I just finished watching the very first X-Men film on TV with my bride Beth Barany. I had seen it before, have you? If so, remember near the beginning when they show Jewish families being led to the concentration camps? Apparently, there will be a lot more mention of the connection between losing one’s family and getting revenge as a man with super powers. (I am purposely being coy to avoid spoiling it for those who don’t know the story.)
The reviews are mixed; from 3 out of 5 stars to an 89% out of 100%. Still, no matter what the reviews, I’m curious to see it. Is this a movie on your list to see? Have you seen the previous X-Men films? What did you think? Leave a comment below!
I went to see it Friday night with some friends. I though it did a fine job of bringing to the screen some of the better moments in the original comic. The script took some liberties with the storyline as presented in the comic, but it’s hard to get too upset about that after many years of reading the comics. They took less liberties than Marvel itself did on a regular basis when they decided a different history for the characters would be more interesting/sell better/etc. (Although that is one of the reasons I eventually gave up on reading comics – I want more continuity and internal consistency in my fiction.)
I though the dynamics between all the characters were very well handled, and believable. That’s one of the things I loved about the X-Men when Chris Claremont was writing them – they had depth and motivations beyond “We have great powers. We must do good with them.”
I was also impressed with the job they did on the non-English dialogue. All too often when you hear bits of something in another language in a film it’s clear that the actors were delivering rote lines memorized phonetically. The early sections in German were well written and well acted. The doctor is absolutely chilling. I’m much less fluent in French, but what I was able to catch independent of the subtitles sounded good as well.
Thanks for the great feedback! I was always a Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich comix kid. As a became more and more aware of the storylines behind what I always thought were the more violent “big kids” comics, I was impressed by the well-defined motivations and 3-D character development they had. As you say, the depth and motivations beyond “We have great powers. We must do good (or bad) with them” is what captures my attention most. When Beth (my Beth) and I saw the original X-Men on TV the other day, I remember thinking to myself, “How perfect the motivation for Magneto is to satisfy the quest for crushing all anti-mutant (read ‘anti-semitism’) sentiment.” It’s all to avoid another genocide. Without knowing Magneto’s past, he just comes across as a guy who gets his kicks off of hurting people.
Anyhow, again, thanks for your comment!
P.S. When I looked at your website, I read your bio and said, “Cool! She knows a Beth, too!”