More X-Men musings
May. 29th, 2006 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI never seem to want to write fanfic for any fandom that ended on a good note. If X-Men 3 had closed out the cinema branch of the franchise in a better way, I might have let it rest. Instead, we got Brett Ratner's passable-only-to-the-masses film that basically massacred the characterizations that had finally found their footing in X2 and butchered the very ideals that the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants stood for (yes, the Brotherhood has some morals, just not many or many that make sense).
So, of course, I'm left going, "If only..." and visualizing these scenes that would have been much more dramatically satisfying than a lot of the ones that made it into the movie.
For instance:
1) Mystique confronting Magneto, the both without their powers.
Mystique has got every right to be pissed off. This girl puts up with a lot of shit to get her boss the things he wants, and she doesn't complain. That he abandons her instead of keeping her around to fuel his rage at what the humans did to her is totally out of character. She was a mutant, one of the most cunning women ever to walk the face of the earth, and a loyal supporter; Magneto doesn't give up on his followers, as evidenced by how far out of his way he went to recruit someone who could help him find her again. I totally want her to meet up with the now-powerless Magneto in the park and throw his weakness in his face. Without his powers, he's nothing, not a threat at all. Without hers, she's still savage and dangerous and pissed off. I think the scene would work best if it took place immediately after the last one in the movie, with Magneto just realizing that his powers are coming back. Mystique would be closer to a complete return to normal, having been dosed with less of the cure much earlier than Magneto. It would be that much more bitter a defeat if Mystique killed him not only when he was weak but when he was so close to being normal again. Oh, and she would kill him. No way would Raven pass up that chance. :)
2) The X-kids stepping up to full X-Men status
I wonder what the ceremony would be, how they would then turn around have to train the next generation of their peers. It would be extremely difficult to engender respect, even with their practical experience, when Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, and Colossus are all barely older than the new recruits (or, in X3's Kitty's case, when all the recruits are actually older). The film set up Bobby Drake to occupy the position of leadership after the old guard retires--which, if you're a comic book fan is so backwards ironic, it makes me laugh just thinking about it. And Rogue clearly is to be a noncombatant (in the Danger Room scene, she is only a Leech on Colossus). The four of them are interesting choices for the first set of new X-Men. Jubes isn't among their number, nor is Terry Cassidy, or even the fast-running kid from the first movie. Instead, you have the sort of party gamers would envy--the range fighter (Iceman), the warrior (Colossus), the defender (Kitty), and the reserve trooper (Rogue, I suppose, could just jump in to take the powers of a fallen teammate or distracted adversary). It's not the most offensive team the X-Men have ever weilded, but pretty darn effective. I wonder how much of that was actually Cyclops' doing, too--despite the movies doing their best to make him seem whiney and extraneous and interfering in the true love of Jean and Logan, Scott Summers is one of the more effective tacticians ever to go to bat for the good guys in the Marvel 'verse. That ought to be addressed, yo.
3) Warren Worthington III coming out as a mutant
In a move that makes no sense, Warren seems to have been held aside by his father to the point that he enjoyed none of the sort of spoiled upbringing comics-Warren had. There's no reason that his father's embarrassment should lead him to secrete his son away from the world. They clearly had the wing-rack of comic origin (which looked a lot less ridiculous than it did in the comics, so they did a good job with that at least), so therefore had the opportunity to let Warren out as a normal child. But the Warren onscreen is a skinny, scared boy who seems afraid of people. You don't get that way if you've gone out to normal schooling, normal socializing and managed to ever fool people for any length of time that there weren't six-foot wings growing out of your back. It implies heavily that Warren was tutored privately, and kept away from people as much as possible. How would it shake things up for Worthington Labs that the CEO's son was revealed to be a mutant? It might just expose the cure for the lie it was.
So many questions to ponder...so little interest in rectifying what was wrong with that movie, I can't make myself care.
So![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
feiran, ivy03, and I had this hilarious conversation after we saw X-Men 3 which was really an alternative, even more geeky take on an argument ivy03 had had some time previous. Basically, after seeing Pyro and Iceman duke it out, she mentioned a time when some friends of hers were trying to figure out who would win in a fight between the Human Torch and Iceman. I asked who she thought, and she answered easily "the Human Torch." I think feiran and I surprised her mightily by immediately disagreeing. I think she thought for sure that we'd have thought the same. But it's not the same, we explained--Iceman is waaaaaaay more powerful than Johnny Storm. Practically, Bobby Drake's been known to liquify air, he's made it so cold. Without oxygen to burn, the Human Torch goes out, easy-peasy.
Then I went and said, "Yeah, plus Johnny Storm got his powers from being mutated versus Bobby Drake who was born that way and who is an Omega-level mutant."
feiran piped up, "Uh, Iceman's not Omega-level." She defined Omega-level as world-affecting power, something like Magneto, Xavier, or Phoenix are capable of. I, being a total jerk ass who has to be right all the time, kept arguing the case until I went and wiki'd Iceman to find that the general consensus was that he is Omega-level. But, until I could get home to look it up, feiran and I just went back and forth trying to prove our case by saying, "I think he is" or, "I think he isn't." Which is a totally logical, perfectly normal way to win an argument, really.
We are such geeks, I think we scaredivy03 with how much we got into it.
So, of course, I'm left going, "If only..." and visualizing these scenes that would have been much more dramatically satisfying than a lot of the ones that made it into the movie.
For instance:
1) Mystique confronting Magneto, the both without their powers.
Mystique has got every right to be pissed off. This girl puts up with a lot of shit to get her boss the things he wants, and she doesn't complain. That he abandons her instead of keeping her around to fuel his rage at what the humans did to her is totally out of character. She was a mutant, one of the most cunning women ever to walk the face of the earth, and a loyal supporter; Magneto doesn't give up on his followers, as evidenced by how far out of his way he went to recruit someone who could help him find her again. I totally want her to meet up with the now-powerless Magneto in the park and throw his weakness in his face. Without his powers, he's nothing, not a threat at all. Without hers, she's still savage and dangerous and pissed off. I think the scene would work best if it took place immediately after the last one in the movie, with Magneto just realizing that his powers are coming back. Mystique would be closer to a complete return to normal, having been dosed with less of the cure much earlier than Magneto. It would be that much more bitter a defeat if Mystique killed him not only when he was weak but when he was so close to being normal again. Oh, and she would kill him. No way would Raven pass up that chance. :)
2) The X-kids stepping up to full X-Men status
I wonder what the ceremony would be, how they would then turn around have to train the next generation of their peers. It would be extremely difficult to engender respect, even with their practical experience, when Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, and Colossus are all barely older than the new recruits (or, in X3's Kitty's case, when all the recruits are actually older). The film set up Bobby Drake to occupy the position of leadership after the old guard retires--which, if you're a comic book fan is so backwards ironic, it makes me laugh just thinking about it. And Rogue clearly is to be a noncombatant (in the Danger Room scene, she is only a Leech on Colossus). The four of them are interesting choices for the first set of new X-Men. Jubes isn't among their number, nor is Terry Cassidy, or even the fast-running kid from the first movie. Instead, you have the sort of party gamers would envy--the range fighter (Iceman), the warrior (Colossus), the defender (Kitty), and the reserve trooper (Rogue, I suppose, could just jump in to take the powers of a fallen teammate or distracted adversary). It's not the most offensive team the X-Men have ever weilded, but pretty darn effective. I wonder how much of that was actually Cyclops' doing, too--despite the movies doing their best to make him seem whiney and extraneous and interfering in the true love of Jean and Logan, Scott Summers is one of the more effective tacticians ever to go to bat for the good guys in the Marvel 'verse. That ought to be addressed, yo.
3) Warren Worthington III coming out as a mutant
In a move that makes no sense, Warren seems to have been held aside by his father to the point that he enjoyed none of the sort of spoiled upbringing comics-Warren had. There's no reason that his father's embarrassment should lead him to secrete his son away from the world. They clearly had the wing-rack of comic origin (which looked a lot less ridiculous than it did in the comics, so they did a good job with that at least), so therefore had the opportunity to let Warren out as a normal child. But the Warren onscreen is a skinny, scared boy who seems afraid of people. You don't get that way if you've gone out to normal schooling, normal socializing and managed to ever fool people for any length of time that there weren't six-foot wings growing out of your back. It implies heavily that Warren was tutored privately, and kept away from people as much as possible. How would it shake things up for Worthington Labs that the CEO's son was revealed to be a mutant? It might just expose the cure for the lie it was.
So many questions to ponder...so little interest in rectifying what was wrong with that movie, I can't make myself care.
So
feiran, ivy03, and I had this hilarious conversation after we saw X-Men 3 which was really an alternative, even more geeky take on an argument ivy03 had had some time previous. Basically, after seeing Pyro and Iceman duke it out, she mentioned a time when some friends of hers were trying to figure out who would win in a fight between the Human Torch and Iceman. I asked who she thought, and she answered easily "the Human Torch." I think feiran and I surprised her mightily by immediately disagreeing. I think she thought for sure that we'd have thought the same. But it's not the same, we explained--Iceman is waaaaaaay more powerful than Johnny Storm. Practically, Bobby Drake's been known to liquify air, he's made it so cold. Without oxygen to burn, the Human Torch goes out, easy-peasy.Then I went and said, "Yeah, plus Johnny Storm got his powers from being mutated versus Bobby Drake who was born that way and who is an Omega-level mutant."
feiran piped up, "Uh, Iceman's not Omega-level." She defined Omega-level as world-affecting power, something like Magneto, Xavier, or Phoenix are capable of. I, being a total jerk ass who has to be right all the time, kept arguing the case until I went and wiki'd Iceman to find that the general consensus was that he is Omega-level. But, until I could get home to look it up, feiran and I just went back and forth trying to prove our case by saying, "I think he is" or, "I think he isn't." Which is a totally logical, perfectly normal way to win an argument, really.We are such geeks, I think we scared
ivy03 with how much we got into it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Now that I've seen the movie...
Date: 2006-05-31 01:44 pm (UTC)a) I like your idea about mystique remeeting magneto, but something tells me she wouldn't kill him. maybe she would, I don't know why but I think she wouldn't. it would be too simple a revenge for starters.
b)What we thought would happen...they set it up so well to happen, and shocked me they didn't. and they are: Thought about Rogue coming to save the day at the end (and not get cure) stealing phoenix's powers and I don't know... exploding? What about little leech kid? could he have drained phoenix?
c) pissed off that there were only six x-men fighting. 1st off, where's nightcrawler. (yes I know the actor didn't want to do the makeup again- and I understand, but he's one of my favorites). And more than anything, how can this whole series... and I've been pissed off since 2 about this cause I was sure my favorite char would be there..... go without Gambit! also Collusus only getting a little screen time still.
Yes it was jam packed with action, and loved the initial illusion to sentinels...just felt let down by the end.
Re: Now that I've seen the movie...
Date: 2006-06-03 11:07 pm (UTC)I still think Mystique would kill Magneto. As for Leech, no way could he do much. He's never been that powerful. Rogue I think tried to absorb Dark Phoenix in the cartoon and got blasted to blue blazes, with the Phoenix barely scratched (in the comics, Rogue only joined the X-Men after the Phoenix had been destroyed). In short, no one drains the Phoenix. The only ones to exert power over her were the Inner Circle, Xavier, and Cyclops. Way to tell a Phoenix story without any of those, Fox.
I think Alan Cumming probably got himself in a little hot water over his blase loose-lipped gossiping (he, unlike others involved in the production, didn't seem to care what the studio wanted the shooting to be perceived as, and I think he was pretty candid about how Halle Berry was being a total psycho bitch to Bryan Singer). In any event, Fox, that bastion of intelligence that is that studio, decided there couldn't be three blue people in the movie, and I think they wanted Beast more than they wanted Nightcrawler. Plus, they were rushing the thing to get it out before Superman--if Nightcrawler had ever been on board for the sequel, there might have been a conflict.
I heard Josh Holloway (Sawyer on LOST) was supposed to be Gambit, or they approached him about it. He would have been a great Gambit. His smarm as Sawyer is on par with Gambit's swagger. Plus, cute! I'm glad Collusus was back, which is saying a lot because I hate that character in the comics (in the movies, he's been awesome).