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I went to see the first X-Men movie twice, two days apart, because I wasn't sure if I liked it. It was a good movie in general but canon had been changed so much that intially I was ambivalent about the movie as an X-Men movie. It was just too different. After seeing it the second time I thought, okay I can live with this.
I didn't actually embrace the Wolvie/Rogue dynamic until I encountered them in fandom.
By the second movie's release I'd settled down enough to just accept that the movies were seperate from the comics and not by just a little. It does bothers me that there are people now who think they know about the X-men because they've seen the movie but who totally have no clue because the content of the movies is radically different from the source material. Although, to be fair, the source material can be all over the place what with retcon and alternate universes, etc.
I KNEW when Jean Grey 'died' at the end of the second movie that there was no way that Pheonix in the third movie was going to be anything like Phoenix in the comic books. There was too much backstory that would have been required to make it work and there was no way they could have squeezed it all in without making at least one other movie, or devoting The Last Stand entirely to Jean Grey which would have meant they'd have lost Halle Berry as Storm, among other things. All I could do was wait and see what TPTB came up with. In the beginning of the movie I was like, that's so not what happened, but then I just let it go and went with the movie and was totally entertaining.
I mentioned in the previous post two of the things that totally drew me out of the movie and were too stupid for words, but there are other things that don't match canon and had I allowed them would have totally ruined the experience. Leech and The Morlocks are a major disappointment. Turning The Morlocks into some kind of gang that you join and get a tatoo for is SO NOT who the Morlocks were and you loose a lot of the politics of mutant/mutant and mutant/human affairs by altering their story, not to mention some of Storm's importance to the overall Marvel-verse. For those of you not in the know, The Morlocks are mutants who live in the sewers, because they are too mutant-looking to pass for human. Calisto is actually the only one, I think, who looks like she could make it in the world above. Beast would have been a Morlock. Angel, withoutht the benefit of his dad's money and status could have potentially been a Morlock. After Apocalypse (Angel was transformed into Archangel and his wings became metal and his skin blue) he definitly could have been a Morlock. We're talking H.G. Wells' Morlocks subterranean monsters, here.
Storm becomes a Morlock after defeating Calisto in a battle, she then proceeded to abandon the Morlocks. Of course, in the movie Storm's leader status is re-written to make her the new head of the Xavier's school. Theoretically that would necessitate Scott's death or prolonged absence since he has been earmarked as Professor Xavier's successor.
Anyway, I understand why Leech might look human, for the purpose of the we're turning 'curing' mutants, but I don't care that they did make that change. It would have been so bittersweet to have this inhuman looking mutant be the source for a 'cure' that could eliminate the very thing that made him different. However, I'd like to note that in the comic's Leech's gift doesn't change the appearance of a mutant, it only represses the powers. So, that moment when Hank's hand goes from blue fur to white skin totally never would have happened. And I have beef with that moment because the blue fur has nothing to do with his mutation, it was, if I remember correctly, a result of a lab accident. In the original Uncanny X-Men Beast looked like everyone else, just bigger and bouncier. Talk about retcon. Beast has a cameo in the second movie, on the tv in the bar, and he looks human. X-Men III implies that the fur is part of Hank's mutation and that isn't true. Not everything in the mutant verse is natural selection or evolution (re: Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, Beast's fur, Angel's metal wings)
There really is a lot of nit-picking to be done, like Colossus is Russian and Rogue was an adult when she met Wolverine and the gang. She was initially part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and was adopted in by Mystique. She also gained her superstrength and flying ability after she killed Miss Marvel. Her love interest is Gambit, except for that wacky time in the Apocalypse alternate universe when she hooked up with Magneto. The relationship that exists between Rogue and Wolverine actually exists between Wolverine and Jubilee, an unnamed cameo in the movies. That was a huge problem for me the first time I saw X-Men because of course we can't have an Asian woman and a white man potentially involved for a mass-market film. But let's forget that and take time to wonder WHY IN HECK Rogue is hooked up with Iceman instead of Gambit!!!
I don't remember Wolverine and Storm being quite so combative. They are close from what I remember and in one alternate universe I think they end up together. So much goes on in the alternates that I am perpetually lost. Let's just say that it isn't canon.
Anyway ... To sum it all up and because I am totally out of steam, plus we'd be here ALL DAY if I don't stop, the movies are not the comics. If you want the real story, the amazingly complex, in-depth, wind you up tight story, I'd suggest you start picking up the comics.
I didn't actually embrace the Wolvie/Rogue dynamic until I encountered them in fandom.
By the second movie's release I'd settled down enough to just accept that the movies were seperate from the comics and not by just a little. It does bothers me that there are people now who think they know about the X-men because they've seen the movie but who totally have no clue because the content of the movies is radically different from the source material. Although, to be fair, the source material can be all over the place what with retcon and alternate universes, etc.
I KNEW when Jean Grey 'died' at the end of the second movie that there was no way that Pheonix in the third movie was going to be anything like Phoenix in the comic books. There was too much backstory that would have been required to make it work and there was no way they could have squeezed it all in without making at least one other movie, or devoting The Last Stand entirely to Jean Grey which would have meant they'd have lost Halle Berry as Storm, among other things. All I could do was wait and see what TPTB came up with. In the beginning of the movie I was like, that's so not what happened, but then I just let it go and went with the movie and was totally entertaining.
I mentioned in the previous post two of the things that totally drew me out of the movie and were too stupid for words, but there are other things that don't match canon and had I allowed them would have totally ruined the experience. Leech and The Morlocks are a major disappointment. Turning The Morlocks into some kind of gang that you join and get a tatoo for is SO NOT who the Morlocks were and you loose a lot of the politics of mutant/mutant and mutant/human affairs by altering their story, not to mention some of Storm's importance to the overall Marvel-verse. For those of you not in the know, The Morlocks are mutants who live in the sewers, because they are too mutant-looking to pass for human. Calisto is actually the only one, I think, who looks like she could make it in the world above. Beast would have been a Morlock. Angel, withoutht the benefit of his dad's money and status could have potentially been a Morlock. After Apocalypse (Angel was transformed into Archangel and his wings became metal and his skin blue) he definitly could have been a Morlock. We're talking H.G. Wells' Morlocks subterranean monsters, here.
Storm becomes a Morlock after defeating Calisto in a battle, she then proceeded to abandon the Morlocks. Of course, in the movie Storm's leader status is re-written to make her the new head of the Xavier's school. Theoretically that would necessitate Scott's death or prolonged absence since he has been earmarked as Professor Xavier's successor.
Anyway, I understand why Leech might look human, for the purpose of the we're turning 'curing' mutants, but I don't care that they did make that change. It would have been so bittersweet to have this inhuman looking mutant be the source for a 'cure' that could eliminate the very thing that made him different. However, I'd like to note that in the comic's Leech's gift doesn't change the appearance of a mutant, it only represses the powers. So, that moment when Hank's hand goes from blue fur to white skin totally never would have happened. And I have beef with that moment because the blue fur has nothing to do with his mutation, it was, if I remember correctly, a result of a lab accident. In the original Uncanny X-Men Beast looked like everyone else, just bigger and bouncier. Talk about retcon. Beast has a cameo in the second movie, on the tv in the bar, and he looks human. X-Men III implies that the fur is part of Hank's mutation and that isn't true. Not everything in the mutant verse is natural selection or evolution (re: Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, Beast's fur, Angel's metal wings)
There really is a lot of nit-picking to be done, like Colossus is Russian and Rogue was an adult when she met Wolverine and the gang. She was initially part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and was adopted in by Mystique. She also gained her superstrength and flying ability after she killed Miss Marvel. Her love interest is Gambit, except for that wacky time in the Apocalypse alternate universe when she hooked up with Magneto. The relationship that exists between Rogue and Wolverine actually exists between Wolverine and Jubilee, an unnamed cameo in the movies. That was a huge problem for me the first time I saw X-Men because of course we can't have an Asian woman and a white man potentially involved for a mass-market film. But let's forget that and take time to wonder WHY IN HECK Rogue is hooked up with Iceman instead of Gambit!!!
I don't remember Wolverine and Storm being quite so combative. They are close from what I remember and in one alternate universe I think they end up together. So much goes on in the alternates that I am perpetually lost. Let's just say that it isn't canon.
Anyway ... To sum it all up and because I am totally out of steam, plus we'd be here ALL DAY if I don't stop, the movies are not the comics. If you want the real story, the amazingly complex, in-depth, wind you up tight story, I'd suggest you start picking up the comics.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 05:32 pm (UTC)From:You evil woman for trying to inspire a new fandom in me. ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-08 05:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-06-08 06:51 pm (UTC)From:Either way, I may have to save up some toy money for a graphic novel or two.