It made their relationship subtlely different; if nothing else, it also explained the fact that they had different accents.
It also shows that Xaviar had felt driven to take in and protect other mutants from a very young age. It’s a key component of his personality.
I’ve seen whatever his name is defend Showgirls and Starship Troopers, pointing out that everything was done intentionally and, if you could read the director’s mind, was well-thought out and intriguing. I suspect that those defenses are accurate. That still doesn’t mean that Showgirls and Starship Troopers are good films.
X-Men is a good film. But it’s not as good as the longer version which, in all probability, does not and will not ever exist. You personally might find it tedious to explain how and why things happen in a film, when educated (or not) fanwank solutions will suffice. Personally, I think that’s sloppy. If you have a four hour film, make a four hour film. If you have to make a two hour film, figure out how to make it a two hour film, don’t kill all logic to force the characters to go the direction the story needs them to go because there isn’t time to show what was supposed to cause them to choose in that direction. Don’t create ensemble casts that you don’t have time to do anything with except act as chess pieces to move into play to save the day for the characters who matter. If you only have time for three or four main characters, just use three or four main characters. It’s not that hard.
I agree with you that they could have done more (or possible less) with the whole teenage mutant recruit thing; it was the film’s weakest point. However, there’s a difference between beefing up the main story and drawing out exposition. That scene with Raven - that was exposition, and it was provided in a clear and concise manner, as it should be. IMHO, background information should be provided in small doses, and should not be allowed to bog down the plot.
One thing I have noticed about this film is that many of the complaints made about the film, on this board and others, tend to be very spurious imo, silly little nitpicks not really supported by the film itself. I mean, “the miniskirts were too short”. Really, who cares about the length of the bloody miniskirts.
A prequel like The Phantom Menance gets slated for having rubbish dialogue, crap acting and inconsistant plot. X Men First Class gets slated for the wrong kind of mini-skirts, not expanding the roles of a few minor characters, and not explaining the impact adoption can have on a family.
The CIA girl was there throughout the film, she was with the group the whole way, in all the group scenes.
The previous ten minutes had been spent establishing that she didnt feel accepted by humans. Remember the CIA guys tapping at the window and laughing at her. She took that personally, even causing Mystique to comment, “They are laughing at all of us”. Sure, they didnt take an hour to show her internal angst and regret at leaving the people she had met the day before, and thank fuck for that.
You may feel that he should have stopped for an hour or two to reflect on what he had done, and perhaps pray for forgiveness or something, but actually he was on a beach that was about to get shelled by his own side. This would focus the mind onto other issues I would imagine. Never mind that the point was clearly made that while he was always going to kill Shaw, he actually agreed with what he was doing. He states this very clearly.
Super rich family adopts cute orphan child? No, I dont really want another ten minutes added in showing exactly how this happened. Really, I dont. They adopted her. End off. Should they have shown the parents in a registry office filling in forms or something?
I can understand poeple who say that some of the minor mutants were a bit irrelevant. I think it would have been a better film with just Magneto letting loose at the end. For example, we didnt need Havok, Banshee or Angel there. Just let Magneto find the sub using his metal sensing powers and cut the flying all together. Perhaps throw in another action sequence showing just how much Magnetos power has grown, and the potential for damage he has.
But hey, Vaughan wanted a training montage, and for that you need other mutants. And if you have other mutants, you have to show them at the battle lest you get a bunch of nerds crying, “Huh, where were Banshee and Havok at the end, they could have helped out, whats up with that, worst film ever…”
How is complaining that a film was so good, it’s annoying that it wasn’t great, slating it?
And again, the point isn’t that they should have explored the adoption or the motives behind people giving impromptu speeches or why mutants would change allegiance to people they don’t know and have no reason to side with. It’s that they had far to many examples of things where they were rushing. The three examples listed are simply the first three that popped into my head, but practically every scene was an example of rushed storytelling. If I had a storyboard to look at, I could list them off exhaustively.
Why can Banshee fly carrying a full-sized man by one hand, but he can’t fly with golf ball sized hole in his wing?
Why does the disappearance of Emma Frost go entirely unnoticed by her employer?
If Emma can cut her way out, why does she continue to sit imprisoned?
“We need to train.” Well great, but since none of you is trained, how exactly are you planning to do that?
Why can Xavier actually train all of them given that he has no particular qualifications either?
With most movies, if they have plot holes, I generally just think they’re plot holes. With this one, I have the distinct suspicion that there is a real explanation for every question. With my own limited knowledge of the Marvel universe, I can fanwank several answers by myself even. To some extent, I’m willing to say that my imagination should be enough to fill in the gaps. But the movie went past that extent. Every scene included something where they were glossing over anything even slightly tertiary to what needed to happen to hit the major points.
Yes, they could have slimmed the cast down and simplified the story, but if they didn’t do that, it’s probably because they wanted all of that in there. The producers thought that there was a bunch of story to tell with that size of cast and that scope of story. Since what they showed us was very good, I can only long for the version that had all the stuff that I can feel the producers were unable to squeeze in due to the running time restrictions.
Dunno. We should try putting him on a treadmill.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Shaw did note that she had been captured.
She can cut her way out of a glass window, not a steel cell.
They were obviously figuring things out as they went along. “Train” doesn’t neccessarily mean that someone is teaching them. If a basketball team practices together, seriously and intensively but without a coach, are they not training?
He’s a smart guy, and as noted above, he was improvising.
I guess its a difference of opinion. If I think a film is so good, I dont feel the need to search out minor nitpicks for the reason it isnt great. I just go, “Hey, that was good”.
For example, I find each of the following nitpicks to be irrelvant as to whether the film is good or great.
I could fanwank (I’m not even a comic book fan) by saying it is all about distribution of weight or something, but it is an irrelevant plot point. Banshee fell because he had to end up back at the beach. A far better complaint would be why he is there in the first place.
Did we really need a scene of Shaw going “Gosh darnit they got Frosty.” No, we didnt. I doubt anybody thought that Shaw had feelings of abandonment or anything.
She can cut through a pane of glass does not equal break out of a secure facility. To be honest, if the plot had called for it, I am sure the scriptwriters could have dreamed up an elaborate escape sequence a la Magneto escaping his cell in X2. But the plot didnt need it, it didnt matter that much, and it had already been done anyway.
As was mentioned a number of times in the script, the idea was that the abilities were like muscles, tools. I dont need a personal trainer if I want to learn how to run, I just need structure and discipline. I see no problem with the idea that just by formalising the idea that they were training, the mutants could improve just by doing. They practised their powers in a way they couldnt in a prison or strip club, and in doing so refined their powers.
As for Xaviers ability to train, he is a powerful telepath, who can enter each of their minds. As he did in the film with Magneto, he can feel what problems they are having and offer advice as to what might help them. Imagine Tiger Woods coach could be in his mind experiencing his swing as it happens. I bet he would be able to offer more pertinent advice if that were so.
Stuff like this, so easily explained with a moments thought, should not determine whether a film is good or great. The film would have been great if it had focused more on Charles and Eric and cut some minor characters completely, or if it had spent more time on the moment of Charles crippling. The film is not perfect, but the majority of the complaints I hear are just easily explained irrelevancies.
Magneto doesn’t think he’s recruiting them to be villains. In his view, he’s recruiting them to save mutants from being exterminated by humans – an extermination which was actually imminent had he done nothing, at least for the group of them on the beach.
If you’re planning to object every time a superhero movie fails to obey the laws of physics, we might be here for a while.
That said, with some of your other objections, I think you may have a point, but these all seemed like pretty minor issues to me.
Regarding the comments about the miniskirts, the movie was set almost 50 years ago. If you remember how long the skirts were back then, you’re probably a little outside its target demographic.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that – I’m just saying I can see why they wouldn’t have worried too much about strict historical accuracy on this point, any more than the above mentioned inaccuracy regarding Argentinian geography. Most of the audience wouldn’t have had a clue.
Yep, this is important. If you look at this movie on it’s own, and have no knowledge of the rest of the series, then Magneto is more anti-hero than villain. He just has different views. And considering that the two biggest super powers in the world just tried to wipe them all off the map, I would say he’s in the right at the end.
I had a BIG problem with making the CIA girl Moira Mac Taggert. I understand the writeres wanted to use a character with a romantic history with the Prof as the CIA agent. Unfourtunatly there was a MUCH better choice. In cominc cannon, Prof X has a fling with a young women, when he is young and he meets Magneto for the first time. Her name is Gabrielle Haller. In the comics the 3 of them met all working on a kibbutz in Israel. When Her and the Prof parted she kept the fact that she was pregnant form him, and 20 years later (in continuity) she shows up in the comics with the Prof’s kid. That way the name Moira could be used in later movies as the genetics expert she is in the comics.
Seriously?
Remember, most people watching these films have never and will never read comics. How on earth would the film show what you just wrote without confusing just about everyone? They met on a Kibbutz in Israel? He knocked her up and then she disappeared? What the hell does that have to do with anything else that happens in the film?
As a non-comic book reading type guy, the character of Moira worked fine, especially considering I dont believe the film even tried to pretend she was a romantic interest for Xavier.
I agree. I’m a big reader of the X-Men (as a 37 year old I’m still buying my monthly floppies) and had very, very few issues. You just have to let stuff go. I think I said earlier (or in another thread) that I didn’t like Beast’s fur not being secondary mutation, but on reflection that was far too nit picky.
I’d say the only bad thing about the film was Emma Frost. Terribly acted, probably badly written, she lacked the snark of the comic version. Instead she was just a bitch that wore a small amount of white clothing and had the same powers as Emma Frost, but she didn’t have what made Emma Frost Emma Frost.
January Jones is terrible. Easily the worst part of a pretty good movie. I thought it was a little long.
Very minor, but I feel like if you are going to do something like… say, use Azazel in the movie-an utterly minor and largely despised character… you better clearly be going for setting up Mystique/Azazel being Nightcrawler’s parents. The two characters had zero interaction. Even a look once she joins the bad guys…some kind of nod.
I found it amusing that the first time we see Havok use his powers it looks like he is hula-hooping.
This movie made a mistake with the timeline. Don’t we see Professor X walking at the end of the Wolverine movie? In the timeline it takes place after this one, so he should already be in his wheelchair.
I think it pretty much ignores the Wolverine film. Remember, Emma Frost has a cameo in it too and seems quite different.
I’ve never read the comics so I didn’t have any canon issues aside from slight weirdness with the previous films, but then I just accepted this for what it was. It was a fun film, I enjoyed it more than Thor when I reflect on it. Thought the two leads did a great job, was less impressed with Ms. Jones (although the 1960’s setting didn’t help her cause separating her from Ms. Draper) and thought most of the “minor” mutants were fairly silly but whatever. Prof. X & Magneto easily carried the film.
I just noticed that Firefox has Magneto in its spellchecker.
At one point I believe Havoc slices off part of Angel’s wings on the one side, forcing her to crash land. So now she’s not just a dumb butterfly lookin- mutant, she’s a dumb butterfly lookin’ mutant who can only fly in small circles and spit fireballs. 
Oh, and I can’t pretend that the “couple years too early” miniskirts bothered me too much.
Easiest fanwank is that the Prof X at the end of Wolverine is a mental projection.
And the Emma Frost character in Wolverine: Origins… only shows the diamond form and is–I could be wrong–never called Emma (and certainly not called Frost) at all in the movie. She’s listed as Kayla’s Sister in the credits.
Easily wanked to being a different character.
I was reading something (wiki?) last night that said they’re more clearly linked on the Marvel website or somesuch. Ah… Wiki for Emma Frost:
I think it was a bit better; “Go fuck yourselves.”