Pocohontas, Lockheed, & Veronica
(or, Recent Viewings in the Life of Me)
My beloved Feisal decided to need considerable work right after I got home. On the positive side, I had graduation money to cover the costs; on the negative, that money was Glen-designated. So I'm not going this year after all. But I really can't complain: I had been ignoring Feisal's engine light for months, and no Glen results in more Dragon-time. Which is always a good thing, and nearly always results in, erm, memorable quotes.
I saw The Last Stand a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, I was quite disappointed. It wasn't wholly bad, but it had two plots (each of which could have been a fascinating movie on its own) and they didn't reinforce each other; each prevented the other from being developed fully. Also, every conversation in the movie felt rushed. But my biggest complaint is the way it threw away set-ups from the previous movie. The Rogue-Bobby storyline virtually ignored their story from X2; nothing came of Storm's comments to Nightcrawler about anger (or of Nightcrawler himself); and that beautiful visual set-up at the end (the Phoenix underwater) was also ignored. I haven't had a chance to go back & watch the end of X2 yet, but I'm pretty sure Xavier's statements about Jean's powers in The Last Stand directly contradicted his statements at the end of X2.
Which brings us to the Phoenix storyline . . . I will resist my urge to rant and only note two things. (1) I hated the effect they used when Phoenix killed someone. It looked like they dissolved into pixels. I wanted to get the full and horrifying sense that she was killing humans, not the sense that the effects department came up with something cool. (2) They made Phoenix--Phoenix!--a passive character. (She never acts, she only reacts). Idiots.
I won't even mention the Phoenix-force, or how Xavier hadn't messed with Jean's mind, or how Scott shouldn't have died, and if he was going to die it should have happened *on screen*--
Which brings me to another point. Two many deaths (or "cures"), and none of them had the emotional impact they should have had. (I'm with Jan Batchler: Xavier's death should have waited until the end of the 2nd act, if it was going to happen.)
I have plenty more thoughts, but I'll restrain myself. On a happier note, I read Joss Whedon's first 6 X-Men comics (the "Gifted" storyline). It does the cure-thing a lot better than the movie (incidentally, this series, or mini-series, or whatever the correct comic terminology is, inspired that part of the movie). And it has a Kitty Pryde who really *is* Kitty Pryde--complete with Colossus and the marvelous Lockheed. It also made me laugh more than once . . . something the movie failed to accomplish. If The Last Stand disappointed you, I heartily recommend this as an antidote.
Other Recent Viewings include The New World, which was joyous and heartbreaking by turns, and gloriously beautiful. It's one of those films that begs to be seen on the big screen . . . I'm deeply sorry that I didn't see it there. The acting, without exception, is excellent, the cinematography amazing, and Q'Orianka Kilcher (the girl who plays Pocohontas) delivers one of the best performances I've seen in a while. It's an enchanting, almost hypnotisingly beautiful film.
I've also finally purchased Veronica Mars season 1, which I've been wanting to see for ages. I've only see the pilot, but I'm liking it so far--sad but not sentimental, clever, tightly written and well-acted. And with lots of noir influence, which is always fun. :-)
And now I need to dash . . . hopefully the next post will not be so long delayed.
Willowmeads!
My beloved Feisal decided to need considerable work right after I got home. On the positive side, I had graduation money to cover the costs; on the negative, that money was Glen-designated. So I'm not going this year after all. But I really can't complain: I had been ignoring Feisal's engine light for months, and no Glen results in more Dragon-time. Which is always a good thing, and nearly always results in, erm, memorable quotes.
I saw The Last Stand a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, I was quite disappointed. It wasn't wholly bad, but it had two plots (each of which could have been a fascinating movie on its own) and they didn't reinforce each other; each prevented the other from being developed fully. Also, every conversation in the movie felt rushed. But my biggest complaint is the way it threw away set-ups from the previous movie. The Rogue-Bobby storyline virtually ignored their story from X2; nothing came of Storm's comments to Nightcrawler about anger (or of Nightcrawler himself); and that beautiful visual set-up at the end (the Phoenix underwater) was also ignored. I haven't had a chance to go back & watch the end of X2 yet, but I'm pretty sure Xavier's statements about Jean's powers in The Last Stand directly contradicted his statements at the end of X2.
Which brings us to the Phoenix storyline . . . I will resist my urge to rant and only note two things. (1) I hated the effect they used when Phoenix killed someone. It looked like they dissolved into pixels. I wanted to get the full and horrifying sense that she was killing humans, not the sense that the effects department came up with something cool. (2) They made Phoenix--Phoenix!--a passive character. (She never acts, she only reacts). Idiots.
I won't even mention the Phoenix-force, or how Xavier hadn't messed with Jean's mind, or how Scott shouldn't have died, and if he was going to die it should have happened *on screen*--
Which brings me to another point. Two many deaths (or "cures"), and none of them had the emotional impact they should have had. (I'm with Jan Batchler: Xavier's death should have waited until the end of the 2nd act, if it was going to happen.)
I have plenty more thoughts, but I'll restrain myself. On a happier note, I read Joss Whedon's first 6 X-Men comics (the "Gifted" storyline). It does the cure-thing a lot better than the movie (incidentally, this series, or mini-series, or whatever the correct comic terminology is, inspired that part of the movie). And it has a Kitty Pryde who really *is* Kitty Pryde--complete with Colossus and the marvelous Lockheed. It also made me laugh more than once . . . something the movie failed to accomplish. If The Last Stand disappointed you, I heartily recommend this as an antidote.
Other Recent Viewings include The New World, which was joyous and heartbreaking by turns, and gloriously beautiful. It's one of those films that begs to be seen on the big screen . . . I'm deeply sorry that I didn't see it there. The acting, without exception, is excellent, the cinematography amazing, and Q'Orianka Kilcher (the girl who plays Pocohontas) delivers one of the best performances I've seen in a while. It's an enchanting, almost hypnotisingly beautiful film.
I've also finally purchased Veronica Mars season 1, which I've been wanting to see for ages. I've only see the pilot, but I'm liking it so far--sad but not sentimental, clever, tightly written and well-acted. And with lots of noir influence, which is always fun. :-)
And now I need to dash . . . hopefully the next post will not be so long delayed.
Willowmeads!
posted by erendis nasard at 5:03 PM
12 Comments:
Part of the problem with Scott in The Last Stand is that James Marsden is also in Superman Returns, and the shooting schedules conflicted. So they kind of had to get him out of the way.
I mentioned this on my blog, but their interpretation of Phoenix is actually taken from the Ultimate X-Men comics. It's a revisionist take on the originals, which explains Jean's Phoenix persona in much the same way as the film (and makes no mention of the Phoenix Force, and consequently she never exhibits the Phoenix Effect when exercising her Phoenix powers). It was also the inspiration for the Rogue/Bobby relationship and later Rogue/Bobby/Kitty triangle.
I agree that they handled the two storylines poorly, and I think that Brett Ratner was a poor choice as director - he's an action director, not an actor's director, and a film with an ensemble cast like the X-Men films desperately needs the latter. The writing team was poorly chosen as well. Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, xXx 2) and Zak Penn (Elektra) just didn't have the same touch as the previous writing team. Too much focus on action and one-liners, not enough focus on character - their character exposition came dangerously close to telling, not showing.
I also agree about Xavier's death. Should've been at the end of the second act. One thing that disappoints me still is that there was no second big showdown between Xavier and Magneto. You have the one outside the police station in the first X-Men, and you really needed one for the end of the trilogy. I wanted them to finally let Xavier loose and have him destroy Magneto's mind, like he did in the "Fatal Attractions" crossover in the comics. And I wanted Magneto to rip out Wolverine's adamantium (which is what led to Xavier destroying Magneto's mind).
Oh well.
Let me know what you think of Veronica Mars. Haven't seen it yet, but it's on my Netflix list...
Oh, and Jean should've killed herself without Wolverine's intervention. Didn't quite seem right the way it happened.
Huzzah for posting!
:-)
And I'm sorry about Feisal, the Glen, etc., but so glad we'll have more Dragon time.
On X3: For once I think our thinking about a movie runs along similar lines. :-) (Though of course, my movie-analyzing powers are not so developed as yours.) But I did splutter for at least an hour afterwards. It needed something more, though after reading the Wileyman's suggestions from the commic books, I'm rather relieved there wasn't any more violence. As it was, I only saw 2/3 of the movie.
Oh, and on a random note, I'm thinking of corrupting my family and introducing them to Firefly. I've decided my brother at least, would love them. When I tried splaining the plot to my Mom, she was more confused than anything.
:-) And its all your fault
*Goes off singing to self*
"Burn the land, boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me...."
As someone who has read almost every original X-Men storyline in existence and who has watched several attempts to bring the X-Men to life via cartoons, I just wanna say that I wrote off the movie X-Men as unrelated to the actual story after X1. Since then I've sort of felt the movie people were free to do whatever they want, since they're not writing the real X-Men anyway. :)
But the latest movie disappointed me in so many ways anyway, many of which you have mentioned. I didn't recognize the characters as people, which is something I objected to from the start with the portrayals of Scott and Ororo (Storm). There really wasn't the tremendous feeling of tragedy there should have been when Professor X died. And absolutely, Phoenix wasn't her true self. I can only imagine that they didn't want to get into the Starjammers, Lilandra, space battles, etc.
Arrgh. Maybe in another few decades.
Yay! I found your blog!! :-)
Good thoughts, Wileyman. I forgot to mention the lack of a confrontation between Xavier and Magneto--their interactions were always one of the best things about the movies. And Magneto ripping out Wolverine's adamantium, followed by Xavier destroying Magneto's mind . . . wow. *that* would have been a movie worth seeing.
As for "Ultimate X-Men"--what kind of idiot gets a chance to make The Phoenix Movie and uses a revisionist comic as their source material?! I figured the lame idea was their own . . . guess I was giving them too much credit.
I agree, Sarah, Scott & Storm never got the screentime or character development they deserved. They did improve some in X2, I thought, but I kept hoping they'd get more . . . they're great characters. I never really expected Lilandra or planet-eating, but I was hoping they'd get the Phoenix Force right--and the emotion of the Phoenix story. They could have done that without all the wacky space adventures. IF they had tried. Or if "they" had been different people . . . which is the real problem, I think.
And yes, the emotion of the story *definitely* includes Jean killing herself. It's about her dying as a hero (or "champion," if you will) in spite of everything . . . not about Wolverine making a difficult choice and being heartbroken. Yeah, he's heartbroken, but it's kind of a sidenote. This is Jean's story all the way . . .and the most depressing thing about it is that I think Famke Janssen could have done it justice. If they'd only given her a chance. *sniff*
Black Dragon, you really should read the comics one of these days . . . if only so you'll understand all our ranting. :-P Regarding the "corrupting" (what a word! :-o) of your family, I have only one thing to say: Shiny. :-)
"Shiny?" That sounds like something you got from Serenity. ;)
Maybe not so much with the calling of people idiots... it's unbecoming of you.
You have to take into account the fact that the studio was rushing this movie into production, and hired two separate writers to work on the script (the writers chose to team up, but that wasn't the original deal), and that the whole thing would've worked a lot better if the studio hadn't been so keen on getting the film out by May 2006... you may recall that Bryan Singer and his team told Fox that they'd be happy to do X3 after they did Superman, but Fox turned them down in favor of a sooner release date. I'd be more inclined to blame the studio people who made that decision, rather than the writers and director who were brought on board late in the game (and very late, in the case of the director). Could be that's why they chose to take the easy way out instead of trying to do justice to the original Phoenix story.
Not saying that it was the best creative choice, but there may be reasons behind their choice other than idiocy.
edit: ...in favor of *an earlier* release date.
i sit corrected; my last comment was less-than-courteous. as you suggest, the studio people are probably most to blame (die, sooner release dates! die! :-P)
now i'm going to go away and think happy thoughts. expect a non-ranting post in the near future. :-)
Ahem....what was that about updating more frequently?
:-P
Yes, yes, yes. Beyond not following through with the character/story set-ups from X1 and X2, they had too many NEW storylines and characters that they started-- and did NOTHING with! (Angel/Warren, Shadowcat/Kitty) They functioned like pawns ready to be moved at the appropriate time with as little subtlety or motivation as possible. You could have picked up the entirety of the plot from the trailers without ever seeing the film. The rest of the time was filled in with over-blown action sequences. They got Kelsey Grammer to play Beast/Hank--talk about a great cast! I was so disappointed.
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