Big Takeaway: X-Men film reboot with 90% less Bryan Singer than before!
Little Takeaway: The summer movie season kicks off with an above board rebooting of the X-Men films, with a sexy 60’s throwback vibe and just as unsexy special effects.
Review:
You can’t go wrong with the reboot mechanic. In full disclosure, out of the three earlier X-Men films, I only saw X2. I mainly avoid the X-Men movies because Hugh Jackman, while a good actor, is a shitty Wolverine. Also Halle Berry's Storm...sheesh. My disinterest share a similar vein with most super-hero comic movies: there’s not enough disbelief in the world to supplant the comic book image within a mortal prism. Most superheroes are exaggerated and buffoonish characterizations of the human form. To then see an actor attempt to give levity to it is pretty ludicrous. I guess that’s why they call it suspension of disbelief.
Ridiculous aversions aside, X-Men is a good start to the summer movie season. It’s well paced, tells a good story and doesn’t bog you down with explosions and monkey’s. Set in the early 60’s, X-Men tells the tale of Charles Xavier, a mutant with telepathy, and his forming of the X-Men: a group of mutants doing good for a mankind that may not be so accommodating. Cast opposite of Xavier is Erik Lensherr, a mutant that can manipulate metal objects. His loses his family to Nazi’s and is “adopted” by Sebastian Shaw, who tutors him in his new found power through rage and odd experimentation. This is the crux of the plot, the two opposites of the mutant coin. Xavier wants the mutants to do good for mankind, and Lensherr see’s the mutants as the next link in the evolutionary chain, and humankind as an obstacle to be crushed.
But for this sake of this movie, Sebastian Shaw is the main antagonist for most of them film. Kevin Bacon acts the shit out of this movie, and while he looks very silly with the “Magneto” helmet on, is a pretty good bad guy. Christoph Waltz must’ve been busy, or tuned this movie down as Bacon pretty much apes his performance from Inglourious Basterds throughout the film, on top speaking German and Russian as he travels the worlds stirring up mayhem. Shaw’s main goal during the film is to start World War III and it’s up to Xavier and his group to stop them.
The biggest problem with this film, as with most superhero comic films, is that there are too many people. The X-Men have Darwin, Havoc, Angel, Mystique, Beast, Banshee and Magneto. Shaw has himself, Emma Frost, Azazel, and Riptide. There’s just too many characters, most of them have little screen time, only coming out for the fight scenes. They mostly just stand around in the background as this movie eventually boils down to Xavier and Magneto’s conflict.
The Stan Lee elements of the X-Men universe also pop in to say hello in all their hammy goodness(paraphrased):
Hank/Beast: "It's called Cerebro."
Xavier: "That's spanish for Brain?"
The Special effects in this movie also leave a lot to be desired. Some of the effects like Azazel's teleporting looked cool and sharp. The Banshee/Angel air battle was grotesque in it's blurriness and general crap effects work. And one of these day's someone's going to make Beast actually look cool and not like Teen Wolf's dad. Seriously X-Men movie makers, just CGI the beast model on to an actor or something, stop with the practical effects, geez! Speaking of practical effects, the filmmakers didn't really know what to do with Mystique either. I understand that's PG-13 and they made the most of it, but there has to have been a better way of conveying that character without the "I'm just going to maintain a human form" cop out plot device.
While most of the movie is pretty well acted January Jones comes across as very stiff and wooden. While this works for Betty Draper (and I may residual bias against her from Mad Men), Emma Frost is not a sexed up Betty Draper. While I’m certain Jones can act, I just don’t think she was a right fit for the role and in fact just may have been stunt cast. Jennifer Lawrence came across as an odd casting choice. Her face was a bit too round for Mystique and she came across as chubby and uncomfortable. She seemed to lack chemistry with James McAvoy's Xavier, even though the script tried to cram this kinship/bond down your throat as much as possible. To top it off, Mystique is an odd, sexualized character, and Lawrence does little to mask that in a PG-13 film.
As a reboot, this is a much better start for the X-Men. I would’ve maybe preferred Magneto’s fall be spaced out between the first two movies, if this is indeed going to be a new trilogy, but I can definitely see a bright side to getting it out of the way early. I wouldn’t mind a Katie Holmes/Maggie Gyllenhaal switcheroo for the Emma Frost character, either. Seeing as I don’t count the yawn inducing Thor or raving mad cash cow of Pirates of the Caribbean as the start of Summer, this looks to be a great time for movies again.
Final Verdict: Go See It!
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