X-Men 3: The Last Stand
May. 31st, 2006 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakCompletely exhausted here, and I didn’t even do the driving. But Amsterdam-Berlin-Hiddenhausen-Bamberg in the space of two days is no piece of cake.
Now, on to my belated X-Men 3 review. Incidentally, I saw my flist is pretty much divided on this one,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
penknife, artaxastra and karabair being on the con, andrastewhite, yahtzee63 and estepheia on the pro side of it. As for my opinion….
I think it bears better watching than thinking about it, because once you think about it without being distracted by the actors’ actual performance, the more glaring flaws become even more glaring. That said, there were elements I liked and even found fascinating, and given the troubled production history, I had expected far worse. Still, this is definitely the weakest of the three, and as ever, I shall first complain and then praise.
Firstly, and most obviously, while marrying the Dark Phoenix plot to the Cure plot might have sounded like a good idea on paper, it was probably inevitable that one of them would suffer for it on screen. This turned out to be the Phoenix plot. Which was actually fine until and including Jean killing Xavier. Then it collapsed, because for the rest of the movie, you had Jean essentially walking around with a blank face and doing nothing until the finale. Logan tells us she’s struggling, but we don’t see it. Magneto tells us she’s the most powerful mutant ever, but we don’t see that, either. Some character driven scenes with it sinking in to Jean that she has killed Scott and Charles – her lover and her father figure – would have done wonders, since they would have shown us that there is still a Jean left (rather than having Logan tell us there is). Scenes with Phoenix telling her other Daddy, Magneto, that she has no intention just waiting around, and starts using her powers whenever it suits her, however lethal? Would have made the ever so useful point that Phoenix really can’t be controlled, either by herself or someone else, because as it is on screen, she seems to be entirely under Magneto’s thumb. And don’t get me started on the glaringly obvious “if Jean/Phoenix is so powerful, then why the hell doesn’t Magneto just sent her on her own to Alcatraz to destroy the lab and kill Leech”?
Sidenote: of course, that’s the problem with anyone whose powers are on that scale. Probably a reason why Charles Xavier gets taken out of commission early on in every X-movie and quite often at the comics – if around, he could simply order anyone to stop telepathically. Which reminds me – whyever doesn’t Phoenix!Jean use telepathy after her lethal encounter with Charles anymore?
And then there is the climax. I half expected Logan to tell Jean “close your eyes” before killing her. Though given the Willow/Phoenix parallels in s6, perhaps “to tell Jean a crayon story” would have been a better parallel. Either way, the big problem here is, and I’m really trying not to let my general disgruntlement about how Scott Summers gets short shrift in the movieverse letting influence me, in order to buy fully into seeing this as a big tragedy, I would have to believe in Logan/Jean as a love story first. Which, sorry, the movies didn’t give me. I saw two people hormonally attracted, who didn’t spent more than a few days together and had stronger emotional ties to other people (Rogue in Wolverine’s case, Scott, Xavier and Storm in Jean’s), and that’s counting everything in all three movies. The fact is, Logan doesn’t really know Jean, and vice versa, so all the “she’s still there!” talk falls somewhat flat. Mind you, I give X3 props for trying to do some more set up by letting Logan use the “caged animal” phrase with anger and disbelief in his conversation with Charles, thereby clearly paralleling himself with Jean-as-Phoenix, but you know, again we have the problem that after Charles’ death, we don’t see Jean or Phoenix angry, or struggling, or anything. She’s just blank. So the big tragic climax didn’t quite work for me, either. No fault of Hugh Jackman’s, who is good as usual.
Re: Scott – given that he didn’t get much screentime in X1, even less in X2, I actually had expected the movie to kill him off earlier on and essentially give his part in the Dark Phoenix Story to Logan, because clearly, the film makers aren’t interested in the character of Cyclops. (I don’t think it would have been that different with Singer at the helm, either, frankly, for all his appreciation of James Marsden (as evidenced by him hiring Marsden for Superman Returns). What I hadn’t expected was that a) Scott would be killed off screen, and b) no one but Logan would show a flicker of interest in that fact. Given his backstory with Xavier and Ororo, that just defies belief, and is the final indignity. Ah, well, I’ll just reread Astonishing X-Men #14 again, I suppose. (I have more to say on Scott and Logan, but that actually belongs in the plus columm of this review.)
And speaking of post-mortem reactions: a scene between Jean and Erik in the aftermath of Charles’ death would have done much good for Magneto’s characterisation, too. Though actually the Charles ‘n Erik stuff of this movie, the flashback, and the immediate reaction to his death, worked very well for me. It also offered some of the few points at which I liked Magneto, who previously has been one of my favourite characters.
I’m torn about whether or not to complain about Magneto’s characterisation in general, because, strategic stupidities as mentioned above apart, it actually makes an awful kind of sense. I’m not sure whether it was intended quite that way, but you could construct an arc for him during the three movies during which he becomes exactly what created him and what he despises. X2 already had him attempt genocide, but you could point to the fact he had just seen Stryker trying the same thing on mutants and had been abused for a considerable time and try to see it as something done in an impulse which he wouldn’t have if he had been compos mentis and had time to reflect on it. X3, however, showcases his complete adaption of the Nazi mentality in a way that does not allow for such excuses anymore. Magneto, throwing Mystique aside, all their past connection, all her loyalty being nothing because she’s suddenly not human to him anymore – shall we use the term “subhuman”? – is no better than all those many people in my country who suddenly threw their neighbours, friends, fellow citizens aside and adopted the belief they deserved the treatment because they were “other”. I was so revolted that I really felt no pity once his own powers were taken away, and only in a very, very distant way in the final scene of the film (pre-credits) when we see him sit in front of the chess board (before the final image).
Mystique, for her part, was great in all her scenes save the last one. Now I would have been all for her taking revenge on Magneto as a person (see above), but she believed in the mutant cause, not just him, so her going to the President just was bad characterisation, full stop.
On the bright side of things: Ambiguous! Charles Xavier. I actually had no problems with the idea that he would have taken the murky step of sealing most of Jean’s powers off when she was a child. A child with near unlimited power is a scary, scary idea. Of course it is, shall we say, ethically problematic that he didn’t inform Adult!Jean of this, but again, I can believe that, given Xavier has a Messiah complex as well, it just comes out in different ways than Magneto’s. Early in X2, we get a short impression of what he could do, if he wanted (the scene in the museum); it was always his own standards that held him back from just going the rule-the-world route, and if you’re the only person to judge yourself, you’re bound to make some dodgy judgements now and then.
(The very last scene, after the credits, was a welcome surprise and a rare example of this movie being clever, because it was set up in Xavier talking about ethical dilemmas earlier, using just the example of what it turns out he later does – transfer his mind into another person’s body at the point of death.)
My one problem with Charles was the incredibly clumsy “Storm, you’re now the leader of the X-Men” speech (I think the audience would have gathered her taking over as team leader anyway, thank you) and the Scott ignoring, which as opposed to Magneto’s treatment of Mystique I don’t think was intended by the scriptwriters to come across as callous, but did.
Speaking of Storm: Halle Berry did a nice job there. With, you know, actually having a purpose in the story.
Rogue taking the cure worked for me as well. The movieverse gave her absolutely no reason not to – her powers did not give her any joy that I could see, and only angst – and by coming back to the mansion, she showed it wasn’t a decision against the mutant community. This being said, I think Astonishing X-Men did a better job with the effect the existence of the “cure” has on mutants who have a reason to consider it as a serious alternative, such as Hank. (Also with the devastating fallout in another case, the young mutant Wing.) I just think of Hank’s conversation with Scott in the Gifted storyline and wish we could have gotten something like that for Rogue. Though we did get a visual equivalent in the scene where Movie!Hank regards his fur-free hand when coming near Leech, I suppose; I really liked that scene, which summed up the dilemma quite well, and liked Movie!Hank McCoy in general.
Lastly: most intense moment between two mutants? Not Jean and Logan, not even Charles and Erik, who get the quiet established relationship vibe instead – Scott and Logan in the corridor. A short scene, but I loved it, and it made me wish that the entire movie had been constructed around the Scott-Logan-Jean triangle.
Now, on to my belated X-Men 3 review. Incidentally, I saw my flist is pretty much divided on this one,
penknife, artaxastra and karabair being on the con, andrastewhite, yahtzee63 and estepheia on the pro side of it. As for my opinion….I think it bears better watching than thinking about it, because once you think about it without being distracted by the actors’ actual performance, the more glaring flaws become even more glaring. That said, there were elements I liked and even found fascinating, and given the troubled production history, I had expected far worse. Still, this is definitely the weakest of the three, and as ever, I shall first complain and then praise.
Firstly, and most obviously, while marrying the Dark Phoenix plot to the Cure plot might have sounded like a good idea on paper, it was probably inevitable that one of them would suffer for it on screen. This turned out to be the Phoenix plot. Which was actually fine until and including Jean killing Xavier. Then it collapsed, because for the rest of the movie, you had Jean essentially walking around with a blank face and doing nothing until the finale. Logan tells us she’s struggling, but we don’t see it. Magneto tells us she’s the most powerful mutant ever, but we don’t see that, either. Some character driven scenes with it sinking in to Jean that she has killed Scott and Charles – her lover and her father figure – would have done wonders, since they would have shown us that there is still a Jean left (rather than having Logan tell us there is). Scenes with Phoenix telling her other Daddy, Magneto, that she has no intention just waiting around, and starts using her powers whenever it suits her, however lethal? Would have made the ever so useful point that Phoenix really can’t be controlled, either by herself or someone else, because as it is on screen, she seems to be entirely under Magneto’s thumb. And don’t get me started on the glaringly obvious “if Jean/Phoenix is so powerful, then why the hell doesn’t Magneto just sent her on her own to Alcatraz to destroy the lab and kill Leech”?
Sidenote: of course, that’s the problem with anyone whose powers are on that scale. Probably a reason why Charles Xavier gets taken out of commission early on in every X-movie and quite often at the comics – if around, he could simply order anyone to stop telepathically. Which reminds me – whyever doesn’t Phoenix!Jean use telepathy after her lethal encounter with Charles anymore?
And then there is the climax. I half expected Logan to tell Jean “close your eyes” before killing her. Though given the Willow/Phoenix parallels in s6, perhaps “to tell Jean a crayon story” would have been a better parallel. Either way, the big problem here is, and I’m really trying not to let my general disgruntlement about how Scott Summers gets short shrift in the movieverse letting influence me, in order to buy fully into seeing this as a big tragedy, I would have to believe in Logan/Jean as a love story first. Which, sorry, the movies didn’t give me. I saw two people hormonally attracted, who didn’t spent more than a few days together and had stronger emotional ties to other people (Rogue in Wolverine’s case, Scott, Xavier and Storm in Jean’s), and that’s counting everything in all three movies. The fact is, Logan doesn’t really know Jean, and vice versa, so all the “she’s still there!” talk falls somewhat flat. Mind you, I give X3 props for trying to do some more set up by letting Logan use the “caged animal” phrase with anger and disbelief in his conversation with Charles, thereby clearly paralleling himself with Jean-as-Phoenix, but you know, again we have the problem that after Charles’ death, we don’t see Jean or Phoenix angry, or struggling, or anything. She’s just blank. So the big tragic climax didn’t quite work for me, either. No fault of Hugh Jackman’s, who is good as usual.
Re: Scott – given that he didn’t get much screentime in X1, even less in X2, I actually had expected the movie to kill him off earlier on and essentially give his part in the Dark Phoenix Story to Logan, because clearly, the film makers aren’t interested in the character of Cyclops. (I don’t think it would have been that different with Singer at the helm, either, frankly, for all his appreciation of James Marsden (as evidenced by him hiring Marsden for Superman Returns). What I hadn’t expected was that a) Scott would be killed off screen, and b) no one but Logan would show a flicker of interest in that fact. Given his backstory with Xavier and Ororo, that just defies belief, and is the final indignity. Ah, well, I’ll just reread Astonishing X-Men #14 again, I suppose. (I have more to say on Scott and Logan, but that actually belongs in the plus columm of this review.)
And speaking of post-mortem reactions: a scene between Jean and Erik in the aftermath of Charles’ death would have done much good for Magneto’s characterisation, too. Though actually the Charles ‘n Erik stuff of this movie, the flashback, and the immediate reaction to his death, worked very well for me. It also offered some of the few points at which I liked Magneto, who previously has been one of my favourite characters.
I’m torn about whether or not to complain about Magneto’s characterisation in general, because, strategic stupidities as mentioned above apart, it actually makes an awful kind of sense. I’m not sure whether it was intended quite that way, but you could construct an arc for him during the three movies during which he becomes exactly what created him and what he despises. X2 already had him attempt genocide, but you could point to the fact he had just seen Stryker trying the same thing on mutants and had been abused for a considerable time and try to see it as something done in an impulse which he wouldn’t have if he had been compos mentis and had time to reflect on it. X3, however, showcases his complete adaption of the Nazi mentality in a way that does not allow for such excuses anymore. Magneto, throwing Mystique aside, all their past connection, all her loyalty being nothing because she’s suddenly not human to him anymore – shall we use the term “subhuman”? – is no better than all those many people in my country who suddenly threw their neighbours, friends, fellow citizens aside and adopted the belief they deserved the treatment because they were “other”. I was so revolted that I really felt no pity once his own powers were taken away, and only in a very, very distant way in the final scene of the film (pre-credits) when we see him sit in front of the chess board (before the final image).
Mystique, for her part, was great in all her scenes save the last one. Now I would have been all for her taking revenge on Magneto as a person (see above), but she believed in the mutant cause, not just him, so her going to the President just was bad characterisation, full stop.
On the bright side of things: Ambiguous! Charles Xavier. I actually had no problems with the idea that he would have taken the murky step of sealing most of Jean’s powers off when she was a child. A child with near unlimited power is a scary, scary idea. Of course it is, shall we say, ethically problematic that he didn’t inform Adult!Jean of this, but again, I can believe that, given Xavier has a Messiah complex as well, it just comes out in different ways than Magneto’s. Early in X2, we get a short impression of what he could do, if he wanted (the scene in the museum); it was always his own standards that held him back from just going the rule-the-world route, and if you’re the only person to judge yourself, you’re bound to make some dodgy judgements now and then.
(The very last scene, after the credits, was a welcome surprise and a rare example of this movie being clever, because it was set up in Xavier talking about ethical dilemmas earlier, using just the example of what it turns out he later does – transfer his mind into another person’s body at the point of death.)
My one problem with Charles was the incredibly clumsy “Storm, you’re now the leader of the X-Men” speech (I think the audience would have gathered her taking over as team leader anyway, thank you) and the Scott ignoring, which as opposed to Magneto’s treatment of Mystique I don’t think was intended by the scriptwriters to come across as callous, but did.
Speaking of Storm: Halle Berry did a nice job there. With, you know, actually having a purpose in the story.
Rogue taking the cure worked for me as well. The movieverse gave her absolutely no reason not to – her powers did not give her any joy that I could see, and only angst – and by coming back to the mansion, she showed it wasn’t a decision against the mutant community. This being said, I think Astonishing X-Men did a better job with the effect the existence of the “cure” has on mutants who have a reason to consider it as a serious alternative, such as Hank. (Also with the devastating fallout in another case, the young mutant Wing.) I just think of Hank’s conversation with Scott in the Gifted storyline and wish we could have gotten something like that for Rogue. Though we did get a visual equivalent in the scene where Movie!Hank regards his fur-free hand when coming near Leech, I suppose; I really liked that scene, which summed up the dilemma quite well, and liked Movie!Hank McCoy in general.
Lastly: most intense moment between two mutants? Not Jean and Logan, not even Charles and Erik, who get the quiet established relationship vibe instead – Scott and Logan in the corridor. A short scene, but I loved it, and it made me wish that the entire movie had been constructed around the Scott-Logan-Jean triangle.
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Date: 2006-05-31 10:31 am (UTC)Yes, I really enjoyed the movie in the theater, and for a few hours after, and then I started talking to people about it, and had to think about it, and it all became less shiny and enjoyable.