- I hadn't seen Jennifer Lawrence in anything substantive before this (didn't see Winter's Bone or The Beaver), but this performance absolutely sold me on her playing Katniss Everdeen. Indeed, her arc here as Mystique has an awful lot of similarities to Katniss' arc in The Hunger Games, though I think her character's motivation in this film is underwritten.
- I've rarely seen a film with a more complicated relationship with continuity. The opening scene is either lifted from or pretty slavishly recreated from the first film, and by casting much younger actors and using some internal reset buttons (at one point, a scientist notes that Mystique ages much more slowly than a normal human or even most other mutants because of her DNA), pretty well deals with continuity issues for many of the principal characters who've appeared in previous films. That said, I'm not sure how the character of Beast fits into continuity at all, and the relationship established between Mystique and Xavier in this film doesn't really square at all with how they deal with each other in the earlier films.
- Vaughn's developed a lot as a filmmaker. Layer Cake was a very gritty and dark film pulled along largely by the charisma of the then-unknown Daniel Craig, and Kick-Ass wasn't exactly epic in scope, but Vaughn here synchronizes action on multiple fronts, in multiple languages, gives pretty much everyone in the cast a chance to shine, and pulls off some neat directorial flourishes (in particular, in a 60s-ish training montage).
- Really dug the script's conception of a young Charles Xavier--glad they recognize that if you were the world's most powerful telepath and a good looking 20-something, not all of your pursuits would necessarily be high-minded.
- So nice not to see a film with unnecessary 3-D effects tacked in. There would have been a few moments where 3-D would have been cool, but it wasn't necessary or organic to the story, and because this is a relatively CGI-light film (most locations are practical, rather than green-screen), it wouldn't have worked that well anyway.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
THE NEXT STEP IN FILM EVOLUTION: It's been a while since we talked about what's out at the cineplex, and I have some things to say about X-Men: First Class. (Thoughts here are relatively spoiler-free, but comments may contain spoilage, so beware.)
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I loved that it flirted with 60's-style production values, but hung on to its more modern (in some ways) script. I liked some of the kids, but felt they could have benefited from a little more charisma in that department. I thought McEvoy and Fassbender were tremendous, and really sold the friendship between the two men, and why they hang onto it despite disagreeing on something so fundamental.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree about Jennifer Lawrence, and with how Mystique and X deal with each other later. I only ever watched the cartoons, and never read the comics, so I don't have a lot of backstory.
And I thought it could lose about 15 minutes of talky talk (being a mutant sucks sometimes! You're totally right. It does. Sometimes.), but on the whole, it was really fun. And features some random actors--watch out for Brendan Fehr and Randall Batinkoff!
And Jason Beghe and "M. Ironside"
ReplyDeleteHeh, yes, I loved "M. Ironside." So, I guess we're the only ones that have any interest in this? We've got the comments to ourselves! What shall we talk about next? I have a friend that was just ranting about how AWESOME January Jones was in this part. I'll admit one thing. She, like Julia Roberts, is very smart about picking roles that work for her. That she can do, I mean.
ReplyDeleteI realize it's comic book logic, but - if it's cold enough to wear a fur hat, shouldn't your thighs require coverage as well? Or is that one of the benefits of being diamond tough?
ReplyDeleteY'know, that really slid right by me, but yeah. Fur hat seems to equal chilly. I don't think I would like being made out of diamonds. It seems inconvenient. And non-bendy. How do you walk?
ReplyDeleteI really wish someone had told the teenage actors, their wardrobe and hair people that the movie was set in 1962,
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