xmenxmenxmen! how do i love thee? they art innumerable.
fyi: do not read this if you have not seen the movie and don’t want anything spoiled. i’m serious. i am going to give away shit like you wouldn’t believe. i want to say too here at the start that i am lackluster fan of the comics. i would like to be more of a fan, but i never read them as a kid. i admit that. there’s TONS of shit that i know nothing about and if any of my comments offend on the basis of against the holy bible of the original comics, i apologize. know that i am basing pretty much everything i say solely on my enjoyment of the movies as entities unto themselves.
this movie fucking rocks my world. the joy of watching it is incalculable. you know how the first one is really good and enjoyable and funny and action-packed? this one surpasses it in every single way imaginable. well except for the opening credits. they suck.
i wrote notes all over my body, so here are my impressions of the movie.
snafu pluralized:
why does nightcrawler go from being pale skinned to his normal blue color in the beginning? how does that work? totally unexplained.
why do they not state who he is sooner. it was vaguely confusing. perhaps it wouldn’t be for someone who’s read all the comics or was more prepped before seeing the movie. but i thought for a while he was supposed to be beast which made me really mad since he wasn’t covered in fur. and some guy next to me thought so too. but maybe we are just dumb. certainly his introduction of himself (alan cumming with his beautiful faked german accent) “my name is kurt wagner. but in the munich circus i was known as the incredible nightcrawler!” wolverine: “save it.” curt, as always. ah hugh jackman.
what the fuck is up with wolverine’s hair? i feel it should stay in the wolverine style no matter what he is doing or even if he is soaking wet (which he isn’t at any point, although wouldn’t it be nice if he was?) but instead it’s only perfect at the very beginning and then at the very end. the rest of the time it’s all messed. people use more styling products. live up to your image. you’ve got a reputation to maintain here.
the folder given to the president at the end by rogue/xavier is not the same in two shots. first it’s opened and has merely a white paper on top and a staple in the corner. next it is closed and has a blue cover but no one closed it. heh. a small point but still.
in the cartoon i accepted the fact that storm and jean gray were just as good/powerful/able to take care of themselves as the men. in the movie versions i have a harder time of believing it, even though the two of them are the main heros in this movie. at the very beginning when they’re sent off by themselves in the jet to retrieve the assassin (nightcrawler). i’m like, ‘what are you doing? they can’t handle this by themselves. they’re just little girls!’ and true, they do handle it. but it seems slightly less plausible. as if they just got lucky or something. wierd.
cyclops is hardly in this movie. and when he is in it. all he does is cry like a baby because jean left him and he didn’t protect her, she protected him. baby. but seriously. he gets captured and isn’t seen for like an hour and a half. it’s impressive how little of a role he has. same goes for rogue. though she’s visible in the movie more. iceman (bobbie drake) has a larger role. and speaking of him.
what the fuck is up with the drake family? i’m sure, mind you, that this is drawn on some comic book plot line or what have you. but they’re his parents and his brother. who DOES that? who turns in family to the cops like that just because they’re mutants? that’s just plain silly. that kind of attitude is so prevalent in xmen but at the same time it seems just so unrealistic.
the movie starts off with professor xavier’s voice, “sharing the world has never been one of humanity’s defining characteristics.” apropo for this juncture in world history, perhaps. but also just a good line.
other good lines:
“we love what you’ve done to your hair.” magneto to rogue (allusion to first xmen movie).
“that’s one dorky looking helmet.” pyro to magneto (allusion to what everyone was thinking in first movie).
“when will these people learn to fly?” magneto to mystique while controlling the jet.
“again you think it’s all about you.” magneto to wolverine (allusion to first xmen movie).
“i did not mean to snoop.” nightcrawler to jean grey. it’s in the way he says “snoop.” good stuff.
GREAT scenes:
nightcrawler invading the white house in the very beginning. alan cumming is a fucking god. plus nightcrawler is a great character.
campfire powwow with magneto, mystique, wolverine, jean grey, and storm. it’s so cute. it’s like they’re cooperating and at the same time sworn enemies. ahhh camp songs.
magneto’s prison escape with the sucking out the blood of the guard to make the bullets of the excess iron in the blood stream and then the banging and the breaking and the flat floating disc across the space and the face and the arms. oh how i love ian mckellen.
mystique getting into the underground base of operations (BOO). with the kicking and the sliding thru flipping off movement and then the blowing of kisses.
jean grey at the end turning into pheonix while: starting the plane, holding off nightcrawler from using his power to save her, and stopping the huge wall of water.
the lady deathstrike and wolverine fight in the room of thier origination as adamantium beings. kelly hu is a whirling dervish of a fighting machine, plus her ability to punch with her fingernails should not be underestimated. but the clang when she hits the ground after being pumped full of metal is quite a crowd pleaser. also the silver streams that leak out of her facial orifices is a nice touch. and also in this scene the eyeball phenomenon is pretty clear.
i don’t know if this holds true throughout the whole movie, but the people under the control of the secreted brain fluid from jason stryker have bright blue irises surrounding the pupil, but when they come off the drug, thier eyes return to normal color. this can be seen in nightcrawler until he gets hit by the bullet and then his eyes go back to being gold, magneto’s change infintestimally since they’re already pretty blue, cyclops’ you can’t see. but then lady deathstrike’s are the most obvious because they are ice blue, but when she’s near death they bleed back to brown and she looks really aware for the first time. jason stryker having the eys of two different colors was interesting. as if he was partially under the control, but a part of him was still free and able to choose. although since he didn’t chooses anything for himself really at any point, i’m not sure how well that holds up.
the multiple storylines in this movie created a wonderful blend of interconnectedness while also remaining fun. this movie could not have been so good, i think, without the first one being out of the way, because now in this one they could have more fun. they really became thier characters and they were relaxed into thier roles which made it all the more convincing for the audience. plus there were more strong plotlines than the first so it seemed both more complete and more satisfying as a story in that we already knew most of the characters and could now see them be developed in interesting directions.
the storyline which i loved the most was the jean grey growing power one, because the pheonix saga is one of my favorite arcs in the cartoon. the fact that they did it now confused me a little but i’m willing to go with it. it was cool to see her wearing this huge phoenix pendent in the beginning and then to watch the play of light in the water of the lake at the end forming the wings of her to be reborn. the third movie (i’m assuming there will be one) is going to kick even more ass i hope than this one. and i have to say, it has a lot to live up too.
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