The X-men has certainly created a franchise from its comic-book roots to its hit movies. The summer of next year will begin another X-men film with X-men: Apocalypse. The film will focus on one of the team of mutants biggest foes, but a recent preview photo has revealed a lot of doubts from its fanbase before the film's eventual release date.
I'm going to just up and say that I think this first photo from the movie set looks awful. I normally don't like to bad-mouth publicity photos, but having grown up with these famous X-men characters, this first photo from X-men: Apocalypse does these Marvel Universe characters a great disservice. This first picture that you see with Storm (Alexandria Shipp), Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) in that order is a special preview provided by Entertainment Weekly, but instead of being a great action shot, it looks like some photo snapped between takes. I don't know if that was the best they could get that day, but the response from fans has not been good.
Look at the next image, and you will see a picture of what Apocalypse looks like from his Marvel comics inspiration, penciled by Walter Simsonson. As you can see, Apocalypse is a huge tough man as powerful as a force of nature, and really personifies his biblical namesake. He is undeniably a bad man, and you do not want to face him, making him one of the X-men's greatest foes. He is a mutant who is motivated by eliminating the weak just to ensure that the strong survive, which makes him both dangerous as well as exceptionally powerful.
This photo shows a costume that is similar to the graphic novels, but it really doesn't compare. In fact, there is a meme going around comparing the costume of Apocalypse to Ivan Ooze, a villain from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie. I am in complete agreement with it, as this photo of the main villain from the next X-men film doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, nor any sense of evil villainy.
This type of comic book fan backlash has happened before. When the 2002 Spider-Man film showed pictures of the Green Goblin before its release, many mocked the costume of the villain as "The Green Ranger". This was also a reference to the Might Morphin' Power Rangers, but Spider-Man film was an undeniable hit, catapulting Marvel movies into the spotlight for several summers to come.
It is possible that this is a case of drawings in comic books not making the successful transition into screen. Storm and Psylocke are considered iconic X-men characters, but this shot of them is also downright unflattering. Perhaps X-men: Apocalypse should have used a computer generated villain to get Apocalypse's look down.
This could be another low point for the X-men franchise. The first two films were well-received by audiences, opening the door for what has now become the Marvel cinematic universe. It was with X3: The Last Stand where audiences began to frown on the X-men films, and was made worse with X-men Origins: Wolverine. X-men: First Class bought some of the magic back, and it was Bryan Singer, the original X-men director, who managed to really bring the magic back with X-men: Days of Future Past.
Hopefully, Singer will be able to make a good story to X-men: Apocalypse. The film will appear in theaters on May 27, 2016, so we will have to wait until then.
