Me: Overall what did you think of the movie?
Vince: I thought it
was just fine. I thought X-Men: First Class showed how good an X-Men movie could be and this was an attempt to
capitalize on that. Bryan Singer
probably felt like he had some cleaning up to do after the third
installment. I also think this was a
strategic move by Marvel to reset everything and hopefully give them a chance
to refresh the cast and kinda restart under the overall Marvel umbrella. Like, Wolverine is an Avenger for a time, this
hopefully allows a tie in for that at some point.
Me: Yeah, I think I
liked it OK. Liked the meshing of the freshness of First Class with the older
characters who we know and like. The future element and the past element I
thought were visually very cool and the future actions scenes at the beginning
were cool. I think I was missing some heart. Like, it didn't really recapture the magic of the characters of the first two or first class.
Vince: I did like
seeing the new and old versions of the characters in the same movie. I had a hard time with how everything
required so much exposition and as a result were unable to go deep with anyone
character except for maybe Professor X.
Me: Good point. The conceit
is very cool but I don't think they needed to explain it so much. Presumably
comic book fans get it. I thought it was nice to get a bit more of Jennifer Lawrence
as Mystique but I don't know if she was actually developed as a character she
just had more screen time.
Vince: I agree. The
movie hinges on her character turning so drastically to the point that Magneto
and Professor X view her as an ultimate threat.
Yet, we see no clear example of this in her behavior or character. Quicksilver
was a big highlight for me. Showing
super speed in various cool ways. The
only miss in my opinion was not using him at the end. It culminates in DC and even shows him
watching this unfold on the TV. I wanted
to see him get in on the action.
Me: For sure, my
favorite sequence was the pentagon jail break, probably my favorite scene the
stand off where time slows down and he adjusts all the guards and their bullets
and stuff. Visually cool and indirectly implies how powerful a mutant he is. As
far as freshness and obviously enjoying it Quicksilver was my favorite
performance. He added a much needed playfulness.
Vince: I applaud them
for not using a CGI beast. But man, that
makeup job was insane. He looked awful.
Me: Oh yeah. Just the
worst. Looked worse than Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf. All patchy and stuff.
Vince: I liked how
they used the future mutants like Bishop and Blink just as an attack and
defense unit. When I saw the cast list I
was like, whoa, there are WAY too many mutants in this thing.
Me: Yeah plot wise I
thought it was exposition heavy but I thought it was well done to incorporate
the future and past mutants with not one by one explaining all their powers. I
also really liked the Vietnam sequence. Do you think this one had an overt
message either politically or socially?
Vince: I think the
overall message was sort of like, "Hey, before you do something drastic,
think it through". I think the
X-Men is really an examination of race relations and there are strong ties
between this and the idea of a final solution.
Maybe also, violence only begets more violence is the strong take away.
Me: For sure that is
X-men overarching message, I feel like this one, it was there certainly, it
just felt a little watered down or muddled.
Vince: It just didn't
feel fresh.
Me: Better put, yes.
Vince: And I think
that is the challenge with these super hero movies. I think we want to see OLD
concepts presented in fresh new ways each time out. We want
to see these characters tested and put through the ringer and see that
they can triumph when there core beliefs are challenged in different ways and
maybe when they go through a change.
Me: I have been
thinking recently we may be reaching a saturation point with the comic book
movie machine. That there's just too much of it out there to even be able to
make it fresh.
You tangentially mentioned the ending initially, how did you like it?
You tangentially mentioned the ending initially, how did you like it?
Vince: I thought it
was just fine. There is a layer of
cheese to the movie. It felt very safe
and happy. I would have loved to see the
cost to a particular character's mental state as a result of everything he
remembers up until a certain point now being un-true. God, that idea is fascinating to me. If you
change the course of history and you have all these deep emotions and memories
that are tied to things that never happened, man, that would be the most lonely
and terrifying thing ever. Even though you saved the world, that is still
something you have to deal with.
Me: Yeah, Wolverine
seems totally unfazed or at least there isn't time spent on him reacting to
anything cause that is the end of the movie. It didn't exactly bother me. But I
just felt like it was too cheesy, too sweet, like come on. OK fine, go back 15
years and reset the whole franchise.
Any final thoughts? Is it worth a watch?
Vince: If you have a
hankering for a summertime movie blockbuster, go see it. Its worth seeing on a big screen. Its fun but its not the X-Men movie we all
want.
I guess we will still have to wait on that.
No comments:
Post a Comment