stormkeeper_lovedoris (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stormkeeper_lovedoris) wrote2011-06-05 01:03 pm
stormkeeper_lovedoris) wrote2011-06-05 01:03 pm
X-men: First Class
I am going to go against the tide and say that I didn’t like “X-men First Class” – in fact, it was the first X-men movie that I have no desire to see a second time.
Very minor spoilers behind the cut.
So why didn’t I like it? I’m not 100% sure but here are my guesses…
Every female character either:
- Is a stripper (Angel. Don’t ask me why they gave her the name of an already-established X-man)
- Dresses like a stripper (Emma)
- Strips off her clothes and parades around in her underwear because, well, the plot just requires it (Moira)
- Or is naked in every X-men movie, so we’re surprised when in this one she’s clothed somewhat more often than not (Mystique)
How come we never see male characters demeaned this way? (Never mind, rhetorical question, we all know the reasons).
Just like in “Wolverine Origins”, the black male mutant is killed off quickly.
What I did like about the movie: the Magneto origin story, the actor who played Magneto, and the Xavier/Magneto background. Although according to this movie, they got to know each other and then split off from each other way, way too quickly; in most other iterations of X-men you get the idea that they were friends for a much longer amount of time than a week or so.
Other reasons I didn’t like the movie. My guesses right now are along these lines….The lack of continuity from the other movies (I could’ve overlooked that though), not feeling like the characters jelled, the sense that the Mystique/Xavier sibling-like relationship was totally shoe-horned in there, and all the characters who resemble their original characters in name only (Moira, Banshee, even Beast mostly – like they weren’t even trying to capture the essence of the characters, just using them because they needed some. The first X-men movie changed several things around but I thought it basically got the essences of Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, maybe Storm kinda).
Maybe the main reason I disliked it was because of the way the female characters were treated and it got me thinking that I’d love to see a sub-plot that addresses sexism, and then me realizing that that’ll never happen because the target market doesn’t give a shit about that sort of thing.
Very minor spoilers behind the cut.
So why didn’t I like it? I’m not 100% sure but here are my guesses…
Every female character either:
- Is a stripper (Angel. Don’t ask me why they gave her the name of an already-established X-man)
- Dresses like a stripper (Emma)
- Strips off her clothes and parades around in her underwear because, well, the plot just requires it (Moira)
- Or is naked in every X-men movie, so we’re surprised when in this one she’s clothed somewhat more often than not (Mystique)
How come we never see male characters demeaned this way? (Never mind, rhetorical question, we all know the reasons).
Just like in “Wolverine Origins”, the black male mutant is killed off quickly.
What I did like about the movie: the Magneto origin story, the actor who played Magneto, and the Xavier/Magneto background. Although according to this movie, they got to know each other and then split off from each other way, way too quickly; in most other iterations of X-men you get the idea that they were friends for a much longer amount of time than a week or so.
Other reasons I didn’t like the movie. My guesses right now are along these lines….The lack of continuity from the other movies (I could’ve overlooked that though), not feeling like the characters jelled, the sense that the Mystique/Xavier sibling-like relationship was totally shoe-horned in there, and all the characters who resemble their original characters in name only (Moira, Banshee, even Beast mostly – like they weren’t even trying to capture the essence of the characters, just using them because they needed some. The first X-men movie changed several things around but I thought it basically got the essences of Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, maybe Storm kinda).
Maybe the main reason I disliked it was because of the way the female characters were treated and it got me thinking that I’d love to see a sub-plot that addresses sexism, and then me realizing that that’ll never happen because the target market doesn’t give a shit about that sort of thing.