Monday, February 9, 2009

Movie review: X-Men

Ok. So this is a review i made at another site but it seems that my account there has not been quite good, so i've decided to publish this here. What's the use of reviewing something if nobody reads it, righy? At aleast here i know some people would read this (ahem, joy? Luarch? Hehehehehe). So here goes. This here is my disappointment at the movie version (the first one) of the X-men.

X-men: Where are the real x-men?
Ok. So at first I thought, “finally, an x-men movie!” I couldn’t contain my excitement when I heard news tat they’ve finally decided to make a movie about one of probably the most popular superheroes of al time.

I couldn’t wait to see how they were gonna bring to life the mutant characters I grew up watching on TV and in comic books. But sadly, it was a disappointment. I know it was quite a huge task for the filmmakers to bring to the big screen one of comicdome’s most popular franchise, but they could have at least tried to stick to the original concept.

What they gave us instead was a marmalade of characters and a storyline that never really quite followed any of the comic book or cartoons version.Let’s start with the characters. Although the change in Wolverine’s appearance was great (from short and stocky – which earned him the nickname “Short stuff” – to a 6 feet tall and ruggedly handsome Hugh Jackman) and a fresh, modern take on the “uniforms” was good (from the comically colorful ones to black leather suits), most of the characters were disappointing. They should’ve just stuck with the original Team A: Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee. Instead they mixed up all the characters. Cyclops was supposed to be the leader (although I hate him), but he was shown as some cutie lover boy who serves as Professor X’s escort.

Being a Wolverine fan, I thought it was great that they focused more on him, but it was disappointing that the other characters seemed weak. Team A was supposed to be the best team, the most powerful ones but they only gave us half of the team and made Rogue look like some weak school girl. What happened to Gambit and Jubilee? They’re one of the original x-men. And what’s this lame love story on Rogue and Iceman? Iceman doesn’t join the x-men until later in the comic books. Every x-men fan knows the bittersweet love story of Rogue and Gambit.

And who’s Pyro? I’ve never seen him in my comic books.And it’s not only the good mutants who are disappointing. The villains, too. Where are the major villains? Mr. Sinister? The Sentinels? Presidential candidate Graydon Creed?

Although I can say kudos to the performances of Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), and Sir Ian McKellan (Magneto).The story is really very different from the original one, but I’m sure the film makers had a rather hard time with it since the X-men franchise had a lot of different substories and explorations of the different characters.

Although it wasn’t quite what I expected and very disappointing for an X-men fan such as myself, I’m glad the movie was able to stick the franchise’s main point: to seek peace with the human race, educate young mutants in the responsible use of their powers, and stop Magneto from starting a war with humanity.

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