AUHH..thiswasthemoststupendiferouslyexcitingenthralling
ridiculouslygratifyinglyaweinspiringmotherofallthatis
greatestmovieinthewholehistoryofcinema....<SIGH>
Sorry guys, I had to, how did jn put it, wallow in my geek-dom before giving the calm, rational, measured response to the film.
First, having just heard that the film has broken memorial day sales by reaching 9 figures (still have to verify), I'd like to say, "Shove it in your piehole, Bryan Singer, we'll see how well Superman: Man in Tights fares.
I thought the movie was a great experience, a really good film. I came out of the first X-Men movie with massive internal conflict. It was my beloved the X-Men, I'd been waiting for that movie my entire life, but then so many things about it were so...eh, bland for lack of a better term. X2 was a triumph and an affirmation that they could translate to cinema in a spectacular fashion. X-Men: The Last Stand validates that affirmation. Now to be completely honest, it isn't better than X2. After all the Nightcrawler White House and Magneto Jail Break scenes are works of art. Though X3 makes up for it in wall-to-wall action. Pretty much every scene has our favorite mutants showing off their abilities.
It was good to see many of my fears coming into the film were not realized:
I was worried that Brett Ratner was a douche
...well, Ratner is definitely a douche, but at least he knows how to make a film.
I was worried about making Beast with prosthetics and makeup instead of CGI.
...it worked out awesome, much props to Kelsey Grammar (he did Beast to a tee).
I was worried about how Phoenix translated to the big screen, can they really show her kicking ENOUGH ass.
...in a word, YES!
Was there going to be continuity or was Ratner going to make it his OWN thing much like every director feels the NEED to do.
...for the most he laid off and continued many of the trends and conventions of the previous two films.
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And now for some things that irked me a bit:
1. I thought they introduced WAAAYYY too many new characters. Generally I'm of "the more, the merrier" type guy, but when you go overboard its hard to devote the kind of character development necessary. (I was especially disappointed with Angel, Cyclops, and Colossus).
2. The Marvel Universe is bursting at the seams with mutants and characters, there is absolutely NO need to make up your own characters for movie purposes. I still don't understand why studio's do this! Who the heck is Kid Omega? Who the heck is Shock?
3. Should you use one of the plethora of characters in the universe, try to remember what their mutant powers are. Callisto doesn't have superspeed and the mutant who can sense other mutants is Caliban!
4. The mutant culture seemed to be very reminiscent of the Morlocks, although the word Morlocks was never mentioned. The problem was they went halfway: The Morlocks weren't fully captured and neither was the larger mutant culture.
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...what can I say, I'm a fanboy and little stuff like that will irks me. Still its a GREAT movie and encourage all to see it, I already have TWICE, and plan to again pretty soon. B)
