Generation X: What Went Wrong with the First X-Men TV Movie?

Without the Generation X TV movie, we might never have gotten the first good X-Men movie.

We look at the good and the (mostly) bad.

Indeed, the house that Xavier built was where it was at.

But where was a weekly data pipe series to find the budget for something like that?

Still…the idea of an X-Universe live action TV series held some appeal.

Well, a few factors went into this decision.

And there were alotof ways a show like that could go wrong.

In a lot of ways,Generation Xwas the perfect property.

The premise they started with was brilliant.

Veteran X-Man Sean Cassidy a.k.a.

It was a pretty solid comic, and had the potential for a massively popular live action series.

So, there you had it.

Generation X marked the spot!

Only… not so much.

Early on in the development of the pilot, certain concessions were made to budgetary constraints.

Now without several internal organs, his life is sustained by the energy cascading from his chest.

Yet somehow, he got deep-sixed as well.

Fantastic, whose entire body was malleable, not just his skin.

So, there were some tweaks to the cast.

The characters and their abilities were modified a bit, but it wasnt a total loss.

Hell, as long as it was a good script with decent production values, it had a shot.

Only Eric Blakeneys script was not very good.

To say that it sucked would be inordinately kind.

And what a horrible character he was.

He was psychopathic AND racist AND sexist AND its even suggested that hes a pedophile.

Kids still like skateboards, right?

Oh, kids are always talking and thinking about the sex!

TheGeneration Xmovie was… not the greatest script ever written.

It wasnt even the best pilot.

It wasnt even the best hokey 90s action/adventure pilot.

In trying to like too many people, the film ends up pleasing no one.

Its removal from the mothership indemnified the franchise against the consequences of its failure.

A mere three years later, the firstX-Menmovie went into production, and were all the better for it.

So, maybe if someone had to die on this operating table,Generation Xwas the best possible volunteer.

We learned those lessons all too well.

Its easy to discount this as a tangential entry in the franchise, barely even an X-Men property.

It takes some of the sting out of how enormously bad it is.

And Id say thats for all for the best.