By fnord12 | June 22, 2006, 2:47 PM | Comics & Movies | Comments (1)| Link

XXX

*Spoilers ahead!* (As if we weren't the last people on earth to see this movie.)

Well, the latest X-Men movie wasn't as bad as everyone said it was, but it wasn't great either. None of them have been great (the second one was the best).

I've never liked the Phoenix Force concept or the cosmic elements that surrounded it (rephrase: i like the stories Claremont wrote, but they have nothing to do with the X-Men theme and i think by doing generic space opera stories in the X-Men you lose the focus on what's special about them. Plus i hate the Shi'ar.). I think the movie did a good job of using the Phoenix as an "out of control mutant" concept without getting into all the cosmic crap. (At least to start with... i think once the mutant was out of control and ultra powerful, they weren't quite sure what to do with her.)

I also really liked the performances of Magneto and Wolverine, and I liked that Storm has finally been given a role in the movies. I like the hard choices / dark side of Professor X that was displayed with regards to his mind-blocks on the Phoenix and his dismissal of Wolverine ("I don't have to justify myself to you of all people.").

I thought the intro was really cool, with the flashback to Xavier and Magneto still working together, and then the scene with Angel, and then (what i thought) was a Days of Futures Past shot (it worked as a Danger Room scenario too, but i was definitely a little disappointed). From there the energy of the movie definitely declined, but i thought it was still a good movie. Decent action, good special effects, the interesting "mutant cure" plot used recently by Joss Whedon in Astonishing, and a glimpse of a slightly less negative future than we are used to seeing.

Of course there was plenty of sucking going on as well. The Beast looked absolutely terrible. Ter-ri-ble. And Jean Grey stood around and did nothing the whole movie, killing any mileage they might have gotten out of the Phoenix half of the plot. The ending was a little happy-pappy. And the Juggernaut sucked, which we all suspected would be the case. And there were of course other things i could gripe about from a fanboy perspective (for example, min is very disappointed about the treatment, or lack thereof, that Psylocke received in this film, but i'll let her speak to that), but overall as a movie that's supposed to take the core concepts of the X-Men and put them up on the big screen for a mainstream audience and provide plenty of cool action sequences and cool inside bits for the comic fans, i think it worked just fine. A solid "B".

I look for something a little more from the X-Men in terms of subtext. The X-Men have in the past been used as a metaphor for discrimination, but it's always hard to make that point when the people you are discriminating against have massive amounts of power at their disposal (This is why the Civil War plot works also as a story where each side has a valid point). I don't feel like this movie actually managed to say anything profound with these (or any) themes which is why it's a B and not an A movie, and i think that's a little disappointing because it sort of reinforces the idea that comics are a source of dumb action and not necessarily anything more that that.

But overall i really don't see what people are complaining about.

BTW the best part of the movie was when Magneto lifted up that first car and Pyro set it on fire before it got tossed at the army, and min jumped up in the movie theater and shouted "COMBO!".

Update: This is our 500th entry. Gods, if we don't do our best to keep you entertained/informed/enlightened while you are bored at work, i don't know what will.