Over the last few years, Marvel comic book characters have done very well at the box office. Currently, there are franchise tent-poles staked around Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Fantastic Four [a reboot is coming soon, trust me], The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and X-Men. While all of these movies have enjoyed box office success, not all have been well received by critics. The exception comes in the form of Iron Man and X-Men:First Class, which were successful at the box office and universally praised by the majority of film critics. However, each film has a different pace, dialogue and tone due to their respective directors, Jon Favreau and Matthew Vaughn. Let's analyze their approaches to their films and decide who has the better formula for producing a great comic book movie.
First, we'll start with Favreau, the director who helmed the 2008 movie that gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not widely known is the fact that Iron Man was almost released 18 years earlier in 1990 by Universal Studios. Down the years, the film rights changed hands to Fox, and had such actors as Nicholas Cage and Tom Cruise attached to star as Marvel's charismatic playboy. In 1999, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film but a deal was never struck and the film rights were sold to New Line Cinema, where a ludicrous story was written for Tony Stark to battle against his father, who becomes War Machine. New Line first approached Joss Whedon and then Nick Cassavetes to direct but once again a deal couldn't be struck [*phew] and the film rights reverted back to Marvel.
In 2006, Marvel Studios selected Favreau relatively quickly to take control of their lead off franchise but the same couldn't be said regarding the selection of their leading man. Initially, everyone from George Clooney, Guy Pearce, and Johnny Depp to Jude Law, Jim Caviezel, and Clive Owen were rumored to be up for the role. Tom Cruise re-emerged as a strong front runner before Marvel made a somewhat surprise move and went with Robert Downey Jr. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Right away, Favreau had a strong vision for the film and decided that the movie would have a "spy-like" tone and cited his inspiration as stemming from James Bond, Howard Hughes and the film Batman Begins [story-telling]. Favreau stated that he wanted to make Iron Man a story of an adult man literally reinventing himself, and realizing the world is far more complex than he believes. Also, what really tells a lot about Fabreau's style was that a precise script was never written. There was an extraordinary amount improvisation in dialogue scenes, because the script was not completed when filming began (the filmmakers focused on the story making sense and planning the action). Favreau acknowledged that improvisation would make the film feel more natural. Some scenes were shot with two cameras to capture lines said on the spot. Multiple takes were done, as Downey wanted to try something new each time.
It was Downey's idea to have Stark hold a news conference on the floor, and he created the speech Stark makes when demonstrating the Jericho weapon. Favreau also changed the Vietnam War origin of the character to Afghanistan, as he did not want to do a period piece. Favreau even consulted with Marvel writers Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis on the tone of the film and selection of the villain. Collectively, they decided that Iron Man's arch-nemesis, the Mandarin wouldn't work because he was simply too unrealistic. Initially, the Crimson Dynamo was intended to be the villain of the first film but a switch was made to Obidiah Stane after Jeff Bridges was signed.
Fun Fact: Favreau let Bendis write the closing-credits sequence that introduces Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
Where Iron Man was the first on-screen portrayal of the character and was the first film venture by a fledgling studio, X-Men:First Class is a totally different animal. With three X-Men films and a stand-alone Wolverine tale coming before, First Class already had a built-in audience and expectations. Development for First Class actually began all the way back in 2006 [around the same time as Iron Man, ironically]. Fox originally sought Brian Singer to oversee the film but he dropped out, due to his commitment on Jack the Giant Killer {which will star Nicholas Hoult, Beast from First Class]. Singer remained as a producer and Matthew Vaughn was hired as director.
Immediately, Vaughn came in and imposed his will on the project, bringing in Jane Goldman for script re-writes. Coming off critical success on Kick-Ass, Vaughn was something of a popular director among comic book fans. Vaughn wanted to model X-Men: First Class after the 2009 Star Trek film, taking the franchise in a new direction with a fresh, young cast. Fun Fact: An action scene that was to have been set in a dream sequence with revolving rooms was scrapped after the release of Inception. The 1960s setting of X-Men: First Class was technologically inspired by the James Bond films of that era, which was used to enhance the international feel of the characters. The X-Men costumes looked much more as they did in the original comics compared with the first three films. Speaking on the film, Vaughn said,
"Unfinished business, that's what inspired me. I was totally excited about doing X3 [Vaughn came very, very close to directing X-Men: The Last Stand] and basically co-wrote the script with [Simon] Kinberg and Zak Penn. We did that in six days together, and then storyboarded the whole movie ... and then, like an idiot, thought that I didn't have enough time to make the film I wanted, so I had to leave. I sort of regretted that ever since, and when Fox rang me up and said, 'Do you want a chance to reboot X-Men and put your stamp all over it?' When they told me that, I thought they were joking at first, and then they told me it would happen in the '60s against the Cuban missile crisis as the backdrop, I thought, 'God, this sounds cool. Why not? Let's do it.'" "My main goal was to make as good a film that could stand on its own two feet regardless of all the other films. However, I thought anything that worked in all the other movies, I could have some fun with nodding towards, then I would. But my main rule was, You know what, were trying to reboot and start a whole new X-Men franchise and therefore, making a film work on its own two feet was far more important than trying to be referential to the prior movies."
Amber Heard was originally the front-runner to play Mystique and Taylor Lautner [Twilight] was a strong candidate to play Beast. Kick-Ass' Aaron Johnson was Vaughn first choice to play Havok and actress Alice Eve was cast in the role of Emma Frost before dropping out. In the end, the cast Vaughn assembled proved to be the right combination as the dynamic and chemistry was very strong between Fassbender [Magneto] and McAvoy [Xavier], as well as Jennifer Lawrence [Mystique] and Hoult [Beast].
The approach of these two director's are world's apart:
- Favreau has displayed a pseudo-reverence for the source material of his film, whereas Vaughn angered many fans before the films release my making statements that "he doesn't give a [frick] about the source material and that his main goal is simply to make a good film." At the time, this caused a lot of outrage but in the end, the majority of viewers agreed that First Class was indeed a good film.
- Another key difference is the pacing of the films. Iron Man is a sequential film, which switches between the present and flashbacks in order to create depth to the Tony Stark character. From the opening credits, First Class proceeds at a break-kneck progression, rapidly moving the audience toward the Cuban Missile Crisis showdown.
- Another difference lies within the "directness" of each film. In the first half of Iron Man, there really is little indication that this is a comic book movie. The film just meanders along at a brisk clip with sardonic comedy and self-indulgent military fantasy. It isn't until the movie takes us before the terrorist Ten-Rings that we start to get a glimpse of the fantastical; however, even then the sardonic undertones are not completely dropped. With First Class, we are introduced to the surreal immediately, with scenes involving young Xavier, Mystique and Magneto. At no point during X-Men do you ever feel that you're not watching a comic book movie, which is why the realistic backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis was used as a grounding point.
- Another factor albeit minor, was the use of easter eggs. Iron Man was rife with fan nods throughout the entire film. Many fans saw the film multiple times just to catch everything. While easter eggs were present in First Class, it wasn't equal to that of Faveau's film. While it can be argued that Iron Man was used to set up a cinematic universe, the world of X-Men is so large that a self-contained X-Men universe could be just as big [or bigger] as anything Marvel can do with the Avengers.
- Profit wise, Iron Man had a production cost of $140Mil and went on to gross roughly $585Mil, for a profit of $445Mil. First class also has a budget of $140Mil [after tax credits] and has currently grossed $334Mil at the worldwide box office [profit of $194Mil].
Personally, I am a fan of both films and I am especially a fan of Vaughn, who's 2 for 2 with comic book movies. At the same time, I also have to give a lot of respect to Fauvreau. Without Iron Man's success there probably wouldn't be a Marvel Cinematic Universe. For any who would attribute Iron Man 2 faults to Fauvreau, please bare in mind that the looseness and freedom in Iron Man was virtually snatched away from Fauvreau by studio execs that forced movie tie-ins down Fauvreau's throat. With that said, as great as Iron Man was, the short-coming of Iron Man 2 force me to give the edge to Vaughn. I'm sure Fauvreau had a different concept for Iron Man 2 but I felt his frustration at the lack of control really effected his ability to weave a cohesive story. It makes you wonder if Iron Man was a fluke success, carried by the novelty of Robert Downey Jr.
What do you think about these 2 directors. Let your opinion be heard and vote for your favorite director!