(Untitled)

[tieleen]

I watched the X-Men movie yesterday, and my first instinct was to post a big long post of ranting; I liked a great many things about it, but there were so very many things that made me angry. For one thing, I was prepared for the casual racism, but not for just how much sexism there was in it, or for the 'Look! Like Mad Men, we're extremely aware

Comments

[tieleen]

No problem! That was a lovely story.

It hadn't occurred to me to look at Charles' attitude to Raven that way before, and I really can't decide if I agree with that or not. I mean -- I think the way he treats her feels appropriate for the man they write him as, sure of himself and privileged and used to being the smartest person in the room, for the smugness he shows and the way he hits on women, and some of the ways he doesn't get Erik, either. (The way Hank treats her, too, seems appropriate for a certain type of geek guy, where feeling oppressed and not having excellent social skills goes to being a jackass in some regards.)

But, as far as Charles goes -- in their first scene, he's a boy at the age when you can still play with girls, and she's his amazing new friend. Afterwards, he's a man and he's older than her and it's the 60's, and she's his little-sister-slash-charge, the one who's probably looked up to him for years, who lives in a world he defines with him as her protector and guide and only family. I could actually see that being a bad influence on the way he sees himself and the world, instead of a good one. I wanted them to be better together, and for him to be better to her and for her, but I can sort of see the way from A to B.

On the other hand, I do agree the movie made that choice in order to make Raven leave. And the way Charles keeps on not having a clue, even with everything that's going on around him, was too extreme, especially him sticking to the belief that everything will be okay if they just play nice. And there was generally something weird going on with the nice/not nice thing, though I'm not sure it was laziness; I don't know if it was an attempt at moral complexity, or acknowledgement that privilege sometimes makes people unpleasant, or what, but everyone who ends up on Charles' side in the end is shown to be kind of an asshole at some point, and almost no one on the 'bad guy' side is. It feels like an intentional choice, but whatever they were trying for, they didn't really get there.

[tieleen]

...All of that long-windedly said, that story sounds wonderful. I really, really wanted them to be amazing together.

[harborshore]

:) One can only hope. My inner writer-editor keeps going FIX FIX FIX, like I said above, which seems to be flicking my write-write-write switch. So we'll see.

The thing is--I absolutely agree that it makes sense for Charles as a guy of his time to react just the way you describe it--but emotionally it just doesn't ping right to me. I mean--she IS this amazing new friend, and yes, in college he probably made new friends and figured out how to interact with people, but with the home life he had, she was his only friend for years. So for them not to have talked about this before (the first time she brings it up, it sounds like it's the first time--and wouldn't they have talked about it as kids, if nothing else? even if he doesn't read her mind) just doesn't--idk. If I was betaing that story I'd have a list of questions at least half a page long. Because even if you can't put all of that in the movie, you have to know the backstory to write it, and it just, yes.

This is why I don't go see mainstream movies a lot, sigh sigh. On the other hand, hey, fixing it is fun.

And oh, hey, I hadn't thought of it that way. Something to think about, for sure--because yes, Angel and Raven are unarguably very sympathetic.

[tieleen]

I could say a few more things in favor of the logic there, but really, I don't want to; I much prefer the universe where they're actually a team. Also, I think part of the meta reason for the distance between them is that Erik wouldn't seem as necessary in Charles' life if he already had Raven as an equal, and I really kind of resent that.

The downside of not watching many mainstream movies is that, each and every time, I'm surprised. *g*

Even Emma is sort of sympathetic, if you can call it that. She does some things that are outright 'evil', but nothing that's taunting or bullying or creepifying; and that wouldn't mean much, since she, you know, throws a person into a wall and supports nuclear war, but it was a bit weird that no woman in this movie acts that way and practically all the guys do (except Darwin, and, well, it's not like he had time). And then Erik's team -- already sympathetic -- consists of most of those women and the two guys we know nothing about. I really can't tell what they were going for.