Movie Review - XMen3
This was a fun movie, and I'm glad the critics liked it so much. I'm amused by the purists problems with it, and to get into those, I'm going to have spoil the movie, so if you still want to see it without all of my pre-conceived notions, stop reading now.
Ok, now. Stop reading
Last chance . .
Here we go -
Jean Grey/Phoenix kills Cyclops, and later kills Professor X too (although he seems to get better) and she is then killed by Wolverine at the end of the movie. How's THAT for a spoiler? It's going to be pretty difficult to make any more sequels minus so many main characters from the Xmen storylines. Spinoffs are already in the works for Magneto and Wolverine, but there won't be an Xmen4. And that's all fine. Now on the story arcs.
The movie really touches on everything Xmen is known for. Mutants vs. Humans, people who fit in vs. people who are on the outside, Friends vs Enemies vs Friends vs Enemies again. All good stuff. Magneto turns his back on Mystique when she loses her powers, so she turns against him. Magneto and Charles Xavier together recruit Jean when she is young, and even then they have their differences. Magneto later tells Pyro that Charles has done more for mutants than he will ever know, and he regrets his death. Wolverine almost gets some with Jean Grey, but manages to control himself by reminding himself of Cyclops. Rogue actually gives up her powers permanently, but does it for her herself and not to please someone else. Blah blah blah. How they managed to cram all that into in one movie is beyond me, but it was entertaining as hell.
Here's my favorite personal take on the movie, it's all about the women! By this I mean that just about every main character and plot point revolved around the female characters. Storm takes over the school after Charles dies, and she actually gets to cut loose with her powers for once. Callisto is portrayed as the bad-ass she's supposed to be (until Storm kicks her butt, which is also comic-appropriate, I used to own that particular comic). Rogue's search for self is given just enough screen-time to be meaningful. Phoenix can't control herself or her powers and is portrayed as the ultimate femmes-fatales (did I spell that right?).
The reason this is my favorite is because when my wife and I were in college, she did a study for a sociology class on gender portrayal in television, and for her study she used an episode of the Xmen cartoon. Well, in this particular episode, there were something like 47 instances where female characters were wussy, in need of rescue, useless, whatever. We were pretty disappointed. The fact that the movie is the exact opposite of that is pretty funny in a life-irony sort of way.
And speaking of funny, there is one part of the movie where the Jaggernaut says, "Do you know who I am? I'm the Jaggernaut bitch!" This made me laugh quite loudly, at a point where no-one else in the theater got it. But because I had seen this (warning:NOT WORK SAFE, many bad words), I got the reference, and laughed my fool head off, and everyone looked at me. But I still thought it was great.
This is not to say the movie was perfect. There was a point where Leech's proximity makes Jaggernaut lose his powers, which make no sense since his powers in the comics are mystical in nature, not mutant, but who the heck really cares? It was fun, and isn't that movies are all about?
Telling an entertaining story with some captivating characters, and slipping in a moral or two!
Ok, now. Stop reading
Last chance . .
Here we go -
Jean Grey/Phoenix kills Cyclops, and later kills Professor X too (although he seems to get better) and she is then killed by Wolverine at the end of the movie. How's THAT for a spoiler? It's going to be pretty difficult to make any more sequels minus so many main characters from the Xmen storylines. Spinoffs are already in the works for Magneto and Wolverine, but there won't be an Xmen4. And that's all fine. Now on the story arcs.
The movie really touches on everything Xmen is known for. Mutants vs. Humans, people who fit in vs. people who are on the outside, Friends vs Enemies vs Friends vs Enemies again. All good stuff. Magneto turns his back on Mystique when she loses her powers, so she turns against him. Magneto and Charles Xavier together recruit Jean when she is young, and even then they have their differences. Magneto later tells Pyro that Charles has done more for mutants than he will ever know, and he regrets his death. Wolverine almost gets some with Jean Grey, but manages to control himself by reminding himself of Cyclops. Rogue actually gives up her powers permanently, but does it for her herself and not to please someone else. Blah blah blah. How they managed to cram all that into in one movie is beyond me, but it was entertaining as hell.
Here's my favorite personal take on the movie, it's all about the women! By this I mean that just about every main character and plot point revolved around the female characters. Storm takes over the school after Charles dies, and she actually gets to cut loose with her powers for once. Callisto is portrayed as the bad-ass she's supposed to be (until Storm kicks her butt, which is also comic-appropriate, I used to own that particular comic). Rogue's search for self is given just enough screen-time to be meaningful. Phoenix can't control herself or her powers and is portrayed as the ultimate femmes-fatales (did I spell that right?).
The reason this is my favorite is because when my wife and I were in college, she did a study for a sociology class on gender portrayal in television, and for her study she used an episode of the Xmen cartoon. Well, in this particular episode, there were something like 47 instances where female characters were wussy, in need of rescue, useless, whatever. We were pretty disappointed. The fact that the movie is the exact opposite of that is pretty funny in a life-irony sort of way.
And speaking of funny, there is one part of the movie where the Jaggernaut says, "Do you know who I am? I'm the Jaggernaut bitch!" This made me laugh quite loudly, at a point where no-one else in the theater got it. But because I had seen this (warning:NOT WORK SAFE, many bad words), I got the reference, and laughed my fool head off, and everyone looked at me. But I still thought it was great.
This is not to say the movie was perfect. There was a point where Leech's proximity makes Jaggernaut lose his powers, which make no sense since his powers in the comics are mystical in nature, not mutant, but who the heck really cares? It was fun, and isn't that movies are all about?
Telling an entertaining story with some captivating characters, and slipping in a moral or two!
Comments
The actor for Cyclops only had a couple of days to film before he had to run off and be in the Superman movie, and his popularity was so low, I think he was glad to be killed off. Professer X got better, and Phoenix can't really ever be killed anyways, she'll just reincarnate. So in a sense, everyone wins! :)