Xmen 3
Like most I have seen Xmen 3. If you haven't and you want it to remain a surprise stop reading now but when you do see it stay til the end of the credits.
I didn't anticipate much for it as a movie and it delivered. It was not gripping, it was not moving, it was not spectacular. It was a special effects playground showing off the imagination (or plagiarism) of the mutants abilities. That said I liked Juggernaut he was one of the redeeming features of the movie, and Vinnie Jones did a sterling job of playing a guy who charges in and attacks everything; it is the role he was born to play.
As a movie though it was trying to do to many things and ended up doing nothing. It had the main plot line of someone inventing an 'antidote' to mutanism and Magneto raising up an army to destroy the antidote. To exacerbate matters the government turns the antidote into a weapon which neither Prof X nor Magneto agree with. But that is just the beginning of the plots in the movie, they add in the most superfluious character yet in the person of Angel. I have yet to ascertain any reason at all for him to be in the movie except to give the inventor of the antidote incentive to create it. As well they had the love story between Rogue and Iceman going on. Rogue gets upset that her powers cause her to be unable to touch her boyfriend and he finds that he can touch Kitty (walk thru walls chick). In the end Rogue submits to the antidote (of her own freewill) and becomes normal. Also, they had the rise of the Phoenix as Jean Gray's suppressed alternate personality who was an unstable class 5 mutant (as powerful as you can get) and the continuation of the love story between her and Wolverine. Finally there is the enemity between Pyro and Iceman but instead of building it up there was one stand off and one major fight scene which was over in the blink of an eye. They should have had an earlier fight scene (in the third movie) where Iceman gets his arse kicked by Pyro and a few scenes showing him trying (and failing) to turn himself to ice. Thus in the final fight it becomes more built up, although this is adding to a movie that I thought was doing too much as it is. And there are probably another half dozen other plots that I have forgotten as well.
Storm and Cyclops throughout the series suffered from having no back story to understand them as characters. By the end of the series each of the other Xmen and Magneto is understandable to some extent because we learn what shaped them when there powers first manifested (except Prof X). What happened when Cyclops' powers first developed being a kid at school shooting firey lasers out of his eyes isn't exactly optimal? What about Storm whaen she learnt she could have a snow day any day she chose? As it stands their characters have no depth.
The series also suffered from killing off mutants by the bucket load. By the end of the trilogy all that is left of the original mutants (from the first movie) are Storm, Wolverine, and Prof X and maybe Magneto. They have added to their number but also lost some. Also, the addition of what seem to be main mutants to the movie only to kill them off or ignore them in following movies is kind of wasteful, whatever happened to Nightcrawler? And the loss of Mystique while a major point in the movie happens and is done with without barely any comment.
Finally, in my opinion the trilogy suffered from not being a trilogy. It was a series of three movies that built off the previous ones box office success and the success of the comics and the catoon series. In order for them to work properly they should have started the antidote subplot at the start of the first movie and made Angel come to the University sooner (maybe in the second movie) as he is quite a cool character. Throughout the course of the first two movies keep their main plots but especially in the second one have them find as well as the mind control experiments have them find them trialing (and failing with horrible side effects) the anitdote. Then in the final movie less time needs to be wasted on the development etc of the antidote and let it just focus of Magneto raising an army, the rise of the Phoenix, and the Pyro and Iceman antithesis.
I didn't anticipate much for it as a movie and it delivered. It was not gripping, it was not moving, it was not spectacular. It was a special effects playground showing off the imagination (or plagiarism) of the mutants abilities. That said I liked Juggernaut he was one of the redeeming features of the movie, and Vinnie Jones did a sterling job of playing a guy who charges in and attacks everything; it is the role he was born to play.
As a movie though it was trying to do to many things and ended up doing nothing. It had the main plot line of someone inventing an 'antidote' to mutanism and Magneto raising up an army to destroy the antidote. To exacerbate matters the government turns the antidote into a weapon which neither Prof X nor Magneto agree with. But that is just the beginning of the plots in the movie, they add in the most superfluious character yet in the person of Angel. I have yet to ascertain any reason at all for him to be in the movie except to give the inventor of the antidote incentive to create it. As well they had the love story between Rogue and Iceman going on. Rogue gets upset that her powers cause her to be unable to touch her boyfriend and he finds that he can touch Kitty (walk thru walls chick). In the end Rogue submits to the antidote (of her own freewill) and becomes normal. Also, they had the rise of the Phoenix as Jean Gray's suppressed alternate personality who was an unstable class 5 mutant (as powerful as you can get) and the continuation of the love story between her and Wolverine. Finally there is the enemity between Pyro and Iceman but instead of building it up there was one stand off and one major fight scene which was over in the blink of an eye. They should have had an earlier fight scene (in the third movie) where Iceman gets his arse kicked by Pyro and a few scenes showing him trying (and failing) to turn himself to ice. Thus in the final fight it becomes more built up, although this is adding to a movie that I thought was doing too much as it is. And there are probably another half dozen other plots that I have forgotten as well.
Storm and Cyclops throughout the series suffered from having no back story to understand them as characters. By the end of the series each of the other Xmen and Magneto is understandable to some extent because we learn what shaped them when there powers first manifested (except Prof X). What happened when Cyclops' powers first developed being a kid at school shooting firey lasers out of his eyes isn't exactly optimal? What about Storm whaen she learnt she could have a snow day any day she chose? As it stands their characters have no depth.
The series also suffered from killing off mutants by the bucket load. By the end of the trilogy all that is left of the original mutants (from the first movie) are Storm, Wolverine, and Prof X and maybe Magneto. They have added to their number but also lost some. Also, the addition of what seem to be main mutants to the movie only to kill them off or ignore them in following movies is kind of wasteful, whatever happened to Nightcrawler? And the loss of Mystique while a major point in the movie happens and is done with without barely any comment.
Finally, in my opinion the trilogy suffered from not being a trilogy. It was a series of three movies that built off the previous ones box office success and the success of the comics and the catoon series. In order for them to work properly they should have started the antidote subplot at the start of the first movie and made Angel come to the University sooner (maybe in the second movie) as he is quite a cool character. Throughout the course of the first two movies keep their main plots but especially in the second one have them find as well as the mind control experiments have them find them trialing (and failing with horrible side effects) the anitdote. Then in the final movie less time needs to be wasted on the development etc of the antidote and let it just focus of Magneto raising an army, the rise of the Phoenix, and the Pyro and Iceman antithesis.
2 Comments:
it was a brilliant movie, good on them for getting rid of that "dick" Scott right at the beginning
the producer obviously hadn't read the comics, considering how out of whack the characters' personalities were
Well, Jared
I personally thoroughly enjoyed it...
As far as i'm aware, Angel was in there because he was one of the original Xmen - and so far had not been featured in the movies- And his part was intentionally small cos there's not too much they could use him for.. although I thought having him save his dad was particuarly cool...
As to trilogyness... it's kinda like star wars.. the first one felt like a standalone movie... the second one ended with somewhat of an obvious need for a sequel, and to me the third one felt very much like the conclusion to a trilogy... at least until the chess piece and the bit after the credits...
You must also remember that it is X men - not super man, nor batman, not X man... but X men... plural
It needs to have multiple sub plots ..and it's not just about one central character, but several...
the barely a comment about mystique losing her powers was actually kinda cool... seeing that Magneto no longer cared once she wan't a mutant was interesting.. and to follow her up more after that would have detracted from that..
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