X-Men strikes out
Jun. 3rd, 2006 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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katarina_gram's warning came too late. Money has already been handed over, two hours of life have already been donated to the X-Men fund. And I agree with her. Because oh man was that a disapointing movie. The potential was there, and some good scenes too, but...
What we needed more of
More Magneto & Charles, the younger years. The two worked great together, and sure, the foreshadowing was so heavy in the dialogue it hurt, but it was interesting nonetheless.
(Also? Charles/Magneto. They totally were doing it, yo. And, as I mentioned in another post, Sir Ian was totally into the idea. What better was to say that homosexuality is not longer an issue than to have to older men in such a relationship without making a big deal out of it?)
More character development. The whole thing felt like a montage of short clips. No one character was long enough in frame to actually make me care for them. Not enough minion exposition either. I didn't care a rat's ass about Pyro (which is a bit less than in the second movie), and likewise for all the pre-X-Men. The same goes for Angel, whom I so swear never got named. His childhood scenes was well-done and very strong, but then he flies off intot he sunset, flies back in, saves his dad and flies off into the sunset again.
More/some/any Nightcrawler. The man was not there and that was a crime.
Character deaths were too early in the movie and too quick. I spent the entire movie waiting for zombie!Scott to get his ass in gear.
Mystique was sorely underused and her "cure" was too soon in the movie. Magneto's reaction to her cure, however, excellently in-character (but he is such a sonovabitch.)
Scott's grief, which could have been put to good use, gave us only a couple of excellent scenes. I loved greiving, scruffy-looking Scott. The short scene of him in his room crying was good. It's great that we can't see his eyes, more acting-kudos to James. (And I usually hate Scott. It kinda goes hand-in-hand with loving Wolverine.) He lost a bit of his appeal when he took of his glasses, though.
I wanted more Scott vs. Logan, more grieving!Scott and grieving!Logan. The scene where the two men talk (ish) about Jean was great.
Whilst we're on the subject of Scott: Why the hell didn't Wolverine and Storm look for his body? "Oh, geez, floating rocks and floating glasses. Oh, look: Jean! Who cares about Scott now?"
I wanted more bare-chested Wolverine. And by "bare" I mean "sexy", not "flesh being scored away to reveal adamantium ribs" (which was a cool detail). Sure, we had that kissing scne, which wasn't so much hot (for me, anyway) as incredibly sad. (Well, the first bit, where Wovlerine's all, "I love this woman and really want to kiss her and I really shouldn't but oh god her legs and - KISS."
Jean should have acted a bit more. She did great "stoic, unfeeling goddess" but that's a lot like "pillar of stone" to us non-actors. The only excellent bit of acting was when she switched from Pheonix to Jean after kissing Wolverine. Before she said anything, I could tell she'd switched. There was just something about her glare...
Wolverine getting beat up by Magneto will never get old. More of that.
Dialogue
This is an example of a good line or metaphor: "No one heals as fast as you, Logan." Because it's true, doesn't sound trite and hurts like hell to hear.
An example of a bad metaphor? "No one better than you knows how fast the weather can change, Storm."
Scott's "Stop!" kicks Wolverine's "No!" to pieces. That and every single Star Wars "NooOOOooo!". (Could we stop it with the howls of regret over the corpse of you loved one?)
While Jean's "You would die for them?" is awful (and did she even have to try to act, most of the time?), Wolverine's response was well-delivered. Even though I knew what he was going to say, it was good.
(The fact that it echoes greatly with Pitch Black's ending doesn't bode well. Now, I haven't watched the film, but I've read the transcript, so I knows what I says. In the movie, Chick decides she will put her life at risk for others after all. End result, however, is that she dies for Riddick, who then yells out, "Not for me!" or somesuch.)
We got three instances of "I told you so" syndromes. Magneto, at the very beginning, when the foreshadowing kicks us in the gut. (It does work nicely, though, when we get the Phoenix!Jean in the livingroom mirrored by young!Jean in the living room.) Then there's Mystique, but her dialogue is always sucky anyway. And Charles, basically saying the same thing when they find out Jean's gone Pheonixy.
Charles, calling Scott "a changed man" doesn't cut it. Aren't you the great and almighty mind-skrink? You, who can create and block doble personalities, can't help a grieving man? Pshaw. (And let's not even go into the Phoenix-syndome origin. It was just so badly handled. It didn't make sense, in the "Charles, you idiot!" sense, and in the "trite split personality usage" sense.)
My favorite line, and one of the best bits, was with whom I'm guessing to be was "Spike" (the hot Asian guy witht he amazing tatoo's and, well, spikes). The bit where he hugs the reaserching assistant and coos, softly, "It's alright, relax, it's going to be ok" followed by death. That, my firends, was a Villain Move. It deerves capital letters, it was so evil.
All through most of the movie, I didn't care squat about Hank aka Beast. Which was really wierd because I adored Beast in the TV cartoon (my only exposure to X-Men-dom prior to the movies). But just hearing him say, "As Churchill once said, there comes a time when a man must - oh, you know what I mean," followed by a can of whoop-ass was all I needed. That was Beast in a nutshell, and the reason I love the little furball.
NB: Viewers should stay and watch the credits. All the credits. Way past the whole "copyright" shpell. There´s a scene way at the end.
On the "last scenes" subject: Magneto. Wtf, man. Ok, I realize I have to light science on fire and throw it out the window when considering this movie, but come on. Either the cure isn't really permanent (which would make total sense) and has worn off, or Magneto is super-special. If the movie hadn't needed two (two) cliffhanger scenes, they should have cut Magneto's "look, my powers are still alive" scene. It was much more poignant to see him have to reach out and physically move metal instead of using his powers.
General
The whole idea of the "cure". I liked it. Not that it made any sort of scientific sense, but I liked the social, ethical and political implications. And this is why I really like movie-X-Men. Its a huge metaphor and mind-exercise. Though I find that the movie dealt with the issue a bit on the short side, the idea was interesting.
A lot of non-X-men-ers must have been incredibly confused to see the Sentinel's head topple out of the mist in the training room. Which, by the way, was really just too much of "gratuitous use of explosives" to warrant it's time.
X-Men tought me the meaning of "sentinel", whilst Buffydom taught me "minion". Interesting, non?
Edit: Have given my two cents over at the imdb board.
katarina_gram's warning came too late. Money has already been handed over, two hours of life have already been donated to the X-Men fund. And I agree with her. Because oh man was that a disapointing movie. The potential was there, and some good scenes too, but...What we needed more of
More Magneto & Charles, the younger years. The two worked great together, and sure, the foreshadowing was so heavy in the dialogue it hurt, but it was interesting nonetheless.
(Also? Charles/Magneto. They totally were doing it, yo. And, as I mentioned in another post, Sir Ian was totally into the idea. What better was to say that homosexuality is not longer an issue than to have to older men in such a relationship without making a big deal out of it?)
More character development. The whole thing felt like a montage of short clips. No one character was long enough in frame to actually make me care for them. Not enough minion exposition either. I didn't care a rat's ass about Pyro (which is a bit less than in the second movie), and likewise for all the pre-X-Men. The same goes for Angel, whom I so swear never got named. His childhood scenes was well-done and very strong, but then he flies off intot he sunset, flies back in, saves his dad and flies off into the sunset again.
More/some/any Nightcrawler. The man was not there and that was a crime.
Character deaths were too early in the movie and too quick. I spent the entire movie waiting for zombie!Scott to get his ass in gear.
Mystique was sorely underused and her "cure" was too soon in the movie. Magneto's reaction to her cure, however, excellently in-character (but he is such a sonovabitch.)
Scott's grief, which could have been put to good use, gave us only a couple of excellent scenes. I loved greiving, scruffy-looking Scott. The short scene of him in his room crying was good. It's great that we can't see his eyes, more acting-kudos to James. (And I usually hate Scott. It kinda goes hand-in-hand with loving Wolverine.) He lost a bit of his appeal when he took of his glasses, though.
I wanted more Scott vs. Logan, more grieving!Scott and grieving!Logan. The scene where the two men talk (ish) about Jean was great.
Whilst we're on the subject of Scott: Why the hell didn't Wolverine and Storm look for his body? "Oh, geez, floating rocks and floating glasses. Oh, look: Jean! Who cares about Scott now?"
I wanted more bare-chested Wolverine. And by "bare" I mean "sexy", not "flesh being scored away to reveal adamantium ribs" (which was a cool detail). Sure, we had that kissing scne, which wasn't so much hot (for me, anyway) as incredibly sad. (Well, the first bit, where Wovlerine's all, "I love this woman and really want to kiss her and I really shouldn't but oh god her legs and - KISS."
Jean should have acted a bit more. She did great "stoic, unfeeling goddess" but that's a lot like "pillar of stone" to us non-actors. The only excellent bit of acting was when she switched from Pheonix to Jean after kissing Wolverine. Before she said anything, I could tell she'd switched. There was just something about her glare...
Wolverine getting beat up by Magneto will never get old. More of that.
Dialogue
This is an example of a good line or metaphor: "No one heals as fast as you, Logan." Because it's true, doesn't sound trite and hurts like hell to hear.
An example of a bad metaphor? "No one better than you knows how fast the weather can change, Storm."
Scott's "Stop!" kicks Wolverine's "No!" to pieces. That and every single Star Wars "NooOOOooo!". (Could we stop it with the howls of regret over the corpse of you loved one?)
While Jean's "You would die for them?" is awful (and did she even have to try to act, most of the time?), Wolverine's response was well-delivered. Even though I knew what he was going to say, it was good.
(The fact that it echoes greatly with Pitch Black's ending doesn't bode well. Now, I haven't watched the film, but I've read the transcript, so I knows what I says. In the movie, Chick decides she will put her life at risk for others after all. End result, however, is that she dies for Riddick, who then yells out, "Not for me!" or somesuch.)
We got three instances of "I told you so" syndromes. Magneto, at the very beginning, when the foreshadowing kicks us in the gut. (It does work nicely, though, when we get the Phoenix!Jean in the livingroom mirrored by young!Jean in the living room.) Then there's Mystique, but her dialogue is always sucky anyway. And Charles, basically saying the same thing when they find out Jean's gone Pheonixy.
Charles, calling Scott "a changed man" doesn't cut it. Aren't you the great and almighty mind-skrink? You, who can create and block doble personalities, can't help a grieving man? Pshaw. (And let's not even go into the Phoenix-syndome origin. It was just so badly handled. It didn't make sense, in the "Charles, you idiot!" sense, and in the "trite split personality usage" sense.)
My favorite line, and one of the best bits, was with whom I'm guessing to be was "Spike" (the hot Asian guy witht he amazing tatoo's and, well, spikes). The bit where he hugs the reaserching assistant and coos, softly, "It's alright, relax, it's going to be ok" followed by death. That, my firends, was a Villain Move. It deerves capital letters, it was so evil.
All through most of the movie, I didn't care squat about Hank aka Beast. Which was really wierd because I adored Beast in the TV cartoon (my only exposure to X-Men-dom prior to the movies). But just hearing him say, "As Churchill once said, there comes a time when a man must - oh, you know what I mean," followed by a can of whoop-ass was all I needed. That was Beast in a nutshell, and the reason I love the little furball.
NB: Viewers should stay and watch the credits. All the credits. Way past the whole "copyright" shpell. There´s a scene way at the end.
On the "last scenes" subject: Magneto. Wtf, man. Ok, I realize I have to light science on fire and throw it out the window when considering this movie, but come on. Either the cure isn't really permanent (which would make total sense) and has worn off, or Magneto is super-special. If the movie hadn't needed two (two) cliffhanger scenes, they should have cut Magneto's "look, my powers are still alive" scene. It was much more poignant to see him have to reach out and physically move metal instead of using his powers.
General
The whole idea of the "cure". I liked it. Not that it made any sort of scientific sense, but I liked the social, ethical and political implications. And this is why I really like movie-X-Men. Its a huge metaphor and mind-exercise. Though I find that the movie dealt with the issue a bit on the short side, the idea was interesting.
A lot of non-X-men-ers must have been incredibly confused to see the Sentinel's head topple out of the mist in the training room. Which, by the way, was really just too much of "gratuitous use of explosives" to warrant it's time.
X-Men tought me the meaning of "sentinel", whilst Buffydom taught me "minion". Interesting, non?
Edit: Have given my two cents over at the imdb board.
