I've rented it from lovefilm.se, had it since thirsday and I've seen it three times already. Still can't let go of it. It's that great! Got to buy it for my collection. I'm not sure why I like it so much though. It's not the aestetics so much, I think, as it is the underlying story. If one look past the extraordinary and hardly realistic mutations there's a lot of identification about being different. Different from what is percieved as "normal". Believing you're the only one, having to hide what and who you really are of fear that no one would ever like or even accept you the way you are but rather hate and question you for it. Raven is a great character that way, and also Eric who understands it better than Charles. I have to admit that I'm a sucker for Magneto anyhow, but the actor in this film has a classic handsomness that I really like, imagine him in a black and white right alongside Greta Garbo or Marilyn Monroe. Perfect. I don't think I've ever seen him before in any film and yet he seems somewhat familiar, as does his voice. But his name, Michael Fassbender doesn't ring a bell either. James McAvoy I know from before though, and of course Kevin Bacon. Great actors. I also like the touch with the previous films.
Since I've never read the original comic I can't say anything about likeness or differences or anything else of the sort. I don't know anything about the background of the characters, or their names unless it's told in the films. But after seeing this one I felt a strong urge to dive deeper into the dimension of mutants but unless someone writes me a novel, a brick of a book with no pictures, I'm not likely to ever do that. Films I can do, but comics no. Never liked them. Of some reason I find them deeply disturbing and annoying. Kind of as disturbing and tiresome as the Internet. Probably has something to do with the happy bright coloured mess of pictures and letters all over the place. Makes my brain go "fuck this bullshit!" after a while of deep consentration bacause when it's mixed like that I have to make an effort just to make sense of it all. I know there's a perfectly rational order in which you're supposed to read the squares but to keep them in that order takes a lot of energy from me so I can only do it for so long. And besides; I've always prefered to make my own pictures anyway.
I'd love to see more films in this genre, and perhaps an other one with Michael Fassbender as Magneto. I'd like to see his friendship with Charles explored even more.
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I loved this movie too and especially Charles and Eric. It's too bad that you dislike comics, but on the other hand I wouldn't say that this movie accurately represents what the average comic does... which is why it's good. It's following comics, but isn't trying to *be* a comic, but rather a movie.
No difference with black and white comics? Or comics with no text? I'm just wondering, out of curiosity :)
Actually, I have a slight higher endurance with black and whites, and I think that no text would make it better too but mostly I think the problem is me trying to see every square at once instead of one at a time. You know, books for children with one big picture and a chunk of text on each page, with or without colour, is no problem at all. Even kind of like them ;)
This film though; there really is something about it, something great. Saw it again just now ^^
Saw it again too, last night, and yes there is something very good about it. The dynamic between Eric and Charles is just perfect somehow... both add something new to very old characters, and I have to say, paying more attention now, that Fassbender does something fantastic with a difficult role like Magneto... because to be honest Magneto, even if he's one of the best villains ever, doesn't translate so well outside of comics.
Yes, it certainly is Eric and Charles that makes it what it is, and also how Eric almost seem to be the more sympathetic one of the two even if his more willing to kill people (and take over the world like any true supervillain which I tend to forget, especially in this film ;) I mean, he want them to stand up for them selves more, right now, while Charles is more like to mince around and wait for better times. I understand that he's only trying to protect Raven from being hurt because of her differences, like parents of homo- bi or transgendered people, but Eric is right; she shouldn't have to. And they definitly shouldn't have to wait.
I don't know how the real comic story goes but I find it very interesting that Eric and Charles seem to stay friends on some level even though they fight for different things and using different methods. It's actually hard to tell if Eric really is the bad guy because Charles is so arrogant and manipulative, I think. I probably wouldn't choose the X-men if I was a mutant, though I'm not sure I'd join any fighting at all. If I was anything like I'm now I'd probably sit back and let others fight for whatever goal while I'm doing something unimportant in some quiet corner by myself ;)
We should have an X-men movie maraton sometime ^^
I don't quite approve of the other movies, sadly, so a marathon would be exactly one movie long :P Nothing wrong with that though.
Charles and Eric always stay friends and neither really wants to fight the other but end up doing it all the time. The comics have always portrayed them as sort of the two extremes of the sliding scale of opinion, and as such, Charles is as much good or evil as Eric is, although Eric's extreme is more noticeable.
It's also such a beautiful parallell; Eric's experiences with the Nazi's, and then him taking Sebastian Shaw's place essentially doing the exact same thing as Shaw did before. It's sort of the Sith way; raise your apprentice in hate and anger, let him succeed you when he kills you. (Although in the Sith case I have no idea how you get *more* siths since one will only ever make exactly one new.) Eric is however a more merciful villain than Shaw; while he believes in mutant supremacy he's not doing it for his personal gain but for his "people".
While I advocate "let nature run it's course" and am, as such, principially on the mutants' side... at the prospect of genocide I'm not entirely sure which side I'd take. I like the Scott Summers solution where they make a country and offer a haven for mutants that want to live in peace, but realize that that isn't quite a solution either.
Right, I see ;) Do you know if they're planning any more movies with McAvoy and Fassbender in the leads? I wouldn't mind that ^^
Genocide seems a bit extreme, yes, and it certainly doesn't improve what humans think of mutants, but there seem to be a lot of humans in that universe asking for it given the way they discrimitate them. I wouldn't pick on a guy like Eric even if I had an army at my disposal.
A country for mutants sounds a bit like a reservation, you know, like they have for Native Americans. On the other hand, chances are that things would end up that way on its own given that people who are alike tend to choose the same living areas.
I'm glad to hear that they stay friends. I know it's just fiction but I still care ;) Imagine the deapth of emotion if these characters were put into proper novels!
Hm, I am a bit surprised at your "racism" towards different forms of fiction... "proper novels"? I'd say their depths of emotion are quite noticable in the comics, and that it is no more viable to say novels can portray emotions better than to say that love poems are to be taken more seriously than love songs. Admittably a long series of comics like this suffers to a certain degree from having different writers and editors, as well as having to try to keep the interest of the general public, but the former also adds a lot by mixing in different people's visions, and the later is no different from a long series of novels. The Civil War and Identity Wars story arcs in the Marvel universe were more elaborate and emotional than many, if not most, proper novels I've ever read.
This makes me wonder what types of comics you have actually read as well? Have you ever read for example Watchmen, or anything by Neil Gaiman, or say Fables? Any Manga? Standard American comics might not be your taste but there are as many types and styles of comics as there are books.
I am not aware of another movie with the same actors, but I'm crossing my fingers.
I admit that I'm a bit "racist" and very predjudice against comics. I've only read a little Tintin as a kid, Bamse (which hardly counts I guess), I've had a glance at Agent X9 and Nemi and also some manga, but the only comic I liked was a shortlived thing called Sojourn but even if it had lived longer I probably would've lost interest. Because it takes so much energy to read them.
I know that one can fit a lot of emotion into little pictures and bubbles of text too but, for me, it never becomes three or four dimensional or what ever I should call it. When I read a novel I soon loose sight of the letters and sort of "fall through" the pages into these other worlds where things become as real to me as the world where I sit with the book in my lap, or even more real. Something like that never happens with me and a comic because all the different detailes in the pictures calls on my attention at once, which shatters my focus and makes it difficult to just follow a story as I can with a novel or film. Of course that means I can't get to the deeper emotions in them either since I'm buissy constantly reminding myself not to skip order, to wait checking what that yellow thing in the middle of the next page is or what those large letters might say in the square at the bottom left corner. If I stay with the order I'll get there soon enough, just be patient and finnish one square before you go to the next- in line, goddammit!
I seldom have to do that with a novel unless the chapters are separated with white spaces and then a titel for instance, or suddently there's cursive text somewhere. But those are brakes that don't bother me because they're few and easy to forget as the chapter proceeds. I'm constantly interrupted with little detailes like that in a comic and don't understand how people can stand it!
But I realize that those who read comics probably don't have that problem and I respect that. I can appreciate comics as a form of art, just not one of my preference.
Ah Soujourn, I remember that... I read it only very briefly too but it was alright.
I can't really argue with personal taste... I wonder if there's novels of X-Men like there's novels about Buffy The Vampire Slayer and stuff? I've never checked.
I can't quite relate to the "sinking into the story" thing... I'm not sure it ever happens, and if I ever get close, it's usually regardless of the medium but because the "story" hits the right spot. It's amazing and a little scary to imagine the power of words alone in that case; that words, simply, could do that to you. It frightens me a little that I, as a writer, potentially could tap into that power.
Oh, you already do; whenever I read any of your longer texts I fall right through ;) I usually decide if a story is good or not by how fast (or ever) it manages to capture me and pull me down, so to speak. I could also compair it with addiction, because if a story "hits the right spot" as you say I sometimes become just as annoyed and irritable when interrupted by the real world as an alcoholic would if ordered to leave half a glass of whine on the table. Now, that is scary. So if I can put a book aside for a longer period of time without annoyance for having to do so I usually deem it unworthy of my attention...which is stupid. It's like saying I wouldn't drink light beer because it won't make me drunk :S
It sounds crazy but is very real. I havn't been reading for a long while now because I'm working and know that if I start with a book that might be "good" I won't be able to stop untill it's finnished and therefor potentially endanger my job. It's not beyond me to call in sick, for instance, when "intoxicated" by a good story and sometimes I'm so "high" that I wouldn't trust my own judgement. So I'm very glad I've not found a taste for booze, or tried any heavy drugs (which I never will) since I clearly have a weakness towards addiction.
Yes, words are powerful, very, very powerful. They trigger my brain into releasing all kinds of chemicals when put in the right order. It's scary but interesting too, sometime I'd like to meassure the activity in my brain when I read some great novel or other. Would be fun so see what truly happens in there and how it effects my body.
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