you're a one-man shift in the weather
This weekend was so busy, I'm surprised I had time to check on the internet every now and again. Suffice to say, I didn't hang out on LJ all that much. Yesterday, I rolled up a new character for a new D&D game. Divine Disciple prestige class, cleric of the god of vengeance and retribution, and entirely genderless to look at. This led to a fun discussion of how my character ended up genderless, what they should refer to Rayne as, and lots of slip-ups where one player kept referring to the six foot tall genderless figure in full plate armor as 'miss', 'my dear', and 'ma'am.' He said he kept thinking of the character as me, basically. One drawback of tabletop as opposed to internet RP. Saturday had me going out to lunch with my friend (after waking up at eleven from a D&D session that stretched until 5AM,) babysitting until 10:00PM, and then hitting a late, late night showing of X-Men Origins.
I'll start with the good, because that's typically the best thing to do. I did enjoy the take on Sabretooth and Wolverine's relationship as being a brotherly, super-close, nakama style of thing, which eventually turned violent with Sabretooth's sibling rivalry (and, I think, a sense of betrayal.) I really enjoyed the way they animated Sabretooth's movements: a mixture between human and big cat, and the fighting scenes in general were superb. Gambit's cards and awesome, badass fight, Wade's opening fight scene in which he takes out the line of gunmen with his swords...that made me DROOL WITH AWESOME, I swear. In that moment, I found true and deep love. There's something about people taking out guns with swords, or anything with swords, that makes me happy inside. His snarkiness was hilarious, too. "It's the green. It brings out the seriousness in your eyes."
Both Wolverine and Sabretooth were pretty well fleshed out for this film, and the dynamics between the two were fun to watch. Wolverine and Kayla's relationship was also pretty nicely done. I didn't get a 'big man, little woman' vibe off of it at all, which I was afraid of, since it is Wolverine we're talking about, here. I loved Kayla despite knowing she was going to get Woman in the Fridged as part of the backstory: she was intelligent, had mind-controlling powers that made her formidable without making her a leather-clad badass (usually what happens with female mutants,) and went into a mission to save her sister. She wasn't necessarily a damsel in distress, and they gave her about as much control as they gave the other secondary/tertiary characters. She even had control when she died. Instead of lying there and getting shot, she proved her strength, proved her morality, and sent Stryker off in the opposite direction. I might not agree with the 'killing is wrong' idea, but it fit the character and gave her death a sense of grace as opposed to victimization.
I DIDN'T like the lack of female characters where there was definite room for some. That super-special team was very much a sausage party, and in a series in which female mutants are shown to be just as powerful as the males, it was more than a little disappointing. I hated what happened to Emma Frost. Not her captivity, which wasn't female-targeted, (Scott got locked up, too,) but the fact that they overlooked her powerful telepathy and instead had Professor X communicating with Scott, so that he led them off the island. She couldn't even have overheard the professor communicating telepathically? Come on, that's her THING. The guys who saw it with me were claiming it made sense because Emma Frost isn't a well known character, but...since WHEN? They aren't fans of the comics, though, and the only exposure they've had to X-Men was the old cartoon. I don't think these movies cater to the old cartoon fans, though. I might be wrong. It looked like yet another Hollywood 'shaft the females' moment.
...What was up with our one POC actor looking like a reject from The Village People? Come on. Seriously? At least he didn't get killed off first.
I hated what they did to Deadpool. They fucked up his body (in entirely the wrong way!), took away his signature uniform AND took away his ability to snark and speechify! People love Deadpool because he's a wisecracking smartass, and they sealed his mouth over with scar tissue! WTF! And what was with the laser vision and arm blades? Wasn't Deadpool badass enough without all this idiocy? DEADPOOL. COME BACK TO US. (I loved Wade before the Weapons XI experiment. Swordsmanship and wisecracks, the best pairing.)
The movie is best for people who are familiar with the characters. Aside from Wolverine and Sabretooth and the possible exceptions of Kayla Silverfox and Strycker, the rest of the cast marches by in a parade of one dimensionality. It looks like they tried to shove too many familiar faces in without bothering to establish personalities first, so people who are not aware of who these characters are may find them dull, or one-note characters. All in all, I think this film was worth the money to see, despite its flaws.
I'll start with the good, because that's typically the best thing to do. I did enjoy the take on Sabretooth and Wolverine's relationship as being a brotherly, super-close, nakama style of thing, which eventually turned violent with Sabretooth's sibling rivalry (and, I think, a sense of betrayal.) I really enjoyed the way they animated Sabretooth's movements: a mixture between human and big cat, and the fighting scenes in general were superb. Gambit's cards and awesome, badass fight, Wade's opening fight scene in which he takes out the line of gunmen with his swords...that made me DROOL WITH AWESOME, I swear. In that moment, I found true and deep love. There's something about people taking out guns with swords, or anything with swords, that makes me happy inside. His snarkiness was hilarious, too. "It's the green. It brings out the seriousness in your eyes."
Both Wolverine and Sabretooth were pretty well fleshed out for this film, and the dynamics between the two were fun to watch. Wolverine and Kayla's relationship was also pretty nicely done. I didn't get a 'big man, little woman' vibe off of it at all, which I was afraid of, since it is Wolverine we're talking about, here. I loved Kayla despite knowing she was going to get Woman in the Fridged as part of the backstory: she was intelligent, had mind-controlling powers that made her formidable without making her a leather-clad badass (usually what happens with female mutants,) and went into a mission to save her sister. She wasn't necessarily a damsel in distress, and they gave her about as much control as they gave the other secondary/tertiary characters. She even had control when she died. Instead of lying there and getting shot, she proved her strength, proved her morality, and sent Stryker off in the opposite direction. I might not agree with the 'killing is wrong' idea, but it fit the character and gave her death a sense of grace as opposed to victimization.
I DIDN'T like the lack of female characters where there was definite room for some. That super-special team was very much a sausage party, and in a series in which female mutants are shown to be just as powerful as the males, it was more than a little disappointing. I hated what happened to Emma Frost. Not her captivity, which wasn't female-targeted, (Scott got locked up, too,) but the fact that they overlooked her powerful telepathy and instead had Professor X communicating with Scott, so that he led them off the island. She couldn't even have overheard the professor communicating telepathically? Come on, that's her THING. The guys who saw it with me were claiming it made sense because Emma Frost isn't a well known character, but...since WHEN? They aren't fans of the comics, though, and the only exposure they've had to X-Men was the old cartoon. I don't think these movies cater to the old cartoon fans, though. I might be wrong. It looked like yet another Hollywood 'shaft the females' moment.
...What was up with our one POC actor looking like a reject from The Village People? Come on. Seriously? At least he didn't get killed off first.
I hated what they did to Deadpool. They fucked up his body (in entirely the wrong way!), took away his signature uniform AND took away his ability to snark and speechify! People love Deadpool because he's a wisecracking smartass, and they sealed his mouth over with scar tissue! WTF! And what was with the laser vision and arm blades? Wasn't Deadpool badass enough without all this idiocy? DEADPOOL. COME BACK TO US. (I loved Wade before the Weapons XI experiment. Swordsmanship and wisecracks, the best pairing.)
The movie is best for people who are familiar with the characters. Aside from Wolverine and Sabretooth and the possible exceptions of Kayla Silverfox and Strycker, the rest of the cast marches by in a parade of one dimensionality. It looks like they tried to shove too many familiar faces in without bothering to establish personalities first, so people who are not aware of who these characters are may find them dull, or one-note characters. All in all, I think this film was worth the money to see, despite its flaws.