As Fox Shifts More MARVEL Release Dates, Is It Fair To Say It's The Dumbest Movie Studio On The Planet?
On Friday, Fox quietly announced a number of big release date changes to its Marvel slate and so we're taking a look at what those mean for the future as well as why the studio keeps making dumb decisions.
In case you missed it (and there's a very good chance you did considering the fact the studio chose a Friday evening to reveal it), Fox once again shifted a number of release dates on Friday and even announced a new(ish) Marvel movie which will hit theaters on the same day as Aquaman. Needless to say, that all served as yet another baffling move by Fox and leads us to wonder...how dumb are they?
As you'll see below, Fox has been making some increasingly stupid decisions when it comes to its slate of Marvel movies whether that's delaying Dark Phoenix ONE DAY after the first trailer was released or pouring money into a franchise which is going to be dead by this time next year thanks to the now confirmed Disney/Fox merger. So, is Fox dumb or are we being too hard on the struggling studio?
We'll let you make that decision so be sure to click on the "View List" button below for the full story!
Dark Phoenix Is Delayed...One Day After The Trailer Hits
Last week, Fox released the first poster and trailer for Dark Phoenix and while the response from fans was mixed, it certainly did a lot to get moviegoers excited to return to this universe one final time.
However, in a truly baffling move, Fox sent those materials out with the February 14th, 2020 release date...and then delayed it until June 7th. It's been reported that the delay is either down to VFX work being needed for the reshoots or because Fox wants as strong a debut in China as possible but it's beyond stupid and just shows how clueless the studio is and what a troubled movie this sequel is.
We'll get to those issues a little later but this surprisingly wasn't the dumbest move by Fox on Friday...
Gambit Has Another Release Date. Really!
Gambit was originally supposed to reach theaters way back in 2016 but Fox isn't willing to let Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg's passion project die and it now has another release date. That's despite the fact that fans have made it clear they don't want to see it and the loss of a number of directors who clearly felt that they wouldn't be able to polish this turd into a halfway decent movie.
Now, Gambit has been pushed back from June 7th, 2019 to March 13th, 2020. Considering the fact the Disney/Fox merger goes through next summer and Kevin Feige intends to reboot these characters for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Fox wasting their time and ours by even announcing this change and pouring money into a movie which will never, ever see the light of day is nothing short of moronic.
Oh, And It's Going To Be A "Sex Comedy"
Say what you will about how unnecessary Gambit is and what a bizarre casting decision it is to have Channing Tatum play the hero, the movie could actually be pretty good in the right hands given the character's history with both the Thieves and Assassins Guilds. Simon Kinberg, however, has described the movie as having "a romantic or sex comedy vibe to it" which makes absolutely no sense at all.
This just shows what little understanding Fox has when it comes to these characters and explains why the horror based superhero movie they tried to make with The New Mutants has been a disaster.
Dark Phoenix...What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
You remember X-Men: The Last Stand, right? It pretty much killed the franchise (hence why X-Men: First Class served as a semi-reboot) and Simon Kinberg was partly responsible for that as he penned the screenplay. So, why not let the guy who dropped the ball there and helped make Fantastic Four an epic disaster basically retell the same story but this time while he makes his directorial debut?
Fox has put a blockbuster costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the hands of a man who has never directed anything beyond Fantastic Four's reshoots and he's going to tell a story we've already seen in a slightly different manner. You only need to look at the Dark Phoenix trailer for proof of that as it looks almost identical beyond some minor cosmetic changes. Now, with expensive reshoots taking place and yet another delay, the studio making a huge financial loss is guaranteed as so much has been spent.
False Promises
Fox has shown itself to be so utterly incompetent that both of the movies which were set to be released in 2019 have now been delayed well into 2020. However, that's not the only time the studio has let fans down. Remember back in 2012 when Mark Millar was set to serve as a consultant of their Marvel Comics adaptations? Despite a press release being sent out, that quickly fell apart when Matthew Vaughn decided against directing X-Men: Days of Future Past and chose Kingsman instead.
What's The Deal With The New Mutants Anyway?
One movie which wasn't included in Fox's release date shuffle was The New Mutants. That's still scheduled to hit theaters next August after originally being pencilled in for this April. The question is, why hasn't it taken Dark Phoenix's vacated February slot because even after reshoots, surely it will be finished by then? At this stage, it's hard to imagine it ever being released unless it's via Netflix.
For reasons which still aren't entirely clear, director Josh Boone dropped the ball with this movie in a big way and that's why reshoots have been ordered to add characters and completely change the tone. If The New Mutants is anything other than a Fantastic Four shaped disaster, we'll be shocked.
They Don't Understand What Fans Want
At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, the heroes were finally decked out in comic accurate costumes. Why it took until the final scene to make that happen is hard to say but it appeared as if the franchise was finally taking a step in the right direction. Alas, in Dark Phoenix, the team is wearing uniform blue and yellow outfits which look ill-fitting, cheap, and generally a step backwards for the Marvel series.
While Marvel Studios - and even Warner Bros. to a lesser extent - give fans what they want in both new and familiar ways, Fox is living in the past, hence why Dark Phoenix is going to pretty much ignore the cosmic aspects of the source material for a single trip into outer space to activate Jean's powers when she's hit by a cosmic storm. You know, the powers she already had in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse!
Deadpool 2 Goes PG-13
Fox is on to a good thing with the Deadpool franchise but do you remember when Marvel totally overexposed the Merc with the Mouth in the comic books and fans subsequently grew sick of him?
Well, it appears as if the same thing could happen in live-action too because not only have we had Deadpool 2 and Deadpool 2: The Super Duper Cut this year but a PG-13 version will also hit theaters on December 21st. What we don't know right now is whether or not that's going to be an edited cut of the R-Rated movie or if it will include new scenes but the former option seems more likely right now.
It also looks set to include bookends of Deadpool basically narrating the story but this feels like a shameless cash grab and it's not good news for fans. Opening on the same days as Aquaman and Bumblebee is going to hurt both of those movies, something which could deal yet another blow to the struggling DC Extended Universe and put an end to a new era of Transformers before it begins.
Forget The Fantastic Four
Fox has dropped the ball on this team on three separate occasions and while the response to the disastrous 2015 reboot is bound to have scared the studio, there's really no reason why another movie can't have been put into development. Instead, the studio made the genius decision to put the spotlight solely on Doctor Doom, a villain who they've also screwed up three times. While hiring Noah Hawley to direct was an unexpectedly smart decision, Legion proves he wouldn't stick to the comics.
In all honesty, this probably would have been an unnecessary origin story for Doom which would have ditched most of what makes the character great. Putting the spotlight on the now tired villain rather than the team itself says it all, as does the fact that Multiple Man of all characters was getting a movie! Thankfully, despite Kinberg's many claims to the contrary, these are unlikely to become a reality now.
The Same Old Mistakes
If you need further proof that Fox is destined to keep dropping the ball, look no further than that Dark Phoenix trailer. Simon Kinberg is once again repeating the tired plot point of Magneto coming out of retirement to return to his villainous ways, while we've already addressed those awful costumes.
Marvel Studios has proved that embracing the source material works but you'd be hard pressed to figure that out by looking at Fox's version of Genosha. The mutant city full of futuristic technology has been turned into a tiny island where Erik has become a farmer. It's lame and an utter disappointment.
Can Marvel Studios Save The Day?
Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that the plan is for Marvel Studios to reboot the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises and bring the characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but will too much damage have been done by that point? It's telling that Fox has dropped the "X-Men" from X-Men: Dark Phoenix in North America and hard not to wonder if Marvel has pushed for that in order to distance this movie from what they have planned in the not too distant future (hopefully by 2021/22).
Either way, Fox has done a lot of damage to these characters in recent years. Sure, Logan was extremely well-received and Deadpool 2 was loved by most but the main X-Men franchise has suffered greatly as have the Fantastic Four. Once upon a time, Fox delivered some of the greatest comic book movies ever with the likes of X-Men and X-2: X-Men United but those days have come and gone...
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