Wow, I guess I'm the first to post this up... which is rare. But the film is way more action oriented in the end than the first two films... but I'm still somewhat shocked at how Xavier and Scott end up. I'm still just shocked though at the whole conclusion.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mikey T: Wow, I guess I'm the first to post this up... which is rare. But the film is way more action oriented in the end than the first two films... but I'm still somewhat shocked at how Xavier and Scott end up. I'm still just shocked though at the whole conclusion.
Deaders, both. Triples at the end for jean.
It caught me by suprise, too but, since it's hollywood and when someone want's off a show they tasha yar'em or promote to Star Fleece Medical, then this makes perfect sence then.
possibly.
either way, it was a good movie. Just one question though. how does Jean's movie phoenix powers compare to cannon comic book rites?
and loved Kitty's getting some action in the end, too very good use for her...
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
They used Kitty v. well - I wondered actually what use her power in the field would be - but it was shown to be very useful. Pity no nightcrawler but it would have just confused things. The body count was large and I'm pissed of at it but at the same time I think it showed they had guts because in most of these 'big' movies - everyone ends up 'fine' in the end.
Posted by Doctor Jonas (Member # 481) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mikey T: It caught me by suprise, too but, since it's hollywood and when someone want's off a show they tasha yar'em or promote to Star Fleece Medical, then this makes perfect sence then.
I'd say, given that some entity called Phoenix is involved, maybe even them three wouldn't be cashing out their final checks...
But the rest of the movie was good. A more profound view at the relationship between Xavier and Magneto, Mystique betraying the Brotherhood after she's been left behind, the Angel subplot was good enough... and it's always a pleasure to see McKellen, Stewart and Kelsey Grammer acting. Especially since Beast is one of my favorites.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I'm surprised Beast didn't end up teaching again in the school... although it's always an option I guess.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
Ay, large body count indeed, but did ye stay 'til after the credits?
So the dialogue was pretty crap mostly and the melodrama was, well I genuinely felt bad for McKellan and Stewart for having to emote some of that tripe. Just so on-the-nose deliberate, "This is the action which is about to happen and these are the emotions I am feeling about this and also my motivation. (Sorry you are too dumb to be trusted to work this out for yourselves, but thanks for your ten bucks, suckers.)" There were dead-end emotional subplots that never really took off for me, but to me the crippler was Logan and Storm's literal collapsing in tears after Xavier's disintegration. Other low points include the thirty or so seconds that the future of the school is in jeopardy and Magneto's preposterous change of heart upon his untimely dis-mutanting.
That said, I did find some things to like. I thought on the whole the effects looked pretty great. I enjoyed Vinnie Jones's Juggernaut. The Dark Phoenix thing had SOOO much potential and at a couple points it almost seemed to ignite, but never quite delivered on the promise. From spotty memories of intermitent attention to the comic series there was this idea that the Dark Phoenix was some immortal primordial force incarnated in and occupying Jean Gray, and that incredibly compelling notion seemed to be set aside for the rational and very-much watered down version of Jean being an uniquely powerful mutant with MPD. Anyway the mood with the dark eyes and floating/swirling objects was genuinely spooky without being entirely unsympathetic, surely a difficult line to walk, and Famke did so beautifully. Speaking of incredibly beautiful women, Rebecca Romijn in (and out of) blue body paint while performing acrobatics is something of which I could stand to watch a bit more. Also I think we can all agree that everyone loves to watch Wolverine kick a lot of ass, and while the one-liners began to take on Shwarzaneggarian proportions, he did ultimately kill a lot of people.
I really wish I hadn't been groaning so much at some of the corny lines and cheeseball situations, because there's a really great movie in there wanting to get out.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Sounds awesome in that "wait for video" sense.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
The entire movie or the bit after the credits? Cause I think the movie, while not as good as the first movie was an absolute spectacular! Mutants galore!
I thought it was quite good - I just didn't like the hight mutant body count - but that's just me.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Just saw it last night with friends, we all rather enjoyed it but yeah, it didn't quite pop as much as the second one and personally I put it down to the short running time. I mean 1hr 47mins is barely enough time for a run-of-the-mill action flick to satisfy, but for something with such a large cast it's not een close to giving everyone their due time. Poor Rogue spent the whole time in what seamed to be a seperate film. A made for TV drama about abortion by the feel of it, which felt very jarring considering her & Logan were the central characters of the first one. So yeah, an extra 30 mins could have made all the difference here. Aside from giving rogue something to do (like aquiring strength & flight) they could have given Jean more to do aside from looking grim and vacant, gave some character depth to Kitty and done something more with Magneto's defeat, which as it stands seamed way to easy.
As for phoenix, I waited the whole film to see her to the giant flaming bird thing. Am I the only one that thought that was what a phoenix is supposed to do?
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
No, we all know phoenixes are supposed to save Harry Potter from having his franchise killed off.
But the film - you're right Rev, I walked out of the Theatre realy noticing how short it was. The plot was certainly more concise, but I did feel that rather than trimming it (as would be ideal with most other comic book movie plots that have popped up recently) it needed more!
On the whole I liked it, but the bit after the credits elicited a BIG groan from the twenty-ish people who watched Jonathon Ross (or were told about it like me). The bloke behing me said "Fucking hell, they're gonna make a fourth one!" I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not in his eyes.
Overall I did like it, the plot was (as with the last two films) intelignet and watchable. Saying that, yes BX, the dialogue is a bit poo, and the oopening scene (20 years ago etc.) was a bit toe curling - I want his car though.
The minor charicters were not fleshed out enough, and the old ones were given shite lines.
So Shik, not so much wait for video, but for the DVD with the extended scenes in it.
Despite that, I saw trailers for the Superman flick, which looks cheesetastic and used the John Williams theme (I think Kevin Spacey is in the closet, anyone else), Pirates of the Caribbean (looking good, but it's still got Keira-"I can't act, am not as good looking as I think I am, and have no boobs in 'The Hole'"-Knightley in it, which always spoils it for me, and the Omen - a remake which will not be as good as the original or havid David Soul being killed in a nasty fashion. I might be reading alot over summer.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I also thought Rogue should have been given a larger part.
I must say Storm was how Storm always should have been from X-Men 1 - I think I read where Halle Berry wasn't coming back unless Storm was made more like her comic-counterpart.
GAWD that was a crap line in the first movie when she zapped Toad.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
I've heard that was a Joss Whedon line and the intention was for it not to take it so over-dramatic, more of a "well, y'know... pretty much the same thing that happens to everything else."
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
So here's my buck-fifty (I got way more than two cents to say about this flick).
The X-Men were coming back to Earth from the space station of the guy who invented the Sentinels in a shuttle that didn't have enough shielding in the cockpit to protect from the radiation storm that was coming. Jean sent everyone back into the protected cargo hold and piloted the shuttle to a splashdown in New York Harbor. And died in the process (ish). As all of the other X-Men are bobbing there and somehow not suffering hypothermia, Jean (we think) comes boiling out of the water surrounded by the image of a giant flaming bird. For all its other craptacularness, the old animated series got this right on.
Anyway, yes. Phoenix is the manifestation of the life-force of the universe -- the wellspring for everything not yet born. It wrapped Jean in a healing cocoon (which was found by the Avengers) and took over her life to see what it was like to be human... And fell prey to our darker passions.
I definitely would have liked it if SOME of this had made it into the movie.
I was always bothered by the relationship between Logan and Rogue. In the comics, it was the relationship between Logan and Kitty.. And even though we didn't have any outings to an alien starship, I still would have liked to see Lockheed. Love that little dragon.
I was pissed about Mystique, but not in the way you might think. When she reverted to human, all I could think was "paint her blue and give her red hair and ellow eyes and THAT'S what Mystique is supposed to look like. 'Becca originally pushed for the Mystique costume we got because of a descriptive line in the script for the first movie that said Mystique was "vaguely reptilian". Okay, I don't know where that comes from, but even still, 'Becca, it was not talking about her physical appearance.
Moving the Golden Gate Bridge was awesome. The brief appearance(s) of Moira MacTaggart was awesome. I wish we'd actually seen the lanky kid from the first movie turn out to be Cannonball. Loved the Fastball Special, as well as the "Days of Future Past" Danger Room bit. Kitty and Peter are supposed to have feelings for each other, leave Bobby out of it. Liked seeing Bobby truly become Iceman. I wished the cameo mutants were more identifiable. I saw Callisto in the credits, but I can only try to deduce who she was supposed to be in the movie. Didn't like Chrles or Scott dying, although the aftermath up there in Canada was the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time. I still would have liked Alex Summers to have made an appearance. The Beast's presence was great (and Kelsey Grammer was wonderful in the role). Nightcrawler's absence was not. And why didn't Magneto open the third cell in the prison truck?
All in all, three-movie contracts or not, this should have either been an hour longer or two movies.
--Jonah
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Callisto was the bitch with the lip-piercing and omega tat.
If they included aliens and space storms people would have just groaned and walked out. They introduced Phoenix/Jean Grey the best way they could in the confines of what has been laid down in the past two movies. Reading what you typed above I thought you had started to talk about The Fantastic Four.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
Well... The Avengers took Jean's cocoon to the FF and Reed was studying it when it broke open and the real Jean emerged.
Which was messy, because by this point, we had Phoenix take her place, go bad, and commit suicide. We had Mr. Sinister clone Phoenix (thinking it was Jean) as Madalyne Pryor, whom Scott married. She was powerless, but became the Goblin Queen during the Inferno storyline, and died. But before that, the real Jean returned, Scott found out and went back to her (boy, was Maddie pissed), and they and Hank, Bobby, and Warren formed X-Factor.
And, of course, somewhere in there, Rachel Summers came back from an alternate future and joined the team, calling herself Phoenix, too -- even though she was only a TK/TP like her mom.
Messy.
--Jonah
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Mmmm... Rachel Summers... leather and spikes.
OK, just finally saw this last night and feel highly disappointed.
Killing Scott felt like "Ok, he has to be in the movie, but we really hate James Marsden, so let's kill his butt off quick".
No Phoenix Effect, especially during the Wolverine flesh-peeling sequence, made Aban mad. I kept whispering, "Light her up... light her the heck up"
I didn't like the brevity with which Mystique's abandonment or Magneto's powerless surrender was dealt. Both should have been much more complex, though I did like seeing Rebecca in the flesh. Nice.
Kitty was cool, and the casting didn't bother me too much. Was she the same chick who played her for two seconds in the last one?
Peter's Russian. This guy was not. I dug it, though, when Peter slapped his hand on Rouge's head and Colosofied her for a second in the Danger Room. That was neat.
The Sentinel did NOT look cool.
I loved seeing Angel, but it felt like the only reason to have in the story was to introduce the Worthington's. And for some reason, the guy's body position while he was flying didn't look that cool.
OK... I didn't stay until the end of the credits, but I think I'm going to make that my blanket policy from now on. What happened?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Ahhh that was Rogue... I wondered if that was one of Colossus's powers to make other things metal... but that was Rogue sucking the powers from him.
So what can rogue actually do in a fighting situation!?!
It'd be funny if they used her to incapacitate Jean Grey of her full on powers!
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
In the movies, it doesn't seem like Rouge could do much as an offensive player. She's probably be held in reserve to perform a function like Beast did with Magneto: to incapacitate a key player making him vulnerable to attack.
In the comics, Rougue has permantly absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel (I believe) and is a nigh-indestructible tank that can fly and generally kick lots of butt. At least she was last time I read.
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
I didn't stay either - unless it was the bit with Magneto moving the chess piece. Which seemed obvious.
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
Nope. It was after the credits, and nothing to do with Magneto.
A buddy of mine did, however, predict what would happen.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
very good use for her...