I mentioned, the other day, that I saw a preview for In Time before watching X-Men: First Class. I think that was wrong; I think it was before Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but today seems a good day to write about XMFC anyway (fifty years afterwards, to the dot).
I went into watching X-Men with almost no idea what it was about. I knew it took place well in the past, with Charles and Magneto the principals, but that was the extent of my knowledge. I certainly had no idea it took place around the Cuban missile crisis.
It's kind of interesting to me how often they have reworked the origin of Charles, along with that of Magneto. We've gotten rid of Juggernaut entirely, made Charles and Magneto closer, added in Mystique, and had Charles' accident moved considerably later.
I think I liked how they moved Sebastian Shaw into the story (although they've done something weird with his power that I'm not sure I understand. It seems based on the original, but with some additional effects that are very significant. Perhaps I'm just too far behind in the comics); in the original X-Men timeline, the Hellfire Club people seemed too well-established to just show up around X-Men 110 (or so; I'm too lazy to look it up right now) without ever having been heard from. Of course, they're missing the character who had the most effect in their original appearance (that would be Mastermind).
Anyway, I liked what they did with both Charles and Magneto. Showing Magneto getting revenge for his parents was very cool. Showing Charles helping him to refine his powers was also pretty neat. Seeing Charles as a grad student was quite an amusing change of pace. Changing Moira from a Scottish scientist to an American spy was more than slightly weird (and don't get me started about her underwear selection while on a mission), but worked fairly well in the context of this story.
Their choices of X-Men was a mixed bag. Banshee was an excellent choice; I always liked him in the comic, and would have liked seeing more of him. Mystique, as I mentioned, was an odd choice for moving into the origin, but worked fairly well in the story. I very much liked some of the things they did with her, and they set up the earlier movies well with her also. Havok seemed a bit of a weird choice, what with Scott being in the other movies. Beast was even weirder, actually, given that he was a contemporary of Scott in the original comics (oh, and his oh-so-predictable change to blue and furry? Not bad-ass. I like Beast, but that was really terrible. He just looked lame). The others were pretty forgettable.
What else? Well, I liked Charles and Magneto going out to individually meet the mutants was very well done (and Wolverine's cameo was hilarious). And, overall, I liked the setting of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I didn't know much about what originally happened there, so it took a while for me to see what was going on (I've since found out that the US missiles in Turkey being removed were a major factor in defusing the crisis in our timeline). It worked out very well.
Overall, I thought the movie was well put together, especially as regards setting up the other movies. I can't say as I liked all the details, but, overall, it worked quite well.
Showing posts with label comic book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comic book. Show all posts
20121016
20110622
Bearing a Lantern
(With apologies to Piers Anthony on the title. I just reread a chunk of his Incarnations of Immortality series, and had it on the mind. Sadly, it took a lot less than five volumes to get tired of it this time. More like one and a half.)
In any event, a friend of mine and I caught Green Lantern on Friday. It was a little weird to me, too, because I'd never read Green Lantern growing up (I almost exclusively read Marvel titles). He was a fan, though, and I was curious, so we went.
I feel like a broken record with things I've been watching lately, though. The movie felt kind of... rushed, I guess. Unless the movie is a one-shot (which would shock me), why would you have a universe-destroying threat in the first movie? Where do you go from there?
I mean, yes, the answer is obviously Sinestro, but it doesn't seem like he'd be a bigger threat than Parallax. In fact, with the hoo-hah about how antithetical Will and Fear are, one would speculate that one very strong in Will would be correspondingly weak in Fear. One would think, also, that the yellow ring would lend itself to a completely different style of fighting than a green one would. Something tells me that the only difference will be the color of the special effects (although, as noted, I haven't seen the comic book).
Anyway, getting back to the point, having this level of threat more or less necessitated bringing in the whole Green Lantern Corps, which was neat, but didn't give Hal much time to learn his powers on his own. I would have much preferred to see him learning more than being taught.
This led to two things that weakened the movie. The familiar one is that it meant that Hal needed to learn responsibility overnight. While that's a little bit more feasible than learning enlightenment that quickly, it isn't by much. The other ramification is that it didn't leave a whole lot of time for the final battle. This meant defeating the enemy in a way that seemed a bit... improbable for a planet-devouring enemy. (Ignoring, of course, how badly off the perspective was in the shots in space at the end.)
It also meant that we didn't find out how Sinestro escaped from Parallax, which could have been important. It might have explained the push for the yellow ring, which made no sense given the story that came out immediately before that.
Another thing that had to be off, though it didn't occur to me until afterwards, if Hal's predecessor was the one who trapped Parallax initially, then he had to be one of the oldest of the Lanterns. It seems like, if he was that old, then he should have been sitting in the circle of elders, not still running around as an active Lantern.
Moving on, the movie was very good, visually, although don't bother seeing it in 3D. There was no depth added, which is sad, because this could (should) have been a good movie for showcasing 3D. If I had to guess, the 3D was done entirely in post-processing, and it just didn't look the same.
As far as acting, that was mostly good. Ryan Reynolds mostly did a good job, although there were a few scenes where he was being serious, and I couldn't take him seriously. I do wonder, though, if that's on me, for only seeing characters he'd played before. Mark Strong did a fantastic job as Sinestro, and Blake Lively was also good as Carol Ferris.
Overall, I guess you get exactly what you'd expect from this. Popcorn entertainment that's busy but shallow. Is it worth seeing? I'm not sure if I'd see it, knowing what I know now. I definitely wouldn't pay extra for the 3D, though.
Update: When I first wrote this, I was trying to remember what I'd seen Ryan Reynolds in. I glanced through his filmography at the time, but nothing jumped out at me. I had another occasion to look, though, and saw that I'd seen him in Definitely, Maybe; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; and The Proposal. I liked him in both romantic comedies, and I think it was mostly the latter from which I was remembering him. I really don't remember him from Wolverine at all.
In any event, a friend of mine and I caught Green Lantern on Friday. It was a little weird to me, too, because I'd never read Green Lantern growing up (I almost exclusively read Marvel titles). He was a fan, though, and I was curious, so we went.
I feel like a broken record with things I've been watching lately, though. The movie felt kind of... rushed, I guess. Unless the movie is a one-shot (which would shock me), why would you have a universe-destroying threat in the first movie? Where do you go from there?
I mean, yes, the answer is obviously Sinestro, but it doesn't seem like he'd be a bigger threat than Parallax. In fact, with the hoo-hah about how antithetical Will and Fear are, one would speculate that one very strong in Will would be correspondingly weak in Fear. One would think, also, that the yellow ring would lend itself to a completely different style of fighting than a green one would. Something tells me that the only difference will be the color of the special effects (although, as noted, I haven't seen the comic book).
Anyway, getting back to the point, having this level of threat more or less necessitated bringing in the whole Green Lantern Corps, which was neat, but didn't give Hal much time to learn his powers on his own. I would have much preferred to see him learning more than being taught.
This led to two things that weakened the movie. The familiar one is that it meant that Hal needed to learn responsibility overnight. While that's a little bit more feasible than learning enlightenment that quickly, it isn't by much. The other ramification is that it didn't leave a whole lot of time for the final battle. This meant defeating the enemy in a way that seemed a bit... improbable for a planet-devouring enemy. (Ignoring, of course, how badly off the perspective was in the shots in space at the end.)
It also meant that we didn't find out how Sinestro escaped from Parallax, which could have been important. It might have explained the push for the yellow ring, which made no sense given the story that came out immediately before that.
Another thing that had to be off, though it didn't occur to me until afterwards, if Hal's predecessor was the one who trapped Parallax initially, then he had to be one of the oldest of the Lanterns. It seems like, if he was that old, then he should have been sitting in the circle of elders, not still running around as an active Lantern.
Moving on, the movie was very good, visually, although don't bother seeing it in 3D. There was no depth added, which is sad, because this could (should) have been a good movie for showcasing 3D. If I had to guess, the 3D was done entirely in post-processing, and it just didn't look the same.
As far as acting, that was mostly good. Ryan Reynolds mostly did a good job, although there were a few scenes where he was being serious, and I couldn't take him seriously. I do wonder, though, if that's on me, for only seeing characters he'd played before. Mark Strong did a fantastic job as Sinestro, and Blake Lively was also good as Carol Ferris.
Overall, I guess you get exactly what you'd expect from this. Popcorn entertainment that's busy but shallow. Is it worth seeing? I'm not sure if I'd see it, knowing what I know now. I definitely wouldn't pay extra for the 3D, though.
Update: When I first wrote this, I was trying to remember what I'd seen Ryan Reynolds in. I glanced through his filmography at the time, but nothing jumped out at me. I had another occasion to look, though, and saw that I'd seen him in Definitely, Maybe; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; and The Proposal. I liked him in both romantic comedies, and I think it was mostly the latter from which I was remembering him. I really don't remember him from Wolverine at all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)