Also watched... X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) - surprisingly (while this may not play well with the mass audiences), does a very good job capturing both the goofy, soap-operatic charms and confounding continuity / over-dramatic weaknesses from back in the day of the Claremont/Byrne era. By that I mean that the inherent fun of the concept, and attraction of the characters and their personality frictions is there, as well as all the histrionics and timeline-twisting, continuity-cancelling excesses that Claremont later fell into (and which defined X-MEN - and to some degree a large majority of Marvel and DCs output - for a time, led me to finally abandon the title and which was nicely critiqued during the last part of Grant Morrisons run on the title, much later) - so I was left feeling like it was a pretty honest portrayal of that era (they even captured the unfortunate turn towards wholesale slaughter that the original Future Past presaged), if not the best choice for a mainstream movie. Ellen Page makes a good Kitty Pryde, they did a good job on Hank McCoy, Magneto is still a devious jerk and Evan Peters is a fun Quicksilver (although he looked a bit like a young Genesis P-Orridge and could have been a little snottier - maybe when he shows up in AVENGERS - the ending of the film even allows them to fold the X-MEN films into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with little problem, outside of the different studio ownership, of course!) and I dont know if I needed the Professor X as quasi-junkie subplot (although, again, that not only captured Claremonts soap-operatic plotting in a nutshell, but also the tear-jerking tradition of the book re: Xaviers paralysis). Any film that can have someone earnestly tell a telepath to Look past my future! deserves an award for capturing some of the seriously goofy and yet totally logical appeal of 70/80s superhero comics. General audiences may have been shaking their heads but I was left with a big smile on my face (Mark Camacho does a great President Nixon but I couldnt help saying to myself, Hey, hes busy running The Secret Empire and battling the Defenders right now!) THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014) - I still think Andrew Garfield has more of a Ditko look and body language when in the (better designed) suit but this was one long movie, way too lugubrious and losing the fun of Spidey under long speeches and sob stories. No reason for Electro to be a tragic figure, although I did like the hint that the Green Goblin will be a physical transformation (as first series Power-Rangers armor never worked for me and I doubt classic comic rubber fright mask would play on screen). Some nice acrobatic action bits, a cute scene or two (Sally Field is miscast as Aunt May) and I liked Emma Stone as Gwen (she wears some classic Gwen Stacy outfits in this) but also felt the expected climax of the Gwen story lacked the punch. And, again, too long for my tastes.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 16:32:41 +0000
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