more X-Men: First Class stuff
May. 14th, 2011 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYou know, I'd have watched this film anyway for the Charles/Erik factor, but now they've released mini trailers for the other characters as well as the clip of a scene, and that makes me squee for many other reasons, too and makes me look forward to it for ensemble reasons. First of all, it looks like we're getting a decent character arc for Mystique. (Since movie Mystique was one of the characters most screwed over by X3, this is a really important bonus.) Ditto for Hank McCoy, and since Beast is one of my favourite comic X-Men and only was sort of there in the Film We May Un-Canonize, this is delightful. More squee, and the clips that make me squee, below the cut.
Okay, here's the Mystique trailer:
The Hank McCoy trailer:
The scene from the film, featuring Xavier, Mystique and a lot of American brass (hello, Agent Stryker!):
There are also mini trailers for other characters which I'll link in a moment, but these are the three clips that made me start my day on a great note. Now the backstory hinted here is nothing like the one from movieverse fanfiction, but for once I don't mind, because it certainly looks like it could be a compelling story in its own right. Mystique meeting Xavier first instead of Magneto and when they're both children to boot is a dynamic we haven't seen yet. (Though undoubtedly someone will tell me of the version of X-canon I missed where we have.) So far, everyone, including myself, assumed movieverse Mystique was a generation or so younger than Xavier & Magneto but then she can make herself look whatever age she wants, so there is no real reason why she should be. Considering that one of my biggest beefs with what X3 did to Mystique wasn't that she was de-powered (that was cruel but could have been a powerful emotional storyline - how a mutant out and proud copes with this horror) but that the film let her change her allegiance because Magneto dumped her. Because, you know, a woman scorned, and it's not like Mystique could have political beliefs independent from her feelings about Erik, right? Bah. Which is why what I get from these clips thrills me. If Mystique's romantic storyline is with Hank and neither Charles nor Erik, this makes her going with Magneto once he and Xavier separate ways about her beliefs of how mutants should live, not her personal sympathies, and that, as I said, both thrills me and makes up for the insulting writing in X3. (Meanwhile, that she is of roughly the same age as X & M makes her more equal than faithful Lieutenant to the later and gives her a backstory of her own with the former which could just beg to be explored in fanfiction. I'm all for childhood friendships contrasted to later day opposition! And again, if young Charles was the first to accept Mystique in her natural form her later change allegiance won't be because Magneto is the first to do so but because she agrees with him re: militant activism.) She also seems to have this film's storyarc from going from wanting to appear normal to out and proud.
This makes movieverse Hank a great idea for a love interest. (Btw does this mean movieverse Hank will be the dad of movieverse Kurt, I wonder? Because he certainly isn't in the comics, but that's no reason he couldn't be in the films.) Since they seem to use the part of comics backstory where Hank's secondary mutation kicks in after he tries to "cure" himself to look permanently completely "normal" (only to become one of the most obvious mutants as the result with his blue cat look). I could see that impacting on Mystique's disillusionment with the idea of hiding and compromising, as a graphic illustration of what the society-induced self loathing can do to them. Meanwhile, while I doubt their romantic relationship will survive the film, I could see movieverse Hank coming to terms with his secondary mutation because Mystique, who can look whatever she chooses, stops going for the "normal" shape.
Lastly: James McAvoy does a great sarcastic unimpressedness in the Xavier scene. At the same time, given he's talking to Stryker here and considering what Stryker will end up doing to him in the movieverse, ouch.
PS: more character mini trailers as promised: Havok (hello, Alex Summers, and LOL at Hank's expression when Charles volunteers both of them to express faith in Alex' talent-controlling abilities at the end of that trailer), and Banshee.
Okay, here's the Mystique trailer:
The Hank McCoy trailer:
The scene from the film, featuring Xavier, Mystique and a lot of American brass (hello, Agent Stryker!):
There are also mini trailers for other characters which I'll link in a moment, but these are the three clips that made me start my day on a great note. Now the backstory hinted here is nothing like the one from movieverse fanfiction, but for once I don't mind, because it certainly looks like it could be a compelling story in its own right. Mystique meeting Xavier first instead of Magneto and when they're both children to boot is a dynamic we haven't seen yet. (Though undoubtedly someone will tell me of the version of X-canon I missed where we have.) So far, everyone, including myself, assumed movieverse Mystique was a generation or so younger than Xavier & Magneto but then she can make herself look whatever age she wants, so there is no real reason why she should be. Considering that one of my biggest beefs with what X3 did to Mystique wasn't that she was de-powered (that was cruel but could have been a powerful emotional storyline - how a mutant out and proud copes with this horror) but that the film let her change her allegiance because Magneto dumped her. Because, you know, a woman scorned, and it's not like Mystique could have political beliefs independent from her feelings about Erik, right? Bah. Which is why what I get from these clips thrills me. If Mystique's romantic storyline is with Hank and neither Charles nor Erik, this makes her going with Magneto once he and Xavier separate ways about her beliefs of how mutants should live, not her personal sympathies, and that, as I said, both thrills me and makes up for the insulting writing in X3. (Meanwhile, that she is of roughly the same age as X & M makes her more equal than faithful Lieutenant to the later and gives her a backstory of her own with the former which could just beg to be explored in fanfiction. I'm all for childhood friendships contrasted to later day opposition! And again, if young Charles was the first to accept Mystique in her natural form her later change allegiance won't be because Magneto is the first to do so but because she agrees with him re: militant activism.) She also seems to have this film's storyarc from going from wanting to appear normal to out and proud.
This makes movieverse Hank a great idea for a love interest. (Btw does this mean movieverse Hank will be the dad of movieverse Kurt, I wonder? Because he certainly isn't in the comics, but that's no reason he couldn't be in the films.) Since they seem to use the part of comics backstory where Hank's secondary mutation kicks in after he tries to "cure" himself to look permanently completely "normal" (only to become one of the most obvious mutants as the result with his blue cat look). I could see that impacting on Mystique's disillusionment with the idea of hiding and compromising, as a graphic illustration of what the society-induced self loathing can do to them. Meanwhile, while I doubt their romantic relationship will survive the film, I could see movieverse Hank coming to terms with his secondary mutation because Mystique, who can look whatever she chooses, stops going for the "normal" shape.
Lastly: James McAvoy does a great sarcastic unimpressedness in the Xavier scene. At the same time, given he's talking to Stryker here and considering what Stryker will end up doing to him in the movieverse, ouch.
PS: more character mini trailers as promised: Havok (hello, Alex Summers, and LOL at Hank's expression when Charles volunteers both of them to express faith in Alex' talent-controlling abilities at the end of that trailer), and Banshee.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 10:31 am (UTC)I am ridiculously excited for this movie. Even if its terrible - and it certainly doesn't look terrible - it looks as though its going to give fans great material to work with. (And not only for fic. I think I might finally be able to make that Xavier/Magneto vid ...)
Charles and Raven as children together is not something we've ever seen before. (And they are adorable!) It's comicverse canon that Mystique is around the same age as Charles and Erik, but none of them met until much later. While I enjoyed quite a lot of X3, Mystique's change of allegiance was badly handled. I could have gone with it if they'd bothered to give her a solid reason, but as it appears on screen it really does seem like she switched sides because Erik dumped her. So more Mystique backstory is a great thing to see, and Mystique/Hank looks like it could be fascinating.
And now we know how Stryker found out the details about Charles' powers: he told Stryker and a room full of other government and military types what they were. *facepalm*
Dear Charles: is is good that you wanted to be open and honest about what you can do, but this may not have been the most sensible choice you ever made. Mind you, I'm sure you realised that later when you were kidnapped and brainwashed ...
no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 11:01 am (UTC)Hooray, as Rusty the Welshman is prone to say on Doctor Who audio commentaries!
Charles and Raven as children together is not something we've ever seen before. (And they are adorable!)
Aren't they just? It also gives the fact Mystique knew her way around the mansion in X1 so well another layer.
Dear Charles: is is good that you wanted to be open and honest about what you can do, but this may not have been the most sensible choice you ever made. Mind you, I'm sure you realised that later when you were kidnapped and brainwashed ...
Quite. :) And yet, so fitting a Sixties idealist. Though I hope (and guess) he kept at least the nifty mutant-finding device he and Erik were about to develop to himself, so Stryker didn't find out about that one until years later...
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 03:22 pm (UTC)Whether I make it now (well, 'now' being some time after the DVD comes out) or later depends a bit on where the movie leaves their relationship. But finally I'll get those flashbacks I've been waiting for since 2000!
I can't be sure yet because the press releases keep saying that this is the story of how the rift formed between the two of them, which is what I need for the vid. And yet a) it's way too early for that unless they're ignoring the previous films and b) Fox apparently want this to be a trilogy. I mean, maybe Charles will lose his boyfriend in the first film, his hair in the second and the use of his legs in the third, but ...
Aren't they just? It also gives the fact Mystique knew her way around the mansion in X1 so well another layer.
It puts a interesting spin on quite a few things. She's not only the one who sneaks in and poisons Cerebro, she uses her powers to shapeshift into Stryker and pass on Magneto's human genocide order to Jason. And unlike Erik, she doesn't seem remotely regretful about leaving Charles in there to kill every non-mutant on the planet and then die. Really makes you wonder what happened in all the years between 'you're not scared of me?' and X2 ...
And yet, so fitting a Sixties idealist. Though I hope (and guess) he kept at least the nifty mutant-finding device he and Erik were about to develop to himself, so Stryker didn't find out about that one until years later...
I would assume so, because if not, why does it take forty years for Stryker to get the bright idea of breaking into the mansion and taking it?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-19 09:46 am (UTC)Ha. Yes, if it's meant to be the first of a trilogy instead of a one shot, then it makes no sense to have them break up here already. Otoh maybe Fox hasn't greenlighted a trilogy yet, and the writers/producers think this may be their one shot at the Magneto/Xavier breakup tale?
Really makes you wonder what happened in all the years between 'you're not scared of me?' and X2 ...
Indeed. Maybe the press has been getting it wrong, and this film will feature the (friendshippy, not romantic as they're not involved) Charles and Mystique break-up, and we'll see her turn bitter(er) on him during the next two films?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 03:58 pm (UTC)Though I note we've not heard January Jones actually deliver a line as Emma yet.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 04:48 pm (UTC)January Jones wasn't my first choice for this role, and I'm nervous about it - especially given the rather random appearance of Emma Frost in the OTHER X-Men film we don't consider canon.