A retro X-MEN FIRST CLASS Opening Titles that we'll never see at the theater!

Class...

Fox...take note.

How much would that throw people off when they sit down in the theater? "What the hell, I thought we were watching X-Men?"

That is beautiful. I hope the designer(s) of the real title sequence take a good long look at that.

the guys' got style. in a movie theater, you'd have half the audience laughing and the other half walking out.

Vaugn Hire JOE D.

Stylish and cool! Well done, sir!

be better than the movie...

The posters have been so unimaginative. Matthew Vaughn kicks ass though (pardon the pun), so I'm sure it will be great, or at the very least better than Ratner's shitty effort.

I really do love this retro faux opener for X-MEN FIRST CLASS

Always fired me up on Saturday mornings on Fox.

Funny how the theme from the cartoon i haven't seen in over a decade is more memorable than any music from the films.

You can't do stylized opening and closing credits or even painterly movie posters anymore because millions of dollars are at stake!!

Always brings a tear to my eye when computers are used to create something rather than tear down. What are the odds the right people see this and actually use it for the movie? Zip? We're talking to you, Vaughn! Let the right one in!

Giggity giggity: the Griffins are coming to a comic shop near you. Titan Comics announced on Monday that they will begin producing a new "Family Guy" comic book series, taking the insane animated series and translating it into paperback comedy gold. The show, now in its ninth year -- and second incarnation, after a number of years off the air -- is a groundbreaking suburban sitcom that combines social commentary, ludicrous plot lines and plenty of obscure pop culture shout outs. Helmed by creator Seth MacFarlane, "Family Guy" follows the Griffin family of Rhode Island as they do things like combat evil closet monkeys, plot to take over the world and drink endless amounts of beer with sex offender friends. It's already sold 25 million volumes on DVD, and is now betting on its fans' willingness to read comic books. Probably a smart roll of the dice. The series hits stands in July. "Family Guy" has already waded into the paperback world, with a long list of books. Titles include "Stewie's Guide to World Domination," "Peter Griffin's Guide to the Holidays," and "Family Guy: A Big Book O' Crap." They've also released manga -- or Japanese-style comic -- versions of a number of episodes, as well.

The music has a dirge beat. 1962 needs to swing like the old Spider-Man theme, true believer! This here is what they should riff on for the credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf61-sYqe6g

...was that fan-made opening for The Walking Dead.

Hey, Harry... Whatever happened to the AICN app or mobile site?

The period is such a great thing for X-men.

I did enjoy the Russian trailer that came out a bit ago, but it's a shame Fox can't bang out promo's (particularly speaking about those horrendous posters) as well as fan-made ones such as this.

I was not nearly as impressed as others here. The pacing was waaaay too slow. Not a bad idea, but the production just isn't there.

Even in the 60's, those kind of show openings had more energy than that. Look at the opening of "Lost in Space"- same thing, 1000x better. That thing made the movie look like a snooze-fest.

It's certainly evocative of the era, but jazzy it ain't. I don't know what you'd call it. Cold war cool? Hipster dufus? Campy classical?

It looks so fan made.

took me a few seconds to catch onto that. Made my day listening to that. That 2-minute intro will be better than the entire first class movie. I can't believe how much they have screwed up from the comics!!!! No cyclops, marvel girl, iceman or angel. Beast is great, but doesn't make up for the true first class.

MV take note.

...it wasn't exactly awesome. It felt like someone aping a style rather than really knowing it inside and out.

It was pretty slow. I admittedly jumped ahead after a minute or so.

I think it fits perfectly. The 1960's James Bond/Pink Panther imagery showing human worldwide current events contrasts with the out of place music, which represents the out of place mutants. This is a really well done piece of work that would sail over the heads of any studio suit who would see it.

But I like the concept and love the use of the 90s cartoon music.

It's pretty depressing to think that some guy on the internet did this for fun in his spare time yet those appalling First Class posters we saw a while ago were made by someone actually employed by Fox's marketing department.

I would have divided it into 4 sections, one for each style of 1962: (1) cool cocktail jazz, a la Lionel Hampton vibraphone; (2) surf guitar, a la Ventures; (3) folky, a la Joan Baez wailing (4) hard bop, a la John Coltrane. 1962 was a very big year for music; with the Beatles on the horizon!

I hope Hollywood hires the guy if he isn't already doing great things.

I know it's the wrong decade, but the 70s Spider-man intro (2nd season) has the right idea and is still fucking awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUcktiQxC9Q

although the music was a little monotone for my taste. A somewhat more real jazzy X men theme would've made this picture complete.

The 90's cartoon theme indeed is memorable. Brings up the childhood memories for sure.

The time period for X-men is perfect and retro opening would be amazing. I frankly don't believe audiences would laugh or walk out, I think most people would think it would be cool. I get that most American audiences are dumber than bricks but they can still see when something is well made and cool sometimes.

Damn, that music was awful! It sounded like Vincent Price playing an slow version of the theme to The Return of the Saint tv series on an untuned cello, using the leg of a dining room table as a bow!! Actually The Return of the Saint theme would have sounded much better over those titles, and they're far, far jazzier to boot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj3Ogsn5Vr4&feature=related In fact it just made me want to pop in the DVD of Catch Me If You Can and view a title sequence in that Saul Bass style that happens to be executed a million times better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc

It's brillliant, rich and leaves a lasting impression.

And definately gives off that 60's vibe. Glad to see Kirby's name above Stan's (lee) since he was mostly responsible for Marvel's success. I'll check this one out and who knows, it just may fare better than "Green Reynolds".

...but very bad rhythm. And the music sux.

I was not looking forward to a reboot at all or an origins story bcus we already know all that stuff. What I really wanted was a sequel to X Men 2 that wasnt X men 3 or Wolverine (both of which were a bag of shite) but this retro trailer has been well done and its cool to hear that music again. I still the film will b naff but this trailer was quality.

...it felt a bit like a network TV show intro rather than a feature film intro. Regardless - fantastic artistry and creativity.

are disgruntled flash and motion FX people who have themselves put little projects up on Youtube, that due to their mediocrity are hardly a blip on anyone's radar including their own. I could be wrong, but, in some of your cases... I don't believe I am.

We haven't had a decent theatrical superhero theme for decades now.

I was afraid it was going to be the theme from the movies. Badass credits there.

Yet another example of the fact that Harry really is clueless about all things except accepting bribes from studios.

It just reaches a little too much. Its not quite got the period style down. Sorry.

I don't do flash animations or animations of any kind and I think it's not that spectacular. The criticisms are legit -- even if it's a nice effort, it doesn't get it quite right.

We all know that's NOT how Harry was using the definition. No need to defend him here, my good man. He was definitely calling the music "jazzy".

All that work and he misspells "Michael"...

I thought this has been really well made. I reember the music from the X movies pretty well. In fact there's some of the X-men "theme" that was reminiscent of the 90s toon theme. Also you're going to be far more likely to remember a piece of music that you heard 40 - 100 - 150 times over several years, more than film music that you may have only heard a few times, ir even just once.

Sounds like he just made the EQ of the song sound vintage and overdubbed vinyl scratches on top of it...so it doesnt really sound like its an actual record playing.

nah

quick tip for the creator of this - do not show photos of the lead actors in the title credits...especially fassbender in the magneto helmet. Doing so screams amateur. keep using motion graphics. using photos of JFK, etc is ok but certainly not the actors that appear in the film.

that while it's cool to hear music from the old cartoon, it's certainly lacks the drama and power needed for the opening of a comic film. this worked for the old cartoon, but feels limp here.

resume whining

Couple of the b&w portraits took me out of it, but that's not really a critique. Really good and no reason they could not use this. Love it.

New Orleans funeral bands are livelier and jazzier than that.

While we're on the topic of First Class, a little something I cooked up in my free time in honor of one of the best animated movies of all time. Til all are one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI7iAFbMFk4

Jerk.

When Homer and Marge were running from Bart and Lisa for some alone time. Classic.

The sound is shit. 1960s films usually aren't found in awful quality, even if you're watching an out of print spy film from then. 1970s was the cheap shit quality GRINDHOUSE era. 1960s had polish. For the record, I love both, but this fake ageing of stuff has got to stop when it hinders the enjoyability. Perfect example of somewhat hard-to-find film's intro: http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj0ethd6SZ1qd5vg5o1_400.jpg Yeah, the quality isn't total shit, notice that? Fucking tools. I watch thrice transferred and copied old nearly-lost British tv from the 60s and 70s that has better quality than that those fake credits. Go watch Boss Nigger (1970s) if you want comparable quality to this "retro" trailer. Tools!

Better film (but off topic), but HERE IS THE LINK to the Liquidator's titles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsg-6Qjbmr0

because it's rubbish!

When I went to see the first X-Men movie, my main experience with X-Men had been with the cartoon and I fully expected the theme from the cartoon to play in the movie. The thing is though it's actually there...kinda. If you listen to the theme from the first X-Men movie the first few notes of the cartoon theme are actually in the first few bars. Whether this was intentional or not I don't know, but if it was it makes me wish they'd gone the whole way and not just tease at it. If it wasn't intentional it just shows how awesome putting the theme in would have been with a full orchestra blasting it out.

Saul Bass is the man for creating that opening sequence for that film. Director Otto Preminger wrote a note to projectionists in the U.S. to make sure the film started after the lights dimmed and the curtain pulled. Check it out.

I can't see them using it in the actual movie, but I CAN see them using something equally Bond-like.

If this movie felt like the Prisoner, wow.

theres no way the movie could be as good as that opening. Just goes to show the potential to X-men if it got the treatment it deserved.... geez, it was even better than the the other Xmen movies.

whoever is strumming that guitar in the background needs to learn how to play.

have you ever listened to jazz music?

Always cracks me up, while I do enjoy the old X-Men series' theme...it's TOTALLY a rip off of Perry Mason. Almost the same progressions. It's even more evident in this version where the theme is slowed down.

I always wanted the X-Men to redue that music into the movie, like everything is about to lose and every thing is bleak, then close up to heros face, a face ready to do the impossible, sounds goes out then restarts then dun dun dun dundundudun dun dun lol you know what I mean and a kick asss action sequence accures. But more modern kinda like e s posthumus would do... Eh

Shut up. Seriously. This was a novel creation using the few bits and pieces currently available from this flick whirled together into something that could easily be taken as legit to the average person. Technically it was awesome. Creatively; equally awesome. Loved the use of the 90's X Men theme too. Personally, I'm impressed.

When that production name shot out in crystal during the opening credits of Superman Returns it really set the tone for how fan film the movie was going to be. Singer should quit movies and stick with cocks.

That was shite ... just made me laugh.

It's the 90's X-Men cartoon theme with the pitch/tempo fucked with in Audacity laid over some off-the-shelf flash effects and a couple of high-contrast movie stills. I don't understand why anyone aside from someone who has only seen three movies made before 1977 would be the least bit impressed with the execution of this concept.

My burning jealousy for the computer skills of a college sophomore.

Regular people have no idea. Its not stupid, bc not everyone understands the reference. And Singer isn't a Spielberg kiss-ass so much as a Spielberg fan. He wrote his college thesis on JAWS. And I'm guessing you didn't know that.

The music is a really bad recording of one of the songs from the game "Evil Genius" A less tinny recording would have been much better.

Nevemind. that was a slowed down version of the old XMen theme as everyone said it was. Amazing how close it sounds like one of the songs from Evil Genius.

sure it was 'retro' but wtf is wrong with that? We see hi-tech day in day out. What's wrong with seeing something different once in a while? Isn't that what you people bitch about everyday on this site? Good lord.

It's the half-assed execution of the concept that people are criticizing. What is it about "you people" and your inability to take the slightest bit of criticism? I'm glad that we don't have any of "you people" in our neighborhood, if you catch my drift.

And that was the music loved that they used the theme from the cartoon but it needed to be more up tempo because it is slow it saps all of the energy from the visuals.

Its nice but, is more suited for an animated series.

Seriously, pomp and circumstance is needed when showing visuals of the beatings during the civil rights era? Not all of the 60's was big brass and jazz numbers; look at the late John Barry's work on The Quiller Memorandum intro or the fact that the majority of the Vertigo title theme is subdued strings punctuated by brass attacks and a strongly finale. But no, everything has to fit into some preordained notion of what everything 60's was.

Or a toothy shot of Kevin Bacon at some awards ceremony? or a broken-necked January Jones? Or a poster for The Deer Hunter (1978)? This is what I mean about painfully fan made. The music SHOULD be loud and brassy for the wacky pop section at the beginning then slow down for the civil rights section. But since this is a quickie fan thing, the music just keeps droning along without reacting to the visuals. A real Saul Bass opening is tightly ingrained with the musical score, becoming an abstract representation of the music (see Psycho). This piece is just shallowly aping the visuals of Bass without really getting his work.

Fox set their bar much lower for genre movies, especially super-hero ones. It's set in the 60s and so forth but really Fox only want to do just another X-Men movie. Seeing Kevin Bacon there it reminds me of the whole feel of JFK and how it would have ruled if the X-Men movie would have been the type of 60s suspence with darkness and unique visuals. It won't be that but it would have been fantastic. Then again neither Vaugn or Singer have shown me by their past work that they are capable of going that way and be this visionary. That would require Oliver Stone. The best way to do this would be to take the movie Unbreakable, set it in the 60s and use the backdrop of World events and rival organizations going at it, involve the goverments like a Bond movie. Meaning, a Bond movie with super powers directed by Oliver Stone.

I would actually be interested in watching it. Because there's noting in the trailer that makes me want to see it.

Really. The combination of the crappy cartoon theme music, the Saul Bass Hitchcock thriller animation and the fact that it's a marvel comics superhero film just doesn't gel together. Just sayin'

...I would have changed everything about it. That is some of the bullshit I am reading on this talkback. Fuck you! That piece of fanmade art will not make it to the final, movie version, BUT I would include it in the DVD release and pay the guy who made it. Very good. I enjoyed it.

The name is stupid even to those who get it. It would be like being a Donner fan and calling your production company "I like pink very much" - which may have suited Singer more. Or "Don't smile Jedidiah", "I want a telephone for my birthday", "Marshal Lucky Here!" -- figure those out -- seeing how you know SO fucking much.

You're acting like the name of a production company is equivalent to the quality of product that company will put out, and that's just ignorant. Sorry if I came across like a know-it-all regarding Singer and JAWS; that certainly wasn't my intention at all. It just seemed like had you known about Singer's affection for the movie, you wouldn't have called him a Spielberg kiss-ass over the prodco name, especially when there is nothing in his oeuvre that suggests otherwise.

You're absolutely right about the music. Fucking kid's a loser. I don't care if he's a college sophomore, he should've hired an orchestra to play the dynamics exactly as you instructed... he also should have booked Kevin Bacon to come by his dorm room so he could shoot some new footage... And if he can't step up to the plate and do it RIGHT, he should just go lurk on forum message boards to bitch at those that have the nerve to get off their ass and do something creative. Oh, and in case you didn't "get it", this was sarcasm and you're a douchebag.

Superman Returns wasn't just a bad movie, but bad for the character all the way around. I knew from interviews that Singer is a big Speilberg fan, but IMO - the name "Bad Hat Harry" is both clunky and telling at the same time. It's a fanboy title while at the same time reading like "Everlasting Gobstopper productions" - names such as this are titles we'd stick on our 16mm film projects when we were kids - and some did it all the way to college - I remember one guy who had the wonderful production company "Galileo Seven productions" - which caused eye rolls everytime it came up. Maybe my time at UCLA left me with a hatred for these kinds of unimaginary labels.

If Fox used these titles for the actual movie, as many of our fellow talkbackers have suggested, they absolutely had better rescore the sequence and take some additional photos of Kevin Bacon and the rest of the cast amongst other tweaks. I've always been completely complimentary about his concept. But I'm not going to blow smoke up his ass and tell him that they should drop this into the film as is. That's as absurd as your sarcastic strawman scenario. This guy IS NOT a loser but he is also not at the level of a professional designer. He's closer to the latter, but not there yet. IMO, of course.

though if this was the real opening in the theater, I'd be like "WTF!?!?

I can't see the movie sucking - the cast is a great ensemble, the Cuban Missile influence cute and epic in equal amounts. Whoever this was who created these titles - I really hope someone gives him a job!

Hearing the original cartoon music again is awesome - I wanted it for the 2000's x-men film but we got something else that I can't even remember now. I do hope they incorporate some sort of version of this score into First Class. enricobalazar said it fired him up, well it did the same for me and if I hear it in the cinema I'lll go mental!!

Coulda' fooled me...