x3

[kaydeefalls]

I'm...not quite sure how to respond to X-Men 3. Parts of it I absolutely adored, but then, parts of it made me want to pull a Phoenix and pulverize the movie theater. So.


The disclaimer:
I'm a movieverse fan, not a comicsverse fan. I read a few of the comics when I was a kid, but I don't remember much, and frankly, I don't much care. So I couldn't care less about the movies diverging from the comics. Besides, there are twelve-odd versions of the comicsverse, and I don't know how ANYONE could construct a cohesive canon without having their brain explode. So. There will be no comparisons to the comics here.

The Good:
-the flashback to Jean's recruitment. OMG. That was a brilliant way to start the movie, because it was quite possibly the best damn X-Men scene ever written. The Charles/Erik! The (slightly creepy) de-agifying of McKellen and Stewart! The contrast between their reactions to the Greys! That scene absolutely nailed the Charles/Erik dynamic, and it's exactly the way Jean's recruitment should have been. Also, it backs up my Jean fic perfectly, but, um, that probably doesn't matter to anyone else.
-Xavier. Finally, finally, an X-Men movie that analyzes what I've only seen touched on in fanfic: Xavier is creepy and manipulative. Seriously. I mean, I love him, but his powers sort of defy ethics, and he has a tendency to make too many excuses for himself, and we get to see a bit of that manipulation here, and I <3 it. Xavier's no god, and he's not perfect, and I'm so glad the movie addressed that to some degree.
-I am of the opinion that Sir Ian can do no wrong, and this movie further reinforced that. Oh, Magneto. And I love HIS manipulations as well -- "that's why the pawns go in first", YES.
-Callisto and her gang (Arclight, Kid Omega) ROCKED. Screw Sabretooth and Toad -- THESE are my kind of villains. Mmm yes. And I love the way Callisto goes after Storm -- it's so beautifully malicious.
-Actually, Kid Omega gets his own line, because I really really liked him. I don't know why, but I did.
-Iceman/Pyro. 'Nuff said.
-Speaking of Pyro, this movie was totally myfic!fulfillment for me. I knew I'd gotten the end of that Bad Guys fic right. *preens*
-The virtual!battle amused me muchly. They were fighting Sentinels, right? Nice nod to the comics fans.
-Brett Ratner is no Bryan Singer, but give credit where it's due: he got the look of the previous films down just right. On a purely visual level, it flowed out of X2 seamlessly.
-This should probably have its own category, because it's less of a "good" than a "pleasantly surprising", but Storm. I didn't mind her this time. She still gets some crap dialogue, but that's not her fault, and...I dunno. She really irritated me in the other movies, but here...she was okay.
-Anthony Heald was only in there for two minutes, but god I have an unnatural amount of love for that man. He's such a wonderful sleazebag.
-I totally felt for Rogue, who didn't get nearly enough screen time.
-The Phoenix power is incredibly disturbing and nifty. So is the Phoenix personality. Also, this nicely explains Jean's near-total lack of personality in the other movies. *hides from Jean fans*
-Iceman/Pyro FIGHTING IT OUT ASGJKALDHUEYK *dies of the slash potential*
-I'll go more into how much the way they handled the cure annoyed me, but the ending? Was AWESOME, and reduced a fair bit of my previous vitriol. Ahahaha the cure isn't permanent, SUCKERS. *waves the Magneto pompoms like whoa*
-Also. Stick around 'till the end of the credits. I'd read a review which said that the little sequence at the end is shit and should be skipped, but it made me cackle gleefully for quite some time afterwards, so...your mileage may vary, but I thought it was all kinds of awesome.

The Bad:
-WTF SCOTT. WTF WTF WTF. I'd figured that he was going to kick the bucket based on his near-total absence from the trailers, but...WHERE IS THE SCOTT!LOVE, PEOPLE? Not so much that he died, but the complete lack of reaction to his death. It was just like, oh, Scott's gone, meh, bigger fish to fry now. COME ON. Xavier would care! Storm would care! Even Logan would probably care at least a little bit (all right, props to Logan for being the only person to even notice that Scott was gone, but still). I have a great deal of love for ol' Stick-Up-The-Ass Cyclops, and this hurt me deeply.
-On a similar note, who does Ratner think he is, Joss Whedon? Christ. I'm surprised ANY of the major characters from the first movies survived this one. When Xavier bought it, I finally understood the word "jawdrop", because I literally sat there with my mouth hanging wide open for the next five minutes. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. And Scott, and Jean -- GIVE US A BREAK, HERE. Stop killing our favorite characters! And I realized that as Chief Henchman, Callisto would have to go, but really, did the rest of her gang have to be pulverized? Ratner killed off practically all the interesting villains! (Also? We didn't see Pyro die. Therefore, I refuse to believe in it. This is the sort of mindset that being an X-Files fan gives you. No body? Still alive.)
-Magneto would not have just left Raven there, naked and completely helpless. He's callous and manipulative, but...really. She was his top dog for years and years, he wouldn't just abandon her. Give her clothes and drop her off in some little town and never see her again, yes. Leave her to die? No. Just no.
-I hate the fact that all these interesting mutants were "cured", but then again, the ending seems to suggest otherwise, so I won't unleash my wrath about the curing of Magneto and Mystique and Rogue. However. The cure has a LOT of dramatic potential. For the most part, the curing all happened at the end of the movie, so fine, but Mystique? I would have LOVED to see more of her adapting to being normal. She's such a fascinating character, but the movie just dropped her like Magneto. Hmph. And also, human!Raven was really, really hot. More please.
-Logan. Nothing against Hugh Jackman, whom I adore and would like to sleep with. This is directed at the writers: WTF DID YOU DO WITH LOGAN? Where did his characterization go? Where is the snarky misfit we all know and want to sex love? Who is this lovesick fighting machine? Well, okay, he was that in the other movies too, but he was a lot MORE than that, dammit. Stop with the personality assassination, writers!
-Angel and Kitty Pryde had next to nothing in the way of personalities. If you're going to add an assload of new mutants to the game, make them people, not cardboard cutouts. Also, I liked Beast, but I wished they'd developed him a bit further. Likewise Colossus. And shouldn't Jubilee be old enough to make the team now?
-I miss Nightcrawler lots.

So, yes, very mixed. It really hit spectacular highs and equally spectacular lows. Such uneven writing and directing saddens me, because this could have been a FANTASTIC movie, if maybe Bryan Singer had directed it (I'm SURE he would've handled at least Scott's death a lot better). Also, Joss Whedon should've written it (he would have killed off just as many characters, sure, but at least the dialogue would have been good!), but that's completely irrelevant. Still. I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt, because I certainly did enjoy myself watching it, and I'll take a movie that provokes strong reactions, both good and bad, over something of even quality but dull.

I'd be interested in hearing other people's reactions. Given the movie, I'll bet they're all across the board -- I can see people hating this movie, but I can also see people loving it, depending on your tastes.

Comments

[phoenixw.livejournal.com]

Well, as a huge fan of the comic series, I read the Dark Phoenix saga as it came out. This film made some major changes to the storyline, and I didn't particularly enjoy that aspect of it, although I did enjoy the movie overall (for a lot of the same reasons you did, in fact).

That said, if they follow the original storyline in these points, then (sorry if this is a spoiler...) Scott isn't dead, and neither is Professor X.

I'm also all about the Charles/Erik. Funny how film can do that to a story. ;-)

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

The post-credit clip gives away the Xavier-not-dead, so yeah. And good, I'm glad to hear that Scott's probably still out there somewhere, given how badly the screenwriters butchered his death. I should've known -- no body? Still alive.

[annaalamode.livejournal.com]

The Jean/Logan stabbing death thing was giving me serious Becoming Part 2 flashbacks. Also, who actually wrote this movie? Because they really shouldn't be allowed to write anything ever again.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

The first half hour or so (aside from Scott's death) was the beginning of a good movie, I thought. But then it just...went wrong, somehow. Argh.

[annaalamode.livejournal.com]

It really fell apart as the movie went on. Like a cake whose dough has been overworked.