Now, a hundred times better? I don’t know. Thats like saying that if Richard Donner continued to work on Superman 2, it would be a hundred times better. (”The Richard Donner Cut” doesnt count because Donner never finished working on the film and it is comprised using what they had..but even if it does, its not a “100 times better”)

Nobody forced him to accept a project that was such a train-wreck in waiting by the time he came on board.

He chose to take over the project under those circumstances instead of walking.

Fox has the lion-share of blame, but anyone who
*chose* to work on the project knowing the state it was in (and lets face it, if half the internet knew, a director must have known) can’t be absolved completely of blame.

Equally, Vaughn left the project, so it’s a little unprofessional to be playing games of “I coulda done better” especially as most reviews of Stardust are saying he himself could’ve done better on the project he actually did do.

Those of us who followed this film closely know that Ratner had NOTHING to do with X-men 3’s failures even though I generally dislike him.

X-men 3’s failures fall squarely on the shoulders of 20th Century Fox execs, specifically Tom Rothman?(forget his name exactly).

Ratner did NOT approve X3’s small budget, Rothman did!

Ratner did NOT set X3’s incredibly rushed production schedule, Rothman did!

By the time Ratner came onboard the script was already finished so we cannot blame the bizarre plotlines on him.

Look, X3’s fate was a bizarre occurence in Hollywood. X3 was ruined by one man’s insane personal revenge crusade.

Tom Rothman was insanely angry at Bryan Singer for taking Superman Returns and his vendetta spiraled into something unbelievable.

X3’s rushed shooting schedule was because Rothman didn’t want to be beat out of the gate by Singer’s Superman.

I fully believe that Cyclop’s(James Marsden’s) horribly written story and fate in X3 was revenge by Rothman for siding with Singer and taking a role in Superman Returns AND a message to everyone NOT to Fuck with him!

I am a huge comic fan and did some research and found out some things that will make you all happy.

Thankfully, Marvel Comics was NOT happy with X3 in any way, shape, or form and they let their displeasure be known. After X3 came out Marvel put out a statement to 20th Century Fox politely telling them that X3 did NOT fit into Marvel’s vision for it’s movie franchise and that they may have to re-evaluate their relationship with FOX.

Not long after this Marvel set plans in motion to create their own Movie Production company which leads us to Iron Man today.

X3 did serve one good purpose. It pissed Marvel off so bad they finally got tired of OTHER movie companies fucking up their franchises and now they will be making their OWN films with NO studio interference…hopefully!

This film was so blatantly created by suits who care for nothing but the bottom line (i.e. establish two spin-off films, kill off expensive cast members, etc.).

What I’m really trying to say is “I hated X-Men 3″. :)

1. Could he have done better? Maybe, not by much. As mentioned, Vaughn, before he left, did have the cast in place-including Kelsey Grammar and Vinnie Jones (the two of the three *major* new additions to the series) and the script concept would have been very close. Shit on Ratner all you want to- but in my opinion, Ratner *was* brung in on short notice and got the film done.
Every director’s directing style is different. But, unless I miss my guess, under Vaughn’s tenure, we knew this about the X:Men Last Stand story at the time:

major characters will die
Which is one of the common charges on Ratner. Now I’m not the biggest Ratner fan. But I do like some of his films, including the third X-Men film.

2. So now that Vaughn has said this… If he backs out at the last minute on THOR and whoever directs it directs it at the drop of a hat, under a time limit, under a fixed budget, and when the fanboys rake said director X over the coals…will Vaughn come out a year later and say “Well, I could have done better!”

Well, shit on brick.
I’M SORRY Mr. Vaughn. YOU left X-Men. You couldn’t have done a better job, Period. So you better not leave Thor. In fact, you better make Thor a kick ass movie and show the universe how to make a great comics based movie. Either that or don’t say you’re better than Ratner.

By The Way, since we all seem to roll over Mr. Ratner right now, let me say this: Ratner, had he been the first choice, could have made a better Layer Cake. I HATED Layer Cake. I honestly believe that if I hadn’t seen Daniel Craig in other films, I might have not gone to see Casino Royale.
Serious.

And I have serious doubts on Thor. So now Vaughn has the chance, she better not blow it to hell, and have something to back up his shit.

What arrogance.

Look, I don’t love all of Ratners films. And even if I hated every last one of them AND X-3, I’d still say Vaughn is full of junk.

100’s may just be his way of conveying “i could make it better”…

kinda like threatening someone you’ll “kill em” if they don’t do something. Not like you would per se, but it helps give them contrast.

PS. I HATED the final battle on x-men 3, really that was the major element of ED for the whole thing.