Friday, May 26

Oh my stars and garters! I just saw X-Men: The Last Stand






99% Spoiler Free!

My biggest complaint was that it could've been longer! 1 hour and 44 minutes did not do the large cast and plot justice.

1% Minor Spoilage below in invisotext...

Just to let you know how easily I'm swayed, hearing Kelsey Grammer utter "Oh my stars and garters!" (as Hank McCoy/Beast) was enough to win me over. I want a sound clip of that for my computer.

Spoilage-free portion...

True, there were many things to irritate and infuriate the fanboy community; but I view comic-based movies as I do any movie adapted from another medium...as a completely separate entity. There were an equal number of things that pleased this fanboy a great deal.

The deaths and cures in the movie made it seem like anything could happen and everyone had a target on their backs. There was also the usual instances of thuddingly inane dialogue and silly plot moments that always seem to creep into comicbook movies, but I tend to let them slide unless they completely take me out of the movie moment.

Of course, I'm sure you've heard by now, that you must remain through all of the closing credits to get a major-minor epilogue to the film.

X2: X-Men United is still my favorite film of the franchise but only because it had more character moments than the third one. Still, X3 was a far better action movie than the previous two.

Your assignment is to go see the film and return for discussion.



UPDATE! HERE THERE BE SPOILERS...

Mike Norton and Tony Collett have now seen the movie and you can read their reviews of the film on their blogs. Tony's take on the movie was pretty much in line with mine; Mike was disappointed.

I thought I would take a moment to acknowledge some of the problems Mike pointed out in his review and point out some others I had.

* I, too, want to know how Magneto's army managed to travel from New York to San Francisco! I would have loved to see them on chartered buses singing show tunes as they were magnetically transported crosscountry.

* I agree 100% with your assessment of the Golden Gate Bridge maneuver. If I had not known about it ahead of time, it would have pulled me out of the film and I would have been whining about thru the rest of the movie. Fortunately, I was aware of the pointless and structurally unsound stunt and had made my peace with it.

* The reunion of Scott and Jean was a great recreation of comic history...and then it became an unbelievable plot point that is never addressed. If it is true that Jean actually killed Scott, there is no way they can explain it to me and make it seem plausible. I therefore choose to believe that Jean hid him from her Dark Phoenix personality to be found later; that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

* If Storm loves the school and the kids so much, why was she ready to close it down. Then, Angel walks in and she suddenly changes her mind. Was that supposed to pass as emotional turmoil?

* I have to agree with Mike's assessment of Magneto's behavior in this film; he comes of as a one dimensional bigot for most of the film.

* As for curing Jean, I wish they would have at least attempted it; but I am sure she would have had no trouble disintegrating the needles. Still, I believe that Jean should have regained control of herself and then taken control of Logan and used his claws to kill herself (as he valiantly struggled against her). This would have stayed truer to the original story and still allowed for Logan's cliched screams to the heavens.

* Does anyone else think that Juggernaut's helmet looked like 99 cents of stryofoam?

* I don't seem to mind Wolverine's penchant for murderous mayhem. It might be because, while I love Hugh Jackman's portrayal, I'm just not that vested in the character to care that much.

*How did Magneto get away at the end? I am left to suppose that he wondered back accross that improbably stable bridge during the confusion and mourning.

If you want to read another review, go to Highlander's blog and see how much he loved it.

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