Mutated Movie Malarkey!
Jun. 2nd, 2014 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaosvizierWe've been seeing a lot of super heroes lately, with Captain America and Spider Man just past and the Guardians of the Galaxy coming soon. So what's up with our band of merry mutants, hated and feared by a world they've sworn to protect? Well... let's find out!
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The X-Men franchise is a long and convoluted trail of crazy and/or awesome and/or ugly. The original trilogy was good-good-bad, and then Wolverine had a spinoff series that were ok-ok, and then there was a prequel of how Charles and Eric met, and it was good. But do they all work together? Do they fit? And how does the latest entry stack up?
Ok, let's slow down a bit and take this in bite-sized chunks. First off, the part that everyone cares about: yes, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, the bros to end all bros, are in this together, and they're awesome even though they don't have too many scenes together, and it's cool. Second, the other part that everyone cares about: yes, as always it's really just Wolverine with a bunch of other folks around for support. Why? Because everyone loves Wolverine, and because Hugh Jackman shows his butt in an early scene.
Second, this movie serves as the bridge between X-Men the Older and X-Men the Younger. Stewart and McKellan are paralleled by Macavoy and Fassbender, younger versions of themselves who have a long way to go before they can add "Sir" to their names. But all four actors stand strong, with Macavoy and Fassbender deserving special note for taking our favorite characters into interesting directions. Charles Xavier hooked on Mutant Heroin? Nice job... And then we see some old friends in the Distant Future, like Colossus and Storm and Kitty Pryde, and the Future is not all it's cracked up to be. All thanks to Katniss Everdeen.
Finally, this movie gives us comedic excellence in the form of Quicksilver, a.k.a. Peter Maximoff, whom we saw briefly in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Does this mark a moment of intersection of the X-Men and Avengers universes? Because all I'm saying is "Avengers vs. X-Men: Two Hours of Unrelenting Badassery".
The plot: Wolverine goes back in time to save the future. Or the past. Or to link up the future with the past.
The pros: This movie is full of feelings, something uncommon in action blockbusters. You feel young Xavier's loss and failure. You feel young Magneto's anger, and Mystique's determination, and Trask's relentlessness. I personally felt sad watching the super-sentinels rip apart the future X-Men, watching them fight a hopeless battle to change the past. Young Magneto inspires awe as he tries to avenge the mutants who died to bring the sentinel program alive. Old Xavier and Magneto share tired regret for all their years of conflict. And in a psychic meeting of the minds, young Xavier and old Xavier change each other's lives. That's all serious feelings right there. For the non-serious feelings, Peter Maximoff is the clear winner by a landslide. He has only a few scenes, but he steals them all faster than you can blink. Maximum credit goes to the millisecond-long battle scene in which he saves the day. Similar credit is deserved for the guy who played Richard Nixon, just because he looked and sounded very much like Richard Nixon. Awesome and funny all in one. And Peter Dinklage gives a surprising turn as Dr. Bolivar Trask, and we only know who he is because of Game of Thrones.
The cons: It's action, it's adventure, it's not an Academy Award nominee. And it's time travel. And it is good to have seen most of the previous X-Men films beforehand (especially X-1, X-2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and X-Men: First Class), otherwise a lot of this makes no sense. But aside from that... it might be the best X-Men movie yet, and that deserves mention.
The verdict: If you are a fan of the X-series, then yes, this movie makes the grade. It might not stand all the way up to The Avengers or Winter Soldier, but it stands pretty damn high.
Bonus 1: X-Men: Apocalypse. 'nuff said.
Bonus 2: "You can bend metal? My mom knew a guy like that..." A small throwaway line, but very telling.
Bonus 3: Cyclops! I miss you! Everyone hates you but I still think you're an ok guy.
Note: Like I said, it was sad watching the future super-sentinels murder the crap out of the future X-Men. But especially Colossus and Blink. Ow.
EDIT: I forgot my favorite part of the credits: Blink is played by Bingbing Fan. Warpath is played by Booboo Stewart. These two people need to hook up and have a dozen onomatopoeic babies.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The X-Men franchise is a long and convoluted trail of crazy and/or awesome and/or ugly. The original trilogy was good-good-bad, and then Wolverine had a spinoff series that were ok-ok, and then there was a prequel of how Charles and Eric met, and it was good. But do they all work together? Do they fit? And how does the latest entry stack up?
Ok, let's slow down a bit and take this in bite-sized chunks. First off, the part that everyone cares about: yes, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, the bros to end all bros, are in this together, and they're awesome even though they don't have too many scenes together, and it's cool. Second, the other part that everyone cares about: yes, as always it's really just Wolverine with a bunch of other folks around for support. Why? Because everyone loves Wolverine, and because Hugh Jackman shows his butt in an early scene.
Second, this movie serves as the bridge between X-Men the Older and X-Men the Younger. Stewart and McKellan are paralleled by Macavoy and Fassbender, younger versions of themselves who have a long way to go before they can add "Sir" to their names. But all four actors stand strong, with Macavoy and Fassbender deserving special note for taking our favorite characters into interesting directions. Charles Xavier hooked on Mutant Heroin? Nice job... And then we see some old friends in the Distant Future, like Colossus and Storm and Kitty Pryde, and the Future is not all it's cracked up to be. All thanks to Katniss Everdeen.
Finally, this movie gives us comedic excellence in the form of Quicksilver, a.k.a. Peter Maximoff, whom we saw briefly in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Does this mark a moment of intersection of the X-Men and Avengers universes? Because all I'm saying is "Avengers vs. X-Men: Two Hours of Unrelenting Badassery".
The plot: Wolverine goes back in time to save the future. Or the past. Or to link up the future with the past.
The pros: This movie is full of feelings, something uncommon in action blockbusters. You feel young Xavier's loss and failure. You feel young Magneto's anger, and Mystique's determination, and Trask's relentlessness. I personally felt sad watching the super-sentinels rip apart the future X-Men, watching them fight a hopeless battle to change the past. Young Magneto inspires awe as he tries to avenge the mutants who died to bring the sentinel program alive. Old Xavier and Magneto share tired regret for all their years of conflict. And in a psychic meeting of the minds, young Xavier and old Xavier change each other's lives. That's all serious feelings right there. For the non-serious feelings, Peter Maximoff is the clear winner by a landslide. He has only a few scenes, but he steals them all faster than you can blink. Maximum credit goes to the millisecond-long battle scene in which he saves the day. Similar credit is deserved for the guy who played Richard Nixon, just because he looked and sounded very much like Richard Nixon. Awesome and funny all in one. And Peter Dinklage gives a surprising turn as Dr. Bolivar Trask, and we only know who he is because of Game of Thrones.
The cons: It's action, it's adventure, it's not an Academy Award nominee. And it's time travel. And it is good to have seen most of the previous X-Men films beforehand (especially X-1, X-2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and X-Men: First Class), otherwise a lot of this makes no sense. But aside from that... it might be the best X-Men movie yet, and that deserves mention.
The verdict: If you are a fan of the X-series, then yes, this movie makes the grade. It might not stand all the way up to The Avengers or Winter Soldier, but it stands pretty damn high.
Bonus 1: X-Men: Apocalypse. 'nuff said.
Bonus 2: "You can bend metal? My mom knew a guy like that..." A small throwaway line, but very telling.
Bonus 3: Cyclops! I miss you! Everyone hates you but I still think you're an ok guy.
Note: Like I said, it was sad watching the future super-sentinels murder the crap out of the future X-Men. But especially Colossus and Blink. Ow.
EDIT: I forgot my favorite part of the credits: Blink is played by Bingbing Fan. Warpath is played by Booboo Stewart. These two people need to hook up and have a dozen onomatopoeic babies.
