kooky, ballsy First Class. In short, Apocalypse suffers for being one of the less out-there films in the X-Men franchise. Apocalypse does come alive fitfully, in bizarre moments that could only belong in this series: the Ancient Egyptian Four Horsemen annihilating their enemies in various inventive ways; Apocalypse dropping people through the floor, leaving them there to wriggle as life ebbs away. The X-Men movies are always at their best when they're being totally weird and unexpected. To paraphrase Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some, the next X-movie should embrace its inner fucking strange, man.