Don't You Know Who I am?!!
May. 29th, 2006 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talktoolooseI do! I do have a life! I read interesting books and go interesting places. On Saturday, my life partner and I had an important discussion on dreams and distractions and it made life a whole lot better at home.
But! Instead of going into details about that, I'll make a list of pros and cons of X3!!!!
Pros:
Awesome casting, not only of new leads like Kitty, Beast and Angel, but more importantly, of incidental characters who brought intensity and believability to their roles. This includes the whole wonderful panoply of brotherhood villains, including the oh-so-hot porcupine guy. In a movie with no script to speak of, we were able to come away with clear sense of Kitty Pryde, for instance, and also of Leech.
Interesting grainy cinematography after the too-clean look of the Singer movies.
The frightening scene in the house when Xavier faced down Jean.
The brilliant, slashy, stylish Erik/Charles opening.
The danger room scene that followed it.
Storm finally flying and having a good haircut.
The Golden Gate and Magneto's sly joy in moving it. "I'm doing a pointless stunt now and I know it. But I'm fucking MAGNETO so shut it, bitches."
The slashy potential of the John/Bobby glare fests.
Pyro's fire gear.
Mystique during her interrogation and escape.
Xavier on slippery ethical ground regarding the muzzling of Jean. Magneto and Logan equally unhappy with that, if for different reasons.
Not-obnoxious score.
Cons
Badly structured script with execrable dialogue
"Fight scenes" mostly consisting of blurry fast cuts with no sense of integrity. This was especially a come-down from the elegant fight choreography of X2.
Halle Berry still can't act.
Storm spins through fights in little cyclones? Please!
Does the cure work or doesn't it? There were so many more layers to that plot that could have been explored including splits at the mansion as seen in the Joss Whedon / John Cassady comics this plot was stolen from. The idea, at the end, that the cure doesn't work permanently is a writerly betrayal. If there are no consequences, well then... Jean Grey might as well come to life over and over again! Oh, wait...
We never see Scott actually killed. Even in flashback. This is confusing.
There is no reason to kill him except of a producers' feud and his original miscating in X1. X-Men without Cyclops is bullshit.
How does Pete lift an improbably large television when he's not metalled up?
This movie should either have been the Phoenix saga or the cure. As it happens, the cure came off reasonably well and the Phoenix saga was bullshit. To whit: If she's always had that persona in her, why is it called "The Phoenix"? For that matter, where was the Phoenix-shaped fire? Why was she imagined as an Exorcist witch? What's with that hair colour? Where was her wild joy? Where was the core ethical dillemma (how can you be human when you have god-like powers?) After all, the movie actually includes and ethics class! Jean has to make her own decision to die; that's what makes it a morality tale.
If Logan didn't go to Charles' memorial, why couldn't he have at least looked like shit up on the balcony instead of like a model from L.L. Bean?
If Xavier handed the keys to the mansion to Storm (which was really tacky with Scott still alive and in mourning), why is it Logan standing there as king of all he surveys at the end?
______________________
Singer is too candy-assed a director for me, but he understands the X-Men and he's not sloppy. Still, I can't complain. The movie made me squee and it works in the continuity for Days of Becoming.
This is all I will say on the subject. (except, perhaps, in comments).
I swear!
But! Instead of going into details about that, I'll make a list of pros and cons of X3!!!!
Pros:
Awesome casting, not only of new leads like Kitty, Beast and Angel, but more importantly, of incidental characters who brought intensity and believability to their roles. This includes the whole wonderful panoply of brotherhood villains, including the oh-so-hot porcupine guy. In a movie with no script to speak of, we were able to come away with clear sense of Kitty Pryde, for instance, and also of Leech.
Interesting grainy cinematography after the too-clean look of the Singer movies.
The frightening scene in the house when Xavier faced down Jean.
The brilliant, slashy, stylish Erik/Charles opening.
The danger room scene that followed it.
Storm finally flying and having a good haircut.
The Golden Gate and Magneto's sly joy in moving it. "I'm doing a pointless stunt now and I know it. But I'm fucking MAGNETO so shut it, bitches."
The slashy potential of the John/Bobby glare fests.
Pyro's fire gear.
Mystique during her interrogation and escape.
Xavier on slippery ethical ground regarding the muzzling of Jean. Magneto and Logan equally unhappy with that, if for different reasons.
Not-obnoxious score.
Cons
Badly structured script with execrable dialogue
"Fight scenes" mostly consisting of blurry fast cuts with no sense of integrity. This was especially a come-down from the elegant fight choreography of X2.
Halle Berry still can't act.
Storm spins through fights in little cyclones? Please!
Does the cure work or doesn't it? There were so many more layers to that plot that could have been explored including splits at the mansion as seen in the Joss Whedon / John Cassady comics this plot was stolen from. The idea, at the end, that the cure doesn't work permanently is a writerly betrayal. If there are no consequences, well then... Jean Grey might as well come to life over and over again! Oh, wait...
We never see Scott actually killed. Even in flashback. This is confusing.
There is no reason to kill him except of a producers' feud and his original miscating in X1. X-Men without Cyclops is bullshit.
How does Pete lift an improbably large television when he's not metalled up?
This movie should either have been the Phoenix saga or the cure. As it happens, the cure came off reasonably well and the Phoenix saga was bullshit. To whit: If she's always had that persona in her, why is it called "The Phoenix"? For that matter, where was the Phoenix-shaped fire? Why was she imagined as an Exorcist witch? What's with that hair colour? Where was her wild joy? Where was the core ethical dillemma (how can you be human when you have god-like powers?) After all, the movie actually includes and ethics class! Jean has to make her own decision to die; that's what makes it a morality tale.
If Logan didn't go to Charles' memorial, why couldn't he have at least looked like shit up on the balcony instead of like a model from L.L. Bean?
If Xavier handed the keys to the mansion to Storm (which was really tacky with Scott still alive and in mourning), why is it Logan standing there as king of all he surveys at the end?
______________________
Singer is too candy-assed a director for me, but he understands the X-Men and he's not sloppy. Still, I can't complain. The movie made me squee and it works in the continuity for Days of Becoming.
This is all I will say on the subject. (except, perhaps, in comments).
I swear!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 06:26 pm (UTC)That said, the star-crossed romantic tone of Wolverine's interactions with Jean seemed pretty abrupt. I know that he generally has a thing for Jean in various xmen media, but I don't remember it being developed that much in the movies. Maybe I just hadn't been paying attention.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 11:27 pm (UTC)But in fact, I basically liked it--heck, I liked it A LOT, although I share many of your reservations. I'm going to have to go back and watch X2 again, and see which one I prefer.