Saturday, May 27, 2006

X-Men: The Last Stand

I have seen, I have enjoyed.

Ok, I'm going to go into some bits and pieces of the movie here so if you haven't seen it yet I'd just skip on over this entry. If you have seen it let me know what you think. With that in mind......







I went into this one with all of the spoilers in mind. I've read most of the previews and they've been negative for the most part. If you're going to see it I would go in with the mantra I had, "The movie is not the comic.....The movie is not the comic." Once I got that going through my head I really enjoyed myself. Now then about the movie...

Cyclops got a raw deal. Out pretty early. But as Bill and I discussed after the movie, no body, not necessarily dead. And the whining I've heard on this has driven me nuts. Characters like this (yes, even "important ones") come and go in the comics. They disappear for a while (like Cyclops did at the end of the Phoenix Saga) and they come back later. Hell, Jean Grey has died and lived so many times it's become something of an inside joke for comic fans. So just relax.

I do like this "realistic" view of the team. It actually one of the reasons I buy into the whole Phoenix as a schizo representation of Jean as opposed to the cosmic entity it was in the comics. I mean really, do you think they were going to introduce the Shi'ar Empire for the third movie? I don't even think they'll do it if they make a new trilogy. This verision is very earth bound and earth centered. Problems just don't have that cosmic feel to them yet. I did like the image they gave her as everything was consumed around her. She was one scary redhead.

And when Wolverine killed her in the end was anyone else thinking of the ending to "Spiderman vs Wolverine"? It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and the imagery just seems to be in inspiration. It was also kind of cool to see the Ultimate Wolverine imagery of his flesh being ripped/burned away and growing back. They don't play that up as much in the 616 universe as they do in the Ultimate universe.

I really loved Kelsey Grammer as the Beast. I thought he pulled him off very well with the intellectual sound yet the animalistic look. Only once did I ever think, "Fraiser?" And come on, they even slipped in "Oh my stars and garters." Cool.

Kitty Pride looked age appropriate at the beginning of her run with the team. I thought that was cool. I was kind of dissappointed that they went with the whole love triangle story with Iceman and Rogue. She really needs to be with Colossus (or to quote Wolverine in Whedon's AX-M run, "It's about time").

Speaking of Iceman.......HE PUT ON THE ICE ARMOR. I damn near pee'd my pants when I saw that. Just a cool touch.

Overall I thought it was a good story. It's funny that while the comics are really in a deconstructive storytelling mode, the movie tried to cram as much as it could in the time it had. If anything that would be my gripe with it....it felt too short. I would have loved for this story to be longer, but maybe there's hope for that second trilogy. Anybody else see it? What'd you think?

3 comments:

JHearne said...

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Parts of it were frustrating but, for the most part, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Grammer did a very good job as Beast and when he started unleashing his "beast-ness" in that final fight, it was a joyful release to finally see him go to work.

People died but I expected deaths. It is, after all, a third movie in a trilogy.

Plus, I really enjoyed Juggernaut.

My vote for one of the biggest mismatches in X-Men history has to be Juggernaut Vs. Kitty Pride. It should be a very quick fight. Not as quick as Phoenix V. Jubilee (if that would ever happen) but quick.

Jim said...

Yeah, and the whole phasing him into the ground thing should have killed him, but I'm willing to give a little ground with the fact that their powers work differently here than in the comic book.

"The movie is not the comic book, aka... Sir, put your geek away and step away from the movie."

Where was Jubilee in the film? We saw her name come through in the credits, but we're not sure where she was. Was she one of the students Prof X was lecturing to in the beginning? I'll have to wait 'till the dvd comes out and go through this again.

JHearne said...

Probably. I didn't see any oh-so-useful fireworks...