X-Men revisited
I hadn't watched the first X-Men film for ages, mostly because the movieverse and I had drifted apart somewhat after X3 until First Class. But today I rewatched the film that originally brought me to the Marvelverse, both for research and fun, and lo, it is still good and a joy to watch. Thoughts with XMFC awareness, below a spoiler cut for those who missed out either film:
That little lintroduction speech Patrick Stewart intones at the very start of X-Men? Is young Charles' bad pick-up line in Oxford pubs. This is the best thing ever.
Except for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen sharing the screen together, which is even better. Seriously, they have only a few scenes in this film but oh, the sense of history and emotion they're able to convey. Scriptwise, it's a great touch to show Magneto in his civilian outfit first, not in the costume, and let that scene at the Senate hearing make clear that he and Xavier aren't just at a first name basis but don't treat each other like standard movie enemies, either.
No, there is no way to reconcile "When I was 17, I met another mutant named Erik Lehnsherr" with XMFC (which is wobbly on Charles' age in its own credits anyway), but "he helped me build it (re: Cerebro) is pretty easy to fanwank. After all, the Cerebro Logan sees is a very sophisticated version, not Hank's original design, and I'm completely down with the developing fanon in various First Class stories that Team Charles and Team Erik worked together now and then and things got to a battling each other point much later. Oddly enough, the whole ages thing doesn't bother me at all which it would have done years ago. Since then, I read a lot more comics. Age and backstory inconsistencies are the RULE, not the exception. :)
Marie/Rogue wanting to travel and see the world before her ability is triggered by kissing her boyfriend is the only basis I can see for her fanfiction characterisation as an adventurous wild spirit. (Well, there's also comicverse Rogue, but she's so different in origin, backstory and current relationships anyway...) I don't mean this as a criticism of the character. Not every female character, young or old, has to be the warrior type to justify her existence. Movie!Rogue comes across as shy and scared most of the time. Not that she doesn't have reason to be panicked, given all that happens to her, but I watch scenes like Marie being played by Mystique-as-Bobby and running away and conclude that fanfiction!Rogue might be a case of projection by various writers who ship with Logan and want her to be a match for him, hence the secret wild woman yearning to get out. As troublesome as X3 is in so many other ways, the fact that Rogue chooses to take the cure (and for boyfriend reasons, no less) was not unbelievable to me. Her default instinct in horrible situations seems to be to run rather than confront, and her ability nearly killed her first boyfriend, nearly got her killed courtesy of Magneto, and from her pov wreaks havoc on her second romance. It looks like it'll isolate her from most people for the rest of her life. She's a teenager. Of course she'd take the cure.
Now that I've read up on the comicverse and seen various other Wolverine & teenage girl relationships: I'm glad they included this in the film because his tendency to become a gruff mentor to various female teens (Jubilee, Kitty and lately Hisako) is one of Logan's most endearing qualities. However, it also means I'll never be able to 'ship movieverse Rogue and movieverse Wolverine, because I have a mentor/protegé squick in 99% of all cases in all fandoms, and the appeal of the various Wolverine & teenage girl combos includes that he's not romantically interested in them.
Not that I ship Wolverine with anyone in the rooting-for Logan/whoever sense, for that matter. The big problem with movieverse Logan and movieverse Jean Grey is that as opposed to the comicverse versions, who have the time to actually establish a relationship through the years, you're supposed to believe in instant attraction, and then Logan keeps telling her how he's too good to miss and how he knows exactly what she's feeling, which is off putting to me, Hugh Jackman not withstanding.
Otoh, the Scott and Logan scenes are amusing and I still think Scott gets the better lines in their exchanges. I haven't rewatched X2 yet, but as far as I remember X1 is the only film where Scott does get some screentime and characterisation, alas.
I really appreciate how the film plays the whole Senator Kelly tale. He's a bigot and hiss worthy, but he's not a caricature, and by giving him the death scene he gets, that exchange with Storm and the squickworthy and painful death itself, the film emphasizes his humanity without giving him suddenly a last minute volte face on mutant issues.
Mystique has only one line spoken in her blue shape in the entire film ("people like you are the reason why I was afraid to go to school"), but the way Rebeca Romjin says it is, I'd argue the whole reason why movieverse Mystique got developed from mostly silent henchwoman to getting her own arc and being basically as important as Leonard McCoy is in Star Trek as the third party in a triad of leading characters in First Class.
The Magneto and Xavier showdown in front of the train station gains a whole unintended at the time but awesome (in a vicious way) new new layer in light of First Class. Because now it's a miniature replay of Cuba, what with Magneto using the guns of the cops against them, and there's even a direct parallel to Erik killing Shaw with the coin - Magneto firing one of the guns and holding the bullet in front of one cop's head, with the bullet starting to enter it as the coin went through Shaw's head. Also, the whole outcome of the standoff depends on Xavier being neither willing to let Magneto kill the cops nor being willing to kill Magneto (which he could given he mind-controlls Sabretooth and Toad), which, again, parallels Charles holding Shaw and not releasing him because to do that would mean Shaw killing Erik. And of course it depends on Xavier believing that Magneto would go through with his threat to kill the cops. The "still not willing to make sacrifices" line from Magneto at the end of the scene is considerably more vicious (and resonating) with the First Class backstory.
Speaking of sacrifices: when Sabretooth and Toad killed various hapless harbour seamen so Magneto & Co. have transport to Ellis island I thought, see, that's why I can't be on Team Magneto. Mind you, I doubt at that point he'd even see them (or the cops, if Charles had not given in) as sacrifices - Rogue, yes, because she's a fellow mutant, but the guy ferrying people to and thro Ellis Island is probably just collateral damage, to deliberately use a Rumsfeld and Bush euphemism.
While Rogue is Iphigenia. That struck me through their two scenes together; the mythological parallel I hadn't seen before. She's the human sacrifice for the cause and simultanously Magneto's/Agamemnon's eventual downfall (in this particular story). Logan is an odd choice for the avenging Clytaimnestra, but his line "you are so full of shit; if you were really righteous, it would be you in that machine" does the trick. Magneto is such a marvellous (no pun intended) character in this film, tragic (with his horrible backstory the first we see), sympathetic, with an understandable goal, played by Ian McKellen with such great charm and charisma... but even if you don't care about various state-employed red shirts who are on screen only for a few seconds or a minute, here he crosses the line by committing human sacrifice (and, to put it cynically, of a point of view character who got much screentime through the film) - well, attempting to. Telling Rogue that it's necessary for the greater good of mutantkind is what he sincerely believes, no doubt, but then Agamemnon after initial hestitation was convinced he needed to kill his daughter to get his war going, too. It's interesting that it doesn't seem to occur to him to ask - and he can be very persuasive, see Pyro in the next film. Mind you, it would still be very manipulative, but it would mean he leaves Rogue the dignity of making a decision whether she wants to be the martyr for the mutant cause. I suppose he doesn't want to take any risks and is on a time table.
Detail I either took for granted or didn't consciously note the earlier times I watched this film: our heroes win the day through a true team effort and the coordination of their abilities. (Storm and Jean get Wolverine up to the machine and Rogue, Cyclops destroys the machine, and Wolverine of course saves Rogue through letting her absorb his self healing ability again.) Which is rare in action films and to be treasured all the more.
I will never, ever get enough of Charles and Erik playing chess. At whatever age. I'm just saying.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/703209.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
That little lintroduction speech Patrick Stewart intones at the very start of X-Men? Is young Charles' bad pick-up line in Oxford pubs. This is the best thing ever.
Except for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen sharing the screen together, which is even better. Seriously, they have only a few scenes in this film but oh, the sense of history and emotion they're able to convey. Scriptwise, it's a great touch to show Magneto in his civilian outfit first, not in the costume, and let that scene at the Senate hearing make clear that he and Xavier aren't just at a first name basis but don't treat each other like standard movie enemies, either.
No, there is no way to reconcile "When I was 17, I met another mutant named Erik Lehnsherr" with XMFC (which is wobbly on Charles' age in its own credits anyway), but "he helped me build it (re: Cerebro) is pretty easy to fanwank. After all, the Cerebro Logan sees is a very sophisticated version, not Hank's original design, and I'm completely down with the developing fanon in various First Class stories that Team Charles and Team Erik worked together now and then and things got to a battling each other point much later. Oddly enough, the whole ages thing doesn't bother me at all which it would have done years ago. Since then, I read a lot more comics. Age and backstory inconsistencies are the RULE, not the exception. :)
Marie/Rogue wanting to travel and see the world before her ability is triggered by kissing her boyfriend is the only basis I can see for her fanfiction characterisation as an adventurous wild spirit. (Well, there's also comicverse Rogue, but she's so different in origin, backstory and current relationships anyway...) I don't mean this as a criticism of the character. Not every female character, young or old, has to be the warrior type to justify her existence. Movie!Rogue comes across as shy and scared most of the time. Not that she doesn't have reason to be panicked, given all that happens to her, but I watch scenes like Marie being played by Mystique-as-Bobby and running away and conclude that fanfiction!Rogue might be a case of projection by various writers who ship with Logan and want her to be a match for him, hence the secret wild woman yearning to get out. As troublesome as X3 is in so many other ways, the fact that Rogue chooses to take the cure (and for boyfriend reasons, no less) was not unbelievable to me. Her default instinct in horrible situations seems to be to run rather than confront, and her ability nearly killed her first boyfriend, nearly got her killed courtesy of Magneto, and from her pov wreaks havoc on her second romance. It looks like it'll isolate her from most people for the rest of her life. She's a teenager. Of course she'd take the cure.
Now that I've read up on the comicverse and seen various other Wolverine & teenage girl relationships: I'm glad they included this in the film because his tendency to become a gruff mentor to various female teens (Jubilee, Kitty and lately Hisako) is one of Logan's most endearing qualities. However, it also means I'll never be able to 'ship movieverse Rogue and movieverse Wolverine, because I have a mentor/protegé squick in 99% of all cases in all fandoms, and the appeal of the various Wolverine & teenage girl combos includes that he's not romantically interested in them.
Not that I ship Wolverine with anyone in the rooting-for Logan/whoever sense, for that matter. The big problem with movieverse Logan and movieverse Jean Grey is that as opposed to the comicverse versions, who have the time to actually establish a relationship through the years, you're supposed to believe in instant attraction, and then Logan keeps telling her how he's too good to miss and how he knows exactly what she's feeling, which is off putting to me, Hugh Jackman not withstanding.
Otoh, the Scott and Logan scenes are amusing and I still think Scott gets the better lines in their exchanges. I haven't rewatched X2 yet, but as far as I remember X1 is the only film where Scott does get some screentime and characterisation, alas.
I really appreciate how the film plays the whole Senator Kelly tale. He's a bigot and hiss worthy, but he's not a caricature, and by giving him the death scene he gets, that exchange with Storm and the squickworthy and painful death itself, the film emphasizes his humanity without giving him suddenly a last minute volte face on mutant issues.
Mystique has only one line spoken in her blue shape in the entire film ("people like you are the reason why I was afraid to go to school"), but the way Rebeca Romjin says it is, I'd argue the whole reason why movieverse Mystique got developed from mostly silent henchwoman to getting her own arc and being basically as important as Leonard McCoy is in Star Trek as the third party in a triad of leading characters in First Class.
The Magneto and Xavier showdown in front of the train station gains a whole unintended at the time but awesome (in a vicious way) new new layer in light of First Class. Because now it's a miniature replay of Cuba, what with Magneto using the guns of the cops against them, and there's even a direct parallel to Erik killing Shaw with the coin - Magneto firing one of the guns and holding the bullet in front of one cop's head, with the bullet starting to enter it as the coin went through Shaw's head. Also, the whole outcome of the standoff depends on Xavier being neither willing to let Magneto kill the cops nor being willing to kill Magneto (which he could given he mind-controlls Sabretooth and Toad), which, again, parallels Charles holding Shaw and not releasing him because to do that would mean Shaw killing Erik. And of course it depends on Xavier believing that Magneto would go through with his threat to kill the cops. The "still not willing to make sacrifices" line from Magneto at the end of the scene is considerably more vicious (and resonating) with the First Class backstory.
Speaking of sacrifices: when Sabretooth and Toad killed various hapless harbour seamen so Magneto & Co. have transport to Ellis island I thought, see, that's why I can't be on Team Magneto. Mind you, I doubt at that point he'd even see them (or the cops, if Charles had not given in) as sacrifices - Rogue, yes, because she's a fellow mutant, but the guy ferrying people to and thro Ellis Island is probably just collateral damage, to deliberately use a Rumsfeld and Bush euphemism.
While Rogue is Iphigenia. That struck me through their two scenes together; the mythological parallel I hadn't seen before. She's the human sacrifice for the cause and simultanously Magneto's/Agamemnon's eventual downfall (in this particular story). Logan is an odd choice for the avenging Clytaimnestra, but his line "you are so full of shit; if you were really righteous, it would be you in that machine" does the trick. Magneto is such a marvellous (no pun intended) character in this film, tragic (with his horrible backstory the first we see), sympathetic, with an understandable goal, played by Ian McKellen with such great charm and charisma... but even if you don't care about various state-employed red shirts who are on screen only for a few seconds or a minute, here he crosses the line by committing human sacrifice (and, to put it cynically, of a point of view character who got much screentime through the film) - well, attempting to. Telling Rogue that it's necessary for the greater good of mutantkind is what he sincerely believes, no doubt, but then Agamemnon after initial hestitation was convinced he needed to kill his daughter to get his war going, too. It's interesting that it doesn't seem to occur to him to ask - and he can be very persuasive, see Pyro in the next film. Mind you, it would still be very manipulative, but it would mean he leaves Rogue the dignity of making a decision whether she wants to be the martyr for the mutant cause. I suppose he doesn't want to take any risks and is on a time table.
Detail I either took for granted or didn't consciously note the earlier times I watched this film: our heroes win the day through a true team effort and the coordination of their abilities. (Storm and Jean get Wolverine up to the machine and Rogue, Cyclops destroys the machine, and Wolverine of course saves Rogue through letting her absorb his self healing ability again.) Which is rare in action films and to be treasured all the more.
I will never, ever get enough of Charles and Erik playing chess. At whatever age. I'm just saying.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/703209.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.