Yes, the genius behind Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 is now in charge of maintaining the high level of entertainment set up by Bryan Singer.
Why not just hire Michael Bay and be done with it? 
Whoops! Cite.
Yeah, that’s a bit disappointing.
His movies are pure Hollywood. They’re only slightly less generic than Ron Howard’s movies, but still contain a lot of “give them what they want”.
But, he does find a way to get humor and action together, and some of his action scenes show some imagination. “After The Sunset” was watchable, but that’s about all I can say about it.
That’s not good news, but it isn’t necessarily bad new either. Ratner may be a hack, but he knows which way to point the camera at least. Now it comes down to the screenplay.
Besides, Rush Hour wasn’t that bad.
I think most people are going to be hugely disappointed by this – Ratner is about as cookie-cutter as they come. But if you think about it, things could be *much * worse. Paul W.S. Anderson, anyone? Or even – dare I say it – “McG”? (Brrrrr!)
Still, the loss of Bryan Singer to the series is a big one. He’s not the best director in the world as far as action scenes go, but he’s very efficient and able to do a lot with a less than enormous budget; I thought the first **X-Men ** film, while no classic, managed to juggle a lot of characters and back-story without feeling rushed or confusing. A lot if that was due to Singer’s clean, cut-the-crap directing style. He let himself go a bit in X2, I think, but I was still looking forward to his treatment of the Phoenix saga in part 3.
Ratner, on the other hand, seems to be better at action – the Rush Hour movies aren’t bad in that category – but everything else is pretty standard. I was disappointed in Ratner’s **Red Dragon ** because it just wasn’t menacing enough for the source material; he missed the required tone completely. Hopefully X-Men 3 will have a good enough script to overcome the blahs of his directing style.
And I gotta say . . . Kelsey Grammar as Beast? What . . . the . . . hell??
Doesn’t strike me as a particularly bad choice.
As they will probably have to use CGI to create the look of the Beast, having Grammer as the voice is genius.
And Maggie Grace is set to star as Kitty Pryde. I’m not arguing casting in any way, here. 
But the choice of Brett Ratner doesn’t thrill me, either. Why, oh, why couldn’t Bryan Singer come back? sniffle
I agree with this completely. If you think about Beast as portrayed in the 90s X-Men cartoon, you should have no problem with Grammer as Beast.
Of course, I’ve never picked up an X-Men comic book except to move it off the coffee table while cleaning, so what do I know?
They’re only planning the movie now???
Dang, I figured they’d be almost done shooting by now.
I’d much rather have seen Ratner direct Superman and keep Singer on X3.
I’d like to trade Ratner, the kid who played Iceman, and Famke Jansenn to DC for Singer, Kate Boswell and an extra to be named later.
Kate Bosworth for Jean Grey?
Famke did a completely fantastic job, so there. 
I hear that Joel Schumacher is available.
Hey, what’s Uwe Boll up to? Maybe he could direct it!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go kick my own ass.
I think that we could have used another fantastic X-Men movie from Singer more than a new Superman movie, but that’s just me. X2 was even better than the first X-Men movie, and Singer was obviously primed for a trilogy (incorporating elements of the Dark Phoenix Saga), but now who knows what we’ll get. I’d almost wish they’d put X3 on hold until Singer was done with Superman, but I doubt that’s happening now.
I’m just worried that Marvel is going to release too many stinker movies and ruin the trend of good superhero movies that they started. I didn’t mind Daredevil, but Hulk and Punisher stunk up the joint and I had no desire to see Elektra (or Man-Thing, for that matter). I’m sure I will see Fantastic Four, but my expectations aren’t super-high. I’d rather see Marvel take it slow and release a few well-made movies that will become modern classics than flood the market with rushed-out crap.
Here’s a slender hope: maybe Ratner won’t touch the Dark Phoenix hook from X2, and will do a stand alone X-Men movie without heavy continuity to the first two. Then, Singer comes back and wraps up the story he started in the fourth movie. That’d give the emotional kick to bringing back Jean that much more power.
This assumes that three does not suck so badly that it kills the franchise, though.
No. I’d trade Ratner, the kid who played Iceman, and Famke Jansenn to DC for Singer, Kate Boswell and an extra to be named later.
The two X Men I “traded” were people that Warner wanted to cast. Let them go, I say!
Because though Jansen was solid (fantastic is WAY further than I’d go), and the Iceman kid was pretty darn good, I’d give all of them AND Marsden to keep Singer. [sub]And take Halle Berry with you! Warner can use her for Catwoman 2! :)[/sub]
In fact, losing Jansen might stop them from going the Dark Phoenix route. I know I am in a strong minority here, but I always thought that storyline was too cosmic for the X-Men. It would really clash with the universe Singer has developed thus far.
Great Directors are generally WAY more valuable than the actors. Great directors can get a solid performance from most professional-caliber actors. As long as the film had Singer, Stewart, and Jackman, it doesn’t really matter whether Famke is in it at all.
I have to agree in thinking that Dark Phoenix was too “sci-fi” for the X-Men movies, but then again, I never would have thought the X-Men would be a viable property to base a live-action movie franchise on to begin with. Singer happily proved me wrong.
My big plan was for Hollywood to do a solo Wolverine movie while Singer was occupied making Superman, and then have Singer return to do X3 after his commitment. I’d also like to see a solo Gambit movie (and I have a HELL of a pitch worked out for this), and then possibly add Gambit to the cast of X3 or X4 after establishing him in a movie of his own. I think Johnny Depp would be perfect for Gambit, similar to the way he played Agent Sands in Once Upon a Time In Mexico. Gambit would also fill the Wolverine role as “the guy women want and men want to be” in case they ever lose Hugh Jackman for any reason.
In a related vein, am I the only one who thinks a lot of the recent Marvel-comics-based movies are sliding in quality?
I mean, we started off with Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, all of which are generally considered boffo films. Then we started sliding with Daredevil, The Hulk, and The Punisher, which fell into the “okay, but could have been better” category. Then we’ve got Elektra and Blade III, which were entirely forgettable, and Fantastic Four, which doesn’t look promising.
I trust Spider-Man III will be good because Sam Raimi is still at the wheel, but will X-Men 3 be Marvel’s “Catwoman”? Or will that fall to Iron Man or Ghost Rider?
It would be ironic to see Johnny Depp play Richard Greico to Hugh Jackman’s Johnny Depp!