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Saturday, May 27, 2006

X-tremely X-orbiant X-ultations

They Say, "Third Time's the Charm..."

Not that they didn't get it right the first two times around.

Hold on guys, I plan on spending some quality time with my favorite make-believe people, here. If you'd rather not sit through my exhaustive gushing over my hands-down favorite movie of the summer (who cares if it isn't even June, yet?) then I advise you to check back around Tuesday evening (hopefully I'll be better at updating by then)

This very morning, I snuck out with the Anskatian and Skatty 3.0 for a matinee showing of X3. While the discounted prices were nice, and the lack of local toughs is always appreciated, it still felt strange to watch a blockbuster movie on opening weekend in a nearly empty theater. Here, I respectably will disagree with my compadre, in that I do prefer to see such guilty pleasure flicks in the boisterous throng of a theater filled to capacity with over-eager nerds, geeks, and dorks (My People!) True, there are always obnoxious teenagers in the audience... but you also get to be a little obnoxious yourself, which can be fun... especially with a movie like this. I still remember watching X2 for the first time, going absolutely nuckin' futs when Colossus armors up for the first time. It's also cool to be in the company of a hundred or so weirdos that get every little inside-joke and esoteric comic book reference the movie might include... which is always fun. But don't get me wrong, a difference in choice of venues aside, I had an awesome time seeing the matinee with Anskatian and his bro!

Since it is still opening weekend, I must resist giving too much away about the storyline. Now, I freely admit that I followed the progress of this flick quite closely. "Obsessive," might be a good word to describe how I'd check for updates several times a day. The only drawback to my dilligence was that I already had a taste of many of the action sequences... so there were points during the movie where I felt like I was watching it for the second, or third... or 34th time. I have only my fanboy monomania to blame. But, amazingly enough, the marketing geniuses over at 20th Century Fox restrained themselves enough to still let the movie provide more than a few incredible surprises! Would, "jaw-dropping," be a good qualifier to use? Yes, I think so. There were some absolutely jaw-dropping surprises, and some major departures from the comic book continuity. The trailers and teasers have shown what looks like a memorial service that the students of Xavier's attend. Online chat rooms and forums have debated who exactly the memorial is for, for months and months. The answer is mind-blowing.

The storyline touches upon what is considered amongst long-time X-Men fans as the greatest X-Story Ever Told - "The Dark Phoenix Saga". It centers on the soft-spoken and demure character Jean Grey who suddenly finds herself possessed by the "Phoenix Force," which enhances her powers to god-like levels, while bringing out more passionate and extreme displays of emotion. Well, the comic book version is fairly complicated, and I found myself a litte embarrassed when I was explaining it all at Croxley's to Anskatian and Skatty 3.0 over lunch. It's pretty much comic book geekdom of the highest order, even if I could probably write a 50 page thesis on it. Be that as it may, the movie took a fairly more plausible approach to who or what "The Phoenix" is. I've come to accept these cinematic deviations of these comic books as par for course. For the sake of a proper blockbuster movie, over 40 years of continuity need to be whittled down a bit. I thought the movie's take was excellent. It touched upon many of the most emotional aspects of The Dark Phoenix Saga without including intergalactic alien empires, cosmic fire birds and whatnot (if you seriously want to know the comic book story, I'll be happy to tell you the whole thing over a case of beer... it's a long story! And I like beer.)

Well, Halle Berry got her wish, and this time around she's one of the major players, getting plenty of face time and dialogue. And to the writers' credit, she's completely done away with awkward accents and at no time does she utter any more horrible battle banter. In recent interviews, she denies being serious about threatening to leave the series if she didn't get more time in the movie... which is pretty convenient to say, now, since she got her way. Frankly, I'd be happy to be in a ridiculously successful movie franchise and keep my mouth shut. To be honest, I still think Halle was miscast to be Storm. The comics always portrayed her with a regal bearing, and I could see someone like Angela Bassett, or the model, Iman, fulfilling that role much more naturally. But be that as it may, this time around, Storm kicks ass. She flies, she shoots lightning, she closelines Callisto. Storm finally gets into action the way she should have been since the beginning. I give director Bret Rattner mucho props for finally getting those action scenes right!

I always loved listening to hoity-toity movie critics discussing the "cultural subtext," of the X-Men movies. About how it speaks to "all individuals who feel like outcasts. Homosexuals, minorities, teenagers in general..." These guys would read into all this stuff and rave about the movies and then bestow great reviews. And while Newsday has given all three X-Movies at least 3 stars each time, I think they missed the basic point - the X-Men Trilogy is awesome because IT HAS MUTANTS FIGHTING IN IT! That's why they're so successful. I don't think a young Peruvian transexual is watching X-Men, identifying with Wolverine's desperate sense of alienation. Rather, it's the millions of guys, religiously watching these flicks, wanting to pop some adamantium claws with a satisfying SNIKT, and go berserker rage on some deserving local tough. But, I guess Peruvian trannies have there place in there, too. Maybe. But hey, if the critics love it too, than that's just another feather in the ol' Magneto helmet, right?

My only gripe about the X-Men Trilogy (God, I hate that - Why the heck are these movie people so obsessed with trilogies? If the movies are well-made, then they'll be successful. We can be brave and venture into a fourth movie... just don't make it lame! I guess they're all worried about pulling a Superman IV) Anyway, my gripe is this - once again, no love for Cyclops. He's the leader of the freakin' X-Men and he's barely a blip on the radar in the "Hugh and Halle Show." I mean, it's tough enough to be the straight-arrow leader and Mister Vanilla Mundane, with badasses like Wolverine strutting around wearing revealing undershirts, crazy hairdos, and raising a single eyebrow all sarcastically... but at least make him matter! In X2, he spends nearly the entire movie as Stryker's prisoner, and when he finally meets up Storm and the rest of the X-Men, nobody seems to have noticed he's been gone all this time. Not so much as a, "Scott! I'm glad you're okay!" I think Storm just says something like, "Where's Wolverine." I tell ya, forget Rodney Dangerfield. Cyclops gets no respect. None.

But in the end, this movie was absolutely fantastic. With the incredible confidence in the story, with a tremendous budget to match, this third celluloid installment of movie mutants takes on an sweeping epic atmosphere. The storyline barrels along to the emotional and action-packed climax that simply must be seen to be believed. I tell you, friends, this is $10 bucks well spent!

Feedback Question of the Day:
"Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

4 Comments:

At 8:21 AM, Blogger Marla said...

I prefer the bad news first!!

 
At 6:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

bad news first

 
At 9:23 PM, Blogger Chris said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 9:24 PM, Blogger Chris said...

I know the news (both good and bad), so it doesn't matter in which order I get it...

 

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