I've always tended to want to skip this story. In many ways still do. It's ultra-violent, full of sex, abuse, and the story has no real ending that's ever been written.
Fodder for an R movie outright. There's no other route for it. It's literally the Spring Breakers of the X-Men stories, only it focuses on homelessness and runaways among other societal problems. On the positive side though, it does have a group of women standing up against a pimp and his men to save others and themselves. That's exactly what makes it cult-classic film material too.
That's probably the reason why it shouldn't be skipped. It brings a very real tangibleness to these problems even through the metaphors. It has surreal situational humor and an action piece that'd be interesting for the big screen almost as much as Quicksilver's DOFP scene. It carries strong emphasis on women standing up for each other and looking out for each other even under this heavy stress.
Casting for it is the question.
Lucy Hale and Selena Gomez both present interesting potential for X-23.
Tatiana Cabon is a character that's more suited towards Ms. Gomez though as it'd avoid the comparison to Spring Breakers for her. X-23's role does bring a counterpoint to her portrayal of Faith in Spring Breakers as what if she didn't get away when she did. Cabon's character could also be picked up by another actress that can portray the description needed.
Ms. Hale in the role of X-23 also helps further break her career wide open for the roles she can handle and keeps her from being typecast at all to any single type of role. The same could be said of the origin tale though too. There is some interesting symmetry going on though with Ms. Hale in the role of Laura, and Ms. Gomez in the role of Tatiana. It may make the onscreen chemistry and scenes work more fluidly with that casting overall.
It should be noted that there is no merchandising to this film outside of minimates. It'd be R rated and not something suited for children, pre-teens or teens at all, immediately inhibiting a natural audience or box office draw. It could be done on a reasonably small budget though so the returns may not be as pressing to makeup as opposed to a massive box office summer blockbuster's budget. There's also the fact that the X-Men cinematic universe films have also been lacking any form of real merchandising push since X-Men Origins: Wolverine anyway.
The home sale market is where this movie would shine. It'd easily become a cult-classic and would generate many discussions on the topics it entails.
This isn't the same as say an R-rated X-Force: Not Forgotten feature film. Where X-Force could still have the merchandising presence with an R rating due to the nature of film universe it's in and other factors that can help make a line flourish under that banner, NYX does not. It's a standalone piece that was never made to connect to the rest of the stories and was even attempted to be retconned by Chris Yost and Craig Kyle when they introduced X-23 to the New X-Men. Even with curtailing the rating down to PG-13, there is no merchandising potential with it outside of X-23's history. A merchandise line would have to gravitate towards the full scope of X-23's comic history to sustain itself.
There is the notion that it could be interesting because of how it still displays that even in this new Xavier's dream survived world, that teens and runaways can still fall in the cracks of society and have to deal with drug usage or worse. It also has a heavy fan following and does feature something rare in superhero cinema. It features women tackling these problems themselves and dealing with the effects of events in very real and emotionally diverse ways. The story has a tangible human element to how it's conveyed because of this.
For me personally, this film is a tossup and might be better suited with X-23's scenes from it put into the short film collection method. It's a debatable point that's worth discussing though for preferred casting and if it should be done because of all it represents and handles. It is cult-classic material though that'd create it's own news cycle from the shock it entails with the topics it dives into and handles.
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