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Post by WildKnight on Jun 5, 2011 18:57:10 GMT -5
Wow, now I really can't wait to see this movie *sarcasm*
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Post by Dhark on Jun 5, 2011 19:14:06 GMT -5
It's sad really. I agree with every one of TWF's points... and yet, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy the movie. I may even pay for it on DVD when it comes out.
My wife, entirely ignorant of the Comics beyond having once seen the original X-Movie, liked it very much (but, she's into Harry Potter and Twilight now... so, take that for what you will!)
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Post by WildKnight on Jun 5, 2011 19:19:26 GMT -5
That's a mixed bag. I like the Harry Potter movies, but Twilight may be the worst thing ever written, EVER, and the X-Men movies have sucked royally, and this looks like the worst of the lot by far. Well, maybe not worse than Wolverine.
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Post by Dhark on Jun 5, 2011 19:24:16 GMT -5
That's a mixed bag. I like the Harry Potter movies, but Twilight may be the worst thing ever written, EVER, and the X-Men movies have sucked royally, and this looks like the worst of the lot by far. Well, maybe not worse than Wolverine. I enjoyed the Harry Potters, I just know many didn't. IMO the Twilight MOVIES are... ok. The books are an atrocity (I forced myself to read the first one to see what all he hype was about). As for the Marvel-Movies... 1.) X-Men / Iron Man 2.) X-Men II / Thor / Iron Man II 3.) X-Men First Class / Fantastic Four ... 50.) The 1980's Captain America Movie 51.) The 1980's Doctor Strange Movie ... 98.) Ghost Rider 99.) Fantastic Four II ... LastPlaceEver.) X-Men III & Wolverine [Origins]
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Post by takewithfood on Jun 5, 2011 19:31:08 GMT -5
I wanted to enjoy the movie more, but it was a collection of very short scenes that were poorly stitched together, always jumping from one story to the next, and I never felt like I could settle in to enjoy it. I enjoyed a lot of it, but on the whole, it felt hurried and disjointed. There is a better movie in there, if only the pieces could be rearranged into a better order.
My best friend only knows a little about the comics, but she's also one of the most intuitive people I know and figured a lot out (like why Azazel was in the movie, etc) on her own. She enjoyed it, but agreed with me that it felt rushed and needed to be about an hour longer than it was in order to do each character justice. She had a better time than I did, I think.
I don't regret paying to see it, though. It was worth checking out.
~TWF
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Post by Brainstem on Jun 7, 2011 20:46:24 GMT -5
I think the casting directors figured that, once they cast a good Xavier and Magneto, everything else didn't matter. I mean, Mystique was neither sexy nor charismatic and isn't that part of her thing?
Also, that was a Rebecca Romijin (or however the fuck you spell that) cameo? I thought it was just more awful CG. Yeesh.
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Post by WildKnight on Jun 7, 2011 20:50:05 GMT -5
They had a good Xavier and Magneto? Did those actors spend the entire time standing directly behind the guys who I saw on screen?
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Post by andyman on Jun 7, 2011 20:55:34 GMT -5
Wow. 'Crash Clark', the traffic guy on my local radio station, thought the movie was good. I was excited to go see it... until I just read what you guys thought.
Darn traffic guy! He didn't tell me about the accident on 141 either! It took me an extra 20 minutes to get to work!
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Post by WildKnight on Jun 7, 2011 20:59:35 GMT -5
Andy as a pirate. Interesting.
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Post by andyman on Jun 7, 2011 21:11:27 GMT -5
That's from my older daughter's 4th birthday party. It was a Pirate Party. I was too cheap to hire a professional entertainer.
I changed it after she pointed out that my previous icon (Scorpion) was a bad guy.
Now that I think about it... pirates are bad too. So I'm still represented by a poor role model. Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghh!
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Post by Black Sam on Jun 7, 2011 21:31:29 GMT -5
Well, obviously you're a privateer then!
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Post by Brainstem on Jun 7, 2011 21:58:46 GMT -5
Ok, so I'm at a computer and speak a little more easily about my impressions.
X-Men: First Class was a 3 star movie ruined by 1 star effort. All aspects of it were sloppy and lazy, as though the film had no real direction or its direction changed mid-production and they did a bad job of covering it up. I thought it was strange that they tried to shove so much into a single film that, very clearly, is meant to be part of a series, as though things couldn't develop at a later stage. What's worse is that the things they tried to rush through added little to no substance to the film.
The casting was really hit or miss, but mostly miss. I guess I'm lucky enough to not know how Xavier and Magneto "should" be played, so I was able to enjoy their performances in the film. The actors had a good chemistry with one another and served as well developed foils for one another. I particularly liked the beginning, specifically how it was edited to show their parallels in growing up as mutants. True, it wasn't done very subtly, but it was still a nice touch. I also liked that they did constantly remind you that Magneto is evil; there was no question as to his "alignment" throughout the film. It managed to give him some level of sympathy, but always portray him as a monster. Yes, you'll still have a handful of people choosing the Phantom over Raoul, but the effort was noticeable and well placed.
Outside of that, though? Bad bad bad bad.
I think the guy playing Beast was decent enough, but I was very distracted by his face and then the Power Rangers villain look of Beast. Mystique was just awful. Absolutely horrendous. Angel was a stupid character that didn't serve the cool factor they intended for her.
The characters that shone the most were the ones that knew they were there just to do cool things. Azazel was fun because he was perfectly implemented as the "looking cool while being evil" guy and Banshee and Havok both did their parts of "generic good guy that's only there to do one thing" very well. They didn't try to be more than they were and did a good job at being mute background characters.
I just wonder why there had to be so many background characters when the entire film was, very obviously, only about Xavier and Magneto. The kids seemed so unnecessary the whole time, as though they just put them in there to benefit certain scenes ("Oh, we need a way for Magneto to pull a submarine out of the water." "Well, Xavier can just find Shaw." "No, he has the Magneto Helmet, remember?" "Ok, then let's just throw in Banshee because he can kind of echo-locate."), rather than having scenes to benefit the characters. This isn't really a new thing in this kind of film, but that doesn't stop it from irking me.
I thought Sebastian Shaw was decently done, but just a bit ridiculous. The augmentations to his powers were kind of silly, especially since they could have just found a mutant to better suit their needs. While I understand that sometimes you go with certain characters because of familiarity, I don't think Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club are so familiar with your general audience, anyway.
I didn't like the sudden switch to "comic book panel" editing during the training montage, but directors will do what they will do. Also the CG was awful through pretty much the whole movie.
What the film seemed, to me, was an initial attempt at developing Xavier's and Magneto's backstory that decided to become a part of a larger series, although it didn't know what it wanted to do with that series other than have mutants fight one another.
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Post by Brainstem on Jun 7, 2011 21:59:02 GMT -5
Also Rose Byrne is beautiful. The end.
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Post by takewithfood on Jun 7, 2011 22:00:34 GMT -5
Don't let us old curmudgeons stop you from seeing it. I didn't think it was a terrible movie, just poorly executed. It didn't stomp on my childhood the way X3 did, nor was it as cliched or clumsy as Wolverine. A lot of people liked it, so give it a shot. Maybe going in with lower expectations than I did will help.
I thought the actors playing Xavier and Magneto were good when they were given something to work with, but that wasn't often enough. And I thought Jennifer Lawrence (who played Mystique) was pretty cute, and quite likeable to boot, but "likeable" isn't what I was looking for in Mystique.
I have some small hope that the sequel (and I'm confident there will be one) will do better.
~TWF
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Post by Brainstem on Jun 7, 2011 22:10:10 GMT -5
I think cute is a good word for Jennifer Lawrence. She never looked old enough to be Mystique which, by the end, she should have started carrying herself with some more swagger to show how much her character changed.
And, just a nitpick, but the beautiful Rose Byrne is Australian. I don't see why she had to fake an American accent over a Scottish one.
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