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Entry tags:
X-Men: Last (?) Stand; Rebecca: New BFF (?); YouTube (?): Good and Bad
Subject the First: Got to see X3. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. No Nightcrawler (boo!), no Bryan Singer (boo hiss!) but more Halle Berry than anyone should have to stand. Yes, Halle, you little Oscar-winning crybaby, are you happy now? There was practically more Storm than Wolvie in this one, and face it, Storm ain't that great. Not that Hugh Jackman can really complain; at least he wasn't poor James Marsden (Cyclops), who got to show up, cry a little bit and take his (doubtless puny) paycheck home.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I loved seeing the little backstory on Jean being recruited by Charles and Eric (even if they did look like creepy wax dolls with their digitally youthened faces). Now I'm waiting for the explanation of why Charles is in a wheelchair. Loved the backstory on Angel, even if it was 3/4 of his total screen time. But then from this point, just like the mutant Juggernaut, it seemed like the movie picked up way too much momentum way too fast and that was the end of any character-driven story.
One of my biggest complaints with this movie was the inexplicable need to suddenly include as many mutants as possible, as if there was any hope of covering the other 30 years of history in only one movie. As if this really was the last X-Men movie (I mean, come on....they're already planning a spin-off, Wolverine, which hopefully isn't similarly carjacked by spotlight-hungry Halle). But speaking of all the different mutants, perhaps the Brotherhood would be taken more seriously if their members weren't a bunch of tattooed emo kids. Nevertheless, I identified more with them than the X-Men. Insofar as the story has been called a metaphor for gay people's struggle for tolerance, I agree with Magneto (even if he's still wearing that foolish helmet): I don't need curing either. I do applaud the movie for showing not just the black and white but the gray -- in cases such as Rogue, I can easily see why she would very much want to be cured (speaking of, Logan has his nerve lecturing her on "not doing it for some boy," while he's busy gettin' his groove on with a married woman and all-powerful destroyer of worlds).
Poor Famke. All she got to do in this movie was stand around looking supremely pissed off in between staring mutely (although a co-worker tells me this was very much in character with Dark Phoenix, who could inadvertently pulverize city blocks if she so much as stubbed her toe. More on the co-worker later). Yep, pretty much all the main players we've come to know and love in the first two films had to step aside for Miss I-have-an-Oscar-so-my-part-should-be-bigger Berry. Do you get the idea yet that this really irked me?
Some nitpicks, both centering on Jean Grey: When Magneto and Xavier return to the Grey residence to help her as Phoenix, I whispered to my friend that I didn't realize those old homes in the 50's were wheelchair accessible. Well, if it wasn't before, it certainly was after Jean had her little tantrum. Secondly, Magneto practically wets his pants when he sees how powerful she's become in this scene. Then during the battle when she's making friend and foe alike evaporate into thin air with only a thought, he says regretfully, "What have I done?!" Failed to give the matter any long-term forethought is what you've done. Completely ignored the advice of your good friend Xavier, who only had the most powerful brain on the planet (until Phoenix, that is). But I suppose that's the unifying trait of any supervillain: the total disregard for consequences.
Speaking of supervillains, the saddest part of this whole movie for me was when Eric, cured against his will, is reduced to a sad old man in the park, a nobody, a homosapien *spat with disgust* I think old people do so much better when they have a hobby they can pursue, like annihilating the human race.
In summary, "Last Stand"? Perhaps. Unless you stick around for the very important, very Holy! Shit! scene that comes after the credits. I'll admit I'd be a lot happier with a fourth chapter if only Storm had died in this one, cuz baby, I've had all the Storm I'm a'gonna take.
Not as good as 1 and 2, but I'll still be buying it (I may, however, find it easier to resist X-Men 3.5). 4 out of 5
Subject the Second, which is actually related to the First: I saw the movie with Rebecca, a co-worker I'm trying to trick into becoming my friend. We have a lot in common, taste in movies and books, loner tendencies, childhoods spent as outcasts and general disdain for most human beings. We certainly have a lot more in common than I do with MyFriendDeb, or even Tery, sad to say. I just want someone to hang out with sometimes, and I have to face the fact that Tery will never, ever enjoy watching the same movies I do. I informed Rebecca when I invited her that I was auditioning her to be my new best friend. She seemed pleased with the idea, although she is somewhat inscrutable. She had already seen X3 once and was willing to go again with me, so I guess that's saying something.
There were three people sitting in the back row of the theater when we arrived. We sat close to the center, and minutes later 6 more showed up and clustered around us in a tight little nucleus. WTF???? I asked her if we could move, as I saw no need to put up with being surrounded by people in an empty theater. She understood and agreed. This is why I think we'd get along so famously.
I enjoyed seeing it with her, especially the lengthy discussion we had in the car on the way home. This is exactly what I want sometimes -- just someone to talk to. We debated what would be the coolest mutant power to have. I personally ranked being able to remove Wolvie's belt with my mind as pretty damn high on the list. As I navigated rush hour traffic, I said my mutant power was being able to tell when someone wanted my lane (this is actually true. I predict it correctly so often I swear it's a sixth sense. And no, it's not just automatically assuming that EVERYONE does, you skeptics out there). I think she also enjoyed our talk because the first time she saw it with her brother (the co-worker mentioned in my review), who has read all the comics and tore the movie to shreds based on his excessive knowledge of the history. Fanboys, some advice: The rest of us mortals are not impressed that you know all this stuff. Like Becca said, she wanted to ask him why Xavier is in a wheelchair, but she was afraid she'd be subjected to an hour-long discourse about it. Sure enough, I worked with him last night and mentioned very casually that I liked the movie, and the conversation rapidly took a turn toward the waters of way-more-information-than-I-ever-needed.
Tery, ever the comedian, asked if I tried to hold Rebecca's hand during the movie (I didn't. I did let her eat the popcorn I brought home to Tery though).
Subject the Third: I think YouTube.com will be my undoing. I spend way too much time there. Tery often tells anyone who'll listen how much she admires my self-discipline, getting up and going to work at the computer every day. However, some days I'm definitely less admirable than others. A lot of factors go into my concentration level, like if I've worked the previous night or if I have to work that night, if I'm getting lots of difficult doctors who seem to be dictating in Arabic with their hand over the mouthpiece, or like lately if it's so fucking hot my monitor looks like a desert mirage. Or if there's a really good Judge Judy on. I just can't resist Judy when she gets so angry she's spitting. I've noticed that my workdays can be classified into three distraction levels, unimaginatively labeled:
Green: All systems go. The caffeine has entered my bloodstream, I've got a string of good reports and I'm so in the zone I forget there's such a thing as LJ or e-mail for up to an hour at a time. I hate to tear myself away even to feed the cats. Obviously my ideal work state (the cats might see it differently).
Amber: I'm getting work done, but I'm checking LJ and email every 15 minutes or so, perhaps reading a Snarry if it's short, or surfing for porn or new Snarry (or both. Bonus!) Usually I can make a comeback in the last couple hours of my day and no one's the wiser.
Red: Might as well not even bother punching in. I'm refreshing my LJ and email compulsively, reading chapter-length Snarry, making icons, downloading music, shopping eBay, updating my journal, calling my sister to catch up with the week since we last spoke; you get the picture. Fortunately days like these happen only when I'm very, very, very tired.
I believe it was a Red day when I started heavily using the YouTube. At first it was just to find fan-made Snarry videos, then fan-made Snape videos. I hadn't yet grasped the enormous possibilities of the site. There is so much stuff to watch there, practically anything you can think of. Funny European commercials, live concert footage, MTV music videos, even whole episodes of TV shows (I watched the pilot ep of Simon Pegg's "Spaced." Too cool).
It was YouTube who got me into my new quasi-favorite band, AFI (not TOTALLY obsessed. Yet). I had been reading![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jade1x2's Javey fics for months with only a passing interest, until I actually watched the band perform. Davey is sooo beautiful, and I could easily picture him with Jade. It was kind of weird though, like seeing old classmates suddenly becoming celebrities, I felt I knew them so well from the fics. I watched every video I could find (most of them many, many times), and even bought a CD thanks to all the exposure.
I discovered that YouTube is a double-edged sword, however, and some bands are better off as only a voice. At the risk of sounding shallow: VNV Nation's Ronan is a fat bald man. Was happier before knowing that. Wolfsheim's singer, an oily German, wasn't as much of a surprise. But OMG The Faint's lead singer? As much as I despise this tired phrase, 1985 called and it wants its hair back. GAH. Guess it's true what they say: If you're ugly, the only way you'll get chicks is to be a good singer.
I'm really not going anywhere with all this. Deal with it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I loved seeing the little backstory on Jean being recruited by Charles and Eric (even if they did look like creepy wax dolls with their digitally youthened faces). Now I'm waiting for the explanation of why Charles is in a wheelchair. Loved the backstory on Angel, even if it was 3/4 of his total screen time. But then from this point, just like the mutant Juggernaut, it seemed like the movie picked up way too much momentum way too fast and that was the end of any character-driven story.
One of my biggest complaints with this movie was the inexplicable need to suddenly include as many mutants as possible, as if there was any hope of covering the other 30 years of history in only one movie. As if this really was the last X-Men movie (I mean, come on....they're already planning a spin-off, Wolverine, which hopefully isn't similarly carjacked by spotlight-hungry Halle). But speaking of all the different mutants, perhaps the Brotherhood would be taken more seriously if their members weren't a bunch of tattooed emo kids. Nevertheless, I identified more with them than the X-Men. Insofar as the story has been called a metaphor for gay people's struggle for tolerance, I agree with Magneto (even if he's still wearing that foolish helmet): I don't need curing either. I do applaud the movie for showing not just the black and white but the gray -- in cases such as Rogue, I can easily see why she would very much want to be cured (speaking of, Logan has his nerve lecturing her on "not doing it for some boy," while he's busy gettin' his groove on with a married woman and all-powerful destroyer of worlds).
Poor Famke. All she got to do in this movie was stand around looking supremely pissed off in between staring mutely (although a co-worker tells me this was very much in character with Dark Phoenix, who could inadvertently pulverize city blocks if she so much as stubbed her toe. More on the co-worker later). Yep, pretty much all the main players we've come to know and love in the first two films had to step aside for Miss I-have-an-Oscar-so-my-part-should-be-bigger Berry. Do you get the idea yet that this really irked me?
Some nitpicks, both centering on Jean Grey: When Magneto and Xavier return to the Grey residence to help her as Phoenix, I whispered to my friend that I didn't realize those old homes in the 50's were wheelchair accessible. Well, if it wasn't before, it certainly was after Jean had her little tantrum. Secondly, Magneto practically wets his pants when he sees how powerful she's become in this scene. Then during the battle when she's making friend and foe alike evaporate into thin air with only a thought, he says regretfully, "What have I done?!" Failed to give the matter any long-term forethought is what you've done. Completely ignored the advice of your good friend Xavier, who only had the most powerful brain on the planet (until Phoenix, that is). But I suppose that's the unifying trait of any supervillain: the total disregard for consequences.
Speaking of supervillains, the saddest part of this whole movie for me was when Eric, cured against his will, is reduced to a sad old man in the park, a nobody, a homosapien *spat with disgust* I think old people do so much better when they have a hobby they can pursue, like annihilating the human race.
In summary, "Last Stand"? Perhaps. Unless you stick around for the very important, very Holy! Shit! scene that comes after the credits. I'll admit I'd be a lot happier with a fourth chapter if only Storm had died in this one, cuz baby, I've had all the Storm I'm a'gonna take.
Not as good as 1 and 2, but I'll still be buying it (I may, however, find it easier to resist X-Men 3.5). 4 out of 5
Subject the Second, which is actually related to the First: I saw the movie with Rebecca, a co-worker I'm trying to trick into becoming my friend. We have a lot in common, taste in movies and books, loner tendencies, childhoods spent as outcasts and general disdain for most human beings. We certainly have a lot more in common than I do with MyFriendDeb, or even Tery, sad to say. I just want someone to hang out with sometimes, and I have to face the fact that Tery will never, ever enjoy watching the same movies I do. I informed Rebecca when I invited her that I was auditioning her to be my new best friend. She seemed pleased with the idea, although she is somewhat inscrutable. She had already seen X3 once and was willing to go again with me, so I guess that's saying something.
There were three people sitting in the back row of the theater when we arrived. We sat close to the center, and minutes later 6 more showed up and clustered around us in a tight little nucleus. WTF???? I asked her if we could move, as I saw no need to put up with being surrounded by people in an empty theater. She understood and agreed. This is why I think we'd get along so famously.
I enjoyed seeing it with her, especially the lengthy discussion we had in the car on the way home. This is exactly what I want sometimes -- just someone to talk to. We debated what would be the coolest mutant power to have. I personally ranked being able to remove Wolvie's belt with my mind as pretty damn high on the list. As I navigated rush hour traffic, I said my mutant power was being able to tell when someone wanted my lane (this is actually true. I predict it correctly so often I swear it's a sixth sense. And no, it's not just automatically assuming that EVERYONE does, you skeptics out there). I think she also enjoyed our talk because the first time she saw it with her brother (the co-worker mentioned in my review), who has read all the comics and tore the movie to shreds based on his excessive knowledge of the history. Fanboys, some advice: The rest of us mortals are not impressed that you know all this stuff. Like Becca said, she wanted to ask him why Xavier is in a wheelchair, but she was afraid she'd be subjected to an hour-long discourse about it. Sure enough, I worked with him last night and mentioned very casually that I liked the movie, and the conversation rapidly took a turn toward the waters of way-more-information-than-I-ever-needed.
Tery, ever the comedian, asked if I tried to hold Rebecca's hand during the movie (I didn't. I did let her eat the popcorn I brought home to Tery though).
Subject the Third: I think YouTube.com will be my undoing. I spend way too much time there. Tery often tells anyone who'll listen how much she admires my self-discipline, getting up and going to work at the computer every day. However, some days I'm definitely less admirable than others. A lot of factors go into my concentration level, like if I've worked the previous night or if I have to work that night, if I'm getting lots of difficult doctors who seem to be dictating in Arabic with their hand over the mouthpiece, or like lately if it's so fucking hot my monitor looks like a desert mirage. Or if there's a really good Judge Judy on. I just can't resist Judy when she gets so angry she's spitting. I've noticed that my workdays can be classified into three distraction levels, unimaginatively labeled:
Green: All systems go. The caffeine has entered my bloodstream, I've got a string of good reports and I'm so in the zone I forget there's such a thing as LJ or e-mail for up to an hour at a time. I hate to tear myself away even to feed the cats. Obviously my ideal work state (the cats might see it differently).
Amber: I'm getting work done, but I'm checking LJ and email every 15 minutes or so, perhaps reading a Snarry if it's short, or surfing for porn or new Snarry (or both. Bonus!) Usually I can make a comeback in the last couple hours of my day and no one's the wiser.
Red: Might as well not even bother punching in. I'm refreshing my LJ and email compulsively, reading chapter-length Snarry, making icons, downloading music, shopping eBay, updating my journal, calling my sister to catch up with the week since we last spoke; you get the picture. Fortunately days like these happen only when I'm very, very, very tired.
I believe it was a Red day when I started heavily using the YouTube. At first it was just to find fan-made Snarry videos, then fan-made Snape videos. I hadn't yet grasped the enormous possibilities of the site. There is so much stuff to watch there, practically anything you can think of. Funny European commercials, live concert footage, MTV music videos, even whole episodes of TV shows (I watched the pilot ep of Simon Pegg's "Spaced." Too cool).
It was YouTube who got me into my new quasi-favorite band, AFI (not TOTALLY obsessed. Yet). I had been reading
jade1x2's Javey fics for months with only a passing interest, until I actually watched the band perform. Davey is sooo beautiful, and I could easily picture him with Jade. It was kind of weird though, like seeing old classmates suddenly becoming celebrities, I felt I knew them so well from the fics. I watched every video I could find (most of them many, many times), and even bought a CD thanks to all the exposure.I discovered that YouTube is a double-edged sword, however, and some bands are better off as only a voice. At the risk of sounding shallow: VNV Nation's Ronan is a fat bald man. Was happier before knowing that. Wolfsheim's singer, an oily German, wasn't as much of a surprise. But OMG The Faint's lead singer? As much as I despise this tired phrase, 1985 called and it wants its hair back. GAH. Guess it's true what they say: If you're ugly, the only way you'll get chicks is to be a good singer.
I'm really not going anywhere with all this. Deal with it.
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Youtube is a great and terrible thing. A time-sucking void of wonder and magic.
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I liked your review, however, esp the idea of Cyclops crawling around looking for his glasses in the woods. I was also bothered that no one seemed to care too much that he was missing.
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