I haven’t had too much to say on the new X-MEN movie, mostly because I was confident that it would be yet ANOTHER movie about Magneto and Wolverine- as if three of those weren’t enough. 4 if you could that shitty Wolverine spin-off and now a probably shittier Magneto one that is still in the works. With X-MEN: FIRST CLASS producers are approaching the franchise from a new direction. Think ULTIMATE X-MEN, but ya know…movies.

Last week it was announced that James McAvoy (WANTED) was cast as a much younger Professor X. This actually made me sit up and start paying attention to this film. I love James McAvoy in everything he’s in. He’s a great actor and he takes every part he is given and really makes it his own. So, unlike some people who were outraged, I gave a whooping, “Fuck Yeah!” when I heard he was cast in the role.

It has been reported over at Heat Vision that Michael Fassbender (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS) has entered early negotiations to take up the role of Magneto. if you think he’s too much of a pretty boy to play Mags, think again. Fassbender is no n00b to comic book movies- he played the much loved Stelios in 300. Now for my X-MEN rant.

I’ll be honest. I raved about X-MEN and X2. I thought they were the next great thing in superhero movies. X3 left a bad taste in my mouth because, well, it was a train wreck. But looking back, the entire franchise was handled atrociously. The X-Men are an ensemble cast. I understand that different characters are going to take center stage at different times, but if you look at those movies as a whole they all revolve around Magneto and Wolverine. All the epic storylines they could have introduced, all of the character potential they could have tapped and the first X-MEN franchise is nothing but a stagnant pond of X-Factor genes.

If X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is going to revive the franchise then there are 4 things they need to do in my opinion.

4. LEAVE MAGNETO ALONE: I get it. He’s the most iconic mutant of them all, and I understand why it’s easy to make a movie about him. He’s a vastly complex character. Having said that, he should exit stage left at the end of X-MEN FIRST CLASS and should only return in a limited capacity for future films.

3. ENSEMBLE CAST MEANS STORYLINES ABOUT DIFFERENT MUTANTS: Each film should focus on different characters. That isn’t to say that they all can’t be around and have their own things going on, but each film should shift that focus to different team members. The one thing I will give X3 is that at least it wasn’t totally about Wolverine and Magneto. While the Phoenix storyline was butchered to hell, it was nice to see someone else take center stage for once.

2. BRING ON THE SENTINELS: One of the central themes of the X-MEN is the tension between mutants and the governments that can’t control them. That’s the whole reason the SENTINELS were created in the classic universe: to subjugate mutants and bring them under Normal Human control (only a few people wanted to use them as a method of extinction.) The Sentinels never made it into the previous X-MEN movies, and I have no idea why. They don’t even have to be giant robots (though that would be amazing). Hollywood could introduce them as Terminator type machines that look human but are really mutant ass kickers in disguise.

1. SINISTER AND APOCALYPSE: While Magneto is the most iconic X-MEN villain out there he is hardly the most menacing. It was a missed opportunity that the previous franchise never took advantage of the X-MEN rogues gallery, and it’s something they need to fix with this film. Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse would go a long way into making the new Franchise darker and more threatening.