Ain’t It Cool News has some pictures of Famke Janssen as the Phoenix in X-Men 3. For those who don’t recall, the last we saw of her character, Jean Grey, she was aglow with fire in her eyes as she held back a giant wave to save the rest of the X-Men. The wave crashed over her and everyone mourned her for dead.
Well, for those who read the comics, they knew she’d be back, since she’s the Phoenix, a bird that burns up and rises from the dead. Of course, all the power can’t be good, so here’s a good run down of what happened in the comics (and maybe why she’s seen hanging out with the villain Magneto in these pics).
I’m very excited for this movie, despite the change at the helm. The first two X-Men are some of the better comic book flicks out there (I consider Batman Begins to be pretty awesome, but it might even rate as a movie, one step up from a flick). I’ve seen them both several times, and enjoy them every time. It seems like X3 aims to throw in as many characters as possible to please the fans, like Angel and the Beast (check out the slides there, there’s a lot of good pics). And of course we have returning characters like Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Dr. X, Magneto and Mystique. I hope this picture lives up to the first two. Too often now we get mindless action without substance. I love the action, but if the plot is weak and pointless than I’d rather go do something else.
Oooh, in my search for X3 news I found this tidbit about Spiderman 3, Topher Grace is onboard as Venom. Ok, I know even less about Spiderman comic lore than I do about X-Men (I have read some X comics, but no Spidey at all), and the Wikipedia isn’t being as helpful as I could hope on this one. But apparently Venom is a villain who is not detectable by the Spidey sense because he’s some sort of evil symbiant or something. Well, I’m sure it’ll make sense in the movie. I really like Topher Grace, I thought In Good Company was one of the best, smartest comedies for everyone that has come out in years. So I’m eager to see him join the cast of another good comic movie franchise. Though we have to wait until 2007 for the next Spidey…
Maybe Superman Returns will kickoff another good movie series. Then we’d really be doing well, with four good comic book movie franchises chugging along! (Yes they are making another Batman with Christian Bale, yay, it’s been announced).
5 Responses to “X-Men and Spiderman 3 News”
As a long-time X-fan, I was fairly impressed that the movies managed to be decent. The Beast(a.k.a. Dr. Henry McCoy) actually made an appearance in the first X-Men movie, albeit in non-blue, non-furry form.
The story of Venom is something that the Spidey film will never get right. To fully explain the origin of Venom, you have to explain the origin symbiont, and to do that, you have to get into this whole other Spider-Man storyline that takes place in outerspace.
Basically (and this is from my hazy memories), the symbiont = Venom’s “suit”. Spider-Man got involved with some doings in outer space, (I forgot with whom) and during the ensuing battles, his blue and red costume was torn to shreds and rendered useless. The aliens gave Spidey this living costume, black with white accents (eyes/spider symbol). The suit has a primitive mind of its own, but will bow to the will of the user. The suit also augmented Spidey’s powers. Eventually, Spidey returned to Earth, found out that the suit was alive and had some influence on his thoughts, and he decided to trash it.
Enter Eddie Brock. Eddie Brock is a photographer at the same newspaper that Peter Parker works at. Eddie has a grudge against Peter, because Peter is always getting these fantastic shots of Spider-Man, and all the attention that goes with exclusives. Somehow, the suit finds its way to Eddie and Venom is born. Through the symbiont, he finds out that Peter Parker = Spider-Man. The symbiont, BTW has a huge grudge against Spidey because the webcrawler threw it away. So it’s a match made in heaven.
Topher Grace! That might not turn out so well. Sure he is a good actor, but Eddie Brock is an arrogant muscle bound jerk before he turns into venom. I’m still pumped for the movie, but this will be an adjustment that spidey fans will have to swallow.
Thanks for the backstory, Brinstar!
You know, Tobey Maguire was not exactly pumped up before the first Spiderman, and he sure managed to get in shape for it. I think Topher will be able to pull off muscle bound jerk if need be. I’m more concerned about James Franco turning into a villain. I don’t want to see that.
Oh. James Franco. He is the yum. LOL.
Hahaha. Agreed. Freaks and Geeks so rocked.