In an interview with MTV, Brett Ratner tried to assuage the fear that X-Men fans have over his taking over the upcoming film.
To his credit, he is at least aware of the negative buzz and as far as I’m concerned that’s a good thing. During his interview he actually said (concerning the brutally murdered Batman franchise):
“I’m not Joel Schumacher, and I’m not … um … who did the third Superman? I’m Brett, and all I know is what I know, what I can do and what I have to work with.”
So he knows what’s on the line and what can happen when things go terribly wrong.
Then there’s a bit more hopeful news:
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“I want to stay true to the franchise and true to the characters, but I think it’s elevated … I don’t want to be pompous and say I’m going to take it to the next level. I think the script that Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote gives me a tremendous amount of confidence.”
Followed by a big red flag concerning injecting more humor into the upcoming sequel:
“Not jokes for the sake of jokes, jokes that come from character humor, that come from characters and that come from the situations.”
In view of what I’ve read about the storyline, even bringing up humor scares me a bit.
Ratner also stated that Bryan Singer left X-Men 3 for Superman because he wasn’t happy with the script. That’s the first I’ve heard of that.
3 Comments
I agree, recognition of his own shortcomings is an important first step, but that’s not going to help him do any better of a directing job than he has historically shown.
The idea of jokes coming from the characters and situations worked well in the Rush Hour movies, but the X-Men movies are going to be taken far more seriously than the Rush Hour movies. Too many jokes, or the wrong kind of jokes, and X3 could cross the line and become a disappointing farce. Besides, isn’t it wrong to plan for humor ahead of time, especially if it’s not a comedy? Some of the funniest scenes in movie history weren’t originally meant to be funny. (Example: Indiana Jones deciding against the sword fight in Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Brian
Hrm– I don’t know if I agree against Ratner quite yet, actually.
Rush Hours (I and II) were not horrible movies. Their action not horribly directed, the humour honest and the plain absurdity not too a-plenty, if you catch my drift.
Ratner tends to take the idea and run with it as best as he can; this is evidenced in Red Dragon, a movie best described of the entire series concerning Hannibal Lecter.
While I feel there are much better choices for directors than Ratner, I’m of the opinion he could turn it into a good movie.
An also, a bit of a rebuttal, of sorts–
The X-Men Comics (Graphic Novels), by nature, were humorous for the sake of being so. They were dark, sarcastic, malign and all things wicked without detracting from the story. Perhaps maybe his comment was just taken out of context by hyped-up fanboys, and it was assumed he is just out to destroy a franchise when in reality he may be takign it back to its roots.
Your points are well taken. I also read today that there is a possibility that the script that has everyone up in arms is in *not* the shooting script but a very early draft.
Regardless, to take a movie like this from just a screenplay to release in one year sounds impossible to me, and that’s the current plan.
We’ll just have to see what happens.
Vic