Hey there, X-Fans!
I know -- Vol.#3 only just debuted and here we are at a gap week!
It's partly due to the day-job.
But don't worry -- Vol.#3's momentum will build just as well when we resume!
In the meantime, for this X-Talk entry, I want to talk about something that recently recurred in my mind.
(Note - Dated 2025/01/09: Having rewatched the movies since original posting date, the following X-Talk requires revision. Excuse any inaccurate details until such time).
It starts with an old article about the last movie in the rebooted timeline (and last for FOX's X-Men): Dark Phoenix. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the exact one I saw before, but the key point is how the story wouldn't work if the audience didn't feel Cyclops and Jean Grey's relationship (or something to that effect).
And personally when I watched the movie...I didn't.
The thought that came into my head recently was 'they didn't give enough time to Cyclops and Jean Grey's relationship (overall) for it to hit.' But right after that I realized, the rebooted versions of the characters had the same amount of time, movie-wise, as the original versions had: 2* movies.
For the rebooted, that's X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
For the original, that's X-Men and X2: X-Men United.
*Of course the originals also had X-Men: The Last Stand, which was their Dark Phoenix storyline. However, my comparison isn't on Dark Phoenix adaptations but character connection, and X2 is the point when OG Cyclops loses Jean.
So the question I arrived at was 'why, then?'
Because I completely felt Cyclops & Jean Grey's relationship watching the OG movies (that's what lead us here, after all).
So "why, then?" didn't I feel it with the rebooted movies.
Screentime-wise I'm positive without actually clocking it that we got more of the rebooted Cyclops and Jean's relationship than we did the OG's.
I mean in X-Men, if you remove the scarce minutes of scenes that take place in Logan's room, where Jean states her room is "with Scott" down the hall, and where the "stay away from your girl?" conversation takes place, it wouldn't even be clear they're in a relationship.
Yes, there's the later scene when Jean makes use of Cerebro and we see clearly Scott's concern over her, but that's not informing us of what he means to her, only what she means to him; it could be one-sided.
In behind-the-scenes material, it's actually specified that Cyclops and Jean Grey are not simply together but engaged. Something that is never communicated in-story across any of the OG movies.
Their relationship gets more focus in X2, but even then. We have the "I would never let anything happen to you" moment in the museum, then what I call their "heading off to work kiss" before they undertake their separate missions, and then Cyclops is kidnapped until the last act of the movie and there's a line (which I actually missed first go-through) of Jean's stating she's worried about him, before that leads into the scene where she and Logan briefly make out before Jean sets the boundaries, reiterating her love for Scott.
That's not a whole lot of them together. Which, actually serves to have Cyclops getting kidnapped and getting mind controlled mean something, as it's following his and Jean's showdown that we get, not the first relationship-hitting moment of the movie (that would be the museum scene), but the first "big communicator": Cyclops and Jean reuniting & both reacting to having thought they lost the other one. I feel such care and love communicated through that moment, though it doesn't even linger. Pretty soon they're up and back to business. On the side of the rebooted versions of the characters, we actually have something of a direct comparison scene at the start of Dark Phoenix, when everyone thought Jean had been killed in space. It's even staged and framed similarly (albeit opposite side of the camera, if memory serves), with Jean and Cyclops holding onto each other with her in a lying down position while he's leaning over her. I do recall feeling that scene, though not near to the same degree. Now, that is at the start of a movie vs. the end, but there were more relationship moments leading-up-to. In the preceding movie (Apocalypse) we get Jean and Scott's quiet, learning about each other moment (their proper meeting) beneath the tree. I believe Jean comforts him by taking his hand when he's hurting over Alex's loss. Then earlier in Dark Phoenix, he likewise puts his hand on her shoulder as they're apprehensively ascending into space.
There's something rather tentative about that moment, however, which to me vibes as a deliberate cue to the audience that their relationship has deepened/advanced since Apocalypse.
The museum scene in X2 serves the same purpose in terms of cuing us how these two matter to each other, but to me it doesn't play as much like a cue. It feels more natural. Somehow just fitting even though their relationship wasn't much established (in-story) in the first movie.
Moving on with Dark Phoenix, we get another relationship scene in Jean's bedroom which contains, if memory serves, Cyclops' concern being reiterated over having almost just loss her, a fun little exchange (which is my favourite between these two) and then them making out a bit. (Aside: Besides the "heading off to work" kiss, OG Cyclops and Jean Grey never actually share one, which goes to show how well a relationship can be conveyed without relying on the physical -at least the typical physical, since their key moments do feature meaningful touch).
There's another scene between just the two of them before they have their confrontation moment, and then when we get there, when Cyclops tries to stop Jean from doing what she's doing, I just don't feel it.
When OG Cyclops is trying to stop Jean from doing what she's about to -man, that hits.
Granted, the two scenes aren't equal in content: when rebooted Cyclops is trying to appeal to Jean, that's not the point when she's sacrificing herself.
When she is, my memory might be off, but I don't recall him pleading with her again so much as I remember her noticing she's hurting him, and changing course.
I do really feel his loss afterward, calling for Jean as she ascends into the sky, and then setting the plaque up later at the school.
But still, not near to as much as with the OGs.
Cyclops and Jean's relationship is stated as being integral to the Dark Phoenix plotline, yet I feel it way more in the plot of X2 despite their relationship being more of a bookend there, with that movie meant to be the build-up for a full Cyclops/Jean Grey story. Yet to me, it hits fuller than Dark Phoenix.
The only conclusion I come to, then (besides the technical stuff; writing, direction, performance), is the point in time that we're at with these characters. In Dark Phoenix, yes, they're in a relationship with each other, but it's only just started. They're still just young adults, and it hits as a young relationship.
In the OG movies, they're adults who are in a very much established relationship, and that comes through even though we're sort of told (scarcely) more than shown it leading up to the key moments.
The most communicating moments come right at the key dramatic story beats, existing almost self-contained outside of any building-up. They just hit when the happen.
In both cases, the performances, I think, hit exactly on what point these characters are in their lives and relationship (young vs. mature), and in that way I think the "why, then?" is "they didn't give enough time to Cyclops and Jean Grey's relationship (overall) for it to hit."
Not in screentime, but in the amount of time these characters have actually lived their lives with each other.
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