![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatBeen busy today and was a rather nice day, mostly cloudy, with a lot of sun. On the way back from apartment hunting - made it to a movie, for the first time since well December. It's odd, but I enjoy television right now more than movies...and since movies are more expensive, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
At any rate - saw the latest X-men movie finally. There weren't a lot of options - Midnight in Paris is playing at the crappy movie theater with no leg room - I'm renting it. While X-men First Class is definitely better than the last two X-men movies (which isn't that hard to do), it's basically a superhero origin/buddy film that ends as an action movie about a nasty guy who decides to blow up the world so that the people he likes can live in paradise or the ruins of the old one. Not like we haven't seen that done before, have we? Also with a title like X-men First Class - to expect more than that is a bit idiotic. Hello, origin/superhero action movie. More or less telegraphs that with the title alone. Also, after watching the previews, I can't help but think that the villains of this film really should spend some quality time watching the Planet of the Apes films. Or they could just watch the trailer to Rise of the Planet of The Apes - and save themselves some time - it more or less shows the entire movie. Gotta love these new trailers - you no longer have to waste 13 bucks to see a movie, you can just watch the trailer - it's all there but the epilogue.
The first half of X-men First Class is actually pretty good - rather enjoyed the first 35 minutes, it's part buddy film/part origin story/part spy movie - with a lot of suspense, comedic moments, and earnest acting from the two charismatic stars (McAvoy and Fassbender). Rose Byrn as Moira McTaggart is also quite good in this portion. Unfortunately, McAvoy, Byrne, and Fassbender fare better in the first half, than the second - in part because they aren't seasoned enough like Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart to realize that this is just an action movie, it's not Shakespeare. While earnest acting is definitely appreciated, it can be a bit unintentionally laughable during full-blown action sequences. Downey Jr and Mickey Rourke are better at this sort of thing. Granted no one is more earnest than Christian Bale, but the director isn't Chris Nolan, nor is the screenwriter Nolan's brother or Nolan...but rather someone more along the Michale Bay school of film. (Bale, no idiot, has refused to reprise Batman in a film that is not directed by Nolan. Can't say I blame him. In film? It's all about the director. And the director of X-men First Class is serviceable at best.)
In short? I liked the comics better. Or rather remember liking them better. Although I can't really complain about the retconning. The Charles/Erik origin story has admittedly been retconned so many times...that fans have lost track of which story is the valid one. (My favorite version is the one that we saw right before the whole Ages of Apocalypse storyine took off...which lead to the Onslaught insanity. Good story, bad final execution - if you read it? You know what I'm talking about.) There is no consistency in Marvel comics, the story is whatever the editor/writers decide it is at any given time. And forget about the movies following the comics. I feel sorry for any fanfic writers out there who are attempting to be canonical to them - it's basically a free-for-all guys. (Which may explain the Buffy comic insanity - Whedon's is after all a Marvel comics fan and sort of half-poking fun, half-paying homage to them with the Buffy comics.) I swear the dang things are worse than daytime soap operas. I personally like to call them male romance novels. (They aren't really written for women, although women tend to be the readers of the X-men, I certainly was - collected from 1985 to 2002, not including Whedon's run - which was 2003-2007.)
But, I'm admittedly...well over my X-men obsession. When an obsession leaves you, it REALLY leaves you - and you have no idea exactly when it happened. Personally I blame Buffy and Joss Whedon. Although Grant Morrison had a hand in it, I suspect. But it's most likely that I just finally burnt myself out on the genre. With the exception of the British series Misfits - I've seen very little in the genre that has was new, and didn't feel stale. Yes, TV has killed super-hero action flick for me.
That said? I'll admit to one thing - up until the whole missile crisis finale of stupidity, I was seriously shipping Fassbender's Erik Lenshere. And even heavier shipping his bro-romance with Charles Xavier. I honestly think they had the most romantic chemistry in the series. I could totally see them together. Who knew? Charles and Erik are the ultimate star-crossed lovers. But this is hardly surprising, I fell in love with Erik in the Trial of Magneto, then again in Magneto/Rogue, and again with Magneto/Charles in Israel (which closely followed the storyline of Trial of Magneto).
Raven/Mystique is somewhat interesting, and Jennifer Lawrence is better in the role than January Jones is as Emma Frost, but neither really have all that much to do. Raven's story seems to be more about Hank, Charles and Erik than it about Raven - which is a shame, because Mystique was always a favorite of mine - but the way she is portrayed in the films, I find grating, more sex-bomb than crafty assassin and espinoge agent - Mystique was a force to be reckoned with in the comics. It's odd, but the comics are more feminist and portray stronger female characters and far more complex ones than the films do. The comics also have more minority characters - at least the latter ones did. The movies are very much white male romance films. And this one? Is basically Eric and Charles film from start to finish. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering I more or less knew that going in, but I'm obviously not the audience for it. And it probably does not help that I've been watching better shows on tv. When did television become better written, directed and acted than the movies?
Overall rating? C+/B- (the B- is for the first 35 minutes and the Eric/Charles romance, the C+ is for the rest of it. It's a serviceable action flick, but no Dark Knight. And nowhere near the fun of Iron Man.)
At any rate - saw the latest X-men movie finally. There weren't a lot of options - Midnight in Paris is playing at the crappy movie theater with no leg room - I'm renting it. While X-men First Class is definitely better than the last two X-men movies (which isn't that hard to do), it's basically a superhero origin/buddy film that ends as an action movie about a nasty guy who decides to blow up the world so that the people he likes can live in paradise or the ruins of the old one. Not like we haven't seen that done before, have we? Also with a title like X-men First Class - to expect more than that is a bit idiotic. Hello, origin/superhero action movie. More or less telegraphs that with the title alone. Also, after watching the previews, I can't help but think that the villains of this film really should spend some quality time watching the Planet of the Apes films. Or they could just watch the trailer to Rise of the Planet of The Apes - and save themselves some time - it more or less shows the entire movie. Gotta love these new trailers - you no longer have to waste 13 bucks to see a movie, you can just watch the trailer - it's all there but the epilogue.
The first half of X-men First Class is actually pretty good - rather enjoyed the first 35 minutes, it's part buddy film/part origin story/part spy movie - with a lot of suspense, comedic moments, and earnest acting from the two charismatic stars (McAvoy and Fassbender). Rose Byrn as Moira McTaggart is also quite good in this portion. Unfortunately, McAvoy, Byrne, and Fassbender fare better in the first half, than the second - in part because they aren't seasoned enough like Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart to realize that this is just an action movie, it's not Shakespeare. While earnest acting is definitely appreciated, it can be a bit unintentionally laughable during full-blown action sequences. Downey Jr and Mickey Rourke are better at this sort of thing. Granted no one is more earnest than Christian Bale, but the director isn't Chris Nolan, nor is the screenwriter Nolan's brother or Nolan...but rather someone more along the Michale Bay school of film. (Bale, no idiot, has refused to reprise Batman in a film that is not directed by Nolan. Can't say I blame him. In film? It's all about the director. And the director of X-men First Class is serviceable at best.)
In short? I liked the comics better. Or rather remember liking them better. Although I can't really complain about the retconning. The Charles/Erik origin story has admittedly been retconned so many times...that fans have lost track of which story is the valid one. (My favorite version is the one that we saw right before the whole Ages of Apocalypse storyine took off...which lead to the Onslaught insanity. Good story, bad final execution - if you read it? You know what I'm talking about.) There is no consistency in Marvel comics, the story is whatever the editor/writers decide it is at any given time. And forget about the movies following the comics. I feel sorry for any fanfic writers out there who are attempting to be canonical to them - it's basically a free-for-all guys. (Which may explain the Buffy comic insanity - Whedon's is after all a Marvel comics fan and sort of half-poking fun, half-paying homage to them with the Buffy comics.) I swear the dang things are worse than daytime soap operas. I personally like to call them male romance novels. (They aren't really written for women, although women tend to be the readers of the X-men, I certainly was - collected from 1985 to 2002, not including Whedon's run - which was 2003-2007.)
But, I'm admittedly...well over my X-men obsession. When an obsession leaves you, it REALLY leaves you - and you have no idea exactly when it happened. Personally I blame Buffy and Joss Whedon. Although Grant Morrison had a hand in it, I suspect. But it's most likely that I just finally burnt myself out on the genre. With the exception of the British series Misfits - I've seen very little in the genre that has was new, and didn't feel stale. Yes, TV has killed super-hero action flick for me.
That said? I'll admit to one thing - up until the whole missile crisis finale of stupidity, I was seriously shipping Fassbender's Erik Lenshere. And even heavier shipping his bro-romance with Charles Xavier. I honestly think they had the most romantic chemistry in the series. I could totally see them together. Who knew? Charles and Erik are the ultimate star-crossed lovers. But this is hardly surprising, I fell in love with Erik in the Trial of Magneto, then again in Magneto/Rogue, and again with Magneto/Charles in Israel (which closely followed the storyline of Trial of Magneto).
Raven/Mystique is somewhat interesting, and Jennifer Lawrence is better in the role than January Jones is as Emma Frost, but neither really have all that much to do. Raven's story seems to be more about Hank, Charles and Erik than it about Raven - which is a shame, because Mystique was always a favorite of mine - but the way she is portrayed in the films, I find grating, more sex-bomb than crafty assassin and espinoge agent - Mystique was a force to be reckoned with in the comics. It's odd, but the comics are more feminist and portray stronger female characters and far more complex ones than the films do. The comics also have more minority characters - at least the latter ones did. The movies are very much white male romance films. And this one? Is basically Eric and Charles film from start to finish. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering I more or less knew that going in, but I'm obviously not the audience for it. And it probably does not help that I've been watching better shows on tv. When did television become better written, directed and acted than the movies?
Overall rating? C+/B- (the B- is for the first 35 minutes and the Eric/Charles romance, the C+ is for the rest of it. It's a serviceable action flick, but no Dark Knight. And nowhere near the fun of Iron Man.)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-27 12:59 am (UTC)That's currently the canon backstory for Magneto up till his and Magda's escape from the camps. Also one of the best comic miniseries I've read in the past few years.