SPOILER THREAD: _X-Men: First Class_
Jun. 3rd, 2011 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rickvsSaw a sneak preview last night. Click only if you don't mind being spoiled.
- I found _First Class_ to be well-acted, and more aware of its source material than I expected. (We got two surprise cameos from actors in Singer's trilogy, and a recreation of a scene from the first _X-Men_ that was faithful enough I briefly thought they'd lifted it entirely).
- One quasi-complaint (that I also have about the television show "Burn Notice"): if they're gonna have a bunch of underwear models in frame, why aren't half of them male? Granted ... Hellfire Club, and 1962 ... but both projects could use some balance. I have less than no objection to underwear models, but would feel better about it if I thought that eye candy was being made available to more of the audience.
- I also wasn't entirely on board with their choice of second-tier mutants, but as Magneto might say: we need pawns, too. Dunno how many of these characters are supposed to have survived the sixties, even just in the movie canon.
- No movie can ever have too much Oliver Platt.
- The treatment of Erik and Charles' eventual split come across as honest, with a lot of emotional investment built up over the course of the film.
- I was especially surprised/pleased at the relative multiculturalism: the lead characters do a lot of globe-hopping, and when they're in a different country, they -- speak the local language! I hope this becomes a habit with more Hollywood films, and sorry it's unusual enough to remark on. On the flip side, Moira McTaggart and Banshee are now both ... Americans?
- There are a couple of continuity glitches with this compared to the other three movies, but if we consider this film Act One, there are also several good moments of planting seeds that'll bear fruit in later years.
- The only choice I think I really boggled at is when Sebastian Shaw first triggered Erik's ability by shooting his mother, and Erik ... did everything *except* try to kill Shaw. Huh? Granted, the director didn't wanna tip Shaw's mutant ability in the first ten minutes, but I can think of at least one way they could have played it where Shaw could have reasonably escaped unscathed, with his secret intact. This troubled me more than the idea that Emma Frost couldn't break her own damn self out of a government holding tank. I would have assumed that she was staying intentionally for recon purposes, but Shaw really needed her in Cuba right then so I think the writers just screwed up.
That's just off the top of my head. I will answer any direct questions about the film.
ETA: corrected the spelling of "Erik". Sheesh. From me, especially.
- I found _First Class_ to be well-acted, and more aware of its source material than I expected. (We got two surprise cameos from actors in Singer's trilogy, and a recreation of a scene from the first _X-Men_ that was faithful enough I briefly thought they'd lifted it entirely).
- One quasi-complaint (that I also have about the television show "Burn Notice"): if they're gonna have a bunch of underwear models in frame, why aren't half of them male? Granted ... Hellfire Club, and 1962 ... but both projects could use some balance. I have less than no objection to underwear models, but would feel better about it if I thought that eye candy was being made available to more of the audience.
- I also wasn't entirely on board with their choice of second-tier mutants, but as Magneto might say: we need pawns, too. Dunno how many of these characters are supposed to have survived the sixties, even just in the movie canon.
- No movie can ever have too much Oliver Platt.
- The treatment of Erik and Charles' eventual split come across as honest, with a lot of emotional investment built up over the course of the film.
- I was especially surprised/pleased at the relative multiculturalism: the lead characters do a lot of globe-hopping, and when they're in a different country, they -- speak the local language! I hope this becomes a habit with more Hollywood films, and sorry it's unusual enough to remark on. On the flip side, Moira McTaggart and Banshee are now both ... Americans?
- There are a couple of continuity glitches with this compared to the other three movies, but if we consider this film Act One, there are also several good moments of planting seeds that'll bear fruit in later years.
- The only choice I think I really boggled at is when Sebastian Shaw first triggered Erik's ability by shooting his mother, and Erik ... did everything *except* try to kill Shaw. Huh? Granted, the director didn't wanna tip Shaw's mutant ability in the first ten minutes, but I can think of at least one way they could have played it where Shaw could have reasonably escaped unscathed, with his secret intact. This troubled me more than the idea that Emma Frost couldn't break her own damn self out of a government holding tank. I would have assumed that she was staying intentionally for recon purposes, but Shaw really needed her in Cuba right then so I think the writers just screwed up.
That's just off the top of my head. I will answer any direct questions about the film.
ETA: corrected the spelling of "Erik". Sheesh. From me, especially.
