Set
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Lard Lad: What sells the movie is the dichotomy of Professor X and Magneto and the wonderful performances of McAvoy and Fassbender in those roles. These two really draw you in and help overpower some weaknesses found elsewhere in the movie.
Fassbender, more than McAvoy, IMO, really stood out in this movie. I hope that his Magneto performance does for him what the Wolverine role did for Hugh Jackman.
(On Netflix, you should be able to find a Fassbender movie, Centurion, that's pretty excellent, too.)
I've said it before, but I'd plunk down my ten bucks to watch a two hour, 'Erik Lensherr, Nazi Hunter' movie, without Xavier or any of the other mutants!
quote: say one thing...there's a priceless laugh-out-loud cameo in this movie that treating this film as a true reboot wouldn't have allowed. (Oh god, it was HILARIOUS! )
I am burned out by that character, in a huge way, but that was a good use of him. At this point, a little bit goes a long way.
quote: I wasn't pleased with the choice of the member of the "class" who was killed off in the middle of the film.
That part annoyed me as well, given that his power kind of makes the whole thing moot.
It's like if they introduced someone with the mutant power to be immune to lightning, and twenty seconds later had him get hit by lightning and die. You just want to shake the director at that point.
For all that I loved Fassbender's performance, and, to a lesser extent, the performances of the young people who played Hank McCoy and Raven/Mystique, there were quite a few acting misfires, IMO. What's-his-name is a good actor, but Sebastian Shaw, he ain't. And January Jones was very flat as Emma. The one thing Emma Frost is *not,* is a boring bit of background decoration. (The 'boring bit of background decoration' of the Hellfire Club was Claremont's latest femme ex machina, Tessa/Sage...)
The Azazel special effects, on the other hand, rocked. Not quite as ground-breaking as that scene at the beginning of X2 where Nightcrawler storms the White House single-handedly, but still, very cool. I love how visually dynamic they make the teleportation power, which, in comics (particularly with team bicycles like Raven or Gates) tends to be something that happens before or after the cool stuff.
According to the credits, the tornado throwing dude was supposed to be Riptide, of the Marauders. For a dude who was *brutal* in the comics, with his hurricane-force shuriken and throwing spikes, he was kinda 'meh' here. After Storm in the previous X-flicks, a less versatile weather controlling villain seems kinda 'been there, done that.'
On the up side, he wasn't Halle Berry, so there is that. :/
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Fassbender was definitely better than McAvoy, but I liked what McAvoy did with Xavier nonetheless. It was nice seeing the Prof being young, flirty and not completely dead serious all the time. Very refreshing!
quote:Originally posted by Set:
quote: I wasn't pleased with the choice of the member of the "class" who was killed off in the middle of the film.
That part annoyed me as well, given that his power kind of makes the whole thing moot.
It's like if they introduced someone with the mutant power to be immune to lightning, and twenty seconds later had him get hit by lightning and die. You just want to shake the director at that point.
Definitely. A) The power should have helped him out there, and B) it was kinda crass to do in the only Click Here For A Spoilernon-white character, at least of those who remained with Prof and Magneto. Plus, the actor for said character was more engaging than some of the others.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I also just saw this earlier this week on HBO; I really enjoyed the 60s setting and LOVED seeing young Xavier and Magneto together... I always like it when Magneto is as on the side of the angels as he can be (such as back when he was running the school in the 80s).
Azazel was a real badass... the scene of them invading the young heroes' compound and how Azazel was dispatching the people therein was truly horrifying!
I didn't mind at all that this didn't follow any established X-comic continuity because X-comic continuity is a huge broken mess anyway, for me.
And the scene with Xavier at the end- you know which one I mean- was heartbreaking!!
The guys playing Hank, Alex and Sean Cassiday were suitably j'adorable too.
PS/ I still enjoyed the 3rd X-movie from what I remember... why all the dislike for it nowadays?
quote: I wasn't pleased with the choice of the member of the "class" who was killed off in the middle of the film.
That part annoyed me as well, given that his power kind of makes the whole thing moot.
It's like if they introduced someone with the mutant power to be immune to lightning, and twenty seconds later had him get hit by lightning and die. You just want to shake the director at that point.
Definitely. A) The power should have helped him out there, and B) it was kinda crass to do in the only Click Here For A Spoilernon-white character, at least of those who remained with Prof and Magneto. Plus, the actor for said character was more engaging than some of the others.
I actually thought the whole point of that scene was to set up his return later .... and have the guy say "hey that's my power!" .... but then he never retured.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by MLLASH's back: I also just saw this earlier this week on HBO; I really enjoyed the 60s setting and LOVED seeing young Xavier and Magneto together... I always like it when Magneto is as on the side of the angels as he can be (such as back when he was running the school in the 80s).
Azazel was a real badass... the scene of them invading the young heroes' compound and how Azazel was dispatching the people therein was truly horrifying!
I didn't mind at all that this didn't follow any established X-comic continuity because X-comic continuity is a huge broken mess anyway, for me.
And the scene with Xavier at the end- you know which one I mean- was heartbreaking!!
The guys playing Hank, Alex and Sean Cassiday were suitably j'adorable too.
PS/ I still enjoyed the 3rd X-movie from what I remember... why all the dislike for it nowadays?
I LOVE them all !!!
They do a good job of keeping in tune with the spirit of the comics ... if not the details.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
In the time since my post on page 1, I saw this awhile back and really loved it. I really liked the whole thing, particuarly the gravity and tone of it all--very serious and yet charming when it needed to be.
Michael Fassbender as Magneto stoled the show and was nothing short of incredible. Each of his scenes was fantastic, but the ones with Charles (particularly where Charles gets him to turn the giant satellite) were brillaint.
All of the X-Men, especially MacAvoy as Charles and the stunning Rose Byrne as Moira were great. Like Lardy says, I liked the younger, easier going Charles. Even the bit parts, like the FBI agent played by Oliver Pratt were solid.
At the heart of it all was the dichotomy of Charles & Erik, and it was just so well done. It was really heart-breaking as to how different experiences shaped their view on the world. HWW went into good detail on this previously. The fact that Charles had such a cream puff life compared to Magneto caused him to be unable to see Magneto's point of view; he *thought* he understood, but ultimately he could not.
I put off seeing it for reasons I listed before and yet when I finally did, I was like: wow, this might be better than Thor and Captain America, both of which I loved! In fact, it might be the very best X-Men film of all!
Loved the cameo which as Lardy says what fall off your seat hilarious. I watched it on a plane back from London and found myself laughing out loud.
The whole end was heartbreaking--to the final split on the beach, to Mystique's decision, and then to the wonderfully tragic scene Lash references.
In the 70's and 80's, Chris Claremont did something incredible and turned Magneto from a typical Marvel super-villain nemesis into one of the best characters in all of comics. Though his story over the years has backtracked and lots its way, it still usually hits back on those beats. The movies and performances by both Ian McKellan and now Michael Fassbender have really taken that and ran with it. I could watch 10 more Michael Fassbender Magneto movies.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
You guys should check your collections because I'm pretty sure they cancelled X-Men comics forever around when Paul Smith left Uncanny X-Men.
But "First Class" was a rock-solid movie. I loved the period setting and seeing some different characters in the mix. I kind of wish they'd just gone ahead and rebooted back to the original 5 members but I guess loosely following the earlier movies was fine.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I'm glad to see so many others watching and appreciating this film.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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