X-Men: First Class
Just saw X-Men and oh my god, how slashy was that movie? I can't even imagine what people must be doing with Charles/Erik. So smart. So tragic!
OMG, Charles/Erik! I hate sounding like that much of a shipper but omg, Charles/Xavier! I feel a bit bad for Mystique in a way. I love her, and I always found her relationsihp with Erik interesting in the other movies I'd seen (which didn't include the third one so I may be missing something) but it always seemed like it was a little unequal. Not in an offensive way, but it a way that really played out in this movie. Erik gave Raven something so important to her of course she's always going to love him. It's just that's the way Erik's always going to feel about Charles. Dude touches the lightest part of his brain and finds things he thought he was destroyed by losing forever.
Before seeing the movie I'd read a lot of comments about racefail in the movie and in my head I'd made up this whole theory of how it was really saying something intentional about that time period. Like, it totally makes sense that the pro-human team in the end is a bunch of white guys because the central relationship of the movie is Erik and Charles whose philosophies are formed by their experience in life. Charles has spent his life privileged in every way and really can't imagine that people won't accept him if he just shows what a good chap he is. Erik grew up not only as a minority but as a minority in a period where bigotry against that minority was at its most intensely violent and cruel. Charles is an idealist, but that could make him a visionary. Erik is a realist, but that can make him what he hates. Since the X-Men team is all about trusting (if not defending) the status quo, naturally it's attractive to those who the status quo has been good to all these years rather than those who were already on the outside of it.
Anyway, it would have been a nice theory. Unfortunately the actual movie just seemed like bone-headed casting. Really, of the two non-white characters one is the first to sign up with the mass-murdering Nazi and the other dies nobly to give the white guys somebody to say they're avenging and then forget about? You couldn't switch actors with Havoc or Banshee there? And Angel's defection can't help but look like a contrast to Raven when there's only two girls and they seem so physically contrasted. Hell, if I was Raven I wouldn't feel that great about teaming up with Angel. Whose background as a stripper, btw, didn't seem to bring anything to her character at all.
So those were my main thoughts. Oh, and January Jones was very badly miscast imo. She has a brittle, childlike quality that works wonderfully for Betty Draper but seemed exactly wrong for this character.
Which is not to say I didn't really enjoy the movie. The flaws were more painful because of the good bits. I like the way the premise creates something for all the characters to react to differently and discuss without it seeming like it's trying to show off that it's having a discussion about Issues. The question of mutants is one that's believable important to every character in a much more personal, complex way than the physical threats that usually happen in action movies. Even while it's going on the battle with Shaw never seems half as important as what the reaction to the X-Men winning that battle will be and one-on-one scenes really do come across as more gripping than action ones even when the dialogue is on the nose ("They were just following orders" or "You look beautiful now"). And the way the most important relationships play out and eventually disappoint and fall apart all makes perfect sense given who the characters are and even more importantly what their life experience has been. (The lives lived by Erik, Charles and Raven made it inevitable that they would never see the same world as each other.)
Errr, does anyone have any recs for particularly good Charles/Erik, btw?
OMG, Charles/Erik! I hate sounding like that much of a shipper but omg, Charles/Xavier! I feel a bit bad for Mystique in a way. I love her, and I always found her relationsihp with Erik interesting in the other movies I'd seen (which didn't include the third one so I may be missing something) but it always seemed like it was a little unequal. Not in an offensive way, but it a way that really played out in this movie. Erik gave Raven something so important to her of course she's always going to love him. It's just that's the way Erik's always going to feel about Charles. Dude touches the lightest part of his brain and finds things he thought he was destroyed by losing forever.
Before seeing the movie I'd read a lot of comments about racefail in the movie and in my head I'd made up this whole theory of how it was really saying something intentional about that time period. Like, it totally makes sense that the pro-human team in the end is a bunch of white guys because the central relationship of the movie is Erik and Charles whose philosophies are formed by their experience in life. Charles has spent his life privileged in every way and really can't imagine that people won't accept him if he just shows what a good chap he is. Erik grew up not only as a minority but as a minority in a period where bigotry against that minority was at its most intensely violent and cruel. Charles is an idealist, but that could make him a visionary. Erik is a realist, but that can make him what he hates. Since the X-Men team is all about trusting (if not defending) the status quo, naturally it's attractive to those who the status quo has been good to all these years rather than those who were already on the outside of it.
Anyway, it would have been a nice theory. Unfortunately the actual movie just seemed like bone-headed casting. Really, of the two non-white characters one is the first to sign up with the mass-murdering Nazi and the other dies nobly to give the white guys somebody to say they're avenging and then forget about? You couldn't switch actors with Havoc or Banshee there? And Angel's defection can't help but look like a contrast to Raven when there's only two girls and they seem so physically contrasted. Hell, if I was Raven I wouldn't feel that great about teaming up with Angel. Whose background as a stripper, btw, didn't seem to bring anything to her character at all.
So those were my main thoughts. Oh, and January Jones was very badly miscast imo. She has a brittle, childlike quality that works wonderfully for Betty Draper but seemed exactly wrong for this character.
Which is not to say I didn't really enjoy the movie. The flaws were more painful because of the good bits. I like the way the premise creates something for all the characters to react to differently and discuss without it seeming like it's trying to show off that it's having a discussion about Issues. The question of mutants is one that's believable important to every character in a much more personal, complex way than the physical threats that usually happen in action movies. Even while it's going on the battle with Shaw never seems half as important as what the reaction to the X-Men winning that battle will be and one-on-one scenes really do come across as more gripping than action ones even when the dialogue is on the nose ("They were just following orders" or "You look beautiful now"). And the way the most important relationships play out and eventually disappoint and fall apart all makes perfect sense given who the characters are and even more importantly what their life experience has been. (The lives lived by Erik, Charles and Raven made it inevitable that they would never see the same world as each other.)
Errr, does anyone have any recs for particularly good Charles/Erik, btw?