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What's worse? The lead in your head or the junk in your brains? =))
My favorite:
"Well at least I'm thinking, damn-dammit!"
"I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MONKEY FIGHTING SNAKES ON THIS MONDAY-TO-FRIDAY PLANE!"
<center><font size = 4>part 2</font></center>
<center><font color = darkblue size = 6>X-Men (2000)</font></center>
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By the time Bryan Singer got to do X-Men, Marvel hadn't exactly piled up its major successes yet. In fact, only Blade had come out and though it had received some acclaim, few people in the audience thought of it as a superhero film. X-Men was about to change that, some two years before Spider-Man pushed Marvel to the top. Fox obviously didn't foresee X-Men's commercial appeal, as it let Singer do things on a fairly modest budget of 75 million dollars.
The film opens in a bold way: by taking us back to the Holocaust. We get introduced to Magneto. After that comes a plethora of character moments, introducing us further to (but a few of the) key players from the comics. What must have made the storywriting process very difficult is choosing from a practically unlimited list of mutants. The X-Men universe is, ultimately, exceedingly large and even today, after seven films - eight if one counts Generation X - many of the characters from the comics haven't made it to the screens yet.
One thing that aids tremendously in telling the muties' tale is the fact that there is little need of an origin story explaining how the superheroes got their superpowers; they were just born that way. So rather than take us through obligatory 'coming of power' acts, X-Men can dive into its main threads fairly quickly. It has the ability to let many of its lead characters shine in their own scenes, which is something that other superhero films with so many characters often fail to accomplish.
Character moments, great stuff when done well, can of course replace action scenes that would have been too costly for this film. That explains why we get so few fights and why they are mostly about one good mutant versus one evil mutant. It does allow for a more cerebral film but X-Men fans who want to geek out over big mutant battles might feel somewhat disappointed. The film did, however, introduce non-X-Men fans to the world of the uncanny children of the atom. X-Men helped to expand its fan base by revolving the story around characters one can sympathise with rather than around big set pieces and SFX extravaganza that every big budget Hollywood production delivers.
Perhaps the major strength of X-Men is its wonderful ensemble cast. Ever since Star Trek The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart had been suggested by fans of the comics as Professor X. Him accepting the role is, in that respect, rather funny and nice. But he is a nicer X too, since the one from the comics is usually a more unfriendly, more direct, more unpleasant type. Hugh Jackman, on the other hand, must forever be grateful that Tom Cruise was making M:I 2 around this time because it kept Dougray Scott from being cast as the Wolverine. Instead, Jackman was able to play this fan favourite character and it spawned him a rather big acting career. Ian McKellen is a gift from the heavens. His Magneto is powerful and cool, so cool in fact that it's the old dudes in the film who get away with most praise from the fans. However, young Anna Paquin was an inspired choice for the doomed Rogue as well. Then there's Famke Janssen, former Bond girl, and Halle Berry, future Bond girl, who get cast as Jean Grey and Storm. Had Singer known that X-Men would be successful enough to generate sequels, he might have considered other actresses. After all, by the time we get to the Phoenix saga in The Last Stand, Famke seems a bit ripe for the part of the young and uncontrollably raging Phoenix from Claremont's famous comic. As for Halle, she looked good with the white hair but her attempt at delivering an exotic accent proved, at times, laughably bad. My personal favourite is sexy Rebecca Romijn as sexy Mystique. Blue yet hotter than the Sun, this Mystique actually wears no clothes at all, which is different in the comics. Ray Park and Tyler Mane are so-and-so as Toad and Sabertooth. Toad's character may be the least interesting in the film and Mane brings literally no emotion to his acting. To round things off, Bruce Davidson is always the deliciously slimy bugger and James Marsden is good enough as Cyclops but borders on being a bit too bland at times.
Surprisingly enough, the one truly letting me down is Michael Kamen. His score does the job but fails to live up to his usual standards. There are moments in the film where we hear strange electronics that seem pretty uninspired, pretty annoying even.
X-Men doesn't follow the original X-Men comic with perfect faithfulness but instead creates its own thing with the limited means it was given by Fox. Singer put his talents to their best use in this project and as a result, X-Men made enough money to get a few light bulbs flashing over at Marvel. It was only a matter of time after this film before the superhero market would be flooded with Marvel properties, some more successful than others, some actually establishing record-breaking performances.
I love X-Men. I get those fanboy moments out of the film that make me excited each time I watch them. I love my Mystique here, I love the Poland opening, I love most of the casting choices... It's a very decent kick-off to what would become a much bigger property on screen over a few years time. This is where it truly begins. Recommended!
Scores
X-Men: 8/10
Generation X: 3/10
Diff'rnt strokes, eh?
Robocop 2 by Irvin Kershner - Had never seen this one before, it has some ideas but like Murphy his humanity but they were not realised in favor of OTT stopmotion action. Too bad. 2/5
I like that little bit of music but we only hear it on a minor few occasions. The rest of the score is pretty awful IMO. I think Kamen did a lot better with his scores for Highlander, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, ...
Like you said, @chrisisall, different strokes. ;-)
I hadn't seen this film in many, many, many years, so a lot of it was new to me, in a way. Scary, tense, well-acted with a wild finale, this stands as one of my favorite horror movies with lots of eerie scares. The only thing I don't really care for is the soundtrack, which seems 'upbeat' at times that it shouldn't be.
Wow, it'd been a while. Really one of THE best superhero flicks of all time. Only pet peeves- Wolverine knocked out by a mere small calibre bullet to the head? Umm, no. Professor X, messed with AGAIN.
Other than that, pure excellence.
Awesome. Pet peeve-less. :))
<center><font size = 4>part 3</font></center>
<center><font color = darkblue size = 6>X2: X-Men United (2003)</font></center>
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Given the success of X-Men and the fact that Marvel was gradually buying back its properties, Fox felt compelled to get a second X-Men film out very soon. It eventually took them close to three years (and a little push in the back from Spider-Man's monstrous success) before Singer could finish X2: X-Men United. This time, however, Singer got showered with money and the already substantial cast from the previous film would only grow bigger...
Comic geeks, like myself, get off on seemingly impossible team-ups and big conflicts. X2 provides exactly that. We begin with a faux attack on the president of the United States by one of the older characters in the X-Men universe: Nightcrawler, played by GoldenEye's Alan Cumming. After that we get Colonel William Stryker invading Xavier's school, allowing another regular from the comics, Colossus, a few brief moments to shine. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Xavier are taken out of the picture for the longest time, the other X-Men get split up and cunning Mystique finds out where Magneto is being kept imprisoned... and abused. Is Magneto the bad guy? No! Stryker, played by Brian Cox, is. In fact, one grows to sympathise with Magneto very fast. He, like Xavier, only fights for the well-being of the mutants. But where Xavier attempts diplomacy, Magneto is vastly more militant. Yet when lovely Mystique enables him to break out of his prison in one of the most enjoyable geek-out moments of the entire X-Men franchise, a credit to Ian McKellen's terrific performance, Magneto decides that for the greater good of the mutants, he must form an uneasy alliance with a small group of Xavier's. It's definitely worth it, since Magneto was left with only Mystique at his side and Stryker actually has a few dangerous assets at his, including his mutant son Jason and Kelly Hu's Lady Deathstrike.
There's something in it for the younger crowd too. Iceman, Pyro and Rogue, guided or rather protected by Wolverine, escaped the raid on the school by themselves and take us to a painful confrontation with Bobby "Iceman" Drake's parents and brother, still very much uncomfortable with him being different. X2 once again opens up the debate about xenophobia and how we, as a society, deal with that.
Where it all becomes a lot of fun is when Magneto and Mystique join forces with the X-Men to enter Stryker's Alkali Lake base. Some expensive turmoil ensues and after the finale there's a subtle hint of a certain phoenix that may or may not become more important in the next movie...
X2 was largely inspired by the comic 'God Loves, Man Kills', originally published outside the Uncanny X-Men series but a little later canonised as part of it. It's also turned into a direct and quite continuity safe sequel to X-Men. Since we already understand most of the characters and the conflicts from the previous film, we can dive straight into the bigger conflict of this one. Everything is indeed done bigger, IMO also better, and the cinematic X-Men universe is largely expanded. Singer shows some fine skills as an action director and his usual editor, John Ottman, does a fine job with the music as well.
I went to see X2 all alone back in '03. It premièred when most of my friends were unable to attend. But I couldn't wait. Not after X-Men and certainly not after the trailers for this film. And I've never blamed myself for being impatient. X2 was amazing and it still is. By now I've watched this film well into the double digits and it keeps entertaining me. Remember though that by now I've come to watch these films not merely as someone who enjoys good superhero cinema, but also as someone who's been frantically reading the comics. As both, I'm taken to superhero heaven by this picture. It has its flaws for sure, but I'm nevertheless entertained to my fullest capacity.
Huge recommend.
Scores
X2: X-Men United: 9/10
X-Men: 8/10
Generation X: 3/10
First, don't believe the hype. It's a GOOD movie, but no better than Origins- which means it still rocks! Pet peeve: you CAN'T cut adamantium. Period.
Other than that, highest recommendation.
Yeah Brady, it was definitely a great MI flick.
What the hell did I just watch!?! This movie was awful. I can't believe I sat through this entire movie...if you can even call it a movie. Let's take a board game, slap in some aliens, Throw in a famous actor and pop star and make it a bad summer blockbuster.
Did Liam Neeson need the money?
I enjoyed it. Great action at an epic scale and I enjoy seeing how everyone works off one another. Very entertaining movie.
Battleship was anything but fun...
Some people prefer this, others prefer 'Olympus Has Fallen,' but me, I enjoy them both for what they offer: this one seems to be aimed more on the comedic side and I preferred the casting in this, but 'Olympus Has Fallen' is better in a grittier, darker aspect.
Olympus Has Fallen was watchable for me, but i just remember in the theater being so mad at the lack of fail-safes for the nukes. I guess my ability to enjoy a movie and not nitpick is limited to Bond films (except Skyfall)
When I saw the trailer, I knew for a fact that it is a 90-minute generic action film that won't keep you guessing because they show you the ending in the trailer, sadly. I hate when films do that.
true, but I loved the banter between Sly and Arnold I saw in the trailer, so I thought: why not? so I went to see it, and imo it wasn't an oscar-winning scenario or anything, but the banter between the 2 heroes was all I needed to enjoy the movie :) it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend 2 hours on a sunday night with some popcorn!
This is still a great Summer film, even today, I have a great foundness for it and wish more action blockbusters where like this. It's Pirates, Transformers done right. It actually has an emotional connection for the characters, making them feel more real as a result.
I followed that up with
The Legend of Zorro
I'd never seen this before tonight and although not as good as the original it still has moments that stand out. The big loss is no Anthony Hopkins but also some of the OTT fight scenes, humour and annoying scenes with the child bring the film down to being below average. Of all the storylines to choose for another film, the one picked seems the weakest. Zorro and friends does not work. The film improves as it goes on though, decent enough but that emtional impact is missing.
Giving it a reboot is pointless to me. It's more than likely you won't beat what has been done.