If you don't know who Chris Claremont is, then this documentary will give you an overview of why his work was so important to the X-Men characters that became a phenomenal comics success, and later cartoons, movies, and TV shows.
If you do, you'll be happy to see the first person accounts of the stories of why and how the Phoenix Saga ending was changed on Jim Shooter's demand, both from Shooter and Claremont.
There are some serious omissions, however. Dave Cockrum has passed away, so obviously he could not be contacted, but John Byrne, whose contributions were just as important (and arguably more so) as Louis Simonson's does not appear, and it mentioned mostly in passing. The documentary gives the impression that Claremont, Nocenti, and Simonson did the series, with some of the artists making contributions, which is a slight to Byrne's essential role in the early years.
Bob Harris, who shifted the direction of the book to the corporate mandated direction, is also only mentioned in passing and never seen.
Those lapses notwithstanding, this movie gives a good and fairly honest accounting of the early years of Claremont's career on the X-Men, and how it turned into a cultural juggernaut. Claremont didn't do it alone, but he was certainly a (if not the) driving force behind it all.
But it's less a documentary than an evening with friends. Most of the movie is just Chris, Anne, and Louise on a couch reminiscing about the good old days with someone filming them. There are other pieces with Shooter, Liefeld, and some others, but for the most part, it's just the kind of after dinner conversation you'd have with friends.
If you know who these people are from the books, you'll find it very interesting; I'm not sure how much general appeal it has.
As a documentary, there's not much to it. It could be a film school project; mostly it's just a static camera filming people telling their story to the camera (like Jim Shooter), or with each other (Claremont sitting on a couch with Anne Nocenti and Louise Simonson).
There aren't any revelations here; everything mentioned has appeared in print, been told at conventions, or otherwise over the years. But for those unfamiliar with it, it's a concise summary of the creation of the X-Men phenomenon, told by (most of) the people most responsible for it.
If you do, you'll be happy to see the first person accounts of the stories of why and how the Phoenix Saga ending was changed on Jim Shooter's demand, both from Shooter and Claremont.
There are some serious omissions, however. Dave Cockrum has passed away, so obviously he could not be contacted, but John Byrne, whose contributions were just as important (and arguably more so) as Louis Simonson's does not appear, and it mentioned mostly in passing. The documentary gives the impression that Claremont, Nocenti, and Simonson did the series, with some of the artists making contributions, which is a slight to Byrne's essential role in the early years.
Bob Harris, who shifted the direction of the book to the corporate mandated direction, is also only mentioned in passing and never seen.
Those lapses notwithstanding, this movie gives a good and fairly honest accounting of the early years of Claremont's career on the X-Men, and how it turned into a cultural juggernaut. Claremont didn't do it alone, but he was certainly a (if not the) driving force behind it all.
But it's less a documentary than an evening with friends. Most of the movie is just Chris, Anne, and Louise on a couch reminiscing about the good old days with someone filming them. There are other pieces with Shooter, Liefeld, and some others, but for the most part, it's just the kind of after dinner conversation you'd have with friends.
If you know who these people are from the books, you'll find it very interesting; I'm not sure how much general appeal it has.
As a documentary, there's not much to it. It could be a film school project; mostly it's just a static camera filming people telling their story to the camera (like Jim Shooter), or with each other (Claremont sitting on a couch with Anne Nocenti and Louise Simonson).
There aren't any revelations here; everything mentioned has appeared in print, been told at conventions, or otherwise over the years. But for those unfamiliar with it, it's a concise summary of the creation of the X-Men phenomenon, told by (most of) the people most responsible for it.
