X-Men: The Last Stand
I'm going to talk about X-Men 3, so if you haven't seen it -- this will spoil it for you. Go away and come back later. :-)
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I thought it was. . .okay. It was a good movie, enjoyable to watch and an entertaining afternoon. I did not have the "this movie is complete crap" response that many, many fans had. That said, I was disappointed. I think because even though this movie was okay -- it could have been amazing. While I want to blame him, I'm not sure that it was Ratner's fault. He did the best he could with what he was given.
The whole thing was just too rushed. In many ways. The film itself was rushed into the theater. They should have taken a few more months to do a quality job. The special effects were uneven, and the reason was revealed in the credits. I'm not sure that I have ever seen that many different special effects companies in one credit crawl. Some were definitely better than others and it showed in the film. The story itself was also rushed. It needed another 20-30 minutes of character moments to make the story shine and it fill in several gaps in the narrative.
The script made several interesting choices. (I need to go look up the script writer and see if I have liked anything else he or she has written.) Some of those choices worked, some didn't. To preface the following, I'm a somewhat different viewer of X-Men. While I have much more familiarity with the X-Men storyline than the average moviegoer, I don't know more than that basics about the comics. I have been reading Whedon and Cassiday's Astonishing X-Men and I've read a few of the early comics, back when Jean, Scott, Iceman, Angel, and the Beast were the team. I wish that Angel had been in it more. His character seemed intriguing in the film and I was left wanting much more of his story. I hated what they did to Scott. It seemed cheap and like the studio just didn't want to pay James Marsden for more screen time. Where was the payoff?? The grief? It seemed very glossed over. Annoying. And then what happen with Xavier. . . did this happen in the comics?? Hated it. Which leads me to Logan. What?? Isn't he supposed to be the ultimate loner? I did love the story of his love for Jean and then his choice at the end, but why does he all of a sudden become a team player? I like him as the outsider. The tortured soul, longing for and yet rejecting connection. Great character. -- And then we get to Rogue. This was probably the bit that irritated me the most! Why, oh why? I realize that she, more than any other character, had good reason to take the cure. But, this was an terrible choice, especially for the future of the franchise. She is such a wonderful character and is now without angst. (And we all know, it's angst that drives the comic book/movie world!) :-) :-) I still think that the Rogue/Wolverine dynamic is the most interesting in the films. Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman have great chemistry and I'm sorry to see this end. (Yes, I know, the age difference makes it a little creepy, but you can read their relationship as brother/sistery if you want to. I choose not to, but you can.) :-) I love a good May/December romance. Throw in a little superpowers/mutations and big fight scenes -- what's not to like?
Well - this was a few random thoughts about X3. Even though I hate the "reset button," I really hope they use it for X4. (Do we doubt there'll be an X4? I thought not.) Bring back Scott, Jean, and Rogue. (We already know that Prof. X is coming back...are we going to be subjected to another actor?? I hope not.) And give Logan somethin' to angst about. . . He's just so good at the snarly introspection.
posted by Jill Pole @ 6/01/2006
3 Comments:
Pretty much agreed...it was "ok".
I always thought of the Logan/Rogue relationship a little differently. Logan, to me, was the protective big brother while Rogue did have eyes for him.
Also, given what happens to Magneto, I think there might be something in store for both Rogue and Rebecca Romijn's character.
My biggest complaint was with Logan. Much like you, I liked him much more when he was bad to the bone.
I finally saw the movie on the weekend, so I could finally read your review – I like what you wrote and it’s a good overview of it. I pretty much agree with what you said. Some stuff worked, some really didn’t. If you’re interested, you can read my more detailed thoughts on it here, over at my blog.
I’m with you on the Wolverine/Rogue dynamic, and would have like to see more of it. I think they accidentally caught lighting in a bottle with the actors chemistry in the first one, and unfortunately didn’t follow through on it. At least they threw in a nice scene for us fans of those two.
Overall, I liked the movie, but thought it could have been a lot better given a longer running time to key in on the emotional moments of the movie. That, and Logan is not a leader of the X-Men. He’s the black sheep of the family – a key member though, that has an outsider’s viewpoint and keeps the rest in check. In the comics, Kitty calls Logan the “conscience” of the X-Men, which is much more fitting.
By the way, being you stated you’re a fan of the Wolverine / Rogue duo, just for the fun of it in case you’re interested, you can feel free to download a copy of some wallpapers I made here, here, here, and here. Or you can even watch my attempt at a music video here. :-)
I don’t normally go in for that kind of corny stuff, true, but I guess I just like the idea of those two together. Two outsiders alone, thinking they’ll always be cursed to be alone, wholly unfit to be with anyone else for various reasons, and then in the middle of nowhere finding each other and understanding each other. If she accidentally touches him, he’ll heal (other’s will croak), and if he has one of his nightmares and accidentally stabs her, she can touch him and heal. Plus, with his healing factor making him outlive most people, it’d make sense he’d be with someone young. Of course, her being able to absorb his healing factor would keep her younger too. Practically, those two really only belong with each other, but then the chemistry clicked on top of it. It’s just one of those one in a million chances that actually beats the odds and comes through. Reminds me of this Steve Earle song.
Ok, that’s it, I’m going to tell my inner geek to shut up now. ;-)
I fully agree with the comment about Angel. From the previews, I thought he was going to play a larger role and was left wanted more of that character. I did like the scene of him as a child trying to hide his "extras".
-Dave
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