So...X3 Then...
Jun. 1st, 2006 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicaddict...and I can't say that I was overly impressed.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it (though with Emma there I would enjoy anything), but it wasn't quite the world blazing rush that I think Ratner was trying to create.
The special effects were spectacular, if implausible, but then you'd expect that with the single highest concentration of out-and-out flange beasts ever seen on the silver screen, though while some of the ideas were perfectly acceptable (I'm fine with molecular telekinetics. It's Phoenix - she can do whatever the hell she wants. I'm even okay with incendiary car catapults - nothing unexpected from Magneto and Pyro there), I did, however, have a problem with...to avoid giving away too much plot...the method of transport to the final battleground. That was a "fucking kidding" moment along the lines of Xander Cage snowboarding faster than an avalanche in XXX. Only so much the public will swallow whole, guys - get a grip.
Overall, I think they seemed to concentrate too much on visuals rather than on any connection between the characters and the audience. Fine, there were emotional moments, but I always felt as though I was watching, rather than experiencing, them as in the first two films.
The plotline moved forward in fits and starts, and didn't get as far along as I thought it would, even in the knowledge that there would be a fourth so some cards had to be kept to the chest. What was done could have been done in less time, even considering the relatively short run-time of the film.
For the first time, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart looked ever so slightly embarrassed to be there. The first two films had a much more emotional feel to them - probably slightly at odds with the way comic book was written - but made characters with the gravitas that the British contingent brought to them quite acceptable. The third installment was a lot more in your face, kaboom, kapuff and more along the comic-book lines of what was possibly expected from Sommers back when he started, and made the portrayals of Prof. X and Magneto look hammed up at best.
I dislike the fact that the two most important scenes in the film happen at the end of the final sequence and after the credits have rolled. Having seen them, I now think it was as if things were building up to those two all the way through, as though the film was watching back at you with a twinkle in it's eye. Fine, it means we're nicely set up for part four, but can we have part three first?
On the whole, am I glad I went to watch it? Yes. It was an enjoyable couple of hours. Will I pay to go and watch the fourth? Yes. For the above reason. Did they do a reasonable job? Yes. You can tell the direction has changed...direction...but it's still good quality entertainment.
Was it as good as the first two? Not even close.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it (though with Emma there I would enjoy anything), but it wasn't quite the world blazing rush that I think Ratner was trying to create.
The special effects were spectacular, if implausible, but then you'd expect that with the single highest concentration of out-and-out flange beasts ever seen on the silver screen, though while some of the ideas were perfectly acceptable (I'm fine with molecular telekinetics. It's Phoenix - she can do whatever the hell she wants. I'm even okay with incendiary car catapults - nothing unexpected from Magneto and Pyro there), I did, however, have a problem with...to avoid giving away too much plot...the method of transport to the final battleground. That was a "fucking kidding" moment along the lines of Xander Cage snowboarding faster than an avalanche in XXX. Only so much the public will swallow whole, guys - get a grip.
Overall, I think they seemed to concentrate too much on visuals rather than on any connection between the characters and the audience. Fine, there were emotional moments, but I always felt as though I was watching, rather than experiencing, them as in the first two films.
The plotline moved forward in fits and starts, and didn't get as far along as I thought it would, even in the knowledge that there would be a fourth so some cards had to be kept to the chest. What was done could have been done in less time, even considering the relatively short run-time of the film.
For the first time, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart looked ever so slightly embarrassed to be there. The first two films had a much more emotional feel to them - probably slightly at odds with the way comic book was written - but made characters with the gravitas that the British contingent brought to them quite acceptable. The third installment was a lot more in your face, kaboom, kapuff and more along the comic-book lines of what was possibly expected from Sommers back when he started, and made the portrayals of Prof. X and Magneto look hammed up at best.
I dislike the fact that the two most important scenes in the film happen at the end of the final sequence and after the credits have rolled. Having seen them, I now think it was as if things were building up to those two all the way through, as though the film was watching back at you with a twinkle in it's eye. Fine, it means we're nicely set up for part four, but can we have part three first?
On the whole, am I glad I went to watch it? Yes. It was an enjoyable couple of hours. Will I pay to go and watch the fourth? Yes. For the above reason. Did they do a reasonable job? Yes. You can tell the direction has changed...direction...but it's still good quality entertainment.
Was it as good as the first two? Not even close.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-01 01:22 pm (UTC)Regarding the emotionality of the films compared to the comics: the X-Men were always one of the more engaging and complex of the Marvel line in terms of the emotional plotlines they developed.
Have you got any pointers to the idea there will be a fourth film in this franchise? Last time I looked, the word was pretty solidly and firmly that there would not, partly because the cast are not under contract to a fourth film and several of them are unlikely to sign up, given the change of director.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-01 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-01 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 10:30 pm (UTC)