Simon Kinberg Addresses Mistakes In X-Men: Apocalypse

When the Matthew Vaughn-directed X-Men: First Class came out, it seemed to course correct a […]

September 5, 2017, 8:03pm

When the Matthew Vaughn-directed X-Men: First Class came out, it seemed to course correct a franchise that had gone off the rails.

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The new triumvirate of Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender propelled the film to a new height, portraying a new era, and touching on the fear and paranoia of the unknown in a way no other X-film had to date.

They then built on that momentum by reuniting members of the original cast and adapting one of the most beloved comic stories with X-Men: Days Of Future Past, with Bryan Singer returning to the fold.

It wasn’t as well received as First Class, but it was still a successful film none the less.

And then X-Men: Apocalypse released, which even went so far as making a proclamation about trilogies in the film that became a self-fulfilling prophecy: “The third one is always the worst.”

While speaking with ComingSoon.net about the film, producer Simon Kinberg addressed the film’s mistakes and how things changed from pre-production to what moviegoers saw on screen.

“As the writer of it, I thought when we started the movie and when I wrote the movie that we were telling the story of a family splitting apart and coming back together,” Kinberg said. “In the final movie its in there, but it’s a little buried, and the movie on the surface became about a guy who wanted to destroy the world.” 

Kinberg said they “got a little enamored in the possibility of seeing the world get destroyed,” referring to that plot as the kind of superhero movie from “30 years ago.”

“Today’s superhero movies that we love the most –the Dark Knight movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, the first Iron Man movie, those are movies about human beings in relatable circumstances that happen to have super powers,” Kinberg added.

He referred to the plot of the very first X-Men movie, being a movie that had global ramifications in Magneto’s schemes but is “ultimately about saving Rogue,” and Rogue’s relationship with Wolverine.

“I think Apocalypse became more about global stakes than human stakes,” Kinberg said. “That’s the lesson I learned from the movie, that human and personal stakes always trump global stakes.”

Kinberg is rumored to be in talks to helm the next X-Men movie, which would be his first attempt at directing a feature film.

The plot is thought to center around the Dark Phoenix Saga. If Kinberg does take over from Singer, it will give him an opportunity to do exactly what he intends to with some great source material.

With global—nay, universal—stakes and a personal story between Jean and Scott, there are few X-Men storylines that compare to Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and John Byrne’s classic in that sense.

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