Quote :

"btw, I'm sure I'm not the only one that noticed it but did they really have to pan to the one black guy when Sebastian Shaw made that comment about slavery? Then of course the one black guy is the first mutant to die."

We noticed and commented on both of these during the movie... like, "Wow, even in mutants, the black guy has to die first." :-/

[Edited on June 6, 2011 at 4:07 PM. Reason : 4!]

6/6/2011 4:06:52 PM

Its a relic from the golden age of cinema. My grandpa said that audiences used to cheer like hell whenever the token black character inevitably perished.

6/6/2011 4:18:03 PM

Quote :

"Movie was meh at best. McAvoy and Fassbender were great but the rest of the cast didn't cut it."

Yup. They were completely pointless with the exception of Kevin Bacon.

Quote :

"Am I wrong, or did Michael Fassbender give up on holding his neutral accent once they hit the beach? "

His accent came and went so many times during the film, I lost count.

Quote :

"Also, making Angel female is weaksauce, even if the tattoo gimmick is cool. "

No her character was flat out HORRID.

Quote :

"This movie is totally separate from the continuities of the comics and animated series."

Yup and that's why I didn't like it.

Quote :

"definitely right up there with dark knight"

You are on some seriously good drugs.

6/6/2011 4:40:32 PM

Quote :

"She's from Grant Morrison's New X-Men."

Self-pwnt.

To be fair, aside from the first two arcs of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, I haven't read a superhero comic since the early '90s.

6/6/2011 4:41:12 PM

I don't care if Angel was a comic character or not. She was awful. Seeing a closeup of her mouth spitting a fireball EVERY SINGLE TIME was hilarious. Her fight with Banshee might go down as one of the lamest in movie history.

6/6/2011 5:18:23 PM

^ she was the only negative part of the movie for me. it didn't make any sense for her to make as drastic a switch to the dark side as she did.

one minute she's going to be helping america, the next time you see her she's rubbin' up on sebastian shaw, then she's dropping bombs on the navy. just didn't buy it.

everything else was top notch. definitely makes me okay with the lack of a magneto movie.

6/6/2011 9:37:33 PM

i thought it made sense. it wasn't well developed, but they laid down enough ground work for it to make sense. She was the most negative of the group. she was also somewhat "seedy" if you will... she was a stripper (some type of eye candy for men to get off to), was she not?

I'm not saying it was masterful writing, but I didn't question it for a second. She wasn't there to be a hero and fight for everyone against the bad guys. she was there because she didn't have to hide among that group since they were all mutants (remember, most of them thought they were "alone")... it just so happened that the good guys knocked on her door first. If Shaw found her first, I think she would have just as easily went with him then.

6/6/2011 11:10:26 PM

^totally agree regarding Angel.

This movie was not perfect by any stretch, especially to a fanbase that is so large and knows the potential of the story line and characters. There is no way to make this movie and satisfy everyone...having said that

I really really enjoyed it. Kevin Bacon was the best surprise to me, great job by marketing to not spoil that in previews, or the cameos that were made...love to be surprised in a movie that is hyped by nature ( a la second half of Dark Knight - hardly any exposure in trailers). I'm very hopeful they can build on this for next movie and not get too carried away with how many new characters they can squeeze into the next chapter...focus on a quality story and production, that is what makes an enjoyable cinematic translation. The books were popular because the story was almost always engaging and relatable. Hopefully they will keep that utmost priority, which I believe was why X2 was so awesome...the set up did not try to do too much (same with Batman Begins). There is definitely room for improvement, and that is not a bad thing in this case. Very well done IMO.

6/7/2011 11:29:23 AM

Quote :

"My grandpa said that audiences used to cheer like hell whenever the token black character inevitably perished."

6/7/2011 11:38:46 AM

consider the source

6/7/2011 11:49:03 AM

This is my two cents on the movie:

It has a 2 star plot with 3 main actors carrying the movie on their back.

The characters Mystique, Xavier, Magneto, and Shaw were well done. Emma Frost and Beast were just ok. All the other characters are so butchered from the traditional X-men stories that they become completely worthless in terms of story development.

The story is so off course with any major X-men series that if you know anything about any of the X-men history or story lines, you will be face palming yourself for the majority of the movie. It's so ridiculous where this movie goes that you can't even put it into the same universe. It's like this movie exists in an alternate reality of the X-men universe. Maybe that's what it was intended for, I'm not sure. Either way, I'm old school and I didn't like it one bit.

The fight scenes are pretty stupid with exception of Azazel and a few of Magneto and Shaw's scenes.

The CGI was slightly above average in some areas and terrible in others.

Beast looks like a fucking cat.
Emma Frost looks like a walking diamond with eyeballs (I know that's her power but damn it, they could have done so much better).
Angel is the lamest super hero movie character to date.
Darwin has a whopping 5 minutes of screen time but has one of the best abilities. Good job writers...
Havok does a god damn hula hoop dance to project his rings.


Overall, it wasn't terrible but it was good either.

[Edited on June 9, 2011 at 2:48 PM. Reason : just my thoughts]

6/9/2011 2:47:01 PM

^You mention that the movie is so far off from the normal comics, but then you complain that Beast look like a cat. IIRC, the most recent Beast has been depicted as feline (as opposed to simian), and he's been that way for quite a while. Granted this is meant to be more of an origins, so it would make more sense for him to be simian (though I haven't seen any pics of him from this movie).

From the wiki:

Quote :

"After being critically wounded,[47] Hank's body undergoes a secondary mutation, jump started by Sage. The result is a more feline appearance equivalent to that of a big cat. His strength, speed, stamina, sturdiness, and senses increase further with this change. He gains cat-like agility, flexibility, coordination, and balance, and all his senses are enhanced to twenty times that of a normal human being. In addition, Beast develops an accelerated healing factor that allows him to repair mild to moderate injuries within the span of a few hours. However, as his hands and feet change from simian to feline (going from a normal human set of four fingers to just three, retaining the opposable thumb), he loses his superhuman dexterity, once admitting that he used to play the guitar, but is now learning to play the drums instead. Following the X-Men's relocation to San Francisco, Beast discovers that he had regained some of his old manual dexterity. In the first issue of Warren Ellis' Astonishing X-Men run, Beast also comments he no longer needs full sleep."

6/9/2011 3:06:22 PM

Like I said, I'm old school and I didn't like it.

6/9/2011 4:22:22 PM

Quote :

"Emma Frost looks like a walking diamond with eyeballs (I know that's her power but damn it, they could have done so much better). Darwin has a whopping 5 minutes of screen time but has one of the best abilities. Good job writers..."

I agree 100% on those two things.

6/9/2011 5:50:40 PM

Quote :

"Havok does a god damn hula hoop dance to project his rings."

[Edited on June 10, 2011 at 12:30 PM. Reason : this probably bothered me the most]

6/10/2011 12:29:30 PM

Quote :

"My grandpa said that audiences used to cheer like hell whenever the token black character inevitably perished."

What did the organ player in the front do?

6/10/2011 12:33:49 PM

there were organ players in movie theaters??

6/10/2011 12:44:00 PM

Where do you think the music came from?

6/10/2011 1:13:42 PM

Quote :

"^ she was the only negative part of the movie for me. it didn't make any sense for her to make as drastic a switch to the dark side as she did."

Why was it a drastic switch? What made you think she was good to begin with?

6/10/2011 1:37:54 PM

because she was recruited by Xavier and Magneto in order to fight for America???

I believe he said that and it was definitely drastic.

Quote :

"one minute she's going to be helping america, the next time you see her she's rubbin' up on sebastian shaw, then she's dropping bombs on the navy. just didn't buy it."

[Edited on June 10, 2011 at 1:54 PM. Reason : poorly written]

6/10/2011 1:53:38 PM

Quote :

"Movie was meh at best. McAvoy and Fassbender were great but the rest of the cast didn't cut it."

I agree 100% with everything V0LC0M said. This movie had so much potential to be great, on par with the Batman reboot. With a Cold War backdrop they could have played so much further into the espionage/arms race/seedy government powers instead of making a superficial brush over each topic. The Xavier/Magneto character development was good, and McAvoy was exceptional as Xavier, one of the few saving graces imo.

To be honest, I had a lot of trouble giving a shit about many of the other mutants, they were so poorly developed, not to mention the ridiculousness of some of their powers. (Hula hoop boy, disgusting moth wing bitch) I would have liked to know a lot more about the 'evil' mutants, especially Azazel; we are told next to nothing about him and he barely even speaks, though he is one of the most badass in the movie.

Aside from the backstory of the main characters most of the plot was shallow and superficial, spending the absolute minimum amount of time on any plot point. It's probably my fault hoping for Christoper Nolan-esque plot and character development, but I was very disappointed with how much they wasted the Cold War theme. This could have easily approached 3 hours, fleshed out things a lot more, and still not felt that long. To be honest I didn't realize it was 2:10 until I looked it up, the pacing kept things from getting boring at least.

6/10/2011 4:53:18 PM

While I enjoyed the movie, it might have been cool as a drawn out story just about Charles and Erik. And then have a 2nd movie going through the starting of the school, recruiting of the first x-men, and the conflict between Charles and Erik. That may have required a reboot though cause I'd want to see the REAL first class. The mutants they picked for this movie were fine, but could not have carried a whole movie.

6/10/2011 5:29:37 PM

How is that a X-Men "Reboot" the X-men movies are not even 10 years old.

6/10/2011 7:00:50 PM

Marvel movies can do whatever the hell they want thanks to thr multiverse and the "what if?" series. All they have to say is this isn't earth 616. DC can do the same thanks to crisis on infinite earths, so the continuity errors really didn't bother me.

6/10/2011 8:59:04 PM

Saw this movie yesterday and loved it. Even my father enjoyed the movie. I am a Xmen fan and kept up with the comics in general.

The story line was great and I enjoyed all the actors. I do wish they would have explored Angels decision a lil more. Maybe they got cut from final release.

As a black man, I hated how they did Darwin, but I saw it coming. Oh well.

It was a fantastic movie from start to finish.


III

6/11/2011 1:55:06 PM

Agreed on the Darwin crap. Very

I am a huge X-Men fan and I loved this movie. While I agree that much of the story line doesn't match up to canon...its the god damn movie universe. The comics you are referencing to can't even agree with themselves. Marvel Ultimate reboots say hi? Come on, while they weren't perfect, it was incredibly believable.

The mutants were moderately well fleshed out overall. Banshee was kind of annoying but he was a high schooler anyway. I would've liked more background on Havok, especially since he is supposed to be Cyclops's brother...but it could be retconned that he is Scott's father, or uncle or something considering the cameo of scott already being a little boy. Btw, was it just me or did Storm look like she was American? Again, what the hell with Emma Frost with her appearance (completely disregard anything with Wolverine Origins), but her character was so well done otherwise that I was able to look past it. Would've liked more fleshing out of Mystique and Azazel, even a flirting glance, but meh, I think the combination of blue skin and demonic appearance/teleportation is enough for audiences to see the love child.

Overall, the minor mutants worked for me.

Except for Angel. What the fuck was that. Spitting firecrackers? Fragile little bug wings? That's who you recruit alongside Havok and Banshee?

I agree the wolverine cameo/failed recruit worked. He wouldn't have had adamantium yet I think, and a brief mind probe by charles could've seen that he was too much trouble.

6/11/2011 7:50:12 PM

Quote :

"about the 'evil' mutants, especially Azazel; we are told next to nothing about him and he barely even speaks, though he is one of the most badass in the movie. "

Hell yes. Im partial since nightcrawler has always been a favorite of mine but it was a tradedgy not to spend more time on him. Hopefully they'll show his backstory more in the future. Badass suit.

6/11/2011 10:57:57 PM

Azazel's drop tactic is one of those fucked up things you knew that he could do, but they would never show in a movie...until this one.

Same with magneto's coin trick. Probably one of the most dramatic kills I've seen in a movie

6/11/2011 11:04:55 PM

Quote :

"because she was recruited by Xavier and Magneto in order to fight for America??? I believe he said that and it was definitely drastic"

The fact that she got recruited doesn't mean she is a good person inside. It just means the good guys found her first. Plus, they were going to kill the students who didn't switch.

6/11/2011 11:40:55 PM

didn't nightcrawler say he couldn't teleport to somewhere he couldn't see, because he might wind up in a wall? i guess azazel has more confidence in his ability?

6/12/2011 9:42:15 AM

He's immortal, right? I guess he has a lot of practice.

6/12/2011 9:51:44 AM

^^should watch X2 again.

6/12/2011 12:36:07 PM

i mean i know he teleported inside cerebro, but i would still think he'd need to have some general idea of where he was going based on what he could actually see. azazel and crew teleported to who knows where multiple times

is it just a matter of picturing where you want to go in your head?

[Edited on June 12, 2011 at 1:25 PM. Reason : o]

6/12/2011 1:23:27 PM

Nightcrawler could teleport where ever he wanted, but he didn't like doing it because he might teleport into something.

He did this in the underground facility at the end of the movie when he needed to get to the kids in their prison

[Edited on June 12, 2011 at 1:35 PM. Reason : lkj]

6/12/2011 1:34:11 PM

I'm watching X2 now...

So Col. Stryker was noted as having been dealing with mutants since...mutants were known. Was he one of the CIA guys in this movie? I thought I heard his name at one point in the initial CIA meetings.

6/12/2011 7:59:24 PM

i heard his name too, figured it couldn't have been coincidence

6/12/2011 8:18:07 PM

I thought that at one point Xavier commented about he was "thinking about his son, William." I figured this would have to be his father.

I was also wondering about the girl in the pub whom Xavier was hitting on. I wasn't sure if her eye color had any relevance towards David (I think Stryker's son's name was David?). Maybe this was a hint that she was his mother? Kindof a stretch. Anyway, who was David supposed to be in the movie universe? Gamesmaster? Legion?

6/12/2011 8:33:43 PM

been reading wikis

Quote :

"Don Creech as CIA Agent William Stryker Sr."

Jason Stryker was modeled after Mastermind.

Very interesting nod to the girl's eyes. I bet that your thinking there is true.

However, looks like this was a true reboot:

Quote :

"Describing his thought process toward the material, Vaughn said, "Unfinished business, that's what inspired me. I was totally excited about doing X3 and basically co-wrote the script with [Simon] Kinberg and Zak Penn. We did that in six days together, and then storyboarded the whole movie ... and then, like an idiot, thought that I didn't have enough time to make the film I wanted, so I had to leave. I sort of regretted that ever since, and when Fox rang me up and said, 'Do you want a chance to reboot X-Men and put your stamp all over it?' When they told me that, I thought they were joking at first, and then they told me it would happen in the '60s against the Cuban missile crisis as the backdrop, I thought, 'God, this sounds cool. Why not? Let's do it.'" [45] "My main goal was to make as good a film that could stand on its own two feet regardless of all the other films. However, I thought anything that worked in all the other movies, and I could have some fun with nodding towards, I would. But my main rule was, You know what, were trying to reboot and start a whole new X-Men franchise and therefore, making a film work on its own two feet was far more important than trying to be referential to the prior movies." [46] He said, "It's not like the other X-Men movies, which I think is important. I think they need to sort of take on a new... you know, what Batman Begins did for all those Batman movies? We bloody well need it. I'm not saying it's going to be as good as Batman Begins, but it's the same sort of attitude.""

[Edited on June 12, 2011 at 9:31 PM. Reason : mmm]

6/12/2011 9:30:23 PM

Really enjoyed the movie. Magneto tearing apart the ship with the anchor and Shaw blowing up the CIA room were easily the best shots in the movie.

I do have the same complaints that others had (Darwin being killed off, poor CGI in some parts, continuity issues, etc)

6/12/2011 9:32:52 PM

Quote :

"I'm not saying it's going to be as good as Batman Begins, but it's the same sort of attitude"

haha, that's an unusual thing to hear

6/12/2011 10:55:07 PM

saw it this weekend, not bad

6/13/2011 10:39:31 AM

Saw it today. Was a pretty sweet movie.

6/13/2011 7:07:12 PM

Quote :

"Also, what is the canon. My Xmen knowledge comes from the cartoon in the early 90s, where Xavier's power somehow disabled his legs"

I prob shouldn't be reading this thread yet bc I haven't seen it but didn't Magneto paralyze prof X? His hair loss is from his power. I need to google this bc I'm feeling unsure.

[Edited on June 13, 2011 at 10:35 PM. Reason : ...]

6/13/2011 10:34:39 PM

I did not have the nerdgasm that I was expecting. Instead, there was a mix between fanboy excitement and facepalm throughout the entire movie.

6/13/2011 10:42:25 PM

Quote :

"Jason Stryker was modeled after Mastermind."

Ah, right. Duh. Should have remembered that one.

6/14/2011 11:28:12 PM

Quote :

"and facepalm throughout the entire movie."

6/15/2011 3:51:20 PM

Take two to watch the movie panned out.

I had a total nerdgasm. I am one of those that have read the comics/graphic novels, watched the original TV show, and have seen all the movies. I am ok with adaptations because there are so many mutants and back stories that it is enough to make your head spin.

I have this amazing crush on Magneto and always have and the actor who played him with his ginormous toothy Joker-like smile was absolutely delish. I was very much a fan of the people chosen to play the roles and the cameos, imo, were clever.

Also, the fact that they chose to use that scene in Poland at the very beginning was not a bad idea, much to the dismay of others in this thread.



Only complaint: I do think some parts were choppy, like the training scenes and when the new found mutants were hanging out.

6/22/2011 11:36:44 PM

There's no question that Magneto and Xavier were cast well. My beef is with the poorly developed supporting cast, the ridiculous twists they took with some of the characters, Havok's hula hoop dance, the dragonfly girl that had no business being in the movie AT ALL, and some of the special effects were just garbage (Emma Frost).

6/23/2011 10:13:51 AM

Watched it. Enjoyed it. I think I could watch Magneto killing people for 4 hours and enjoy it.

6/23/2011 11:23:34 AM

I don't think I could take JUST Magneto for 4 hours...maybe Magneto and Azazel though.

I liked that almost every time Charles and Erik were sitting down together they were playing chess.

Other than Magneto vs. Kevin Bacon there weren't any good one-on-one mutant fights in this movie...Banshee vs Angel was shit (as mentioned before), and iirc there really weren't any others.

Examples of good fights in my opinion were Storm vs Toad in X1 and Wolverine vs Deathstrike in X2.

Btw...I read somewhere in this thread that a human looking Hank Mccoy is somewhere in X2, but its been so long I don't remember it...but I just read this in a wiki page:

Quote :

"Sebastian Shaw appears as Dr. Shaw in X2 voiced by Charles Siegel. He appears briefly on a television screen debating with another well-known character from the comics, Hank McCoy."

[Edited on June 24, 2011 at 2:18 AM. Reason : -]

6/24/2011 2:10:04 AM