What X-Men 3 could have been

[andrewducker]

Michael Dougherty, writer of X2 and director of Trick r’ Treat, recently appeared on the /Filmcast and spoke about a few ideas he and Bryan Singer had been thinking of before Singer left to direct Superman Returns.

“The idea was that you open up with Alkali Lake but it’s completely barren and dried up and there are these odd reports of strange phenomena going on around the world accompanied by bright lights in the sky.

“The idea would be that both the X-Men and the Brotherhood realise that essentially a very god-like force had entered their reality and that it was causing disruptions around the world, you know mutant prisons being decimated, I had pitched an idea about a fleet of cargo ships getting torn apart in the Atlantic and you found out that they were shuttling mutants as slave labour.

“You found out was that Phoenix was going round the world taking things into her own hands and that she had basically returned as a god, which they did in X3. She had viewed herself as above the conflict, that she was here to end things on her terms, she was sick of the fighting and she was going to take things into her own hands and she did not give a s**t what the X-Men or the Brotherhood had to say about it.

“And ultimately the way it was going to end, at least the version I was pushing for, would be that Phoenix was kind of like the Starchild at the end of 2001, she didn’t just get stabbed and die again, but she kind of chose to leave.

“The one idea that I loved, that I really wanted to do, was that Cyclops would build the Danger Room. He felt guilty that because the X-Men were too weak, they weren’t strong enough or fast enough, that was the reason Jean died. If they were a little bit better at fighting, then she might still be alive. It was all about this guilt he had about her death and he built the Danger Room to train them to be better. In the end it really was about him not being able to let go of her and that causes the chaos and disruption in the movie and in the end it’s about him letting her go.

“Ultimately she kind of becomes that cosmic force that Phoenix is known to be, she leaves Earth and becomes a god or at least a higher level of intelligence and she goes into the cosmos possibly to kick-start life somewhere else. The final scene for me would have been her telling Cyclops or her telling the X-Men ‘I’ll be watching.’”

Which sounds infinitely better than the rubbish we did get.

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I remember being quite unimpressed with the first two X-Men films, but thinking well okay, if they were building up to something that was going to resolve itself magnificently in the third, they would be forgiveable.

But then along came the third and totally ignored everything in the first two in favour of... I can't even remember... utterly forgettable movie.

In a sense I wound up enjoying Wolverine a lot more than the three X-men movies.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yup.

Jean had a thoroughly shitty character arc.

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Not as shitty as Cyclops!

"...oh, he died, didn't he? Umm... here, have a headstone. That's all you're getting."

[andrewducker]

There are many, many things about the 3rd movie that were shit, and this is definitely one of them.

I assume it was because the actor was off making Superman Returns. But even still...

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

In fairness, suspect that's partly because the actor play Cyclops left. Which stinks, I wish they'd just found someone else to be Cyclops instead of killing the character in such a pathetic fashion. I suspect the movie would've been much stronger with him in it.

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but presumably a better script/story could've resolved issues without forgetting about the character for a good 3/4 of the movie.

I don't even like Cyclops that much - I just really like James Marsden! Wish Superman Returns had done better...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That whole film was arse.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Oh, he died? I completely forgot. I remember there was a bridge floated over a river for no obvious reason?

We never found out what happened to Nightcrawler, right? (I mean I assume he really just read the script and thought 'oh fuck off', but in narrative terms?)

[broin.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, it was a bad movie. But it had elements of a good movie, bits of Jean's story was alright (though it's a shame they didn't go cosmic), and some of the Brotherhood were ok. It's hard to say whether, with a better director (and some tighter scenes) whether it would have held together.

Cyclop's death was so unremarkable, though, I assumed it was a bait-and-switch. Maybe it was in the original script.

[andrewducker]

I'm fairly sure it was because Brian Singer took him with to be in Superman Returns.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Why Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? Isn't that a PR fail as a) masculine and b) evil? Why not association of non-gender specific, differently principled mutants? Or, say, becoming female mutants who reject slave morality?

[andrewducker]

Because it was created in 1964?

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but that also demonstrates a lack of forward thinking on their behalf.

Isn't this similar to the retro golden/white age superhero comics you posted about a week or so ago, that being from an earlier/antediluvian age makes all that racism, sexism, homophobia and so on okay?

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure you can accuse the original people of lack of forward thinking. But the people that made the movie? Yes, definitely. They took the lazy way out by just reusing a name that didn't fit any more.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Define 'a bad movie'.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Lord yes, that film stunk. Well, all the bits with Phoenix stunk. Except for her ripping apart Professor X; that was pretty neat. Ian McKellan of course continued to rock.

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

OMG I so want to see this version!!!

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

A different plot wouldn't have prevented them from doing dumb things. For example, Magneto might still have picked up the Golden Gate bridge and moved it so that infantry could walk to Alcatraz, ignoring the much more intelligent option of simply dropping the bridge itself on Alcatraz.

[gravityslave.livejournal.com]

This is precisely why I MUST believe in infinite parallel realities, because somewhere this movie was made, and somewhere, Ghost Rider didn't suck, and somewhere I'm already comfortably living and travelling on the proceeds of my ten excellent published novels (two more in the works.)

Ah, somewhere...

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Liebniz's incompossible universes as alternative to Voltaire's Candide (Panglossian we live in the best of all possible worlds)?

[draconid.livejournal.com]

Bah! I think I would have loved this film! :(

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

It still sounds shit though.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

It's all the more depressing because Superman Wanders Around A Bit was so pointless, even if it didn't come anywhere near the depths of badness of X3. What a waste! What a waste!

[andrewducker]

Yeah, Superman Returns lacked any kind of decent plot. It was a massive shame.