Why the X-Men Needs to be Rebooted
Obviously, the current X-Men franchise, spearheaded by Bryan Singer and Fox, is in shambles. They have had some success with X2, X-Men: First Class and possibly X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), but these stories are not true to the comic books. Now, I'll list why that is true
1. Characters
Right now, the movies really only have three characters fans can get behind as true incarnations of the decades old comic book characters readers have gotten to know so fondly: Magneto, Charles Xavier, and Wolverine. These characters are perfect in the X-Men Cinematic Universe, yet nearly all the rest are throwaway characters that disrespect the source materials, or just cameos with the only intent of keeping rights away from Marvel Studios. Let's start with the X-Men themselves. The member featured so far have been limited to Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Colossus, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Havok, Banshee, Darwin, and Professor X. Out of all these mentioned, I can't honestly say I like any of them, except of course for Wolverine and the Professor. Most of all of these characters could have been any generic mutant. Beast in X3 was played magnificently by Kelsey Grammar, but if they had cast any other actor, Beast would not have been memorable at all. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Havok (assumed), Darwin, and Banshee (also assumed) are no longer X-Men or dead, which is a huge waste of these fantastic characters. So far, the relationship between Havok and Cyclops has not been addressed in any way, and may never be, considering that the time period between the two could not possibly relate them as being brothers. Darwin was killed off immediately, and was given no chance for character growth. And despite some interesting scenes in the Wolverine (2013), Jean Grey's character, one of the most significant in the regular Marvel Universe, has been dismissed as an object for a love triangle for Cyclops and Wolverine. Even in X3, which was based off of the Phoenix Saga, nobody remembered or cared for her character. The rest of these (Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Angel and Iceman) are just so poorly played by their actors that they're barely recognizable, except for their power. Hell, Angel was never even technically an X-Men, despite being a founding member in the comics. Shadowcat is being treated most heinously of all, being the main character in Days of Future Past, but being sidelined in a major way for the actual film. The bad guys of the series has consisted of basically one man for all non Wolverine films: Magneto. All the other characters have been auxiliary at best, with really only Mystique in X1 and X2 and Sabretooth in X-Men: Origins Wolverine standing out as good characters. Sabretooth in X1 was majorly miscast and given 0 lines to boot.
The relationships between characters (brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, friends, allies, fathers, mothers, etc) is integral to the X-Men in the comics. However, they are largely ignored in the film series in favor of more Wolverine. Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship was very well explored in his solo film, but was non existent in X-Men (2000). Xavier's and Magneto's was also very well executed, but this is where it stops. Jean Grey and Cyclops were never portrayed as the inseparable duo as they are in the comics, Azazel and Nightcrawler's father-son dynamic is also nonexistent, as is Cyclops's and Havok's being brothers. Many characters are straight up ignored after their film. These characters the whole Hellfire Club, Toad, every Omega Gang member in X3, Juggernaut, Havok, and Banshee. So many characters are "reimagined" for the purposes of visual effects and action scenes that they are unrecognizable and odd to movie viewers. It seems to me that the only character that anyone cares about is Wolverine, and Magneto and Xavier has simply gotten lucky with superb casting as both young and old selves.
2. Story
The X-Men are integral to the Marvel Comic Book Universe and their stories extend beyond time and space. So far, the X-Men plots in the movies have been extremely limited. For the first 3 films, they never ventured outside of New York and each of them were really exactly the same: mutant equality rights are addressed, Magneto does something bad, Wolverine becomes angsty and some point or another, and there's a big battle at the end that culminates in Magneto and his brotherhood either dying or going to jail, only to escape in the next movie. Hopefully, this all changes Days of Future Past, but this has been the current way of going about things. To be fair, they have adapted some of the most iconic story arcs in X-Men history: The Dark Phoenix Saga, God Loves, Man Kills, Origins: Wolverine, the Japan Saga for Wolverine, and arguably First Class. However, they messed up all of them, except for God Loves, Man Kills (which was superbly modified) and the Japan Saga for the Wolverine. If a reboot was to continue, the Dark Phoenix Saga could be a film series of epic proportions, that would be the dark and gritty superhero movie everybody seems to want, while also being something light with inclusions of characters like Nightcrawler, Banshee and Iceman. Nothing for that story was right, making matters worse for X3, already under the helm of Brett Ratner. In the next film, there will be time travel involved, but the X-Men are also very much international and often venture into space. None of this has happened which makes me very mad.
3. How the Reboot would go (my ideas)
Preferably, the series would have at least six films (not including origins and spinoffs). The first film would be based off of the true first class (cyclops, grey, beast, iceman, angel). It may be a bit repetitive, but i have a feeling by the time a reboot comes around it wouldn't be too reminiscent. This would be largely based off the 60's story lines, and hopefully would have Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in their true forms. The next two movies would be based around the Giant Sized X-Men cast of X-Men, which has Wolverine as he originally was, a supporting character. The X-Men films would be an ensemble cast, so there would be no major character, kinda like The Avengers. The next two movies would be based off of the Dark Phoenix saga, infusing elements from the 70's and 80's. The next movie would be Magneto centric, introducing Xorn as a major villain/ally, depending on where Magneto stands. The next movie would be based off of the current comic book story arc, Schism, and however Wolverine would not be the centric role, it would be Iceman. Iceman has been very underused in all forms of media, and he has a lot of potential. I am not sure what it the last film would be, but I would like for it to be based of of The Age of Apocalypse, which may lead into more films.
In conclusion, I (and many others I'm sure) would prefer a new continuity to this current one, one that would do justice to the X-Men characters and story arcs and have films that would actually be remembered, no fluff movies like Origins and X3.