Generation X Is X-Men Worst Class

[MovieBob]

Generation X Is X-Men Worst Class

Fox's first attempt at bringing the X-Men to live action was less than a resounding success.

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[Burnouts3s3]

You are wrong, Mr. Chipman.

No one liked Jubilee from the cartoon.

 

[McMarbles]

...I liked Jubilee.

Anyway, I actually watched this back when it aired. It was... okay. I barely remember it.

Next week: X-Factor, right? The show that had absolutely nothing to do with the comics and had none of the characters from the comics, so everyone was so shocked that nobody watched it?

 

[Something Amyss]

Good Lord, I remember the fun we had mocking this. It was supposed to be this huge event.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I'd never heard of this before, and now? Well now I kind of want to watch it. To to see it in all its terribly glory

 

[antidonkey]

I remember watching this when it first aired. I was quite excited to see it but was very meh afterwards. I didn't dislike it but it certainly left a lot to be desired. Next week's topic though....I remember being pretty damned terrible.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I remember eagerly awaiting this movie and being kind of disappointed in it once it was all over. But now I'm in the mood for digging out my comic collection and rereading Generation X. I have the first 30 issues in a box somewhere. The whole Penance/M thing was a pretty cool story line.

 

[WaltIsFrozen]

If you ask me, the problem was that the tone and audience it was otherwise tailor-made to hit was almost impossible to render in comics of the 60s and not reading comics of the 60s, respectively. While Marvel had successfully mined "superhero team as nuclear family" with the Fantastic Four and "superhero as sad-sack teenaged nerd" with Spider-Man, The X-Men's basic dynamic (teenagers with special powers that manifest at adolescence living in a boarding-school environment) needed things that studiously-clean comics of the era wasn't prepared to provide: Puberty. Hormones. Lust.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with the need for puberty, hormones, and lust, but I'd add that in the 60s, the same overall theme ("team of super powered misfits forms a nuclear family while feeling alienated from the rest of society") was being done much better at the exact same time over at DC with the Doom Patrol.

 

[Remus]

At the start of the movie I had hope, because there was that famous scene practically ripped right out of the cartoon where Jubilee's playing on an arcade machine and as she gets more into the game, her powers start flaring up so that she's throwing sparks behind her while she's playing. That was pretty iconic at the time. But making "goofy old man" Matt Frewer as the main villain immediately pulled me out of the movie - he almost made me stop watching Orphan Black recently. So glad that character took one to the brainpan. Then the last fight scene in the astral plane....really guys? This didn't look like something from Lawnmower Man as it did something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and not in a good way. Their take on Banshee was bad, Emma was completely wrong. I agree, as a series, this might have turned into something special. Maybe a superpowered version of Head of the Class. But the movie was far from an expression of the idea they were going for.

Not looking forward to The Hoff as Nick Fury. I couldn't watch this trainwreck the first time it was on, don't think I'll enjoy reading about it now.

 

[SeeDarkly_Xero]

They may have wanted Dazzler... but as Jubilee WAS a member of the team in the comic book, that was legitimate as a casting choice. Dazzler had NO role in Gen X and wasn't even drawn back into the X-men team while Jubilee maintained a presence in the X-men title after Dazzler left it... until the Gen X title.
Replacing Husk with Buff and Synch with Refrax probably had more to do with the budgetary concerns of depicting their powers long term. Penance was SO mutated they clearly thought it better to just write her out completely.

I own a copy of this... and video taped it when it first aired on Fox.
This is yet another example of how Fox simply has just never understood how to bring this kind of content to its television audience successfully.

Even Mutant X was, by rights (or without them as the story goes,) more successful overall by comparison.

 

[Tono Makt]

I kinda liked it at the time. I mean, it was not very good but I was disappointed it didn't get a chance to work out. And I loved Jubilee - she's the only comic book character I ever actually had a crush on. (No, it wasn't creepy at the time - she was an early teen character, I was an early teen reader.) Even wrote some utterly horrific fan fiction about her, for which I am entirely grateful that the internet didn't become a thing until I was old enough to have burned all the copies, so there isn't a way to search "Jubilee and Tono Sue Save The Universe!" on a Google Cache.


But speaking of ... interesting... depictions of geek properties in unusual media, I wonder if Bob has any actual experience with White Wolf tabletop/LARP role playing games and Vampire the Masquerade in particular to tackle Kindred: The Embraced [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115232/?ref_=nv_sr_1]...

 

[Mr. Q]

Not gonna lie. I remember watching Generation X and the upcoming Marvel movie for next week. Neither one were that good. I really wish someone would come along and give readers a Jubilee that they would love. And, no, making her into a vampire is not a good idea.

BTW. Is Bob gonna cover the never released except for bootlegs Fantastic Four from Roger Corman?

 

[80sboy]

I sense the pure concentrated hatred for the 90s is strong in this weeks Intermission. Lol

No matter. I'm also the same age as Bob so I completely get where it's coming from.

 

[Darth_Payn]

If you ask me, the problem was that the tone and audience it was otherwise tailor-made to hit was almost impossible to render in comics of the 60s and not reading comics of the 60s, respectively. While Marvel had successfully mined "superhero team as nuclear family" with the Fantastic Four and "superhero as sad-sack teenaged nerd" with Spider-Man, The X-Men's basic dynamic (teenagers with special powers that manifest at adolescence living in a boarding-school environment) needed things that studiously-clean comics of the era wasn't prepared to provide: Puberty. Hormones. Lust.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with the need for puberty, hormones, and lust, but I'd add that in the 60s, the same overall theme ("team of super powered misfits forms a nuclear family while feeling alienated from the rest of society") was being done much better at the exact same time over at DC with the Doom Patrol.

Strangely enough, The X-Men were accused of ripping off The Doom Patrol, who were themselves accused of ripping off the Fantastic Four.
OT: I used to admire what The X-Men stood for, until the late '90's happened and they split into more and more sub teams, a lot of whom did the same things, and the crazy story lines and events. And if you thought it was insane then, get a load of how many X-Men related books there are NOW!
Next week's column will be about- Oh no. Oh no no. Please Bob, I beg of you! In the name of sanity don't do it!

 

[faefrost]

If you ask me, the problem was that the tone and audience it was otherwise tailor-made to hit was almost impossible to render in comics of the 60s and not reading comics of the 60s, respectively. While Marvel had successfully mined "superhero team as nuclear family" with the Fantastic Four and "superhero as sad-sack teenaged nerd" with Spider-Man, The X-Men's basic dynamic (teenagers with special powers that manifest at adolescence living in a boarding-school environment) needed things that studiously-clean comics of the era wasn't prepared to provide: Puberty. Hormones. Lust.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with the need for puberty, hormones, and lust, but I'd add that in the 60s, the same overall theme ("team of super powered misfits forms a nuclear family while feeling alienated from the rest of society") was being done much better at the exact same time over at DC with the Doom Patrol.

Strangely enough, The X-Men were accused of ripping off The Doom Patrol, who were themselves accused of ripping off the Fantastic Four.
OT: I used to admire what The X-Men stood for, until the late '90's happened and they split into more and more sub teams, a lot of whom did the same things, and the crazy story lines and events. And if you thought it was insane then, get a load of how many X-Men related books there are NOW!
Next week's column will be about- Oh no. Oh no no. Please Bob, I beg of you! In the name of sanity don't do it!

Lets not forget that that's the point where you pretty much had to start reading the books sideways to follow a story. You could no longer just read one title and get a comprehensible experience. The stories ran horizontally across three or four titles at once. Often with very very poor editorial control between the jumps.

I just watched most of that generation X TV movie on the Youtube link Bob posted. Honestly it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Not good by todays standards. But not truly awful. It actually might have had a little potential. And its still better than X3 or Wolverine Origins. And next week we get the Hoff's crowning achievement? Oh joy! I'm gonna need to break out the truly good booze and mind altering substances for this one. (Although of all of the live action TV trys from the 70's, 80's and 90's The Dr. Strange one was by far the worst, and the strangest. The Captain America ones are the most unintentionally hilarious.)

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

I remember enjoying the generation x made for tv movie way back when. It came a few years too soon and it really doesn't hold up, but there are worse examples of characters being mishandled.

BTW. Is Bob gonna cover the never released except for bootlegs Fantastic Four from Roger Corman?

That seems like a good subject for an episode of The Big Picture. Especially since the Corman FF was done just to keep the rights and that is so much what the new reboot feels like.

 

[OrokuSaki]

At first I thought "How dare you! Generation X was a really good series, especially compared to a lot of the style-over-substance crap that I've been reading lately!" But then I realized that he was talking about the live-action movie. My comment is withdrawn.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

I just got this crazy idea the slow mo runner turned up as a character done great by Samuel L. Jackson recently
Never saw that movie, but I am pleased to hear you talk about it next week!

Also; I hated Jubilee to no small extent.

 

[Makabriel]

Actually, I believe Jubilee's powers are a lot stronger than Dazzler's. She was one of my favorites in the video game, I remember that.