The X-men Strike Back... in theaters.

So...

Just how hard is it to make a great X-men movie? Apparently, a lot harder than it should be.

In case you haven't heard, the X-men are coming back to theaters soon. Slated to start shooting later this month in London, X-men: First Class aims to tell the early days of America's favorite team of mutants and the origin of the Professor Xavier/Magneto grudge. After the muck of the last two X-men films (yes, I'm including X2, as well as X-men: The Last Stand), I was less than excited about another X-men movie coming to the cineplex under Twentieth Century Fox's stewardship.

But then Fox did something interesting. They hired director Matthew Vaughan (Stardust, Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) to helm the new X- film. Vaughan is a smart choice, a proven director with a diverse track record and legit fanboy status. With Layer Cake Vaughan proved he could bring complexity and edge to his movies (important for X-men), and with both Stardust and Kick-Ass he showed he could successfully adapt a comic book and infuse it with fun, excitement and, something that was lacking in the last three X-incarnations, color.

What do I mean by color? I'm not talking about diversity casting, I'm talking about the look of the film. The cinematography, settings, and art direction. The world of the X-men comics is full of color. The images literally leap off the page with interesting locations and distinct settings. Compare that to the films, which were gray and flat, more akin to Batman than the X-men. It's the old Empire Strikes Back dichotomy; just because a film has a dark subject matter, it doesn't mean the movie itself has to be shot dark.

This applies also to the X-stories, as well as the look. Plot-wise, the first X-men movie was by far the best of the three existing pictures, but even it is just okay. Yes, it's a solid start to the franchise, but it is limited in focus and, while a decent introduction to the world and characters, feels so small compared to the comic books on which it is based that it fails to do justice to the X-men property. What should have been the film that takes the concept and soars with it, then, X2, the sequel, only continues to sputter along under Bryan Singer's simplistic and underwhelming direction, with an ending that doesn't earn the major character death it provides due to a simple lack of logic (as in, why exactly can't Jean Gray just use her psychic powers to lift the airplane our heroes are on from inside the jet, rather than stepping outside to do it despite certain death?). The final film in the trilogy, X-men: The Last Stand (from super-hack Brett Ratner), is nothing short of insulting to X-men fans (from both the comics and the previous two movies), but at least it attempts to provide the thrills the X-men comics have always offered, something Singer did as if one hand was always tied behind his back.

Finally, with Vaughan, Fox seems to understand that X-men is about story as well as big-budget action. And in addition to Vaughan, Fox has hired some seriously talented actors (Kevin Bacon, James McAvoy, January Jones) to bring this new story to life. Billed as a prequel to the films, it looked hopeful that it could in fact serve as a reboot in the way that Spider-man is now being tackled or the recent Star Trek movie was done... or perhaps, dare I say, the king of the comic book reboots, Batman Begins, was made. Batman Begins is interesting because it actually began as a prequel to the original Warner Bros./Tim Burton Batman movies, but ended up being the start of a new Bat-series after audiences showed interest in seeing more from this new Bat-incarnation. With X-men: First Class we have a new direction under Matthew Vaughan and a new chance to do this franchise justice. Could this be to the existing X-men movies what Batman Begins is to the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Bat-films? I sure hoped so... until I heard that Bryan Singer is again involved in the X world, this time as a producer.

Plop! That was the sound of my interest in this movie splattering back onto the floor. Didn't the failed Superman Returns reboot finally prove to Fox that Singer can't handle comic book adaptations? I guess not, because now we have his hand in the pot again with X-men, all but assuring that this ne X-men movie will essentially be little more than a prequel to his flawed X-men films? This is the equivalent to having had Tim Burton or Joel Schumacher serve as a producer on Batman Begins. If either one of them had been, we likely would never have had Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, as it overwrites their Bat-films.

This new X-men film should be Vaughan's to Sheppard, and Vaughan's alone. When Singer walked away from the X-men to do Superman, he should have been done with the X-world. But they'd fact that Fox brought him back shows that they still don't get it when it comes to this franchise. Sure, First Class will probably be big, but it could be so much bigger. Of all the comics, X-men is the one that is the most complex, most appealing to adults as well as children in that it is closest to dealing with current events, as the mutant/human dynamic could be seen as a metaphor for a number of different issues.

True, there are some signs that this film could be intriguing. First, the characters are mostly mutants who are little known even to many X-fans. That gives Vaughan plenty of breathing room to use them in interesting ways without treading too heavily on continuity. Also, the film is rumored to be set in the 60s, and would hopefully take advantage of the Cold War vibe of that era to infuse the film franchise with some intrigue and spy-level suspense. The possibility of mutants going under cover on some sort of globe-trotting adventure excites me. Also, the filming location of London could prove to be a fresh look for the X-film world and capture the early New York setting of the X-men comics.

Hopefully, this film is a big, larger-than-life adventure with the depth and scope that the classic X-men comic stories always provided. And hopefully the studio heads at Fox realize that the original X-films aren't timeless classics, but more akin to the original Batman movies, which faded out and were replace by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. If this movie can be made into the start of a new franchise, rather than a prequel to a less than stellar X-franchise so far, then X-men: First Class could be something I could truly get behind. If this film wants to get off on the right foot, my advice is for Matthew Vaughan to ignore any input from Bryan Singer.