YOUR LETTERS
Is the X-Men universe heading towards apocalypse?
MarcelvanDriel, Twitter Much more fun than I expected, even though Apocalypse was a mediocre villain and it has a questionable moral.
Visulth, Facebook The X-Men movies have always been held back because of Bryan Singer. He’s stuck in this rut where he refuses to be fully accurate to the comic characters in costumes or personalities, as if he’s embarrassed or ashamed. It’s not the ’90s anymore, Marvel has shown clearly that you can be source accurate. Instead of putting the comic book characters on screen, he’s brought his own little troupe of actors and actresses and disguised them under the X-Men banner, so we get Mystique who bears no resemblance to her comic character in personality or visuals, and Cyclops who is never anything but a joke and not a leader. So many missed opportunities.
Ada363, Facebook Let’s just say I enjoyed the comics more than the movies. I’ve never had the same fun and excitement with the X-men movies as I have had with the MCU. The X-universe comes across as a bit of a mess. Great stories and they keep messing them up. Time they did a Spidey and joined the MCU.
OrangeClover, Facebook As good as McAvoy is he’s not a patch on Stewart’s Xavier and looks very odd with a shaved head. Skullcap next time, methinks. Please, for the love of god, get rid of Jennifer Lawrence – awful, just awful. Romijn was great as Mystique; sorry to see her needlessly replaced for the new films. Wolverine’s time is gone, time for X-23.
Russell Garland, Facebook I loved it! Great seeing Jean Grey and some of the others get a bigger part and Quicksilver was brilliant again.
James Daykin, Facebook Sophie Turner was right – third one is always worst. Felt less intelligent than other two, just mutants smashing against each other.
Andy Meakin, Facebook At times I thought I was watching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.A bland, uninspired entry into the X-franchise. If I was to say something good about it, then it would be that it isn’t the worst X-Men film.
Andrew, Facebook Best X-Men movie so far, and much better than Civil War was.
Ross Warren, Facebook Fun characters hampered by a seen-it-all-before bad guy and finale.
Nick, Facebook Really enjoyed it. Just wish there was more Psylocke!
The X-Men movies have been held back because of Bryan Singer
Sandy Munro, Facebook A bit “meh”. All the horsemen bar Magneto were pointless.
Chris Evans, Facebook Loved it, more or less as good as DoFP although wish McAvoy and Fassbender had more scenes together.
Matt Sandry, Facebook Some characters felt flat such as Angel, but Professor X, Magneto, Quicksilver and Nightcrawler stole the show.
Lee Perry, Facebook They’re getting a bit OTT for me now. Need to trim back the mutants.
Jayne Harris, Facebook My husband and I saw it last Friday and loved it. Can’t understand all the negative reviews.
Peter Campbell, Facebook Loved it, just wish there hadn’t been so many trailers for it. SFX I haven’t seen it yet, but I doubt it’ll match up to the only X-Men flick I really love, First Class. That was a most enjoyable plane journey back from Bangkok (although I wasn’t IN first class, sadly). Even though this one has got mixed reviews, we’ll still be seeing the X-universe on the big screen for a long, long time to come. #CIVIL BORE
Jim Connolly, email After watching Civil War I felt compelled to write. While it was admittedly a fun action flick I felt annoyed that it scored so highly over BvS. Civil War is essentially just a forgettable $230 million episode of Power Rangers whereas BvS is a highly stylish, if flawed, DKR derivative with possibly the finest live-action Batman. It’s worth noting that Iron Man 2 still scores higher than Watchmen, which was out around a similar-ish time, which tells me how little the reviewers understand the source material.
MediumAtomic I can’t be the only person who’s getting a little bored with Marvel movies. I’m glad DC are forging ahead with their own look and feel. I enjoyed the gritty darkness of BvS, full of unexpected twists and touches, and I’m excited to find out how some of my most treasured heroes – Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern – find their place in this brooding, cynical world. SFX I agree that Civil War was just a tad overpraised – it was essentially an Avengers film, and one with too many characters (like Hawkeye, War Machine, Vision and the majestically tedious Black Panther). But it was mostly enjoyable, and Snyderman’s universe just turns me off from the word go. In fact, before the word go – I didn’t even go and see Dawn Of Justice.
#LAMENTING LANGFORD
Dave Durant, email I’m sad to hear that Dave Langford is stopping writing for you after being part of the SFX family all the way from issue one. I’ve always valued his contribution and the connection he brought to the “old school” world of F&SF fandom. I hope SFX stays connected to the Hugos, Worldcon etc as well as the more obscure and wonderful parts of our great history.
Matt George, Norwich Drops to knees, looks directly up into pouring rain and yells “Noooooooooooo!!!”
Dave Langford leaving the vaulted halls of SFX after all this time is breaking my heart.
Like his good self, I have been with you guys since issue one and his column has always been my favourite part of the mag. That’s not just lip service, the man’s a sci-fi god!
Craig Bunting, email All the bloody best Mr Langford, and thank you. SFX We miss Lord Langford too. If it’s any consolation, you can find all of his SFX columns online at http://ansible.uk/sfx/index.html.
I think Craig’s good for at least another two movies
#NICHOLAS FISK RIP
Angela Owen, Birmingham Just writing to say how sad I was to hear of the death (on 10 May) of children’s author Nicholas Fisk. His book Grinny – in which a boy discovers his visiting “great Aunt” is actually a brainwashing alien robot, here to study humanity in advance of an invasion – scared the living daylights out of me. I also loved a couple of his other books: A Rag, A Bone And A Hank Of Hair and Trillions. Fellow readers, if you have kids then I thoroughly recommend hunting down second-hand copies and pressing them into their hands. I think authors like this have more influence than we usually credit – those two books were hugely responsible for getting me into SF literature. SFX We were saddened by this news too. A few years back we printed a short piece on Mr Fisk (real name David Higginbottom) and were delighted to hear it found its way to the home where he spent his final years. Grinny was reissued a couple of years ago, and we gather the rights for a movie option were recently renewed. Let’s hope they eventually make one – it’d make a splendidly creepy film. #THE NAME’S…?
Olly Hayman, email Anyone else sick of all these stories about Daniel Craig quitting as James Bond? Every day now it seems there’s some new load of nonsense, full of the usual guff from unnamed “insiders” and “sources” – I bet even MI6 doesn’t have that many moles! Frankly I think it’s really disrespectful to Daniel, who has been a brilliant Bond, exactly the shot of adrenalin the franchise needed after pretty-boy Brosnan (who wasn’t bad, to be fair, but always looked like Q supplied him with hi-tech grooming products along with the gadgetry!). Put yourself in Daniel’s position. It can’t be much fun being told that the likes of Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston are sniffing around your job! He’ll let us know he’s moving on when he’s good and ready, I reckon, and no amount of tabloid stirring will smoke him out. Personally I think he’s good for at least another two Bond movies – and he’s got to have a rematch with Christoph Waltz as Blofeld, right? Those two were just getting started… SFX On screen I think Craig is fine, but I really dislike the way he disses Bond and the role off screen, especially after SPECTRE.
#DAVROS WRITES
PJ Walsh, Bradford Any chance of more Daleks in SFX? Cos I luv ’em! SFX Here you go, PJ, see below.
#PEARL ASSURANCE
Annie Marter, email Best of luck to Pearl Mackie as the new Doctor
Who companion, I’m sure she’ll be good. Looks like she will provide a perfect contrast to old man Capaldi. If only the series wasn’t so long in coming!
SFX I may come to like Bill more than Clara (wouldn’t be difficult!) but the bad news is that the flipping Daleks are back again. Rest ’em, I say. Sorry, PJ.
Richard Morrell, email Looks like Disney is prepared to consider merchandising opportunities that would have made even the Beard say “No, that’s too much.”
Keep up the good work, guys. SFX Hmm, he might actually have said yes. #THE FINAL VERDICT
Peter Lowdon, Oxford I recently saw Blade Runner: The Final Cut on a cinema re-release, and for the first time I appreciated it. I’d seen it a couple of times before and always thought it was a dour, formless and depressingly dark film about a future place that no one in their right minds would live in. But watching it this time I saw new things in it. I managed to immerse myself in its atmosphere, admire the care and expertise that went into the production design and tolerate the slow spots more (you’ve got to admit there are slow spots). It also surprised me just
how many long sequences there are with no dialogue at all. So, finally, I can see why its reputation has grown since its original release, and why it’s called a classic. (Although I can also see why critics originally didn’t like it!)
SFX That you saw the Final Cut helped, I reckon: losing Deckard’s narration and having a bleaker ending was a wise move.
#TO THE POINT
Hodor! Jane R, email Indeed. SFX
#WE ALSO HEARD FROM
Bob Pierce, email Are there any readers like me who hate GamesRadar? Not only do we get old news, but TV reviews are just rubbish! That’s when they can be bothered to review them! Games tend to hog the limelight and when did book news suddenly go out of favour? Discussions like the old forum are gone, in favour of Facebook and Twitter, and also one-sided. I want my forum back, or at the very least a website devoted to SFX magazine.
Iain Skea With regard to the picture on page 50, SFX #274, why have none of the cast told Michael Fassbender that he is not starring in a movie called Alvin Stardust: The Glam Rock Years! That hairstyle (looking suspiciously dyed), that stare with head tilted to one side, that tight black glove lifted towards us… It’s uncanny!
Karl Macks, email There was a full stop missing on your Joe Hill feature in SFX 275, page 84, paragraph four.
SFX Apologies. We’ve put an extra one right here to make up for it..
Ben Warren, Hertfordshire Why are people bashing BvS when the real travesty is hidden in plain sight on Netflix? Shadowhunters is so bad it makes me wonder what could possibly have gotten a second season green-lit?
SFX We hope you enjoyed Dave Golder’s Shadowhunters Scriptease in issue 274.
Paul Baker, email I’m middle-aged and loving kids’ TV The Amazing World Of Gumball and Adventure Time. Maybe a feature in your pages perhaps?
SFX What, on you loving kids’ TV? Nah, not enough space.