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First, anyone who has ever read Grant Morrison's New X-Men will complain about this movie, because the concepts in the comic are much shinier and attractive.
Read. The thread. You're posting in. You muppet. Lots of people here read NXM and loved this movie, and... fuck, why do I even bother?
To join in the most recent sub-topic: I loved the characterisation of Magneto in this film. The slippery old bastard: he'll haul your ass out of the fire if he needs you for his own purposes, but he'll always stab you in the back if there's a chance to kill several billion homo sapiens instead... But he's not inhuman: witness the genuinely appalled, ashamed look that takes over, moments after he's been mocking Xavier, when he confesses that Stryker's interrogation broke him: "I'm sorry, Charles..." And I think in this one they really got across how charismatic and seductive the man is - he's a cult leader, after all. A lot of this is due to McKellen's performance, effortlessly masterful (and evidently given full reign to queen it up, if you'll pardon my expression - am thinking of the "hair" comment to Rogue, which I think nicely reflects he has a cruel side even where other mutants are concerned). Again, this is why I think Pyro is great, because it's important to show that some young mutants will be drawn to Magneto's ideology, and why. In the first film, the Brotherhood as a whole were a bit too "we're just Evil!" (thank God no Sabretooth in this one), here with the extra personality added to Mystique, and Pyro, you get a sense of what the appeal of the Brotherhood is, without the sense of how fucking murderous they are ever being toned down.
This is mirrored equally well by the added shades of grey to Xavier. A lot of this has been covered already: I think using Kitty to steal files is the kind of thing the Professor might well do, and always has been partial to, in the comic mythos as well - and not just when he's turned eeeevil. But I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the fact that Xavier has known who Logan is since he was first brought to the school, yet keeps this from him, preferring to feed him clues so he can discover for himself - all with Logan's own best interests at heart, of course, in EXACTLY the kind of dubiously paternalistic manner that arguably comes from being such a powerful individual and being utterly convinced of the rightness of your own beliefs. It borders on playing God - or maybe playing chess with real people, eh? - and I think the best writers of the character in the comic, Morrison not least among them, have always included this.
There's also the fact that Xavier's previous dealings with Stryker aren't clarified 100% - if Chuck knows who Logan is, then was Stryker already running a Weapon X type programme when Xavier took in his son as a pupil? Did Xavier think he could win Stryker round that way? How, exactly, did this arrangement go sour - the implication is that Stryker thought Xavier would make his son's mutant abilities go away, and when this didn't work he lobotomised the kid himself, but I'm not convinced Charlie didn't fuck up in some unspecified way - adds to general theme of culpability in the film.
Oh, and why are people always, *always* taking over Chuck's head? Duh, because it's the most powerful weapon on the planet, yada yada. I got a real kick out of the fact that Stryker's method of getting rid of mutants is essentially the same as Cassandra Nova's - although of course attacking the school, taking over Xavier's head and sticking him in Cerebro was done by basically the same character as the film version of Stryker in Ultimate X-Men.
Much as I hate to say this, some of the edge given to the Professor reminded me, in a good way, or the way Mark Millar writes him in that comic: the threat to Logan "you'll spend the rest of your life under the illusion that you are a six year old girl.... I'll have Jean braid your hair" - pure Millar/Morrison. This was also evident in the confrontation with the President, although here's where it becomes a bad thing - like a couple of other people, I didn't buy that scene. People have joked about the merits of Anna Paquin, but in all seriousness I can't see how that scene has any purpose other than to get Bobby and Rogue into uniform. What I would have preferred, since we'e going for that Empire Strikes Back/Wrath of Khan downbeat feel, would have been the Pres going ahead and delivering a Dubya-esque address full of anti-mutant sentiment but no specific policy - ie, the Sentinels aren't about to start squashing people, the Mutant Registration act hasn't even been passed, but things look pretty scary and uncertain for mutants in the USA in the near future. I think having saved the lives of every human being on the planet is all the victory the X-Men need: the odds can still be stacked horribly against the 'dream' at the end of this film without it being *too* depressing...
Speaking of which, does Xavier sense that Jean's still out there somewhere, when he looks out of the window and then says "I think it will be" when asked if everything's alright? I really half expected him to say "Jean?" and then shake it off... Glad they didn't drop the anvil that heavily...
More to come, I tell you! |
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