Saturday, 11 June 2011 09:58 pm
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deckardcanineThis may not be a popular sentiment, but I just had more fun watching X-Men: First Class than any other superhero movie since Batman Begins six years ago. Maybe even ever. My dad at least preferred it to the first two X-Men movies, which he also liked.
I hesitate to call it the best superhero movie I've seen in that time. The Dark Knight, like most Christopher Nolan movies, wins my admiration more readily than my adoration. Iron Man also excels in unusual areas for the genre, and without being a downer, at the expense of the usual amount of spectacle for the time. XM:FC is admittedly more typical than either, aside from the use of four subtitled languages in addition to English.
Honestly, there's little competition when it comes to engaging characters, story, themes, and action. Magneto remains my favorite super antihero/antivillain, yet even the lesser mutants come across as pretty cool. The few changes in the reboot are forgivable (you probably don't care a lot about Moira MacTaggart not being a British doctor), and unfamiliar viewers won't miss much of the fun. Like other great setups, it made me crave more without feeling too empty or disorganized in itself.
Room for improvement? Well, yes. Some points are repeated more than necessary; you may think as well as feel, but you won't have to think hard. I don't mind the scarcity of big-name actors, but at least one needed an accent coach. And of course, the women frequently dressed or acted like they expected an audience of 14-year-old boys. Yes, I count that as a weakness.
Still, no wonder it's in IMDb's top 250 for the time being. I doubt if anything else will match it in awesomeness this summer.
I hesitate to call it the best superhero movie I've seen in that time. The Dark Knight, like most Christopher Nolan movies, wins my admiration more readily than my adoration. Iron Man also excels in unusual areas for the genre, and without being a downer, at the expense of the usual amount of spectacle for the time. XM:FC is admittedly more typical than either, aside from the use of four subtitled languages in addition to English.
Honestly, there's little competition when it comes to engaging characters, story, themes, and action. Magneto remains my favorite super antihero/antivillain, yet even the lesser mutants come across as pretty cool. The few changes in the reboot are forgivable (you probably don't care a lot about Moira MacTaggart not being a British doctor), and unfamiliar viewers won't miss much of the fun. Like other great setups, it made me crave more without feeling too empty or disorganized in itself.
Room for improvement? Well, yes. Some points are repeated more than necessary; you may think as well as feel, but you won't have to think hard. I don't mind the scarcity of big-name actors, but at least one needed an accent coach. And of course, the women frequently dressed or acted like they expected an audience of 14-year-old boys. Yes, I count that as a weakness.
Still, no wonder it's in IMDb's top 250 for the time being. I doubt if anything else will match it in awesomeness this summer.
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I did have some gnawing story quibbles, like the guy soaking up an entire nuclear reactor worth of energy and then...
I'm not sure why everyone was so fond of "Iron Man", it didn't really shine in either plot or character development. "Thor" had some flaws too, but they were minor by comparison.
As for summer competition, the only one I'm aware of that may have a chance is the final Harry Potter movie, and I haven't read that book yet, so it may not be as great as it's been made out to be.
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