X-Men: First Class...

[fajrdrako]

I loved this movie. I watched it smiling. I loved it on more counts than I can name. I loved the way it was true to the X-Men story, and yet didn't repeat stories I'd already seen, and provided a number of interesting characters. It relied more on character and story than special effects, and yet I liked the special effects as well

Comments

[fajrdrako]

On seeing it again, I saw aspects to the Xavier/Mystique relationship I'd missed before. For instance, first time round I hadn't seen the scene where he said she was his best friend and he didn't/wouldn't have sexual feelings for her.

I'd like to think he was lying, or changed his mind, because as the movie progresses, I can't help thinking of them as having a physical relationship - just as I can't and don't want to accept as movie canon that Mystique is a young girl or a teen or a young woman. I'd rather think of her more as she is in the comic - a ruthless manipulator quite capable of pretending to be much younger than she is to make people underestimate it. It doesn't make any of her feelings less valid. It just... changes their context a little.

Yes, it does seem to be a separate/unique universe, one which matches up with the movies in most but not all ways. I can't help but tweak it in my head, though.

I noticed the racism of the good/bad split of the mutants, too. Mitigated by the fact that I like the evil mutants more than the good one - wouldn't, in fact, call them evil. Since the comics was both non-sexist and non-racist, it seems odd that they would do it that way. The point is, I suppose, that the 'bad' mutants have been marginalized and cast out, so they have a reason to oppose a world that won't accept them - but I'm still uncomforatable with that.

It seemed odd to me that a woman who wanted to appear as if she was not a mutant to be accepted by others should be a stripper when she has very visible wings on her back.

The writers also managed to not portray 1960s racism even though there was a black man on the team and managed to put in 2011 racism by killing him first.

Good point. I liked the inclusion on 1960s sexism. Again, not so much the 2011 variety, i.e., making Mystique comparatively juvenile. The movie was about Magneto and Xavier; they didn't need to be contrasted to a younger, needier female.

With just a little more thought into characters who aren't white men, this movie could have been so much better.

So true.