selenak: (Hank McCoy by Stacyx)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2011-05-14 07:56 am
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more X-Men: First Class stuff

You 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.
skywaterblue: (Emma Frost)

[personal profile] skywaterblue 2011-05-14 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I suspect the most important thing about all of these trailers is that none of them suck, and having seen most of them, none of them make me think this movie is going to be a bomb.

Though I note we've not heard January Jones actually deliver a line as Emma yet.
skywaterblue: (Emma Frost)

[personal profile] skywaterblue 2011-05-14 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Possible. But would you do a last minute recast of the role for a name actress if she doesn't have that many lines? OTOH, we've seen very little of the Hellfire Club scenes in any of these trailers: again, either it's not a very big part or it's being hidden intentionally. 'Scary upper class 60s monster' is Jones's wheelhouse right now.

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.