X-Men: Our angst is full of pleather
Jun. 11th, 2006 03:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieHusband and I just watched X-Men, the Last Stand, and though I am probably the last person on my f-list to watch this, it's still probably a good idea to cut this so I will.
First off, have to mention that all I know about X-men are from the three movies and the knowledge gleaned from Husband and Best Friend who are both a bit of X-Men fans.
Overall, I liked it a lot, though like the other two X-Men movies it reminded me of nothing else as much as a complicated, two-hour season finale for some fabulous show that I haven't watched. Because by its very nature, unlike Batman or Spiderman or Superman, X-Men deals with a world full of various superhero characters, none of them gets a huge scope in the movies. You get tantalizing glimpses and all that, but you didn't get much of anyone in this movie except Magneto and Wolverine, and not too much even of them. I don't mind that (after all, it's based on years and years of comics), it actually makes me more interested in the world created and the characters and leaves more scope for the imagination, but it certainly gives the thing a different vibe.
Anyhow, looooong write-up behind the cut. Largely Jean/Wolverine/Scott centric.
Anyway, X-Men? It was total cheese, but it was good cheese. Just the kind I like. I have to confess to giggling at the end, when in a pose right out of a romance novel cover, Wolverine held dying Jean in his arms, her outfit and red hair streaming in the wind, and screamed "Nooooooo" his torso all bare and channeling Anakin. Heh. But it was a kind, happy, satisfied giggle, the way many Bolly movie angsts makes me feel.
I think this is where the overload of angst kicked it. At first, angst was sad. But by the end of the movie, there was so much of it, it was just amusing me, in a good happy way.
Also the whole "save me" "I love you" *stab* thing made me think about Buffy's season two finale. Of course, I do have to point out that if he loved the girl so much, how about stabbing her with the needle thing instead and getting her unmutated (Magneto didn't really need all four needles in him). Yes, yes, she wanted to die, but how about letting her decide it when she wasn't all strung out on Evil Juice? If she wanted to off herself then, she always could. Granted, chances of her getting over the fact that she's killed tons of people, among them her lover and her father figure (thankfully two different individuals) are probably not really high, but still... Of course, all these characters get resurrected more than Jesus in the passion plays, so death is a minor hurdle in these stories anyhow :)
But when he tells her it's all about her, not those other people. Whoa. I generally find Wolverine as sex-appealable as a wet dishcloth, but he was hot there. I do have to say that the X-Men movies are one of the rare instances where I both buy and like the love triangle. Maybe because both Cyclops and Wolverine really love Jean, and Jean loves Cyclops but you can see she has a certain attraction to Wolverine and it's all portrayed very well (I think it's significant that the Jean-Id aka Phoenix jumped Wolverine on the coma table. In a most random reference ever, it reminded me of that one episode of Fushigi Yuugi where Miaka was trapped in a mirror and a 'mirror-Miaka,' who represented the hidden parts of Miaka, came out, and instead of googly-eyeing Tamahome, Miaka's bf, she made out with Hotohori, the guy who liked Miaka)
I might be a goth-in-training, but I thought Jean and Scott having their graves next to each other was actually romantic. But then I am probably one of the five fangirls for Scott and the Scott/Jean shippers. Part of it is the huge shallowness: I find the actor who plays Scott uber-hot, while Hugh Jackman, while generally good-looking (though not my thing) is quite un-sexy to me as Wolverine. I want him to shave off the sideburns, get a hair-cut, and stop wearing wife-beaters circa 1975. Then we could maybe talk. Of course, Best Friend is a huge Cyclops fangirl, from way back (she has a thing for clean cut, establishment guys and so do I :D) so her reaction in having the guy offed was...vocal.
But I think it's mainly the angst. I absolutely loved the scene where she appears in front of him, and he can't believe it and the whole scene has this complete air of unreality and you get the feel he doesn't care how or why or even if it's real, as long as she is there, and she wants him to take off his glasses, and he is terrified and his eyes are screwed shut as tightly as he can but then he can't bear it and does open them and he can finally look at her with his own eyes (digression: he must have super-special eyelids :D) and they kiss and it's so angsty and romantic and then of course her power goes haywire and she kills him and actually I don't think he cares too much at that moment. I eat this stuff up with a spoon. I need fanfic.
I do love her breaking down later and freaking out in an uncontrollable manner when she remembers what she did to Scott. I think a lot of her rage and messed-uppedness issues is because she is trying to escape the knowledge of what she's done, and the pain it causes her, but of course that causes further distraction so further attempt to escape and so on. It's a vicious cycle. Because I don't think she wanted to kill Scott, she just couldn't control her powers, as she just woke up. She didn't want to kill Xavier, she just snapped and was angry and her power was that great. etc etc etc.
And I love the scene when she wakes up on that coma table, and that whole scene with her and Wolverine, when she notices him looking at her, and his reaction is this heart-breaking mixture of joy and shame and lust and love and disbelief. And then of course the make-out scene is super hot and I am sure this is something he's fantasized about before, this is like all his dreams come true: Jean is back from the dead, and she actually wants him but then of course...
I love the fucking love triangle.
I have to say Jean is lucky though that the two guys she came across when she first came to were the only two men who loved her and missed her enough to just basically be overwhelmed by her being back enough not to care about anything else. They probably would have bought "the Keebler elves brought me back" explanation. If your dead True Love just came back to life, and she is acting a bit odd ('take off your glasses, Scott even though I am normally all about not being crispified,' 'let me make out with you, Logan, even though I just came out of a coma and I have a boyfriend who is not you'), oh actually, let's back up, if she came back to life, period, I'd probably take a step back and go 'wait a second. There is something not right,' not try to stick my tongue down her throat. But oh well...
Of course, as Husband pointed out, with Scott at least, at that point she was dealing with someone who was mentally screwed up enough to go to a random lake in the middle of nowhere and do an equivalent of yelling "Stellaaaaaaaaaa!" I do have to say though, if I shuffled off this mortal coil a bit on the untimely side, I'd rather my bf went all emo depressive and really upset and fell to bits (Scott), rather then offer bits of consolatory philosophy or walk around the grounds content enjoying the scenery (Logan). Especially if he offed me. I guess I am a selfish bitch.
Have you noticed that if you are hot and you angstily grieve in the movies, you always express it by not shaving? But you don't grow a beard, you always have a two day stubble, so you remember to shave every other day? And also, after shaving you hibernate, because the audience only sees you on the day AFTER the shave, with the stubble.
Also, Jean was working out some severe issues. She killed the guy who'd been inside her head (Xavier) and the guy who's been inside her...erm, you get the point (Scott). Down with the patriarchy. Or something. Of course, Logan was able to kill her anyway, so I am not sure what post-modern message you can get from that, except for guys who have the most hair win :) Also, I get the feeling she offed her parents. If not, I hope they have a good house insurance, because that place was totaled.
Basically, Jean was having a huge, superhero-sized PMS attack that went like this:
"Xavier, you've been in my head. And you made me do homework when I was younger. DIIIIIIEEEEE!"
"Mom, you didn't buy me a pony when I was 10. DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Dad, remember that time you told me I needed a time out? DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Scott, I told you to do the fucking dishes! DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Various Extras, stop breathing so loud. DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Logan, how many times must I point out not to smoke the cigars indoors? DIIIEEEEE!"
That's totally me on a bad day, minus the death and destruction.
And now that we've covered the love triangle, on to the other bits.
I loved Magneto's reaction when he saw Xavier die. He was devastated. Enemies or not, they are also friends. No matter what. I liked it.
Surely I can't be the only one who wants to read Wolverine/Storm? I could so see that.
I like Rogue. I like Bobby. It was all so cute. I like Kitty too.
Angel was interesting, and awwwww, he and daddy bonded. And he hid. Poor cool hot emo boy. But for future reference, strap patient to a gurney AFTER he is unconscious. And if he is flipping out already, don't tell him it will hurt and be weird.
And if the cure is only temporary (as Magneto's thing at the end seems to indicate), it's still great for Rogue as it can be her version of viagra so she can touch Bobby all she likes.
Also, bridge would not hold still like this, would collapse as soon as Magneto let go.
Overall, waaaaay too much fun.
Now point me towards fanfic sites. And please link me to any X-men write-ups you did.
First off, have to mention that all I know about X-men are from the three movies and the knowledge gleaned from Husband and Best Friend who are both a bit of X-Men fans.
Overall, I liked it a lot, though like the other two X-Men movies it reminded me of nothing else as much as a complicated, two-hour season finale for some fabulous show that I haven't watched. Because by its very nature, unlike Batman or Spiderman or Superman, X-Men deals with a world full of various superhero characters, none of them gets a huge scope in the movies. You get tantalizing glimpses and all that, but you didn't get much of anyone in this movie except Magneto and Wolverine, and not too much even of them. I don't mind that (after all, it's based on years and years of comics), it actually makes me more interested in the world created and the characters and leaves more scope for the imagination, but it certainly gives the thing a different vibe.
Anyhow, looooong write-up behind the cut. Largely Jean/Wolverine/Scott centric.
Anyway, X-Men? It was total cheese, but it was good cheese. Just the kind I like. I have to confess to giggling at the end, when in a pose right out of a romance novel cover, Wolverine held dying Jean in his arms, her outfit and red hair streaming in the wind, and screamed "Nooooooo" his torso all bare and channeling Anakin. Heh. But it was a kind, happy, satisfied giggle, the way many Bolly movie angsts makes me feel.
I think this is where the overload of angst kicked it. At first, angst was sad. But by the end of the movie, there was so much of it, it was just amusing me, in a good happy way.
Also the whole "save me" "I love you" *stab* thing made me think about Buffy's season two finale. Of course, I do have to point out that if he loved the girl so much, how about stabbing her with the needle thing instead and getting her unmutated (Magneto didn't really need all four needles in him). Yes, yes, she wanted to die, but how about letting her decide it when she wasn't all strung out on Evil Juice? If she wanted to off herself then, she always could. Granted, chances of her getting over the fact that she's killed tons of people, among them her lover and her father figure (thankfully two different individuals) are probably not really high, but still... Of course, all these characters get resurrected more than Jesus in the passion plays, so death is a minor hurdle in these stories anyhow :)
But when he tells her it's all about her, not those other people. Whoa. I generally find Wolverine as sex-appealable as a wet dishcloth, but he was hot there. I do have to say that the X-Men movies are one of the rare instances where I both buy and like the love triangle. Maybe because both Cyclops and Wolverine really love Jean, and Jean loves Cyclops but you can see she has a certain attraction to Wolverine and it's all portrayed very well (I think it's significant that the Jean-Id aka Phoenix jumped Wolverine on the coma table. In a most random reference ever, it reminded me of that one episode of Fushigi Yuugi where Miaka was trapped in a mirror and a 'mirror-Miaka,' who represented the hidden parts of Miaka, came out, and instead of googly-eyeing Tamahome, Miaka's bf, she made out with Hotohori, the guy who liked Miaka)
I might be a goth-in-training, but I thought Jean and Scott having their graves next to each other was actually romantic. But then I am probably one of the five fangirls for Scott and the Scott/Jean shippers. Part of it is the huge shallowness: I find the actor who plays Scott uber-hot, while Hugh Jackman, while generally good-looking (though not my thing) is quite un-sexy to me as Wolverine. I want him to shave off the sideburns, get a hair-cut, and stop wearing wife-beaters circa 1975. Then we could maybe talk. Of course, Best Friend is a huge Cyclops fangirl, from way back (she has a thing for clean cut, establishment guys and so do I :D) so her reaction in having the guy offed was...vocal.
But I think it's mainly the angst. I absolutely loved the scene where she appears in front of him, and he can't believe it and the whole scene has this complete air of unreality and you get the feel he doesn't care how or why or even if it's real, as long as she is there, and she wants him to take off his glasses, and he is terrified and his eyes are screwed shut as tightly as he can but then he can't bear it and does open them and he can finally look at her with his own eyes (digression: he must have super-special eyelids :D) and they kiss and it's so angsty and romantic and then of course her power goes haywire and she kills him and actually I don't think he cares too much at that moment. I eat this stuff up with a spoon. I need fanfic.
I do love her breaking down later and freaking out in an uncontrollable manner when she remembers what she did to Scott. I think a lot of her rage and messed-uppedness issues is because she is trying to escape the knowledge of what she's done, and the pain it causes her, but of course that causes further distraction so further attempt to escape and so on. It's a vicious cycle. Because I don't think she wanted to kill Scott, she just couldn't control her powers, as she just woke up. She didn't want to kill Xavier, she just snapped and was angry and her power was that great. etc etc etc.
And I love the scene when she wakes up on that coma table, and that whole scene with her and Wolverine, when she notices him looking at her, and his reaction is this heart-breaking mixture of joy and shame and lust and love and disbelief. And then of course the make-out scene is super hot and I am sure this is something he's fantasized about before, this is like all his dreams come true: Jean is back from the dead, and she actually wants him but then of course...
I love the fucking love triangle.
I have to say Jean is lucky though that the two guys she came across when she first came to were the only two men who loved her and missed her enough to just basically be overwhelmed by her being back enough not to care about anything else. They probably would have bought "the Keebler elves brought me back" explanation. If your dead True Love just came back to life, and she is acting a bit odd ('take off your glasses, Scott even though I am normally all about not being crispified,' 'let me make out with you, Logan, even though I just came out of a coma and I have a boyfriend who is not you'), oh actually, let's back up, if she came back to life, period, I'd probably take a step back and go 'wait a second. There is something not right,' not try to stick my tongue down her throat. But oh well...
Of course, as Husband pointed out, with Scott at least, at that point she was dealing with someone who was mentally screwed up enough to go to a random lake in the middle of nowhere and do an equivalent of yelling "Stellaaaaaaaaaa!" I do have to say though, if I shuffled off this mortal coil a bit on the untimely side, I'd rather my bf went all emo depressive and really upset and fell to bits (Scott), rather then offer bits of consolatory philosophy or walk around the grounds content enjoying the scenery (Logan). Especially if he offed me. I guess I am a selfish bitch.
Have you noticed that if you are hot and you angstily grieve in the movies, you always express it by not shaving? But you don't grow a beard, you always have a two day stubble, so you remember to shave every other day? And also, after shaving you hibernate, because the audience only sees you on the day AFTER the shave, with the stubble.
Also, Jean was working out some severe issues. She killed the guy who'd been inside her head (Xavier) and the guy who's been inside her...erm, you get the point (Scott). Down with the patriarchy. Or something. Of course, Logan was able to kill her anyway, so I am not sure what post-modern message you can get from that, except for guys who have the most hair win :) Also, I get the feeling she offed her parents. If not, I hope they have a good house insurance, because that place was totaled.
Basically, Jean was having a huge, superhero-sized PMS attack that went like this:
"Xavier, you've been in my head. And you made me do homework when I was younger. DIIIIIIEEEEE!"
"Mom, you didn't buy me a pony when I was 10. DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Dad, remember that time you told me I needed a time out? DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Scott, I told you to do the fucking dishes! DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Various Extras, stop breathing so loud. DIIIIIEEEE!"
"Logan, how many times must I point out not to smoke the cigars indoors? DIIIEEEEE!"
That's totally me on a bad day, minus the death and destruction.
And now that we've covered the love triangle, on to the other bits.
I loved Magneto's reaction when he saw Xavier die. He was devastated. Enemies or not, they are also friends. No matter what. I liked it.
Surely I can't be the only one who wants to read Wolverine/Storm? I could so see that.
I like Rogue. I like Bobby. It was all so cute. I like Kitty too.
Angel was interesting, and awwwww, he and daddy bonded. And he hid. Poor cool hot emo boy. But for future reference, strap patient to a gurney AFTER he is unconscious. And if he is flipping out already, don't tell him it will hurt and be weird.
And if the cure is only temporary (as Magneto's thing at the end seems to indicate), it's still great for Rogue as it can be her version of viagra so she can touch Bobby all she likes.
Also, bridge would not hold still like this, would collapse as soon as Magneto let go.
Overall, waaaaay too much fun.
Now point me towards fanfic sites. And please link me to any X-men write-ups you did.
