Matt Zimmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
matt_zimmer) wrote2006-06-18 06:54 pm
matt_zimmer) wrote2006-06-18 06:54 pm
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X-Men: The Last Stand Review (Spoilers)
Boy my back was killing me today. Sitting through this movie almost made it worth it though.
X-Men: The Last Stand
First off, what's with all the hating? I'm not sure if the movie was better than the first two or not but I sure liked it. Yes, they changed some stuff from the comic books but comic books are frustrating for me. I didn't mind.
I liked the movie. Not as much as the Spider-Man movies but despite being directed by Brett "Hack" Rettner I thought it was good. Like the first one it started off with a couple of flashbacks. I was pretty impressed with how they managed to tie everything up at the end too before smacking us with a double-cliffhanger which was quite funny. The wobbly chess piece and Charles' return were both a delightfully wicked place to end the last movie of a trilogy. Since a Wolverine movie is coming (and MAYBE a Magneto one) I want to see if they have ANY intention of answering these two questions.
The mutant cure was a great idea for a film although I'm a little bit sad they didn't manage to wedge Apocaplypse in there since they streamlined the origins of Dark Phoenix AND Juggernaut. I think it might have killed the movie though so I was okay with it.
The good:
-The fight scenes were REALLY good and more epic than either of the other two movies. You'd figure with a title like "The Last Stand" that's to be expected but all the internet hating kept my expectations low.
-Lots of soap opera stuff which was always fun.
-Like the first two movies it continued the trend of not making the mutant paranoia by "normies" over the top. People in picket lines screaming "MUTIES! DEATH TO ALL MUTIES!" on the old Fox cartoon show always made me cringe. Magneto? He can be as arch as he wants to be as far as I'm concerned. Ian MacKellan can sell it. He was as great as he's ever been.
-They killed off Cyclops pretty quickly. I HATE Cyclops and James Marsden is an annoying actor and I was glad to see him punked.
-Loved Kelsey Grammer as Beast.
-Funniest scene in the movie was after the bridge being moved the family in the car locking the doors. It's funny cause no matter HOW pointless it was every single one of us would have probably done the exact same thing.
The not so good:
-The movie was a little too vulgar for me. I thought Kitty Pryde was so cute so when she called Juggernaut a phallic name I kinda cringed. Kids today.
-The Dark Phoenix stuff was nowhere NEAR as epic as the cartoon or the comic book. I know that couldn't really be helped because they jammed so much stuff in here but Jean instead of coming across as a fallen Angel comes across as a sociopath. Meh.
-This is more my problem but I couldn't keep all of the evil mutants straight. I didn't even recognize Pyro in the crowd scene outside the clinic. The movies have too generic actors in many of the roles.
-Storm's "big" role. I have nothing against Halle Berry but it seems almost like her contract negotiations squeezed Patrick Stewart out of half of the movie. I know Xavier has died a billion times but Stewart (along with Hugh Jackman) was the STAR of the first two movies and his role here was WAAAY too minor. And it's not like Storm's new high profile actually led to any great character stuff. She was basically just in more scenes and had more lines. That may satisfy an actor's ego but it does nothing for characterization.
-Logan wasn't as cool as he was in the first two movies. That said, I was surprised at how many people he was allowed to kill in this movie. They must've been gearing the audience for the spin-off.
I was pretty impressed that the trilogy actually had a pretty definative ending. Yes, the last two scenes could propel a sequel but they still managed to tie up a bunch of stuff. Rogue getting cured was sweet as I always thought she was one of the few mutants who got a raw deal out of her powers. I was just kind of disappointed for the reasons she did it. She should have just talked to Bobby beforehand. But people are stupid and she IS just a kid. I liked Jean going out in Wolverine's arms. And I like that the president of the United States isn't a villian now.
As for the last two scenes, seeing Magneto is old man's clothes was REALLY depressing but that wobble of the chess piece sold me on that scene. I FIGURED Xavier wasn't actually dead but DANG did he turn out to be majorly wounded. I want to know what happens next but I think this IS actually the last X-Men movie. I can't wait for the Wolverine spin-off. I liked it. ****.
X-Men: The Last Stand
First off, what's with all the hating? I'm not sure if the movie was better than the first two or not but I sure liked it. Yes, they changed some stuff from the comic books but comic books are frustrating for me. I didn't mind.
I liked the movie. Not as much as the Spider-Man movies but despite being directed by Brett "Hack" Rettner I thought it was good. Like the first one it started off with a couple of flashbacks. I was pretty impressed with how they managed to tie everything up at the end too before smacking us with a double-cliffhanger which was quite funny. The wobbly chess piece and Charles' return were both a delightfully wicked place to end the last movie of a trilogy. Since a Wolverine movie is coming (and MAYBE a Magneto one) I want to see if they have ANY intention of answering these two questions.
The mutant cure was a great idea for a film although I'm a little bit sad they didn't manage to wedge Apocaplypse in there since they streamlined the origins of Dark Phoenix AND Juggernaut. I think it might have killed the movie though so I was okay with it.
The good:
-The fight scenes were REALLY good and more epic than either of the other two movies. You'd figure with a title like "The Last Stand" that's to be expected but all the internet hating kept my expectations low.
-Lots of soap opera stuff which was always fun.
-Like the first two movies it continued the trend of not making the mutant paranoia by "normies" over the top. People in picket lines screaming "MUTIES! DEATH TO ALL MUTIES!" on the old Fox cartoon show always made me cringe. Magneto? He can be as arch as he wants to be as far as I'm concerned. Ian MacKellan can sell it. He was as great as he's ever been.
-They killed off Cyclops pretty quickly. I HATE Cyclops and James Marsden is an annoying actor and I was glad to see him punked.
-Loved Kelsey Grammer as Beast.
-Funniest scene in the movie was after the bridge being moved the family in the car locking the doors. It's funny cause no matter HOW pointless it was every single one of us would have probably done the exact same thing.
The not so good:
-The movie was a little too vulgar for me. I thought Kitty Pryde was so cute so when she called Juggernaut a phallic name I kinda cringed. Kids today.
-The Dark Phoenix stuff was nowhere NEAR as epic as the cartoon or the comic book. I know that couldn't really be helped because they jammed so much stuff in here but Jean instead of coming across as a fallen Angel comes across as a sociopath. Meh.
-This is more my problem but I couldn't keep all of the evil mutants straight. I didn't even recognize Pyro in the crowd scene outside the clinic. The movies have too generic actors in many of the roles.
-Storm's "big" role. I have nothing against Halle Berry but it seems almost like her contract negotiations squeezed Patrick Stewart out of half of the movie. I know Xavier has died a billion times but Stewart (along with Hugh Jackman) was the STAR of the first two movies and his role here was WAAAY too minor. And it's not like Storm's new high profile actually led to any great character stuff. She was basically just in more scenes and had more lines. That may satisfy an actor's ego but it does nothing for characterization.
-Logan wasn't as cool as he was in the first two movies. That said, I was surprised at how many people he was allowed to kill in this movie. They must've been gearing the audience for the spin-off.
I was pretty impressed that the trilogy actually had a pretty definative ending. Yes, the last two scenes could propel a sequel but they still managed to tie up a bunch of stuff. Rogue getting cured was sweet as I always thought she was one of the few mutants who got a raw deal out of her powers. I was just kind of disappointed for the reasons she did it. She should have just talked to Bobby beforehand. But people are stupid and she IS just a kid. I liked Jean going out in Wolverine's arms. And I like that the president of the United States isn't a villian now.
As for the last two scenes, seeing Magneto is old man's clothes was REALLY depressing but that wobble of the chess piece sold me on that scene. I FIGURED Xavier wasn't actually dead but DANG did he turn out to be majorly wounded. I want to know what happens next but I think this IS actually the last X-Men movie. I can't wait for the Wolverine spin-off. I liked it. ****.
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Here are some of my biggest problems with it:
It suffers from "fan writing." Or amateur writing. So many no pro writers work like this: They have a great begginning of the story, then they have an idea of how the story should end. But what happens in the middle? they are usually really nebulous on this. this happens in X3. Look at Magneto's story. He's pissed off both at the notion that normies think mutants need a cure and that even though the cure is "voluntary" normies are using it forcibly on mutants. He then decides to gather a force, and attack the facility that makes the cure to destroy it. But look at how that story is distributed in the film. Everything up through "he gathers a force" happens at the beginning of the movie, but he doesn't end up attacking until the very end. So why is he fucking around in the woods so long? You see, it probably would have been a better idea to let the "end" attack on Alactraz happen in the second act and allow the story to develop from there, as everyone faces the consequences of it.
By all rights, Wolverine's story should have been Cyclop's, it would have made more sense with him. Though Phoenix did make the wicked suggestion that Wolverine had been surreptitiously mind neutered by Xavier as well, and if developed that would have really changed the map of this character, and given him a chance to question his allegiances. But they didn't develop it.
And Xavier and Magneto's endings. I don't mind that Xavier died or magneto lost his power. But the suggestion that they're gonna take that all back pissed me off to no end. Magneto, because there was no class to it. It had a slasher horror pick ending, like in Freddy or Jason movie, where even though they die, the movie winks and suggests they'll come back. It's hacky, and I didn't like it for Magneto. And Xavier's ending is so star trek Spock/Data cracky resurrection nonsense that I could barely believe. Yeah, he is patrick stewart, but come on.
Alright alright alright. I liked beast. A lot. And I liked the first act of the movie a lot. I thought what they were setting up with the cure and Dark Phoenix was great in that first act, but the rest of the movie just really let it down. And I thought the final fight was lame.
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Either way, I didn't mind it. I would rather they had hinted at the possibility or set it up in some way (without giving it away), but by the time it happened, I was beyond judgement. I just wanted to escape with what fond memories I could.
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