someone posted this on the LM yahoo group:
X-amination
By Matt Conley, southcoast247.com Assistant Editor
X-Men: The Last Stand went from setting box office recorRAB in its opening weekend to cooling off in the $30-$40 million range in its second week. When director Bryan Singer vacated the X-Men premesis to direct Superman Returns for Warner Bros. Brett Ratner was hired to fill the void. Ratner’s job wasn’t exactly easy, seeing as how the X-Men fan base was ridiculously skeptical of his talents as a director. Expectations rocketed for the third X-Men film and it seems safe to say that the mainstream audience may have enjoyed the film, but comic book fans were left disappointed.
This week at Beyond Thunderdome I will round up five observations from X-Men: The Last Stand and attempt to lend some constructive criticism to Ratner and his staff, in the event mankind constructs a time machine merely to fix the flaws of The Last Stand. I should note that there are key spoilers in nearly every single paragraph and that this entire column relies on the reader having seen The Last Stand. Hopefully readers will balance my opinions with their own and a thread can begin on The Jive immediately.
Scott Summers (Cyclops) was the team leader of the X-Men in the films and comics, but he was like a son to Professor X (the pair had a nice scene together in the first X-Men where Cyclops comforts the ailing Professor in the sick bay.) Killing Cyclops off with very little fanfare, or even acknowledgment on behalf of anyone, was a lousy decision and makes the script seem apathetic to Bryan Singer’s previous two films. How can Cyclops’ death be justified by a few vague assumptions by characters (“I think Jean killed Scott!” Wolverine supposes) and then not warrant a gravestone until the end of the film? I’m guessing laziness on behalf of the writing staff and a lack of creativity. As a side note James Marsden, who played Scott Summers, signed on for Superman Returns with Bryan Singer, thus vacating the X-Men series (with the exception of his write-off early in The Last Stand.) It would just make more sense to devote a little more imagination and respect to the killing of the character. You’re telling me writing off characters isn’t ****in fun?
It was clear that the egotistical Halle Berry wanted more screen time this time around. She may call it “something more to do” but that most likely just scratches the surface of her gripe and series of demanRAB. I do have some news for Ms. Berry however and it pertains to her role as Storm. Nobody wanted to see Storm do much more than occasionally create hectic weather and throw in some background dialogue. Berry’s performances in the series were always uninspired and dull and just because she went out and won an Oscar doesn’t mean there should be a shift in screen time, let alone a slot above the title for her name. Maybe the writers will pull a Scott Summers on her at the beginning of the fourth film and tell Halle Berry to get lost.
Readers of the X-Men comic books know quite a bit about the Dark Phoenix saga. Of course a movie has to sacrifice a lot of details in order to fit a character arc into an hour and 50 minute movie, hence Jean Grey’s resurrection as the Phoenix did not include the destruction of planets in The Last Stand. But I suspect everyone knew that her powers would be limited in order for the film to maintain a more grounded storyline. The problem is just how grounded Jean Grey was. Sure she obliterated Professor X and presumably made Cyclops’ head explode, but when it comes time for the final stand off on Alcatraz she is just standing around, dazed. The problem with her character was she peaked too early when she confronted Professor X and Magneto in her parents’ home, leaving a gap between the Professor’s death and the denouement between Wolverine. I really think that the Dark Phoenix arc should have been saved for a fourth film, letting momentum build up for Jean Grey’s return instead of rushing into it right off the bat. More time could have been devoted to new characters and Internet fan boys could have had another several years of message board speculating, also giving writers more time to introduce the Phoenix narrative.
One of the things Bryan Singer did quite well with his X-Men installments was introducing characters, whether they were central or side. Due to budget restraints Rogue and Wolverine’s first meeting with Cyclops and Storm looked thrown together and rushed, presumably a quick and cheap way for an early action scene that involved heroes and villains. But when Singer felt that a flasrabroadack was necessary, he really pulled it off (the key example is Magneto’s murky Holocaust origins, shown in the opening of X-Men.) In The Last Stand we get sequential flasrabroadacks, one in which a far younger Professor X and Magneto (then allies) first meet Jean Grey. Then we get a glimpse of Warren Worthington, a boy whose mutant gene gave him wings. While it may have looked good on paper, the scene makes absolutely no sense considering the grown up Warren (who later becomes known as Angel) has an utterly meaningless role. Brett Ratner should have allotted a little more time to Warren simply because his introduction flasrabroadack fell before the opening credits, but yet he is more of a backdrop the entire film. Unless Angel makes more of a presence in the fourth film, the opening flasrabroadack will continue to stick out.
By the third X-Men film there are some characters, how shall I put this, kind of just hanging around. Yes, Anna Paquin, I am pointing in your direction. Paquin’s Rogue is significant to the series, for her character was the first introduced fully in the present day. She fled her home and ran into Wolverine, thus leading both characters to Professor X’s domain. But the character seems to have run its course and it would have been wise to axe the obnoxious Rogue/Iceman/Kitty Pride love triangle and pretty much just kill off Rogue, of course after she got a chance to finally use her power in some sort of battle. Yes, this would have required a restructuring of the film, but it’s not exactly of Pulitzer Prize caliber. Hell, throw in some sort of opening stand off (perhaps the Alcatraz climax) and then you can eliminate all kinRAB of characters, maybe even Night crawler (whose absence between X2 and now is never explained.)
Please tune in next week for a column completely void of anything X-Men. In the meanwhile The Jive is open for posts related to this week’s entry and my e-mail,
[email protected], is always available for reader commentary.
source: southcoasttoday.com
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XMF | Your Source For The Entire X-Men Film Franchise!
XMF | Your Source For The Entire X-Men Film Franchise!
XMF | Your Source For The Entire X-Men Film Franchise!
XMF | Your Source For The Entire X-Men Film Franchise!
I might try to find it online since I don't have the channel it airs on 
I haven't read it...
Happy belated birthday, Hugh! :birthday:
Welcome to the Logan/Marie aka Wolverine/Rogue Appreciation Thread 
