PS: Another plot hole in the finale I forgot to mention is that EP 9 ends with Magneto forcing his helmet on Charles so he can't get into his head...yet episode ten has Charles free of the helmet and in Magneto's mind with no explanation as to how he got free. BTW: This video is once again, not made to attack anyone's enjoyment of the show. It's very entertaining for sure. I just think there's a lot of room for improvement in the future.
Shocking showcasing of skills incoming.... Charles used his hands to remove the helmet. Magneto was distracted by Wolverine directing all his power into removing the adamantium from Logan's body allowing Charles to simply take the helmet off that was being held in place by Magneto. So it's not really a pothole and just sounds like a massive nit-pick. We don't have to see this happen on screen to even understand what happened. Just basic reading of the scene beforehand.
She *has* been with him in the comics, but only in Age Of Apocalypse, when he was a good man. They even had a baby! But them having "a history" in this show completely contradicts the original 90's show's (which I caught-up on prior to the new one) continuity and just generally felt weird. She didn't even seem to give a frakk when he "died" and was only upset by Gambit. Whatevs.
I felt the attempt to save Magneto, but the dude did kill so many and had doomed the human/mutant race. The last episode when they were fighting so hard to save him had me a little frustrated. Focus on saving the world, not the one who was trying to destroy it.
Um…..no they weren’t. XAVIER was trying to save Magneto. The rest were trying to stop the world from getting destroyed by Sinister, Bastion, and a damn asteroid that would’ve exterminated earth like a meteor did the dinosaurs. The sacrificed themselves and got stuck separated through time periods trying to save the world. Not Magneto. Aside from the guy who always sought out to help Magneto when he felt like he could.
I’ve been seeing all these praise videos calling it the best xmen show. And I am confused so much im convinced none of the fans saying that ever watched x men evolution or wolverine and the xmen, shows with actual cohesive storytelling. Even the OG 90s show was more cohesive than this fever dream
Brilliant review. I couldn't agree more about the Rogue and Sunspot betrayal; they walked that back so fast, I thought there HAD to be missing scenes there. And don't even get me started about the Magneto stuff...
"Call me The Goblin Queen!" "Um... why?" "...because it appeared in a comic somewhere!" "Where are all your goblins?" "Never mind, I'm fine now. Just call me Madelyne." "Wait, where'd _that_ name come from?" "Bye, now! I'm gonna go help lead Genosha!"
I think most people see this show as a masterpiece when compared to anything else Disney is doing right now. Even with all the show's many flaws, it's practically Shakespeare when compared to "The Marvels". Give people utter crap for several years and the merest hint of competency feels like a masterwork worthy of the great directors.
That’s what I think it seems like they did Al the wanted incase it didn’t get a second season. I still Iove it flaws and all I just didn’t care for the motendo episode or the storm stuff but they had to give her her powers back in order for the ending to happen. All the criticisms are valid but I still think magneto was right😂
See, the Writers of X-Men: TAS were smart... they didn't assume that this show was going to be any more successful than Batman: TAS on Fox, but they didn't cram storylines. They focused on one plot line.
That complete lack of catharsis in the last episode pissed me off so much. They had set up a couple of interesting stories like, Onslaught, Apocalypse and the Shyar coming to earth! Instead nothing happened and they reverted a bunch of the stories except Apocalypse BUT for the next season… good lord what a waste
I avoided this review until I had a chance to finish the series. _Thank you_ for putting into words what I came away feeling about this show. You have _perfectly_ encapsulated everything I wanted to say. When I first began watching the series, I was initially SO excited and hyped up. I felt like the writers understood these characters and had the fans' best interests at heart. But as you've said, this was NOT the case. This was yet another instance of someone wanting to "correct" what they saw as being wrong with a show and to "subvert expectations" by leaving _their own_ mark on the series. 🙄 The pacing was absolutely TERRIBLE; SUPER rushed which COMPLETELY messed with the emotions they were attempting to get people to feel. And THANK YOU for pointing out that Storm and Jean were NEVER the _"omg bestie sisters 4 ever!"_ that was portrayed in this show. I was 9 years old back when the original _X-Men: The Animated Series_ aired, and as you've pointed out, it was Storm and ROGUE who were close! I still remember when Rogue followed Ororo on a trip to Africa and ended up saving her life, or back in the first episode when Rogue and Ororo were shopping at the mall and encountered Jubilee for the first time. It truly hurt heart to see that they erased their bond. For me, this was NOT a "continuation" in any shape or form; halfway through the series I had the thought that this wasn't even the same _universe_ as the original. To hear you validate my feelings is relieving. I also feel like the writers were writing this show with a 2024 mindset...as the characters do NOT talk nor do they behave like they live in the 90's. They missed the mark on practically EVERYTHING. Thank you for this review. I appreciate you. ♥️
I agree, shes too important of a character to have been done away with so quickly. Inferno was one of my favorite storylines and that got glossed over.
@@maximusprime3459 They could’ve had the first season be Inferno. Then they could’ve had Operation Zero Tolerance be the second or third season. But everything was given the bum’s rush just to fit it all into one season.
I’m still thrown off that she died at all, that was not at all clear, they should’ve shown someone covering her face with a blanket or some kind of indicator of death. Instead you hear someone saying anyone who fights it dies while they show her, but you think “nah, they wouldn’t kill a major character THAT unceremoniously.”
Agreed, both Mutant Massacre and Inferno should have been a season-long arc, but instead they were skipped over so quickly (or in the case of the Mutant Massacre just kind of incorporated into Genosha falling, I wouldn't even say they actually did it). And all that soap opera drama in the Scott/Maddie psychic affair in Ep 5 was just rendered pointless. You could literally remove it and no-one would know anything was missing. Both it and Jean kissing Logan were just a bit taken from Grant Morrison's New X-Men run for the sake of having it, not because it was going to have any consequences for the characters. To think, I was praising this show for handling Maddie better then the comics then she's unceremoniously killed off once she became inconvenient (and most people even missed it until Ep 7). Maddie always gets screwed over, it sucks
On the subject of Sunspot, I'm not too familiar with his character either, however I've actually seen quite a few of his fans (mostly on 'the platform formerly known as Twitter') who were pretty ticked off by the show's portrayal of him. From what I gather, he has more in common with Rictor than he does comic Sunspot. His personality is off from how he's normally written. His father was left out. His story being a coming out allegory is a change from his origin, which was explicitly about racism, where Roberto's powers kick in when he's attacked for being part black. The latter is especially a problem people seem to have as Roberto is often colored in comics with much lighter skin to were his race seems forgotten, and both of his live-action appearances (Days of Future Past & New Mutants) casted non-black actors to play him. It also doesn't help that when asked about if Roberto would still be black, on account of early marketing material for X-Men '97 depicting him a bit lighter again, Beau DeMayo got defensive and accused the person asking him of "erasing [Sunspot's] Brazilian heritage in favor of him being just black" as if someone can't be both. This is a pretty touchy subject that I don't feel qualified to talk about, so I'll just move on. I mentioned that people have compared him to Rictor, (with him being kidnapped by a terrorist group before being saved, and how Roberto's story is made a coming out allegory, while in the comics, Rictor is actually gay) and I've also seen some people compare him to some versions of Angel, but, honestly to me he almost seems like a fusion of X2's versions of Iceman and Pyro. Like, he's the love interest for this series' young teen girl member, despite them having no such history with each other in the comics, and at some point he tells his family that he's a mutant only for his mom to tell him to keep it a secret. But then he's also the young member who's convinced by Magneto to be on his side and join the Brotherhood. I feel like I'm reaching a bit, but does anyone else see what I mean? (Edit: wow, I typed way more than I intended to, sorry about that. I guess I just had alot to say.)
We need Spiderman and his Amazing Freinds. I miss both OG Iceman and Firestar. Firestar's origin story of being bullied by a girl and framed before becoming a member of the X-Men was iconic.
Thank you so much for the Rogue and EMP explanations; I truly felt alone about feeling that way about it. In fact, I'd dare say that it's downright scary to me that people are still saying Magneto is right after he was going to destroy all life on Earth. He was literally going to wipe out all human and mutant life.
I'm unfamiliar with half the X-Men backstory and plot points you mentioned, but the show felt overwhelming to me. With so many characters and subplots, it seemed like they were all competing for attention at the same time. You know what? It smells like the famous "CEO decision", and not something from seasoned writers.
I agree about Gambit. It was so refreshing to see my fav get the respect he deserves, even if it was only in one episode; I do wish that he'd had a little more screen time where he wasn't in an action scene/pining for Rogue. I think more people will agree about the pacing issue once they inevitably do their binge-watches. The Lifedeath ep and the romance between forge was a huge misstep, as is her non-reaction to all the changes that happened during her absence, including Gambit's death. I believe it was a scene that was cut for time, which is ridiculous.
It's funny the switch around you and the general Fandom has had. Originally you were defending it while the general fan base was calling it trash and now that's kinda flipped.
I wasn't a xmen fan prior to watching this. I found it incredibly confusing to watch. After half the episodes, I needed to go online to understand what just happened. As a non comic reader, never have I been so confused after watching an adaption. Never before have I had this problem with a TV show.
I believe that since Disney ordered only 10 episodes, Beau DeMayo and his team had to cram a lot of information and stories for a limited season. If they had a 13- 15 episode season, the stories and pacing might have flowed better. However, I still enjoyed the series, even like the fact they gave Jubilee her own story. Yes, stories and plotlines felt rush but it never away my enjoyment of the series.
About the Storm and Jean friendship, it technically got hints in the 90s cartoon, "Slave Island" and "The Dark Phoenix - Dazzler". Storm was comforted by Jean after she awoke in the Blackbird upon escaping Genosha and then later Storm cared for Jean while Cyclops went to see Dazzler.
Sunspot wasn't bad, but he didn't really work. Even Jubilee, who was better, felt extra. Bishop felt pointless. I did not like the Rogue/Magneto thing--or Rogue in general. She had some good stuff, but didn't feel all that great. I'm not sure we needed to bring Xavier back. Sadly, Morph also felt like extra that wasn't needed. Life Death was so rushed, even if you didn't know the source material.
@@ManOfX305 I mean... Charles is an obviously flawed man (although I think the comics have made him way too flawed for his character to work) but his views on mutants and humans getting along is the right path. Magneto's path only leads to more war and resentment, even going as far as giving humans a reason to actually hate mutants. If you are a human who has never hated mutants and Magneto and his people destroy your house in one of his terrorist acts, you have a fair reason to hate him and mutants. The real reason Charles' way of doing things never fully works is because the franchise has to keep going. If the X-Men and other mutants are accepted by people, there is no overarching narrative. Just them fighting bad guys, which is great, but writers want to keep using the oppressed angle in the stories.
@@kevintanza6968i think they made a good job in the series pointing out that this problem was made by Bastion and people are still afraid of mutants to me made sense
I think the only people who don’t think magneto is right are people that aren’t from minority groups. Call me crazy but I would easily be with magneto if I was a mutant
@@P8nplays Once you look at the entirety of his view, yes, you would look crazy. His vision involves the deaths of children, damning most of the ecosystem, and even killing his fellow mutants to advance it. And sure, his reaction isn’t completely unwarranted, but he’s still an extremist and a supremacist. Magneto’s vision leads to not just the extinction of humanity, but it also ruins mutants as well as shown in visions. So far, the only visionary type character in Marvel who’s been able to achieve world peace and serenity is Doctor Doom.
Yeah I definitely wont call this peak X men. Well its peak compared to all the other X men media that has existed. But objectively they can do so much more. When u first hear about this show, look at the trailers and the 90s series, u dont exactly go in expecting some top level anime stuff. U know like just absolute best storytelling. U probably dont even expect a kids show. Its somewhere in the middle nd I cant find an example to compare it with. But this is what I have been thinking fr somewhile whether superhero media would be best to experience in animated medium, if u wanna go full in depth, comic booky, but at the same time mature, R rated, nuanced themes. Perhaps live action could take a more grounded approach or actually take more creative risks with these characters, somewhat like the elseworlds series. And I say this solely bcoz of the limitations that live action presents currently. Imagine a time in the near future, where we could literally create virtual avatars which look like our favourite actors nd make a film with them cast as our fav superheroes. u dont need any actor. There is no limitations of age or time. U can keep them young fr as long u want. And then we create shows which really goes real deep into there story and gives us much more time with them. Till that ever becomes a possibilty and becomes technologically and economically feasible, I believe top tier anime level detailed animation is our best bet.
I really enjoyed seeing what was going on in the Shi'ar empire and what had happened with Charles. I wish that had been a whole episode and Storms Life/Death story had been one whole episode. Many things felt rushed but I can see why as they only had ten episodes. Hopefully we'll get a flashback to how Bishop ended up stranded in 97 and taking refuge with the X-Men in season 2. But considering he was living with them as a member of the team, when he left no one even said goodbye or mentioned it like they didn't notice he'd gone. Same how there's no lip service given to Nightcrawler joining the team, he's just there now. The Blackbird being destroyed in the first episode should have been a big deal but they have another a few episodes later like it's nothing. Then destroy that one!
I did like X-Men '97. It's helluva lot better than poorly remade crap like Masters of the Universe (2021) and Thundercats Roar but it's not perfect. My biggest gripe is how OVERLY melodramatic it got after the first episode. Granted, the original series had serious shit but '97 was really pushing it with Storm losing her powers, killing off Gambit, and I got annoyed with how many times characters were shown shedding tears, jesus christ. The abundant melodrama almost made me think I was watching a soap opera instead of a superhero show.
I agree completely. Too many wasted and underdeveloped plotlines, stories that now cannot be told again. - baby Nathan, no screen time. - Genosha established and destroyed in the blink of an eye. - Madelyne introduced, chooses the name Goblin Queen (in the show's context, why?), then gone. - Fatal Attractions abbreviated...Magneto mind-wiped, then immediately restored with a changed attitude. - Storm, no growth while powerless. ...on and on. My own critique was met with quite a bit of hostility for voicing similar concerns.
It seems that they made a show for an adult audience with the pacing for preteens. Reminds me of the 90’s X-men cartoon which also had random episodes that didn’t make sense.
Magneto is in peak physical condition. First he was de-aged to a baby, and Moira took care of him. Then, magic aged him back up to be about 35, other than having white hair. So he has a much longer lifespan than most humans or mutants.
My gripes with the show is that they tried to cram too many storylines in a 10 episodes season at once. 1- rogue character development (this is the main focus of the season but resolved too simplistically due to overcrowding of other storylines) 2 - jubilee coming of age and her relationship with sunspot 3 - Scott, jean / goblin queen, cable and Logan conflict 4 - storm character development. 5 - they threw away the whole " magneto extracted the adamantium off of Logan" story ( with consequent rejuvenation and the team up with jubilee...) Edit: they could have kept doctor X out of the picture tbh. I hated that scene where he was "my x men" to magneto after he fucked off in space for staying with the krees.
I was wondering how the ending could play out differently. Those old school sentinels were usually easy to destroy but one stomp seems to have overpowered bastion? Could have been interesting to see what happened if Rogue drained bastion’s power or if Jubilee’s powers somehow scrambled him as her fireworks have historically been damaging to machines.
I think Rogue could not copie affect Bastion with his touch because of Bastion being more a machine than an organic being and also is true Jubilee fireworks and Cyclops blasts damage Bastion a lot more than hard punches
Really liked this review Jester! You brought up some very interesting points that you haven’t discussed before on the channel. I’m glad you did it. You pretty much summed up almost all of my issues with the show. THE biggest issue stems from the fact that the writers wrote the show like a comic book, since they are such hardcore comics fans (I’m sure that’s the reason Disney hired them in the first place - to appease fans). But the thing is - comics have loose continuity and therefore fans are more willing to tolerate changes and writers’ experimentations. Shows on the other hand have strict continuities that need to be followed. X-Men 97 is a 7/10 on its own and unfortunately, 5/10 as a reboot/continuation of the original show.
I agree with a lot of things you say. But two things we have to remember is 1) it's a continuation of the original series that changed storylines so they had to twist some things a bit to make it work closer to the comic. 2) with the way they cancel shows nowadays and the flops marvel has had lately they probably wanted to pack as many stories to make it appeal to audiences beyond comic readers and get as much in before it possibly got cancelled. I think they have done an amazing job with what they had to work with especially time, with some real obvious flaws.
I overall liked it, but it kinda lost me by the last three episode finale. The super fast pace worked for me when they were one offs episodes, and if one didn't land, no harm, the next episode was on to something else. Like, I didn't like Magneto/Rogue, either and the Storm arc felt rushed, but I absolutely adored the Goblin Queen episode. However, as someone less familiar with the source material (saw the cartoon, haven't read that many comics) the three part finale just had too much going on with too many characters. Some bits were great, and it was still overall a fun ride, but I did find myself less hyped up towards the end of the series. Still willing to come back and check it out in later seasons. It was a fun ride, but I feel like it bit off a little too much for the finale of the first season.
Here is what I have to say. I feel that jam packing this season was a necessary evil, because this season is essentially making a promise to its viewers and setting up a certain level of expectation that people can have from the series going forward. This show gets a lot of things right than the ones it gets wrong. By the way, nothing is perfect in this world. Even people giving 10/10 scores. But this is easily the best X-Men media I have experienced in a while. This show helped me understand why fans originally were dispositioned towards the X-Men movies. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would love Cyclops and Gambit. I had no idea about the full extent of these characters until I saw this series. My only exposure to them were the movies. Chances are, they can dial this back in upcoming seasons and focus on the pacing as well. But this is an issue that is not just prevalent in the X-Men series. It's been there in some of the MCU movies as well.
Beside the rushed pacing, all they had to do was: 1. have the Magneto - Rogue relationship be a mentor-mentee relationship instead of romantic (but still with drama from Gambit misreading it, resolved with the talk in E5), 2. Give Magneto acolytes instead of X-men in his "destroy the world" plan. Including for example Strong Guy (not very fitting for his character, but he had that line about a war coming, and we would have gotten more Strong guy) and Exodus (he could have slowed down Xavier before being ether overwhelmed psychically, or convince this was not the right/honorable path for mutantkind.) ... Also bring back Madelyne in S2 or s3, having made a deal with a demon to be reborn (to save Cable) in exchange for part of her soul (her empathy/love... until she overcome the Demon's hold on her in the end). You can have her be the goblin queen and explain that in Ep3, when struggling against Sinister, she reached out and made contact with this demon, and had a vision of the futur goblin queen while making this demon take interest in her.
I watched 10-minutes of the first episode and immediately dismissed the entire series. It's almost like he creators never read a single issue in their lives.
All of us who watched the show with an open mind and concious of our love for the comics/previous shows and movies, have positives and negatives about it. Maybe different positives and negatives, but still that's the healthy approach I think. Neither a shill, nor a proud hater. IMO the show is great overall, the finale was a letdown, it's definitely worth watching, but it's far from perfect
I’d give it a 6/10. There were some amazing moments but it rushed through too many famous storylines. And while I’m a cyclops fan, I feel like Wolverine was almost a non-character. Rogue’s personality was destroyed and still can’t figure out why the shows and movies seem to have no love for archangel. Finally, it was cool to see the Phoenix, but I felt that she was just shoved in for a few minutes without any build up.
I agree, it's 6.5 for me, above average but just far too rushed, with no consequences as a result. And given this continuing from the 90's show means they've largely burned through the remaining big storylines for the 70's, 80's & 90's the original show didn't touch apart from the Apocalypse stuff and Onslaught. Where are they going to go after this? To the 00's, the 10's (I hope not Krakoa). It came off the rails for me in the finale. It felt like bits of two different finales awkwardly put together but not doing justice to either. And agreed as well on Wolverine, they overcorrected. And they didn't listen to the words they gave to Xavier. For someone to be more, someone else doesn't have to be less. Or in this case, to give the limelight to other X-Men didn't mean making Logan a near nonexistent extra. The early 2010's X-Men anime did this much better. Cyclops is definitely the protagonist and focal character of the show but Wolverine and the others are all given their respect as well.
It just seems he favored some characters over others. I just think he's not a good writer and just pulling all he can from different storylines and not bringing anything fresh. I hated the way they wrote Rogue in this season. Almost everything she did was completely out of character, and it seemed like Magneto could run amuck and everything would work out for him in the end. I didn't mind the sisterhood thing between Jean and Storm, but why wasn't Rogue included in it? It seems that she was distanced from the rest of the team when Magneto took over. Plus, this whole cringy love triangle thing made no sense. Then they kill Gambit. That pretty much ends the love triangle you set up. So many things about this show got on my nerves. I hope next season is better.
My only critique is that at least half an episode should've been devoted to Onslaught (quickly after the Fatal Attractions bit, of course). JK. You have the most sane take on this bittersweet epic gem of a show revival. Also, please become the new show runner/head writer.
It’s been Confirmed: Morph has confessed his feelings for wolverine. You can thank you-know-who for this. It’s all over on social media lol Thank god I haven’t watched this show, I’ll never trust Woke-Disney 🎣🌈 👶
Oh my god you're being stupid. That wasn't a love confession. That was Morph comforting Logan by using Jean's form to say what he wanted to hear Jean say for years. But sure be an overemotional fool and just hurr durr woke.
The reasons this show did not live up to my moderate expectations: They market it at a continuation of the 90's show; it wasn't. It has a lot of inconsistencies with the 90's show that don't add any value to the show, for example, Storm's mohawk, Bishop's hairstyle, Morph's look, Jubilee's ethnicity, Lelandra's look and character. The show also lacks 90's vibes; there are no cultural references or easter eggs to uncover that tie the show to America in the year 1997. For being a show with limited episodes they wasted a lot of time rehashing plots from the 90's show similar to how SW The Force Awakens recycled a lot of plot elements, for example, the first episode mathes the first episode of the 90's show where the sentinels are the bad guys except that this time it's a bigger and stronger Master Mold however it ends up being easily and quickly defeated (like the Force Awakens's bigger and stronger death star that's also easily defeated). The show introduces the major plot twist of Magneto being the leader of the x-men, only to last a few episodes before he defaults back to being the villain again. The romance with Magneto feels inorganic and flat. All the romantic stories felt inorganic and flat; Jubilee and Roberto, Storm and Forge, Lelandra and Charles. Most of the characters are one-dimensional and some are even flanderized; Wolverine is a background character that only speaks in tough guy comebacks, Morph is a background character that only speaks in goofy comebacks, Beast is background character that only speaks in eloquent comebacks, Bishop disappears from the show early on even though he is featured in the theme intro, Lelandra just saved her empire from her brother only to act like a teenager that only cares about her crush and doesn't care about the empire. There is no time to develop and explore any plot arcs; for example, Storm losing her powers and struggling through the hero's journey until she recovers her powers; it all happens quickly over a few scenes, same thing with Inferno, same thing with Charles, same thing with Cable, same things with Sinister. This show barely introduced any lore from the comics and x-men universe. Bastion and Sunspot are about the only additions to the show that were not part of the 90's show. The show lacks so many characters and does a mediocre job at trying to hide this by making Morph transform into tons of missing characters. Where is sabertooth, Mystique, The Brotherhood, The Acolytes, Alpha Flight, etc. What was the point of the Motendo episode? It wasn't even the full episode and it just recycled the Mojovision episode of the 90's show. And of course we can't ignore the way Disney told us through Professor X that the Shiar Empire are just a bunch of colonizers who should be re-educated, completely destorying the legacy of how Lelandra and the Shiar were introduced in the 90's show. That scene with the telepathic classroom is one of the lamest moments in X-Men history. This show is not the masterpiece that many seem to believe it is.
I can see why he got fired and how a lot of these writing decisions raised questions and inconsistencies. I think they need someone to level it out more and his agenda just did not align with the writing of the show for a lot of it.
It's hard to be objective when you like something. It's harder to be honest when the truth hurts. I like Morbius. But a good movie, that does not make. I like The Callisto Protocol. But a proper successor to Dead Space, it is not. And from what I gather, X-Men '97 is adequate for what it is, according to you. But as a follow up to OG X-Men, your disappointment is immeasurable and your day is ruined.
Yeah I had a feeling it would turn out this way based on three episodes. This type of over-ambitious storytelling that wants to tell as many stories as possible and have as much drama as possible for a large cast was the same thing that plagued Young Justice. Thanks for confirming my fears. Very good critique.
You're absolutely right! I did enjoy the show and am anticipating season 2, but a lot of what you mentioned bothered me too. My favorite character has always been Wolverine since I watched Night of the Sentinels as a little boy...and I think Wolverine had the best moments in my opinion...but was used little enough to not be overwhelming or take over as the main character. Great video!
Great vid a thought while listening I think some see randomness as good story telling, which it can have its place but like with anything use it to much etc. Idk good points thanks.
I'm not sure but i think wolvie has some type of healing factor, he'll be fine. also thought it was super obvious Sebastian teleported magnus out of genosha.
I only know the TAS from the 90s. I couldn’t afford to collect comics. As an adult, I’m going to visit my local comic book shops and collect them. I’m fascinated! Isn’t that a positive outcome for what this show has done? I think so! Was 97 perfect? No. It can also be a hidden joke in animation or Easter egg if there’s a continuity error like the random mutant in the opening credits of the original series that doesn’t exist anywhere else lol Was it close to perfection in my opinion? Yes. And it’s 98% on Rotten Tomatoes (which to critics won’t matter anyway - point is, I’m far from alone). I’m not going to nit pick anything specific about your rant because I just found it to be a rant of nit picks. I will say though, it’s possible the moments you were looking for that weren’t in the Final cut, may exist on the cutting room floor and edited for time. Writers have tons of rewrites. Sometimes things don’t fit or it doesn’t do enough to move the plot forward or justify its need to be there. I’m also saying that to defend the writers honestly. That’s my bias. I loved the choices and the writing style. The quotes “Please…Don’t make me let you down” and Storm had a beautiful line to Bastion when she said “People didn’t ask to be born which is why we cannot begrudge them being”. It’s not perfectly word for word but that’s the essence of what she said and it’s beautiful imo I loved the writing because the writers managed to strike a balance of engaging the nostalgic 90s kids (me, I was 8 when the show premiered) who watched this on Saturday mornings and a new audience who may be casual viewers of an X-Men movie or knows a little about the characters but wasn’t that invested. Beau had a clear pitch of the arc of season one. Episodes 1-5 (the world pre-9/11), Episodes 6-10 (the aftermath post-9/11). The entire world changed. A great show is one where it knows how it’s going to end. And Beau knew what he wanted to do and with animation especially, you have to be definitive. Perhaps, he was difficult to work with in terms of creative control. Who knows? Episode 4 was the weakest and it was Beau in collaboration with another writer. I can imagine the power struggle they both had but although it wasn’t amazing, it was still a fun episode and a breather before episode 5. Imo, the end result is a win for Disney+ and the franchise of X-Men, for people who love these characters. It’s a definite contender for the Emmy’s so love it or hate it or criticize it all you want, it’s already beloved. Btw, Magneto was right. However, multiple things can be true at the same time. The last three episodes were written also by Anthony Selliti? So, as much as we can empathize and understand the darkness of Magneto, the counter is an equally powerful Charles Xavier whose dream is co-existence. Despite the fact that Magneto was right, it shouldn’t be the motto of justifying violence against people who hate you. The messy part is where do you draw the line? When is enough enough? It’s complicated. And 97 does a great job of illustrating that. 98%. I doubt anyone will actually get this far into my comment but if you do, thanks for taking the time to read it.
Thank you for making a review like this. I’m starting to watch the show now and I’m glad there’s at least one person willing to just take off their nostalgia goggles (or whatever in this instance) and admit that this show is not perfect. I’d rather people do that upfront than me go in expecting a masterpiece but getting let down. I already knew something fishy was up when this show got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. (I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this) but there is no way in hell Disney or Marvel can make a 100% Rotten Tomato score project anymore. Disney and Marvel has rarely been on the level of Avatar the Last Airbender or Arcane and they especially aren’t now
I really enjoyed it and for the most part I ignored the issues I noticed along the way because they succeed so much on an emotional level to the point that it allowed for the problems to be swept under; but yea you make many really good points here. It definitely should have been longer. Though it could have been absolutely terrible considering modern day Marvel storytelling so I think this one deserves praise for the best that it had to offer than what it fell short on.
With how many arcs the season had I couldn’t help but be reminded of Tokyo Ghoul RE (The third season) Within the first four episodes you had two arcs (If I’m not mistaken it was the Tsukiyama Family Extermination Arc and the Reintroduction of Kaneki) when both of these arcs should’ve been given time to play out on their own but instead got crammed in X-Men 97 seems to have taken a page straight outta TG’s book and rushed everything to high hell and back
Xavier's subplot is very important for his character, especially what he does to Erik at the end of the season as throughout the original series run, he almost never uses his abilities without consent from the person, but with what he did in space it shows he is more willing to use his powers for the greater good rather than always trying to have the perfect moral high ground.
Magneto's sudden attitude change will make sense if they adapt the Onslaught storyline. What's odd about it, though, is in the comics, Xavier didn't somehow convince Magneto to change his ways, Xavier put Magneto into a vegetative state!
Agreed. I’m also not a fan of what they did with Morph. Morph has been my favorite X-man since AoA . The show made his power set boring ( also hard to write stakes for), made his genetics dictate his gender , and switch the morph Logan friendship to romance
Personally, I never got very far into the series before I realized the writing was just awful. There's a scene early on, maybe even in the first episode, where Gambit is making food in the kitchen. This was the perfect opportunity to have a natural conversation with Gambit flirting with Rogue (establishes character traits and relationships) and you could EASILY inject a line or two of dialogue which calls out Rogue's power to absorb life force from all and powers from mutants. The next scene takes place in a nightclub, and we get this forced exposition about Rogue lamenting how she can't dance for fear of hurting someone - fair enough to show her character, but it's a clunky construct to pontificate about her mutation. It's inelegant and artificial and just bad writing. IF they had taken the natural opportunity in the kitchen scene, they can still do the character bit with Rogue, but it's not jammed up with extraneous exposition. Wasted opportunity, crap writing.
X-Men 97 is a 7.6/10. Too many things were inconsistent, and while there were characters that were done very well, like Scott and Nightcrawler, so many were also done wrong. Beau DeMayo self inserted too much and took too many liberties that impacted the show. Could've been way better. All show, not enough substance.
@@TheDCbiz @drixenol86 @sincerelynotme3522 im so confused by what the 3 of u r saying. r u talking about insert himself like lgbt themes. like with the purple and pink colors, morph crushing on logan and how charles and magneto looked like they were going to kiss or how jean and storm might be more than friends cuz of how close they got in each other face?
The show had one really good idea and that was episode 5, after episode 6 the show really falls apart and the cracks start to show its very bad writing with things happening because plot and not a natural progress of character, drenched in Magneto fetish, with lots of key dangling of cameos and get ready to consume next product but forgetting to properly develop current product.
I havent finished catching up on the first xmen so i havent started watching xmen 97 but annoying people on facebook kept spoiling stuff with their “funny” facebook humour. Gambit is my favourite x-men of ALL time. It felt like someone was TRYING to tick me off when i kept HEARING this nonsense about him! As if it wasn’t bad enough movie producers pretend my favourite xmen doesn’t exist… the tv producers are EVEN CRUELER and give him LESS than nothing! I tell ya… if you picked Gambit as your favourite one… then you haven’t had an OUNCE of love in almost three decades😢
exactly. its like i said on my vid, the show is good but not perfect. it should have been its own thing separately or set in the future, where the characters have changed. like u bring up a lot of good topics about stuff not making sense, yet fans dont care and think its a masterpiece. those same people who think that way, see the same problems in other shows and complain about it but not this one. thats what happens when marvel/disney havent put out anything super amazing since the last avengers movie
As someone who absolutely loved the new show and someone who really loved the Grant Morrison run of XMen comics, I completely understand and respect your opinion as well. I think what people really admired about this show was that the writers weren’t afraid to touch on tough emotional, moral and ethical issues. They didn’t nerf the interactions with excessive use of comedic relief or over-idolize beloved characters. That said, I fully agree that the main issue in my opinion is the fact that yes, certain character decisions felt rushed because they had to cram so much content into just ten 30 min episodes. Episode 4 felt like filler and episode 8 should have been a season finale in my opinion. They should have followed up in season 2 with the return of professor X. They could have used a couple more episodes to flesh out the characters. BUT I do think they did the best they could with what they had (budget, time, Disney watching their every move) and that all the love the show received was not disingenuous or intellectually dishonest. Like yourself I had become very apathetic to all the latest marvel product™️ and watched this completely by chance. And by episode 2 I HAD to acknowledge that they did something RIGHT with this product and that the writers really did love and respect the source material. Any X-Men fan knows full and well that this is allegory for real-world politics and social issues. If it feels heavy handed, it just is what it is. It’s a product of the 60s and still relevant in 2024. I thought the allegory was handled well and not clumsily at all (which is not easy to do).
Agree with so much of this, I’m a little nervous Marvel will take the wrong lessons from the praise this is getting. Other things that bugged me (note I’m non-comic reader and non-TAS watcher): - Wolverine is basically an extra, I don’t think he does a single meaningful thing in the entire show. - It’s not at all clear to the viewer, or, seemingly, the characters, what the effects of Magneto’s big emp are. It feels like they wanted it to end the world but also didn’t want to commit to having Erik go THAT dark so it somehow comes across as both - the friends of humanity and depowering gun are completely forgotten somehow - you can’t even actually tell Madeline dies until like three episodes later when they say she died, I could never tell when something was supposed to be fatal, this is only more confusing with Magneto surviving - Scott and Jean both doing something romantic with other people is a major event that’s entirely dropped and forgotten - it’s not at all clear why UN representatives had access to Bastion and Sinister’s base. And if the implication is got was accurate and they were working together to make sentinels, how could they have possibly not known about the master mold, and how did they think anything good would come from working with the guy named MISTER SINISTER. The most egregious is the cameos though. Half of this show felt like comic book fanservice with zero substance. Dr Doom and Spider-Man may as well have been a flashing neon sign saying “applaud.” They were completely irrelevant to the narrative despite characters like those and the others shown being significant enough that they would absolutely get involved in this conflict.
Yea the pacing problems for me were apparent for the third episode, that alone should have been 2-3 episodes at least, it almost AlMOST ruins the show with how quickly events pass
Interesting take. I fully loved the show but it is nowhere near a 10 aside from animation which was top notch, but writing wise- certain moments did still bother me. But it was such a fun show that i think was cohesive from start to end in theme and didn't pull a mad duex es machina or some mad gadget out of the blue for the sake of a happy ending, they did still do a bad ending though but I'm glad it wasn't happy. It felt like straight out of a comic book visually and even some of the dialogue and plot moments and i loved that aspect of it but i fully agree that the magneto and rogue, Charles xavier and life death storylines ruined the pacing of the show and they should have stuck with one for a solid B plot. First 3 episodes and remember it were great but this was definitely the peak of the show, I liked the finale but it felt very rushed and magnetos storyline by the end did not make much sense at all. Didn't just go against rogue and sunspots characters but also Magneto's who surely would have questioned his motives because his arc at the beginning seems actually genuine and he resorts to genocide to fight genocide, the action he has hated for the entire season- it's ridiculous, he put his beliefs away to support Charles and then he watches his world burn by humans, qnd he doesn't resort to genocide- this felt brilliant. Rogue and magneto is a bit weird, gambit and rogue would've been enough. And surely master mold and sentinel guy would have been enough to fight and magneto should have stayed dead after that sacrifice, and we should've seen more focus on rogue's aftermath, yeah it doesn't really make much sense.
While I absolutely loved this show, it definitely had flaws. I got used to the animation, but one could easily see where they cut corners on a regular basis, especially for the slower talking scenes. You bring up great points! Rogue vacillates a lot and the X-Men just watch her do it while not calling her out on it. There was never any follow up to Morph's line, "Is this who we are now?" You'd think there'd be some serious talks among the X-Men after Rogue KILLED someone on purpose. Roberto joining Magneto was also out of left field. It felt forced. He did it because the script said to do so. Like seriously? Was Magneto, Rogue and Sunspot going to be the only surviving members of the human/mutant race? So Roberto's just going to hang around Astroid M while Magneto and Rogue make out all the time?? There ARE other mutants left on the earth that they could have tried to recruit, but that was never addressed. How many mutants are left after the Genosha attack btw? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? It would help to know what the new status quo is going to be for mutants. The a few things that stood out for me this season: 1) I wish Storm's change to a mohawk was explained. I wish she had adopted the mohawk after losing her powers, thus making the change mean something, like it did in the comics. Instead I just assume she was given one because that's what the kids these days like. Plus, she had it in the comics, so why not include it here? Make it mean something or else don't change it on a whim. 2) It's not super clear that Magneto removed Wolverine's adamantium. We get that one shot at the end of episode 9, doing the homage to the comics, but viewers who haven't read the Fatal Attractions storyline may be asking, "What? What's he doing to him?" And they don't really say what happened in episode 10. The just cut to Wolverine's on a bed recovering. 3) Changing Morph is fine, but again, I just wish they'd explain why he looks the way he does now; other than Beau Demayo loves Age of Apocalypse and that's where that look is from. 4) Several episodes/storylines were super rushed, especially the Inferno and Lifedeath storylines. I wish Inferno was 3 episodes long, giving us time to process who/what Madelyne is, what Mr. Sinister's plans are and what the heck a Goblin Queen is. With those episodes, they could have had smaller segments of Forge and Storm developing a relationship sprinkled throughout, then when the Lifedeath episode happens, their break up means something to us. I guess in the end, I wanted more of the episodes and plot points to mean something. I wouldn't change much that happened, I'd just have more than 10 episodes to cover all these storylines more thoroughly, but alas that is the way of streaming, they aren't allowed to produce more than 10 episodes a season on Disney+ it seems. But I will admit, weak story structure not withstanding, I really loved this show. I haven't been into a show like this in years. It was so great to have the X-Men back and to feel like reuniting with old friends again. X-Men 97 is an odd combination of the original X-Men show mixed with loose adaptions of the X-Men comics the original didn't cover. You almost have to know the original stories from the comics to fully appreciate what they did, but then there's a slight dissatisfaction, because they didn't flesh out those stories like the original show did. In the original show, the Phoenix saga took up almost the entire third season! It was amazing what they did, adapting that. I'm excited for season 2 though! I bet we'll be getting Beau Demayo's Age of Apocalypse then. Fingers crossed they can handle story better. Holy crap I've written a long comment! I guess I'm passionate about X-Men. Thanks for reading if you got this far.
If he morphs into Rogue and touches her, what happens? Do they get locked into an absorption struggle? Why didn't he become Magneto and reverse the EMP or become Charles and do whatever he wanted? It's a mess.
@@synical13 well like i said the does not control the abilities that he copies 100 % and probably to enable the electromagnetic field in earth he need 100% porcent of output to do it
@@synical13 does Morph replicate to the level of DNA? Wouldn't that be necessary in order to replicate appearance and powers? And how would that work for the Hulk? Morph can replicate the effects of Gamma irradiation on Banner's particular genetic makeup?
I'm pretty sure Morph can only copy physical powers. So for the Hulk, he can probably copy his base strength, but not his ability to grow stronger by getting angrier.
I'm almost positive these set of episodes were either a backup plan or truly rushed redos, etc because of the backlash when it came out they was going to shove Morph being a Alphabet person crushing HARD on Da Runt down our throats because none of that happened until a few hinted words last few episodes!
I feel ya. I've been sorta depressed that so many people are so desperately praising this show, which I have seen as a ill-paced, lazy chaotically characterized mess. It feels like bad fan fiction on every level.
Everything good about this show is something that just comes naturally as being a continuation of an already great show. Alot of what this shows unique identity is are the worst parts of the whole thing.
This was a phenomenal critique on the season. I greatly enjoyed it, aside from some of my own grievances, but i am admittedly having trouble removing my fanboy lens. I do think they rushed a lot stories, especially Inferno, but Lifedeath was actually kind of fairly adapted imo. Its only 2 issues in the comics, and part 2 occurs with a 3 or so issue buffer from part 1. There was a lot of Magneto wank, to the point that ppl are spamming Magneto was Right with an absolutely insanely ironic level of misunderstanding the character and slogan I also think the MagsXRouge and LoganXJean stuff is very lame and was way overdone in the show. I agree with them missing a lot of the emotional fallout and plot conveniences being used in order to shove in as much as they can fit.
To hear that Fatal Attractions is Demayo's favourite comic storyline just leaves me mystified as to why he shoved bits of it into another storyline they were adapting (Operation: Zero Tolerance) and not doing justice to either story, then just properly building up to and adapting Fatal Attractions. The show I think is getting over-hyped, much like The Mandolorian (or for me Blade Runner 2049). It was okay to good, 6.5 out of 10. But it wasn't amazing and has significant flaws it's need to address in the next season.
to be completely fair, after all the situations with Marvel and it's ungodly animation, writing and sfx crunches, this has to be the best side of the coin.
There was a fundamental difference in how it was adapted compared to the original. That took individual plotlines and elements from the comics and cleverly incorporated them into it's own strong ongoing narrative, making then comics the roadmap they traveled by, but making the show, the car, it's own thing. X men 97 instead is speeding over that same ground at five times the rate, grabbing anything and everything it can like a magpie, just because they're shiny and might attract attention. As if they thought they'd only get one shot, and theur goal was to Rise of Skywalker as much plot as they could shove in. The show is left with a narrative that is weak and lacking it's own direction. Instead it runs through an obstacle course of attempting to please too wide a market, a sampler platter rather than a satsfying meal. The original sought to build something of value, the new one is a smash and grab at the old abandoned construction site.
I respectfully disagree with you. While I agree that it uses a lot of material from the comics, I don’t think they’re adopting them strictly. They’re creating a different story from the source material. For instance, a lot of people thought that they will be going by the way of Onslaught but instead of Prof X being consumed by Magneto’s anger and becoming Onslaught, he instead wins over Magneto and creates a different narrative and I think a better message. The whole season I think has a very solid theme and message and the show makes use of different elements from the original show and comics to bring that theme and message across in a very organic way. Xmen has always been about bigotry and empathy. From the first
Disney+ did a great job with X-Men '97, so why doesn't Disney have other equally creative and talented people working on The Acolyte? How come The Acolyte can't have nice things like the cool stories that drew audiences to The Mandalorian, Andor and even Ahsoka some of the time, and instead get created by activists out of pure spite to insult the white male fans of Star Wars? June 6, 2024, 9:41pm
Before I saw this video, I'd have given the show an 8.5/10. I'm revising that to 7.5. I still really liked it, but there are some serious problems. The main problems I had with it were 1) the Rogue x Magneto thing, which had zero basis in the Animated Series -- not even the slightest hint of it -- 2) the brevity (ergo, the narrative weakness) of the Lifedeath story (like, Forge is suddenly deeply in love with Storm? Where'd that come from? I mean, I know she's hot, but jeez...), and 3) I don't understand why the X-Men would propagate the lie that Xavier was dead. They had to know that would blow up in their faces if he were _ever_ seen on Earth again. And on that note, how was he able to return at all? Lilandra said at the end of TAS that he would have to spend the rest of his life under Shi'ar care. Yet not a word about that no longer being a problem. Just "I need to go home," and *cRaSh!* there he is! Also, 4) I can understand Magneto generating an EMP to stop the sentinels, but that _had_ to be a temporary measure to give the X-Men and anyone else the time to confront and destroy Bastion. Yes, even doing that temporarily would hurt and kill a lot of people, but the Sentinels were already doing that en masse, and so I don't know what other option there was at the time. Doing it as a permanent thing, however, because unpowered humans (and countless mutants) didn't deserve to live made him essentially into the Nazi that genocided his own people and countless others. I mean, when you pair that with his rhetoric about humans being their (mutants') "genetic inferiors," you really have a recipe for a victim of trauma visiting that trauma upon others, and yet the show didn't seem interested in addressing that at all. Moreover, how does Magneto think a new and improved Astroid M could survive without a living, thriving Earth down below as a source of supplies? Still, there was a lot to love about the show, and given the limited number of episodes they had to work with, I thought they did a pretty good job with a lot of it, with "Remember It" unquestionably being the best episode. I wish they'd had more time to spread the show out over time, with "Remember It" perhaps being the finale for the first season instead of the midpoint. Maybe giving the "Goblin Queen" arc a couple of episodes and more depth (like why she took on that name, when her suit really gave "vampire sex queen" vibes), and Lifedeath could've been told in smaller portions over a few more episodes, giving Forge and Storm more time to, you know, _actually_ fall in love with each other?
I will add, too, that I actually liked Sunspot's development. He went from trying to be "one of the good ones" in hiding to, at the insistence of his mother, being "one of the good ones" still sort of in hiding but open to the people closest to him, to being collared by Sentinels with the blessing of his own mother and, once freed, saying "Fuck that" and being radicalized and joining Magneto, at least for a time, until he saw what that really meant for him, which was having to fight someone he loved: Jubilee.
