Post by Power NeXus on Jun 3, 2011 4:07:23 GMT -5
On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised by how this movie turned out. Of course, the fanboy in me had a lot of problems with the major deviations from comic canon, but other than that it was actually a pretty good movie. It did a very good job of showing the origins of both Charles and Erik, the forces that drive them together, and the differences that ultimately split them apart.
Acting
I have never been much of a theatre person. My knowledge of acting isn't really good enough to recognize truly good acting when I see it. I can only recognize bad acting. In this movie, there was only one scene that stood out to me as having bad acting, and that was at the beginning when young Erik was screaming in rage over the death of his mother. His screaming just sounded entirely fake to me. Aside from that one scene, I don't recall any sub-par acting jobs.
Visuals
As I had expected, the visuals in this movie were pretty much flawless. The special effects were dazzlinng, and in all but one case the characters are visually stunning. The one exception to this is Beast after his transformation. I was very very disappointed by his appearance. Honestly, he looked like he was wearing a very elaborate Halloween costume. The version from X-Men 3 looked much more believable than this one.
Plot
I was somewhat surprised by how well the plot was thought out. I had expected something completely banal and cookie-cutter, but it turned out to be creative and unique to some extent. I liked seeing the blend of 'Hellfire Club trying to initiate WWIII' and 'Xavier and Magneto starting their school'.
Character Development
This was one area that fully satisfied me in some ways, and sorely disappointed me in others. I think the most brilliantly developed character in the movie was Magneto. I loved watching his journey as 'Frankenstein's monster' hunting down the man who made him what he is. The development between Charles and Mystique was also great. A brother/sister relationship between those two was the last thing I ever would have expected to see, but it worked surprisingly well. Angel Salvadore's turn to the dark side was also interesting. But, on the other side of that coin, there were several characters who recieved no development at all. Beast was given plenty of screen time before his transformation, but after the transformation he is given one very short scene of "Grr. I'm all blue and furry and I'm mad about it. Grr." After that, any angst he is experiencing about his appearance is completely ignored. Also, there were several characters who seemed to be thrown in just for the sake of having more characters. Riptide appears in action sequences, but I don't believe he is ever called by name, or has any speaking lines at all. For anyone who does not look at the cast list to see who he is, he will just be "that one guy who makes tornadoes (which, as the fanboy in me insists upon saying, is not even his power in the comics).
Action Scenes
It's a superhero movie. Of course it has to be judged on it's action scenes. I have mixed feelings about the Hellfire Club's attack on the government training base. It was cool seeing Azazel do all of his tele-drops and stabbings (much like Nightcrawler's fight scene in the White House, but more brutal), but at the same time the whole scene felt very cheese, especially when Azazel, Sebastian, and Riptide all finish their respective a$$-kickings at the exact same time, and all enter the X-kids room simultaneously from different directions. On the other hand, the other major action scene of the movie (the final fight at the end) was balls-to-the-wall awesome. Beast and Havok fighting Azazel. Banshee fighting Angel. Eye-popping flight shots with Banshee. I was enthralled every minute of it. The only part I didn't like was when Azazel saved himself, Beast, and Havok from falling to their deaths just by teleporting them closer to the ground. The physics nerd in me cringed a little at that part.
Other thoughts
I had a real problem with the one major death in the movie. They killed Darwin. Darwin. The guy's superpower is all about survival, and yet he's the one character who dies in the movie. I don't see how that makes any kind of sense.
Unfortunately, Havok's relationship to Cyclops was never mentioned in this movie. Aside from learning to better control his powers, very little was done for Havok at all. I guess we're just supposed to assume they are father and son (it fits in with the timeline of the movies).
Wolverine's cameo in the movie was pure gold. I was looking forward to finally having an X-Men movie that is not centered around Wolverine, and a tiny piece of me was disappointed when I heard the rumors that he would have a cameo appearance. But I gotta say, that quick little scene with him was funny as heck.
I didn't like Emma Frost in this movie. I don't like her in the comics, but it's not quite the same thing. In the comics, she's a total b**ch but she demands respect. In this movie, she was really just more annoying than anything else.
The one part of the movie that I felt was more of a let-down than anything else was the very end (the very end). After what Marvel studios has been in the habit of doing, superhero movie watchers are now conditioned to expect a little tidbit after the credits. When the movie ended, almost nobody in the theater left their seats. We all remained seated through the credits... and then let out one collective groan when the screen went black and the lights came on. Fox should have known fans would be expecting a clip after the credits. I feel like they trolled us just for fun.
Summary
THE GOOD: Spectacular action and visuals, great character development in some areas, interesting plot
THE BAD: Some bad character development and a few totally useless characters, a few too many minor elements that just seem like a slap in the face to true comic fans (Darwin dying, no mention of Havok's relationship to Cyclops, ect)
7/10
Cool
