Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: X-Men: First Class

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Posted by Sally Ann Burgess (Member # 4746) on 06-01-2011, 06:52 AM:

WOW!!!
I really liked this movie even though I am not really into X-Men. We have a proper film here with all the right elements of great acting, writing and above all a great story. Only gripe was with Michael Fassbender's (Magneto) accent which slips into his native Irish especially towards the end.
Looks and feels at times like a 1960's Bond movie.
Really really good. Now roll on Super 8...

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-01-2011, 12:08 PM:

Thx and good luck .. might have to catch this tonight if my prints comes in so I can preview this to check print condition...

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-02-2011, 02:21 AM:

K, saw it tonite .... 144min went by pretty steadily were I lost track of time.

Guess what: sorta reminded me of "Phantom Menace" - taking a series and going back to how it all began. Thus, we could call this one:

X-MEN EP1:First Class

Loved the cameo though....

Good popcorn flik - might have some decent legs to it, esp during the matinees pricing...and thank goodness, FOX didn't do/release this one in 3D!!

3.5/5

-Monte

Posted by Chase Pickett (Member # 5975) on 06-02-2011, 03:23 AM:

I'd go a little better and give it a 4/5. If the cheesy moments weren't there it would really be a great comic movie. But I guess they need to be in there because of the target audience. Damn limp minded teenagers.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 06-04-2011, 03:37 PM:

I went in expecting a typical summer blockbuster action flick, as the trailers seemed to suggest. I was pleasantly surprised that it had decent acting and a storyline. Also happy that it wasn't 3D. 4/5

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 06-04-2011, 11:31 PM:

Brenden 16 Vacaville, CA
Screen 16 (one of only a few remaining still current THX certified houses in Northern CA)
35mm presentation

I very much enjoyed this film, and I must echo what Sally says that I'm not a huge comic book fan. Well laid out story, great performances especially Kevin Bacon. Sound mix was good, not too in your face, but good use of surrounds and subwoofer.

Presentation technically top notch. Not a scratch or speck of dust on the feature or trailer pack. Tack sharp and bright all the way across. Only gripes were trailer pack is too long. 8 trailers seems to be a bit much, though they tacked on a THX Moo-Cow which was a nice surprise. The other gripe was that the floor staff were poised at the front of the house right as the credits rolled. After 3 minutes, one of the staff hollered out that there was no sneak scene at the end, which made me feel like they were rushing everyone out and indeed caused a mad dash from the remaining 100 or so people in the house.

Overall experience 3 out of 4 stars

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-05-2011, 02:58 AM:

quote: Sean Weitzel
The other gripe was that the floor staff were poised at the front of the house right as the credits rolled. After 3 minutes, one of the staff hollered out that there was no sneak scene at the end, which made me feel like they were rushing everyone out and indeed caused a mad dash from the remaining 100 or so people in the house.

That reminds me of the movie Cliffhanger from 1993. Typically 50-75% of the audience would sit through the end credits, and we were given an incorrect running time so turning the theater was a big problem that first week. After about a day one of my fellow managers realized why everyone stayed by watching at precisely the moment everybody got up. He then made the announcement at the beginning of the end credits on the next show: "Thank you everyone for coming to United Artists. We hope you enjoyed the show and look forward to seeing you again. For those interested, this movie was shot in Dolomites, Italy." and with that everyone smiled and happily got up and left.

We ended up making that announcement on every show the first week until we could modify the showtimes, but I am pretty sure nobody felt rushed.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 06-05-2011, 04:02 AM:

Don't you think that the staff should leave the audience alone until the last frame hits the screen?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-05-2011, 12:04 PM:

Yes I wholeheartedly do, but we were selling out all but one screen all weekend long and the line that weekend inparticular started out with sardines in the lobby, out the front and around the side of the building due to more than just that one show's running times being incorrect. That weekend, I made an exception. Normally I wouldn't even let my ushers pick up trash in front of anyone. If someone was 20 rows from the back, then they could not pre-clean closer than 18 rows from the back behind them. Still, it was a hectic week. We came less than 50 seats away from selling out the entire complex most rounds that weekend and I think he did a pretty good job in disguising the real intent of the "thank you" announcement.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-05-2011, 03:12 PM:

quote: Sean Weitzel
After 3 minutes, one of the staff hollered out that there was no sneak scene at the end, which made me feel like they were rushing everyone out and indeed caused a mad dash from the remaining 100 or so people in the house.

Occasionally on some very VERY rare occasions, like the situation Brad is talking about, exceptions need to be made for good audience control, but this sounds like they were doing this as standard routine. It's just really low-class.... like bus boys sweeping up and putting chairs upside down on tables while diners are still eating. [puke]

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 06-05-2011, 03:52 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemarkury 20 at Jordan Creek, West Des Moines, IA
AUDITORIUM: 11
PRESENTATION: Cinemark XD DLP Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Audio didn't switch from pre-show to trailers, leaving the trail music playing over the first trailer until it ended, leaving us with nothing. Midway through the second trailer, somebody finally got up and complained. Booth hit "pause" in the Planet of the Apes trailer right where the baby ape is unwrapped. Baby ape remained static on the screen looking dead for some time. Then a green band came up, then a green band in a different aspect ratio, then the first trailer started over, again with no sound. Manager on Duty was in the auditorium by this time staring at the booth window. About halfway through, we finally got sound.
RATING: Two stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: Mutants and missles. Wackiness ensues.

Everywhere I look, people are complaining about January Jones, claiming she can't act. Well who in this movie was trying any harder? I wasn't impressed with anybody. I wasn't impressed with the script, I wasn't impressed with the effects. Really all quite pedestrian. I'd almost expect this level of quality from a Syfy original production.

Hugh Jackman pretty much summed it up for me.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-05-2011, 04:25 PM:

quote: Sam Graham
PRESENTATION: Cinemark XD DLP Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Audio didn't switch from pre-show to trailers, leaving the trail music playing over the first trailer until it ended, leaving us with nothing. Midway through the second trailer, somebody finally got up and complained. Booth hit "pause" in the Planet of the Apes trailer right where the baby ape is unwrapped. Baby ape remained static on the screen looking dead for some time. Then a green band came up, then a green band in a different aspect ratio, then the first trailer started over, again with no sound. Manager on Duty was in the auditorium by this time staring at the booth window. About halfway through, we finally got sound.

What crappy automation system is Cinemark using???

Posted by Chase Taylor (Member # 778) on 06-05-2011, 07:12 PM:

Or the better question is why was the automation cues not put in correctly?

Chase Taylor

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 06-05-2011, 09:48 PM:

The thing that really became apparent is that when it does crap out, fixing it is a guessing game. Which is awesome because this building is now all digital.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 06-06-2011, 02:41 AM:

I'm thinking they probably had to reboot the JSD-100.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-06-2011, 04:32 AM:

I have a hard time believing Sam saw the movie a couple of days into its release and Cinemark had this problem every show because it was cued incorrectly. Had he seen it Friday afternoon I could've bought it, but somebody would have fixed it before opening day was over. This screams equipment failure.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 06-07-2011, 08:01 AM:

What a great movie!

James McAvoy was brilliant as Xavier I thought. I'll go out on a limb and say that if being in a sci-fi/comic movie didn't almost automatically disqualify you from being an oscar candidate, he might have a shot. Some of the other performances were great too. Good story. Good effects. We may pay to see it again, and that doesn't happen often.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-08-2011, 12:38 PM:

I liked it very much as did the friends I went with. Saw it in digital and was really perplexed (and annoyed) that some scenes looked soft, some seemed soft only in certain areas. Did anyone else notice this? I wonder if it had this same problem with the film prints.

Only other complaint -- what the heck does Fox do to their opening logo theme? It's recorded at a totally anemic level. Sounds like the fader is at about 4, and then the feature sound is right back up there where it should be. What's THAT all about? They rerecorded it awhile back and yet for all that effort, they drop the level so that it has no punch at all. It's lame. And I LOVE that opening Newman theme, although this latesst incarnation sounds more like a tight, smaller ensemble than a huge symphonic sound....in fact, it sounds almost electronic, or at least electronically manipulated, rather than acoustic.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 06-08-2011, 01:33 PM:

I thought it was just me Frank! I've noticed that for some reason, it always sounds better at home on DVD or Blu-ray. Same with Universal's theme too.

AJG

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 06-08-2011, 07:24 PM:

I rather enjoyed this the first time I screened it last Thursday. Well acted, moved at a nice pace. Nothing in it that didn't really need to be there. Fassbender was great as well as McAvoy which has already been said. They made the movie for me.

But! Went with a friend who wanted to see it on Monday night, and I was bored out of my mind. I couldn't wait for it to be over, if not for the above named actors I would of walked out. There performances are so strong they keep you there.

Overall with both viewings I give it a 3/5 [thumbsup]

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-08-2011, 07:52 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
I liked it very much as did the friends I went with. Saw it in digital and was really perplexed (and annoyed) that some scenes looked soft, some seemed soft only in certain areas. Did anyone else notice this? I wonder if it had this same problem with the film prints.

Only other complaint -- what the heck does Fox do to their opening logo theme? It's recorded at a totally anemic level. Sounds like the fader is at about 4, and then the feature sound is right back up there where it should be. What's THAT all about? They rerecorded it awhile back and yet for all that effort, they drop the level so that it has no punch at all. It's lame. And I LOVE that opening Newman theme, although this latesst incarnation sounds more like a tight, smaller ensemble than a huge symphonic sound....in fact, it sounds almost electronic, or at least electronically manipulated, rather than acoustic.

I noticed the softness and a slight haze of grain in the Sony DP screening I saw this morning as well - the softness was very apparent in long shots - also the upper left hand of the screen where the young Erik is standing in Sebastian Shaw's office, his head was completely out of focus.

as for the movie - what a fun ride - better than the third movie which was a turdfest.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 06-08-2011, 11:08 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
Saw it in digital and was really perplexed (and annoyed) that some scenes looked soft, some seemed soft only in certain areas. Did anyone else notice this? I wonder if it had this same problem with the film prints.

We are running it in 35mm and there are indeed several scenes where the focus is off. One that comes to mind is when the young Eric Lehnsherr is in Sabastian Shaw's office. The top 1/3 or so of the picture goes out of focus several times.

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 06-08-2011, 11:39 PM:

I noticed the same softness problem with many of the scenes in Kick-Ass. Same director.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-18-2011, 12:17 AM:

^ you noticed this in the theater (35mm/digital projection) - I saw this on DVD and didn't notice any out of focus scenes for 'Kick-Ass'

for X-Men - I must admit I thought it was one of the most flawed digital projection presentations I've seen - whoever at Fox did the harddrive mastering must have been coming off of a hangover, a tad blind or really didn't know what he or she was doing. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Gregory Jones Jr. (Member # 6354) on 06-22-2011, 02:10 AM:

X-Men First Class was easily the best in the franchise since the first two. At times it took itself a little too seriously and some of the special effects weren't terribly impressive. But like the first two, it put the characters and the story above the visuals.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 06-23-2011, 06:35 PM:

We will tell people when there no other cookies, or whatever these scenes are called and they generally seem very appreciative of knowing that as that is why they are sitting in their seats still. We also tell people when there are more scenes as well.

We make sure to say it a manner that is informative. It seems that a very small % will stay to the end of all movies (maybe 2-3%) when there is no additional content. We know who those people are.

Posted by Robby Golosino (Member # 6325) on 07-12-2011, 12:39 AM:

well...it got me at first...but i cant get the point why is it that they make emma frost a matured person in contrast to what she is in the previous movie (the last stand)that is she's a teen-ager there...imprisoned along with cyclops and others.