The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 1x01 & 1x02 Breakdown & Review | Marvel Studios Animation

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Starting point is 00:01:30 I am overjoyed as a fan of this show. How are you feeling Greg? Well, Coy, I decided that at like two, three in mornings, I will binge watch this show. And now it is all just a massive blur. Watch 10 of the last episodes late last night. I am officially sick of X-Men. I do not want to watch this show. While you're talking, I'm going to switch into this beanie, Corey.

Starting point is 00:01:51 I haven't rewatched the entirety of the original like Greg did it 2 in the morning, the best time to retain anything. But I do have a lot of comic book knowledge, so I'm excited about this being from the show. perspective in a blurry haze of insomnia and from a comic book perspective i think it'll be a unique way to watch the show please leave a like so we know you liked this insanity and also please do share this because we want to keep making these throughout the whole season if you want to watch this in its entirety without gaps please head over to patreon or the super sexy rejects get the entirety you can also find exclusive watch longs that john and gregg do over on patreon so without further ado

Starting point is 00:02:23 x-band episode one and two reject nation you may have seen me from time to time pull out my phone on screen over the past year with this eye catching Marvel case. Got it from a company called Caseify, gear that I love. And luckily for me, it's also today's video sponsor. I locked out. Because they now have the Marvel Caseify Iron Man collection. So you can put a suit of armor around your phone. See what I did there. Like with his armor activate case. It's not just a case. It's your shield. Or the Iron Man suitcase and mask case. It's power and style embodying the spirit of Iron Man and classic red or sleek silver. Or the arc reactor case symbolizing the heart of Iron Man. And for the thinkers and dreamers,

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Starting point is 00:03:48 I think it was really smart, too, to end off where, you know, like the trailers ended exactly there. Yeah, we don't know anything else. It's going to find out, like, the trailer ended where episode one ended. So, you know, it was like, oh, it's all new territory now. Right. And the first episode, I like the first episode a lot. And it was more of like the nostalgia feels. And I appreciated the update on the animation with the action sequences and stuff.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And watching the X-Men original series, I completely forgot that season five had a, the final season had this like weird shift where the- Different animation studio. Yeah. It felt like. it was odd it was definitely the worst season is the one i was like man is not great and while there's some highlights to be had there for the most part now it was it was weaker animation and uh the storytelling was really off so to me coming back into here i just wanted this to kind of harken back a little bit more to the earlier seasons and it was more of its prime and i think they did just

Starting point is 00:04:49 that whilst still keeping in tune with the flare of the 90s but not being obnoxious about it They still want it to be, like, lived in, and I appreciate how much more cinematic they have made it, whereas, you know, it was serialized storytelling before, but it seems like this is, like, okay, how I put it is, the original series would be very serialized when they're like, we're doing part one of Beyond Good and Evil or Part One of Dark Phoenix, and it was like especially serialized, and it seems like this whole season is going to be much more of a giant movie that they are, telling. Yeah, I agree. I think the pacing is exceptional and maybe even better than the original, because I think they have an idea of their overarching stories. I think if memory serves, they've already greenlit a season two, so I think they know what

Starting point is 00:05:38 they're building out to. They fired the head writer. Like last week or something. Like, I just, yeah, but I'm curious, I mean, we don't know the details of that yet, but I'm really curious how far they formatted out for these arcs, because what the original show did so well was

Starting point is 00:05:54 tell very indents soap opera-esque, stories because Chris Haramont and John Byrne, two of the most iconic creators on X-Men, always loved the soap opera Ness, and I think that was a big strength of the X-Men. So you've got so many characters, so many moving parks. You could have those overarching arcs as well as the little arcs amongst the characters, but also little arcs amongst individual comics and stories. This feels much more like it's going to have the big broad trade paperback feel, but each episode's going to have like a comic or two feel.

Starting point is 00:06:19 So I like that it feels like a mix right now of ease for extinction with some life death, with some astonishing X-Men Volume 1. So, Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 was Joss Whedon and Cassaday on art, and it was basically like, if you could cure your mutanthood, what would you do? Would you choose to? Would you not? And I like how that's reflected in Storm, not having the choice, and the guilt of Gene wanting potentially her kid to be not a mutant.

Starting point is 00:06:42 So there's some of those elements teased in there, and that's what they tried to do with X-Men 3 unsuccessfully. And then the life-death stuff is Storm and a walkabout of self-discovery of basically like, I've been a kid on the streets. I've also been a goddess. What am I? Who am I? And by taking her powers away, I think she's going to be coming to terms

Starting point is 00:07:01 as her humanity. And I'm curious if they maybe bring in forge because it was her and forge in the desert. And then the other thing, the ease for extinction seems to be the very literal like genotia and like bringing mutankind into humanity and all those elements there.

Starting point is 00:07:13 And that was the new X-Men run that Grant Morrison did with Frank Whiteley that was really popular for a time. And I feel like people don't talk about now is one of the big iconic X-Men run. So I think they're being really smart with grabbing like a greatest hits but not making it a direct translation

Starting point is 00:07:27 which is kind of like what the MCU did with Civil War like you get the gist but you changed enough where it's exciting this feels like the X-Men 90s characters but all the stories I just listed were 2000s like comic stories so keep it to the root of this but modernize the type of stories you're telling

Starting point is 00:07:43 because this feels very fresh and modern but it's got like you know 90s elements to make the nostalgia feel authentic not like it's beating you over the head with it yeah which is the line they needed to ride because if it was exactly where we left off it would be with that season five but even if it was exactly where we left off with season four while sure there might be a camp of the audience that maybe did ultimately prefer that I think they haven't normally when something's

Starting point is 00:08:14 coming out I've noticed Disney will kind of do this thing where they go hey go rewatch these select episodes of X-Men or go re-watch X-Men before you watch this but They didn't really give the audience that much time between the first trailer and the release date announcement to do that. Believe me, I know they didn't really give that much time. Had to skip some episodes. But I think that was kind of intentional. So that way you can take this a little bit more on its own merits. It's like watching this while there's a little bit of touches that I do feel like,

Starting point is 00:08:45 they're bringing this back. They're carrying this. Even right down to the storyline with getting rid of the powers. It was other season one or two. Everything's kind of a blur to me about it. But there was like season one or two where there was a scientist touting. It's the episode. We got the angel introduction.

Starting point is 00:09:00 And they were going to remove the powers and the communities of mutants were like, oh, we should sign up with this, scientist. End of finding out this was a ploy where Mystique was pretending to be a scientist who could do it, but there was all to manipulate to serve apocalypse. And now they're actually doing that integration of the story where they can get rid of the mutant gene. and I like how they are setting our characters in ways that I do find compelling. Gene being pregnant, having a child, Scott having to be a father. What is his position as being a leader?

Starting point is 00:09:33 I think Magneto was easily one of my favorite characters in the watch of X-Men. I found myself constantly very compelled by his point of view of going, Yeah, sometimes I'm on Magneto side. Yeah. Because humans are like, you're all assholes in this show. Yeah, that's the fun of the X-Men is like, people make bad decisions in our world. So when they do it against X-Men, we're like, yeah, people do suck.

Starting point is 00:09:59 Because everyone here's the most humans. It seems like 99.9% of you are xenophobes and I don't like it. So, like, you got no rule of other choice? So I think it's really interesting of how they're drawing Magneto because he's not so, he's clearly adjusting. Yeah. He's not just, all right, I've changed my memory. mind like even to before the judges uh he like takes them up to the sky puts him in his terrain

Starting point is 00:10:25 and he's like i'm trying don't let me let me let you down like to have the dual meaning i thought was a really great writing of don't let me let you down in terms of let me give you a chance of change but don't make me kill you yeah i thought was actually because he's not it's really fully reformed and because the trailer only showed the first episode i was like is it x-men versus is Magneto starting episode three. I actually was tense throughout that segment of like, did he reform or was he trying to and failed? Like what storyline?

Starting point is 00:10:56 Because Magneto's led the X-Bent enough time in the comic books. They could have picked a storyline where it was for a day. Or it could be the whole season. It's really interesting having his internal conflict of like, I promised my friend I would try. Yeah, yeah. And trying is so much more interesting than succeeding. A story is about trying.

Starting point is 00:11:11 What we do as humans is try. We always try to be better. Succeeding of being better is a short. Trying is fascinating. So I'm really excited to see Cyclops try to be a father while trying to be a leader. Magneto try to reform. Like those elements are what the tensions from. That's why Claremont and Burns X-Men's X-Men is so interesting.

Starting point is 00:11:28 And that's why I love the choice to make Rogue with Magneto. Because like now Gambit's storyline is going to be a lot more interesting. Yeah, yeah. And so in the first couple episodes, we got a lot of characters. Yeah, we haven't really had time with most of them. Yeah, yeah. It's understandable. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:44 You know, it's a series for a reason. I'm waiting to see how it jives me with Morp because I kind of It could just be the fact that I'm adjusting to Oh yeah, I'm so used to Morph being like such a tragedy in the show And they've completely taken a switch where he's a lot more Lighthearted Yeah

Starting point is 00:12:03 He's like almost Deadpool-esque Like he's like just jokes And he's so jokes No one seems offended at all by the It's messed up some of these jokes he does I don't know I think it's kind of like weird showing up as Xavier Yeah. Talk about having people have a difficult time with grieving.

Starting point is 00:12:20 It's like the definition of Gallo's humor. Like Gallo's humor to a T. You're like, you're impersonating a body, bro. Like, stop it. I need to move on. Do you know what this does to my subconscious when I see who is like, I'm coping? It's great in fights, but it's not walking around the mansion as the dead leader we had. It's a little messed up. Citizens of the Reject Nation, or should I say, royal rejects, because that is who we call. all those who check out our RR apparel at RejectNation Shop.com.

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Starting point is 00:13:50 reject symbolism t-shirts as well either one is an amazing way to support the channel and like i said you get to look good while doing it so thank you guys so much do consider going to rejectnation shop.com and also tag us on social media if you end up buying a shirt please tag us we'd love to see it when people do end up buying the shirts thank you royal rejects see you guys soon i think Like, Gene has always had this kind of larger than life, very existentialism way of speaking. She never quite sounded human to me. Because she was more Phoenix than Gene. I was like, I am this deity.

Starting point is 00:14:28 It's always, yeah, it's really seemed like the, the prodigy of Xavier. I think that's one thing the show really got down right. But I never quite saw the chemistry in the original between. Cyclops and Gene because Cyclops I'm such a stiff and you know and Gene I'm always like

Starting point is 00:14:49 oh and Wolverine Gene so I think that they have humanized Gene's dialogue a lot I like her dialogue a lot more it's still way too early on to like make a comparison there are things about it that obviously as a modern day viewer I prefer

Starting point is 00:15:05 with the update of the animation action of to the cinematography is beautiful I really enjoy the action like the scene of them falling out of the sky and like chopping up the sentinel on the way down and all of them using their powers as a team defensively and then offensively was so cool. The blast powers. The optic blasts. I've really enjoyed

Starting point is 00:15:21 yeah, the optic blast use like in the in the Z axis was a blast but I've also really enjoyed that Wolverine is into the lead because he's fun he's exciting but he's not the lead just like in the comics there are arcs where he's the lead but the movies and a lot of like the properties we know in pop culture

Starting point is 00:15:38 that aren't comic based he's cool so they make him the lead and it's nice to kind of have him him ebb and flow like he does in the books. There's more grit to the action than before. And what I'm really hoping for, because I think X-Men evolution did it, and for sure, the 90s series did it, is Wolverine was constantly, like, threatening and whipping out his claws and then the blue lie, constantly. We got some about with some spot.

Starting point is 00:16:03 But he never, ever stabs a human, not one time does he stab a human? and it was kind of like just false threats most of the time is what Wolverine would do. And even if he would like getting into a fight with Saber 2,3 might have used his clause. Sometimes it would be happening off screen and we didn't see it happen. So I understand. But I think where we're at now with animation, with this being on Disney Plus, I think we would actually probably get a little bit more of that violence that we would want to see out of Wolverine. Same network is poor things. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Here we are. Some tobacco. Same audience. You know, that movie's big, big tobacco industry qualms. But I also think they're characterizing him enough that when it happens, it feels more due. Like, I don't think we'll see a full berserker rage the way we want to. But I do think we might see some, like, I like that the Sabretooth scene was like treating him like a dog. Like there's an element of like he wanted to fight. Like that's what he wanted to like let off steam.

Starting point is 00:17:04 So Bishop turned, I mean, Morph turned into Sabretooth. So you'd have an outlet. Like that's fun. I did not really care. Who's the new character at the beginning? Sunspot. Didn't really care for him, honestly. Well, he didn't have a lot going on.

Starting point is 00:17:16 I thought it was annoying. I don't know. Spoiled brat kids. Yeah. I don't give him. In the comics, he's a rich, like, spoiled, entitled, but you learn to like him because he is a heart of gold, but we haven't had time for the heart of gold.

Starting point is 00:17:27 I guess I found nothing unique or charming about his personality. And the, you know, like, yeah, I get it. You're a mute and you haven't told your parents, like, okay, I set up the struggle. And I, obviously, like, every time it shows, I'm not going to, like roll my eyes. This guy.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I've already made up my mind. I've committed to hating you. Nothing will change. I will not waver in the thought process. I did, honestly, we never see him again. I'll be all right. We're probably going to see him again. He ends up leading the new mutants for a time.

Starting point is 00:17:55 Sweet. He is also a character that is able to, like, have some political pull as the character evolves, like down like current comics. He's sometimes working with the Avengers, sometimes he's working with beasts, sometimes. Like he's got.

Starting point is 00:18:08 things that his money allows him to have connections through, but we haven't been able to see any of his goodness just the arrogance so far. Yeah, okay. And whininess so far. He gets there. That gives me hope. Yeah, there's a purpose for his character

Starting point is 00:18:21 beyond the eyeline of Jubilee again. Because it was very much, like you said, the Jubilee character. And again, this... And in the first episode, like, fighting Sentinels again. Like, it was a lot was mirroring. There was a poetry to it.

Starting point is 00:18:33 Yeah, I think it's smart to bring us back to comfort and then immediately, like, executioner. I don't think we've ever seen it adapted. We'll get used to. action too. As as cool as the action always looks, you know, we get used to that. Yeah, I think the first episode being the most like the old show is a great way to bring us back to make us go, oh, we love this. I have familiar feelings. I legitimately could smell Pizza Hut. Like I felt

Starting point is 00:18:52 all of that. Because do you remember the Pizza Hut thing where they had the VHS tapes that they sold along with pizzas? Like they literally had like this black case, red X through it and you could buy VHS the X event. I have the two, the first two episodes because of that. So that's what I was thinking the whole first episode. I was like, this reminds me episode one. Pizza Hut. Or my brother has. I forget, someone almost has it. But it's quality and nostalgia. They did a really good job making it new but old.

Starting point is 00:19:15 Yeah. I enjoyed it quite. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed a lot. Admittedly a little more than I expect. I was a little worried as we got closer. Especially with the firing of the writer, I thought like, oh, God, is this going to be like a piece of shit? I wonder, like, I wonder if they didn't want that announcement out until after it was out, because it really is optically dangerous.

Starting point is 00:19:32 Like, it's a very negative sign, we assume, without knowing why. It's just like, why do you find a guy? Well, I, you know, like the X-Men animated show is a really good show. It's a really great show. But I still, I wouldn't say it's, I wouldn't, it consistently felt dated to me, you know. It definitely is. And yeah. It's not like Batman the animated series.

Starting point is 00:19:56 Like you have to watch it in a certain, for me, I had to watch in a certain frame of mind. Right. Same with Spider-Man. Spider-Man. I wasn't allowed, but like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, Spider-Man had to, like, throw people and, like, Morbius had to have suckers on his hands. because he couldn't bite. Like, there's a lot of stuff that was like, okay, the 90s cartoons are weird.

Starting point is 00:20:11 Yeah, like, it's still, what I was really surprised by with going back was I forgot how much it has so little to do with, you know, saving people on the streets or some shit like that or like, we have to go on a mission to save these people. It's not really about that. I was surprised by, oh, yeah, this show really is still as dated as it feels, it's still very mature. It's still very ahead of its time. This seems to have so much on its mind. It really consistently explores its themes nonstop in a very aggressive way. And it can be so melancholic at times. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:53 And it's not subtle, but it can be. It's introspective. It was very, like, surprise. And it really go all out there with its sci-fi elements. It was really not just about, like, go save people. And that's what I wanted this to carry on. So as much as I love the. action. The first one was like, all right, cool, kind of expected this with the first

Starting point is 00:21:10 episode. That's what I like to see. It's really the second episode to me that was going to be the most telling of, okay, how far are you going to push this? And are you going to maintain that? Or are you going to dumb this down? Right. And they didn't dumb it down. Like, aesthetics you get used to after a while. And I thought the second episode really catapulted this for me a lot in terms of all right, we're still going to have conversations about this. Yeah, the dialogue scenes are always more important than the action scenes. Exactly. Because you can't maintain, like you said, action. Like, at the end of the day, John Wick is interesting because of the world you build and the action is exciting because of the world you care about. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:41 Well, this is a great world. And the original show is like one of the best long form adaptations of comics, period. And it's kind of an interesting way to bring back, like for this Marvel animation, new slate that they're doing and they're going to have the Spider-Man show. Gives me only did the What If series, but that was an anthology with semi-serrealization in there. And this is full-on serialized, you know. I admit part of my concern was that What If was so incremental. I was really afraid the thing I like about the old

Starting point is 00:22:08 X-Men show is it felt like you'd read not a graphic novel but a series. Like it felt like a hundred issues at times. I was really afraid since What If is so like I was afraid Disney would want this to be more approachable and they would see approachability by making it narrower. And instead, so far

Starting point is 00:22:24 it feels like the old show and that the scope of it and the themes and like the density feels like a long run of comics, not like a trade. Yeah. I'm I'm looking forward to the rest. I'm really excited so far. I've been really impressed and I like the style visually more than I expected from the trailer. It does feel more like someone's drawing it.

Starting point is 00:22:41 I was really afraid they'd what if it and it would feel like they tried to make 3D animation look 2D like they squished it. And instead it feels like 2D animation that has a bit of a 3D action element. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So yeah, super impressed. I was a little worried because X-Men are my precious like Spider-Man and X-Men are my guys. So they're held to a higher standard for me. So far, all in. All in.

Starting point is 00:23:03 All right, Reject Nation, leave a comment below. Let us know what you think so far. We've got our first two episodes. We'll be back next week with episode three. Hope you're enjoying it as much as we are. Let me know in the comments below what your favorite X-Men arc is. As always, please like. Please subscribe.

Starting point is 00:23:18 Please share this with people. Do all the things that YouTube helps us know that we should keep doing these episodes. Because I'm loving this X-Men. We'll see you soon, Bob. Eric Horstman. Eric. God knows what you're doing during spring break. I don't think he wants to know.

Starting point is 00:23:37 I don't think he wants to know. Some people might know Eric and be like, wow, this guy must be drinking and smoking and doing all kinds of debauchery. No, what he's out doing is he's hunting. He is lurking the streets of Atlanta for his next prey. But he's had to convert it into doing some justice. And if I know Eric Horsman,

Starting point is 00:24:01 He's a social justice warrior. Right. So he is going to become the very literal definition this spring break of social justice warring. When he sees any kind of injustice, this person used the wrong pronouns for me. He's going to hunt that person down. He's going to torture them. He's going to make sure that their family that mourns the death of this ingrate. Make sure to give him the right pronoun.

Starting point is 00:24:30 Or if he sees someone screaming about rogue's ass isn't big enough in the X-Men show. Slice of the throat coming your way. It's time for Eric to get in there and handle justice. If he sees people abusing buzzwords like gaslighting and narcissists, all kinds of things, and trigger mental health. Use them right. They're just doing it for show. We know Eric Horstman, he's going to be gassing up someone's great.

Starting point is 00:25:00 garage relatively soon they're not going to be able to get out of the vehicle lighten that match said our human being Eric but we need a social justice warrior like you in a kevlar cod there's too many SJWs out there who are just doing it for show to get attention not to seem like they're on the right side of the fight Eric activist my ass you're making a real difference a real difference in the U.S. they, the real social justice warrior around here.

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The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 1x01 & 1x02 Breakdown & Review | Marvel Studios Animation

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