REVIEW: X-Men First Class

THE REVIEW:

X-Men First Class is a prequel to the OTHER X-Men movies that manages to surpass them. It's a strong film, and it feels like a movie . . . instead of feeling like a comic book movie. Packing a lot of characters and a lot of action sequences into two hours and twenty minutes, X-Men First Class is exciting and funny and fun.

It's not perfect. The main bad guy, Sebastian Shaw, has an unexplained change in motives and, well, more. (See the spoiler notes below.) But with so many characters, there was very little time for the background characters, yet most of them still have pretty satisfying character arcs. The exceptions: Tornado-man and Azazel, who stand around in the background and look cool and kill people. (I'm sure Tornado-man has a name, I didn't catch it.)

Overall, though, it's a slick movie with emotional pay-off. The acting, for the most part, is good. I've heard complaints about Kevin Bacon -- I really liked him in the movie. A lot. And as much as I loved Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as Professor X and Magneto, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were very likeable as the younger versions of the characters.

Overall, a good movie that, for me, is the best of the franchise.

GEEK'S TAKE:

Comic book fans: not sure how you will like it. It is a prequel to the movies, so it has very little to do with comic book continuity. However, it didn't bother me. I knew nothing about Sebastian Shaw before, but I liked what he was in the film (mostly).

I still think it would have been better if, as a complete reboot, it had featured the comic book cast of Angel, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl. As a group,  that's my favorite team of X-Men. Of course, that would have meant a reboot to the movie franchise.

SO WHAT DOES IT "TEACH" ABOUT STORYTELLING?

As a writer, I appreciated a lot about this movie. With a few plotholes (a couple elements seemed to be left on the cutting room floor -- it felt like this may have been a two hour and thirty minute film originally, and if my suspicions are correct, I hope it's successful enough to get a director's cut), it still managed to give a satisfying and emotional story.

Any action sequences came directly from the plot and were driven by the characters. Unlike the later X-Men movies, this one feels like a lot of time and thought was spent on the story. In a way that resonated with me, the plot built on the relationships of the characters to push things forward. It all rises to a climax that that, because of the personal character and relationship groundwork laid earlier in the story, becomes more tense and more interesting.

Along with that, the theme of the movie gets explored from many different angles.Almost every scene is about choosing to become the person you want to become, and each character is given a chance to choose what they are going to do. Those choices all have a payoff in the climax of the movie.

BOTTOM LINE

I really enjoyed this movie. The 60's setting helped separate it from the other X-Men movies and gave it a different sort of vibe compared to other superhero movies. I wish there had been a bit more clothing . . . maybe it was a budget thing? Not for kids (not just because of content, it's just a more mature film), X-Men First Class is a heartfelt action film, with character development, fun, menace, and action.

SPOILER NOTES:

How is it that Sebastian Shaw goes from being a Nazi scientist interested in mutants to being a mutant himself? Was he a mutant in the beginning, which adds an interesting level to his character but doesn't seem to be what the story is showing? Or did he make himself into a mutant, which seems to go against the whole "mutants are the next step and regular people are doomed to be overrun" thing? It feels like there was a tiny bit of exposition missing between the 40's and the 60's.

STAR TREK Superbowl ad . . .

So now we have a situation in our American culture where advertisements are sponsored by more advertisements! Talk about the snake eating its tail . . .

Bah, who cares! It's Star Trek!



I love the theme they seem to be presenting of how Kirk is "destined for greater things". It's something that happens to be true for everyone in the entire world, not just hotshot space cadets . . . and something that people tend not to realize.

"You can settle for an ordinary life. I dare you to do better."

That's one of the things, in different words, I tried to impart to my high school students, and also my Sunday School students. It's what Christianity, in many ways, is all about. How many people live up to their God given potential? How many people just live their life, going through the motions, with no greater destiny in mind?

Yeah, there's probably some things about this movie I won't like. But this idea, seeming to be a theme for the movie, excites me.

~ Ben

Nano Film Review #16 -- Hellboy II

I've been looking forward to this movie. Guillermo del Toro is a director I've come to love, mostly through his movie Pan's Labyrinth, which is a visual feast. It's also a beautiful (and horrible) statement about fairy tales and hope and all that stuff.

Hellboy II got looked over, I think, partially because of all the hubbub about Dark Knight. Heck, I looked it over. I intended to write this when it came out, but Dark Knight took my attention away.

But it deserves some recognition. Where Dark Knight was, in essence, a crime drama about a superhero (seriously, put Dark Knight up next to Heat), Hellboy II was, in essence, a High Fantasy movie about a superhero.

Seriously. Put Hellboy II up next to Lord of the Rings.

The character designs are fantasy.

The sets . . .

Heck, even the plot. They must stop the evil fairy/elf from finding the object that can raise an evil army to take over the world. Okay, I simplify it . . . but if you take the Reader's Digest version of Hellboy II and put it up next to the Reader's Digest version of Lord of the Rings . . . you're reading two Reader's Digest stories that are quite similar.

Truth be told, Hellboy II is, like Pan's Labyrinth, a visual feast.

Indeed, when the fantasy parts were the best parts. When the characters leave that world, you almost feel bad. Like you didn't want them to leave that world because you don't want to leave that world.

If you like High Fantasy and you like smart Alec superheroes and you don't mind getting a bit of peanut butter in your chocolate, check it out.

Images from Yahoo Movies.

Nano Film Review #14 -- The Dark Knight

I'm behind on my "reviews". Wall*E, Hellboy II, and a couple others just have to wait. Last night I saw The Dark Knight in Imax.

It. Was. Amazing.

I have to go again and see it. This is a movie that bears repeat viewings. This is a movie that Says Something. And I want to see it again.

First, the Imax stuff: it was beautiful. The last Imax movie I saw was something about the Wright Brothers at Disney or something. Just gorgeous. I'd like to see it again in Imax, but it was just happy circumstance that I found myself 20 minutes away from an Imax theater on this particular weekend. I'll not be seeing it in Imax again. But I think I want to see it on the big screen again.

This movie is a dark movie. Very dark. I'm surprised it did not get an "R" rating. I found myself squirming whenever Joker came on screen, because you never knew what he was going to do.

This movie mines the ideas of good and evil, heroes and antiheroes. And it does it well. It was a very dense movie, with a lot packed into the 2 hour 30 minute running time. And there were some cuts where you could just see they had to trim another second here or there to get it under the studio's desired running time. That's my only complaint: the movie needed some breathing space. Time not for US to breath, but for the story to breath.

Heath Ledger will not, and should not, be nominated for an Oscar. He was awesome, but it wasn't that kind of awesome.

They didn't really dig into my idea of the Two Face character: that Two Face is essentially half Batman and half Joker. I expected to see more of a tug of war between Batman and Joker over Harvey Dent. But the story that DID develop made sense for the theme they were running with.

It was a powerful film, exploring ideas in a mature way, but because of the capes and costumes, it was able to explore it in a more powerful way than had it been a "real world" action drama.

If you can see it in Imax . . . do it.

~ Ben

The Dark Knight

Not sure when I'll get to see this. I have tons of work to do today and this weekend (compounded because I'm completely rewriting the majority of the project), a signing tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be visiting my parents tomorrow afternoon and Sunday.

I'm excited to see the movie, though. My parents live near an IMAX theater . . . maybe after the kids are in bed. :)

I hope this movie is the story I want it to be. To me, Two Face is the composite of Batman and Joker. One side, seeking justice. The other side, seeking anarchy. I haven't heard much about the Two Face elements of the story, but I truly hope that's the direction they go in.

~ Ben

Nano Film Review #13 -- The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk would've been a much better film if I hadn't seen Iron Man first. But I did. So here we are.

Overall, it was a fun movie. Lots of smashing. Lots of running. Lots of blowing stuff up. Lots of references to the original television series. Cool stuff.

Stan Lee's cameo was good . . . but I wish we could've seen more. Lou Ferrigno's cameo was fun. And Bill Bixby's cameo was cool to see.

And the ending? Well, the climax was cliche. And the epilogue was done MUCH better in Iron Man. (Not so spoilerish spoiler: Just like Iron Man, there's a quick zoom to a smile as Bruce Banner accepts who he is. Iron Man did the same thing, but it had been set up throughout the movie. In Hulk, the denouement here sort of -- to me -- canceled out the theme of the movie!) And the "crossover" that you already know about (Tony Stark/Iron Man showing up) was okay.

Other than the ending -- which wasn't bad, it just wasn't great -- it I enjoyed this movie. It didn't have the raw emotion of the first Hulk movie. But that's okay.

~ Ben