Transformers: Age of Extinction

Welcome to the finale of “Transformers Month,” where I will review the latest movie in the series, “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which came out this past July. If in doubt, smash everything to tiny bits of pieces and be as loud as possible.

Director Michael Bay brought this Hasbro toy line in what Graham Young called “the best sequel so far to Transformers,” but I don’t really think so. I still enjoyed it, but I don’t think any of the Transformers movies are better than the other.

In the first film two Cybertronian races (the good Autobots led by the great Optimus Prime and the evil Decepticons led by Megatron) arrive to pick up where they left off in their ancient struggle on Earth with a high school boy who found an old artifact that held the key to the fight.

Revenge of the Fallen showed Sam Witwicky leaving the Autobots and being attacked by the Decepticons.

The Autobots then learned that there’s a hidden Cybertronian spacecraft in Dark of the Moon.

In Age of Extinction, crooked government agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) and tech genius Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) hope a piece called Transformium will make a crowd of controllable Transformers.

Young does rebuttal by saying, “But the recycling business can be dodgy if some old Decepticon material ends up in the mix.”

Meanwhile, Witwicky’s replacement is a new inventor protagonist named Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) who is worried about his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz).

Finding an old wagon buried in a theater, Cade asks her to look at it as treasure, an understatement seeing that it’s Optimus Prime in disguise.

Targeted by a bounty hunter, voiced by Mark Ryan, Cade and Tessa go running with the Autobots.

I agree with Young when he says, “Age of Extinction is a bewilderingly excessive, non-stop demolition derby that works because of the action’s juxtaposition against some of Earth’s most incredible landscapes.”

Some of these landscapes include the pure-white Arctic, Monument Valley, the red rock playground of John Ford and John Wayne, Beijing, steely home of 21^st Century investment money, Hong Kong’s concrete slums, where east meets west in hectic, half-finished (or half-destroyed) structures.

Executively produced by Steven Spielberg, Age of Extinction rules as a new 21^st century genre: graphic anarchy.

Young mentioned in his review, “Despite the bloated 165-minute running time, the clunky dialogue, restricted performances and plot dementia, I loved Amir Mokri’s gliding camerawork and his unquenchable thirst to declare an all-out war on video gamers by delivering the biggest and dumbest action movie ever made.”

This movie lacks James Cameron’s edge-of-seat suspense, but it’s got dinosaurs (probably referencing that great “Beast Wars” cartoon that I remember watching in the 90s) and the best machine is…a classic British Mini.

Like the founding technology of the Apollo moon missions, there must be some spin-off lined up using so much energy. The filmmakers probably haven’t thought them up yet.

In the end, I will say that it’s up to you if you want to watch this movie because I highly think people will get bored by this movie very quickly, especially since it runs at 2 hours and 45 minutes. I am not kidding, that’s the length of the movie. I saw it in the theaters in 3D, and even I was wondering how much longer it was going to be. However, I still enjoyed it for the Transformers, the action, and some of the characters I liked.

Obviously I didn’t want to review the Transformers series back in July, especially since I saw two other new movies that month that were “way” better than this one.

Anyway, thank you for joining in on my Transformers reviews. I hope you enjoyed all of them, and if you want to watch them, then you may. Like I mentioned before, I’m not going to defend these movies as great and some of the best, I understand the backlash.

See you all next month, which will be a great month for reviews. Stay tuned to find out.

Four Brothers

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Let’s share this joyous holiday with my review of the 2005 movie, “Four Brothers.” This movie, directed by John Singleton, is an urban Western, or an urban movie inspired to be a Western. Whatever the case, it’s planned to be mythic than realistic. It pieces together with fundamental moral currents exactly like Westerns used to be, before greed, fear, anger, and “society” provided action movies with all the motivation they needed.

The movie starts with a sweet looking grandmother who arrives in a Detroit convenience store late at night. Wrong store, wrong neighborhood, we’re thinking (Ebert asks, “was it only last week that somebody was gunned down in a store just like this in "November"?”). But Evelyn Mercer, played by Finnoula Flanagan, has a reason to be there: A scared young boy (Tahliel Hawthorne) has been caught shop-lifting some candy and she handles the situation with the store owner (Pablo Silveira) and makes the kid scared of God. The two stickup men, played by Richard Chevolleau and Awaovieyi Agie, walk into the store and Evelyn is shot.

At the funeral, we meet her four adopted sons, two black, two white. She was always a foster mother, and these were the only four she couldn’t find homes for: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund). Bobby is the oldest, the Leonardo of the brothers, and has a temper. Angel is the cool guy with the hot Spanish girlfriend, played by Sofia Vergara, currently playing Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the sitcom "Modern Family." Jeremiah is the successful one. He’s married to Taraji P. Henson, has a family and has a job with a real estate deals. Jack, as Ebert puts it, “is a rock-and-roller.”

They all have the name Mercer and they all look at Evelyn as their mother, but they grew up on bad streets and have not spent a lot of time getting all sentimental about being “brothers.” All of that changes at the funeral, when they all agree that their mother’s death needs vengeance. Jeremiah, the businessman, says, “The people who did this are from the same streets we're from. Mom would have been the first to forgive them.” That would have been the truth about Evelyn, but not these four.

Ebert said in his review, “This story is inspired by Henry Hathaway's "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965), unseen by me but cited by my fellow critic Emanuel Levy. (I am awed by the number of films I have seen, and awed by the number I have not seen.)” First off it looks like an open-and-close case: Witnesses saw two members of a street gang walk in and shoot the store owner. Mom was a bystander, shot in cold blood. As the brothers look at the tape from the security camera, they’re shock by how cruelly she was murdered. They look at the evidence thinking that there’s possibly something more to the murder. Ebert also mentions, “As long as we're talking about the influence of old movies, a crucial clue in "Four Brothers" involves when the lights are turned off on a basketball court; I was reminded of the almanac in John Ford's "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939) that provides the phases of the moon.”

He goes on by saying, “I won't describe the rest of the plot, which unfolds like a police procedural, but I will note a nice touch involving the way Jeremiah looks guilty for a moment simply because he is successful and generous. And I'll mention the key supporting characters.” Terence Howard and Josh Charles play two cops on the case, and Chiwetel Ejofor, who in reality is one of the nicest men out there, plays one of the biggest jerks in all of Detroit. He’s a crime boss whose tactics for overwhelming his minions pass beyond more cruelty into uncontrolled skill.

For John Singleton, the movie is a return to inner-city areas after some reasonably wild departures (“Shaft,” “2 Fast 2 Furious”). Between those two movies he made “Baby Boy” in 2001, and since I haven’t seen that one, I’ll let Ebert describe the movie, “which attacks some young black men who feel licensed to live at home with their mothers, thoughtlessly father children, avoid work, and perpetuate the cycle. That had the kind of critical insight into the kinds of realities that distinguish his first, and greatest, film, "Boyz N the Hood" (1991). (Singleton is also the producer of the current drama "Hustle & Flow," a more ambitious and insightful urban film that also uses the talents of Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.)” “Four Brothers” wants basically for its audience to be entertained, although on purpose it makes the point that in an increasingly diverse society, people of different races may be related.

“Four Brothers” works as an urban thriller, if not exactly as a means of logic. For instance, there’s a violent and extended gun battle which has hundreds of rounds of machine-gun bullets and a pile of corpses, and a cop looks at it as “it looks like self-defense.” Yes, but since the cop can only make that conclusion after the smoke clears, why isn’t there any investigation to clean up the mess? Here’s what Ebert speculated: “I guess I shouldn't ask questions like that in a Western, urban or otherwise; bad guys exist to get shot and good guys exist to shoot them, with a few key exceptions to keep things interesting.” If you want to know the end results to this case, you would have to switch this film into a courtroom genre.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving. I know I’m excited tonight when I get a piece of that turkey for dinner. Stay tuned tomorrow when I look at the latest Transformers movie.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Now we get to the third film in the “Transformers series,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” released in 2011. Roger Moore said in his review, “All the technical prowess of “aliens invade” thrillers, from “Independence Day” through “Battle: Lost Angeles,” and the best comic actors money can buy serve “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” well. The funniest, best-executed film in the Earth-protecting robots-that-look-like-cars-and-trucks series, “Moon” delivers the popcorn in gigantic fist-fulls of fun.”

Obviously this is fist-palmingly stupid as always, a product placement action film with a Camaro as the protagonist. However, Michael Bay’s adaptation of a cartoon co-opts NASA history and redoes Chicago with a pleasure as over-the-top as any crazy Shia LaBeouf rant. Hey, what can he do when all of the best lines are said by the Transformers?

“I just want to matter,” says Sam Witwicky, a two-time environmental hero brought down to begging for work from the great over-the-top John Malkovich. He needs a D.C. job because he has broken up with Megan Fox for a hotter model, played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who wears shorts, tight clothes, and only has one scene where we see that she’s a model, not an actress.

The Autobots are always cautious, though there are the detractors (Bill O’Reilly of Fox News is one of them) who want them off of the planet. If you have any memory of the Transformers cartoon, you know that the Decepticons never completely disappear. This time, there’s a buried spaceship on the Moon, a NASA cover-up and bring back an ancient leader to life, Sentinel Prime, voiced by Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy.

Moore said in his review, “Hearing Mr. Spock repeat lines from “Star Trek” movies in robot form is only the second most tone-deaf thing here. Having real-life lunar explorer Buzz Aldrin on hand to legitimize the bogus NASA history is the first.”

As Sam rushes from D.C. to the Kennedy Space Center to put together this movie’s version of the Space Race, he encounters a plethora of great characters – from the returning John Turturro (an ex-CIA conspiracy guy), to Frances McDormand, as a new intelligence chief. As always, Malkovich steals his scenes if he’s in them with the hilarious Ken Jeong, who you might remember from “The Hangover” movies.

“It is CODE PINK,” Jeong’s character yells in warning, “as in FLOYD.” For those of you who are Pink Floyd fans, he’s making a “Dark Side of the Moon” joke.

Jeong’s craziness isn’t beaten until we get to see the great Alan Tudyck from “3:10 to Yuma” as he uses a fantastical Dutch accent as an assistant to Turturro’s conspiracy talk.

“Dark of the Moon’ builds up to a robot battle royale that takes up the entire third act. However, Bay has learned from the last film’s digital shadow since he slows down the action so that we can see the gears turn and pulls off some great stunts to go with the effects – paratroopers flying into Chicago in wingsuits.

Moore does admit, “Yeah, the story is one big “God in the Machine” tale, heroic but hapless humans wait for robot rescue.” It’s all vision and too much of it with the two and a half hours runtime. The sound effects don’t match the visuals in balance, I didn’t see it in 3D, but Moore claims that “3D adds only depth, not gimmicks.” The finale is so extended that you will wish that maybe Hollywood will be shamed into not imposing another “Skyline” or its kind on us for a few years, that we’ve seen the last of the Transformers.

Then again, after you’ve made billions off a classic cartoon that was made to sell toys, shame doesn’t come into it.

I do have to say that I didn’t like how Shia LaBeouf screamed all of his lines. I know he did that somewhat in the last movie, but here he was doing that every single time, and it got so annoying. However, I think this movie is still worth checking out, but if you don’t want to see one of your favorite cartoons botched by Michael Bay, than don’t see it. I know there are people that don’t like Michael Bay, especially with the movies he’s done recently, so I can understand if you don’t want to see any of his work. I personally like all of these movies, but I won't defend it as one of the great sagas or some of the best work ever. If you don't like, I get it, this isn't for everyone.

Look out next week when I look at the most recent film to wrap up “Transformers Month.”

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

For a highly used CGI, all-action adventure film, “Transformers” was more or less satisfying. I know that the story telling could have been better. Remember, Michael Bay was directing the movie, but fans couldn’t have really asked for more. Still, it’s easy to take out a couple of hours reveling in the overuse adrenaline and display of Transformers but just how good the original was, gave a difficult problem for executive producer Steven Spielberg and his team, how do we make it better? Speaking in advance of the Transformers’ came out in 2007, Bay I think was joking when he said, “we’re going to make the best one first,” but instead of a larger budget and bring back all the major stars, there was always a chance his guess would come true.

Starting a little time after what transpired in the first time, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” released in 2009, shows Sam Witwicky about to go to college, but when he is packing his stuff finds a piece of the all-powerful AllSpark. Desperately trying to bring the leader of the Fallen back to life, when the Decepticons finds the remains of the cube, they break into the plan that will bring about the end of the world as we know it. Defending what has now become their home territory, the Autobots, however, will do anything to halt their enemies, as once again, humanity gets stuck in the middle of the inter-robot battle.

Michael Bay returns to direct this movie, the story telling wasn’t going to be fantastic, but the script for this movie leaves a lot of questions up in the air. Sam Bathe stated in his review, “Both the plot and dialogue are very slack and where the original kept it simple and effective, Transformers 2 tries to blend in a few too many story strands without ever developing any to enough detail. This is the first real stumbling block for new power house writing, and for other projects, producing, team Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. There have been signs of a decline in recent films, with tepid dialogue frequently threatening to boil over, but their imagination has always saved the day. Here they should have ground their ideas, and spent more time ironing out a better, more focused plot.”

A handful of weaknesses could have been cured in the editing room. With almost two and a half hours, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is considerably too long, delaying largely after a promising introduction. What’s greatly frustrating is the film’s inclination to digress into the stupid. The first film knew it was a fantasy but took the material seriously, the only way the audience would then force to believe the film. Here, Michael Bay uses both ridiculous story elements and frustrating characters and habits that weaken all the amazing action. Bathe goes on to say, “Similar to the monkeys in Indiana Jones 4, twins Mudflap (Reno Wilson) and Skids’ (Tom Kenny) attempts to be funny fall flat on their face while R/C truck Transformer Wheelie (Tom Kenny) is nothing but irritating.”

There is still a lot to like about this film. Shia LaBeouf, now a completely decent Hollywood actor after a fantastic few years since the original, has a appealing on-screen charisma. He brings a lot of excitement and passion to the role and says his comedic lines with surprisingly funny timing. Forget the Transformer twins and Wheelie, the rest of the cast does a nice job, with Megan Fox giving the expected attractive looks, and beautifully glossed lips from beginning to end.

Since the industry heavily uses CGI, you might find this shocking, for sure, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” could have had a little more Transformer fighting scenes. The action scenes are beautifully executed, especially the beginning chase and last fight, we only needed a few more of them. Bathe admits, “Over the lengthy two and a half hours, the set pieces feel few and far between, though this might be more owing to the stuttering plot development.”

In the battle of the Transformers movie, what looked like a simple win for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” looks like a draw. They have their good moments, but equally horrible ones too, it’s just aggravating that if “Transformers 2” took itself a little more seriously, it might have satisfied audiences the same way the original did.

I know that these movies are not good, but like I said before, I still enjoy them. Sure, with all the adolescent, testosterone overuse and attractive women running around, I enjoy the action a lot, even though the runtime makes it tiring to a point that you are wondering when the ending is. However, I still enjoy this movie. If you want to check out, do so, but I won’t recommend it if you aren’t a Michael Bay fan.

Now, I want to apologize that I am posting this late. I was busy for the whole day, but luckily I was able to post this review today. Stay tuned next week when I talk about the third film in the series to continue “Transformers Month.”

Transformers

Alright everyone, it’s time that I talk about a series of films that are based off of a 80s cartoon that I never saw because I was too young for it, “Transformers.” I know there’s an animated movie that was made back in the 80s, but I never saw that. Instead, let’s take a look at the very first movie, directed by Michael Bay, released in 2007.

In an interview in Seoul, Michael Bay told Simon Ang that Bay has fans that will say, “We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck but we love you.” Even Roger Ebert mentioned in his review, “He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks ("Pearl Harbor," "Armageddon," "Bad Boys II") but I find it possible to love him for a movie like "Transformers."” It’s silly enjoyment with a lot of stuff that explodes very nicely, and it has the grace not only to realize how ridiculous it is, but to make that into an advantage.

The movie is inspired by the line of Transformer toys that turn from a vehicle into a gigantic robot, like how Ebert describes it as a “Rubik's Cube crossed with a contortionist.” A yellow Camaro turns into a humongous robot, helicopters become walking death beasts, and the arch-nemesis Megatron crashes on the screen and introduces himself: “I—AM—MEGATRON!!!” Ebert describes the voice as, “resembles the sound effects in "Earthquake,"” which is a movie that I’ve never even heard of.

Megatron, voiced by the great Hugo Weaving, is the type of a robot that deserves the description I gave him. He is the most terrifying robot of the evil Decepticons, enemies of the compassionate Transformers. Both brands of robots escaped the dangerous planet Cybertron and have landed on Earth because Megatron crash-landed near the North Pole a century ago and holds the Allspark, which is the key to a grand thing, which Ebert speculates as, “I'm not sure what, but since it's basically an alien MacGuffin it doesn't much matter. (Note to fanboys about to send me an e-mail explaining the Allspark: Look up "MacGuffin" in Wikipedia.)”

The movie starts like all those typical teen comedies where the likable main character is bullied in school, kind of because he didn’t make the football team, and mostly because he doesn’t have the coolest car. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) convinces his dad (Kevin Dunn) into buying him one (this is where the late insult comic Bernie Mac came in for a cameo), and he gets an old beater, a yellow Camaro that is actually a Transformer named Bumblebee (Mark Ryan) and gets furious when his paint job is insulted that it transforms itself into a shiny new Camaro.

This is more than a hot car. It plays the soundtrack to Sam’s life. It helps Sam get the attention to his hot classmate Mikaela, played by Megan Fox, who asks, “Do I know you?” Sam tells her carelessly that they take four classes together and have been going to the same school since first grade. The high school section, which could be a teenage comedy on its own, segues into the robot battle, and there are some low-key political jokes where Secretary of Defense, played by Jon Voight, runs the country, while the president (not even in the movie) reduces himself to ask for a Ding-Dong.

Voight sends the armed services into action, and we see too much of Sgt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Tech Sgt. Epps (Tyrese Gibson). Every single one of these men work for a good majority of the movie thinking optimistically that a metal robot as tall as a 10-story building can be defeated by, or even brought to notice, automatic fire weapons. Sam and Bumblebee are essential to fight back, although a secret ops man, played by John Turturro, asks the defense secretary, “You gonna lay the fate of the world on a kid’s Camaro?”

Ebert went on in his review to say, “Everything comes down to an epic battle between the Transformers and the Decepticons, and that's when my attention began to wander, and the movie lost a potential fourth star. First let me say that the robots, created by Industrial Light and Magic, are indeed delightful creatures; you can look hard and see the truck windshields, hubcaps and junkyard stuff they're made of. And their movements are ingenious, especially a scorpionlike robot in the desert. (Little spider robots owe something to the similar creatures in Spielberg's "Minority Report," and we note he is a producer of this movie.) How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible.”

All the while, the Transformers battle rages on and on and on, with robots bumping into each other and crashing into buildings, and buildings falling into the street, and the military firing, and jets brushing in the clouds, and Megatron and the good Transformers, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, who has been voicing Prime since the days the cartoon was on air), fighting it out, and the soundtrack cutting away at exciting music, and enough is enough. Just because CGI makes such limitless parts possible doesn’t make them necessary. They should be choreographed to look like a strategy and not only look like shapeless, random violence. Here the robots are like wrestlers on TV who are down but normally not out.

Ebert describes when he saw the movie like this: “I saw the movie on the largest screen in our nearest multiplex. It was standing room only, and hundreds were turned away. Even the name of Hasbro, maker of the Transformers toys, was cheered during the titles, and the audience laughed and applauded and loved all the human parts and the opening comedy. But when the battle of the titans began, a curious thing happened. The theater fell dead silent. No cheers. No reaction whether Optimus Prime or Megatron was on top. No nothing. I looked around and saw only passive faces looking at the screen.”

I guess we’re probably getting to a point where CGI should be used as an appetizer and not the entire meal. The movie is 144 minutes long. You could reduce it to two hours by taking out the CGI parts, and have a better movie.

Look, I know this is a stupid movie, but I enjoyed it. If you want to watch it, do so, and embrace a time when you were younger watching the cartoons growing up in the 80s. You might like it, but if you don’t I understand.

Stay tuned Friday when I take a look at the sequel for “Transformers Month.”

X-Men Week Part 7

Alright everyone, it’s time to close out “X-Men Week” with the latest installment that came out back in May, “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”  Lisa Kennedy of DenverPost started her review by saying, “Few can track warp and woof of time travel the way comic-book fans can — except perhaps quantum physics brainiacs. And so we leave the space-time nuances of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" for Marvel aficionados to deconstruct.”

Instead, let’s take a look at the philosophical goals of the latest sequel, where gravity and a kind of scaffold humor sparkle like Wolverine’s claws. Once they are metal, that’s it. Which came across as weird because at the end of “The Wolverine,” he had his adamantium skeleton taken away by the Silver Samurai so how did he get them back? Meh, it’s just minor, who cares?

It’s not just this amazing cast that makes the franchise so entertaining. Despite that it’s hard to ignore the brilliance of having James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender reprise Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as their adult selves. The elderly versions are now arch frenemies. In this film, they come together to put their younger selves in a mission to change the course of the past.

Similar to the great “First Class” (which did live up to its title), this film doesn’t waste any time before throwing us into the horrible.

The future is a dark, miserable place for both mutants and their human friends. Everyone compares this film to "The Terminator," which I can see, but wait for it. Despite the location they travel to, whether it’s New York, Moscow or China, giant robots called Sentinels start taking them into a battlefield for a fight.

The film starts with a group of mutants (Halle Berry as Storm, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Omar Dy as Bishop, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, Fan Bingbong as Blink, Adan Canto as Sunspot, and Booboo Stewart as Warpath) hiding in a subterranean cave fighting bravely against the apparently indestructible Sentinels. The only way they can change the course of this unwinnable war is to stop it before it begins, to stop the Sentinels from ever being created.

The film’s mad scientist shows up in Dr. Bolivar Trask, played by Peter Dinklage from the hit sitcom “The Game of Thrones,” who’s another person that likes to mess with genetics with no doubts about testing mutants in his research. 

Now the last time we saw Raven aka Mystique, reprised by Jennifer Lawrence, she was determined to be a mutant avenger. The reason why she is a catalyst is because it’s implanted into her DNA. Her transformation to Mystique is exactly the proper fight at the core of “X-Men.” What’s the best method to protect mutants: take on humans or kill the dangerous ones? It’s because Xavier and Magneto split but also because Xavier and Mystique were like siblings.

Ellen Page reprises Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat, who sends Logan aka Wolverine’s, reprised by Hugh Jackman, mind back to 1973. Wait a minute. Shadowcat can walk through walls. When did she get the power to send people’s minds back in time? Remember, I only grew up watching the 90s animated cartoon and “X-Men Evolution.” I never read any of the comics, so if there is a comic issue that mentions how she got that ability, comment below.

Kennedy commented in her review, “The era allow for some larks. Bring on the lava lamps and Top 40 hits by Roberta Flack and the late Jim Croce.” But this isn’t a popcorn kind of movie. “X-Men” also brought up the Vietnam War in their story. “First Class” mentioned the Holocaust and the Cold War.

A handful of superhero movies satire but don’t really talk about history. Bryan Singer is back as director and along with screenwriter Simon Kinberg, they don’t talk about Vietnam very clearly, but they’re bravely intent on making mutant fates with the non-mutants.

Possibly more than all of the superhero franchise, “X-Men” captures the going beyond fantasies of not only being unique, but also being a hero and being saved.

Contrary to the arguments made by Trask, the young Xavier argued in his Oxford thesis that mutations help world evolution, it did not cut mutants from humans but set the basis of understanding.

These are injured and outstanding beings. Sure it takes some time to get to Logan’s hurts and hopes, but he does have them.

Thanks to Jackman’s ironic and grim depiction of Logan, there’s a lot of humor along with ache here.

When Logan finds Xavier, the school he found for mutants is close to ruins and empty except for the messy professor and Hank aka Beast, reprised by Nicholas Hoult. Xavier doesn’t have his telepathic powers because of addiction.

Magneto is taking over a different void. He’s deep into the Pentagon because he committed a lethal, deceitful crime.

One of the best scenes is with Wolverine, Hank and Xavier using the help of the fast and highly minor thief Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, to free Magneto from the Pentagon. The only downside to this is that they never use him again after this segment, and I thought he was one of the coolest characters ever.

Another great part in this movie is when Magneto is in a baseball park, the old man asks if he needs help with anything, Magneto says no, and then he takes the entire baseball park over to the White House. I have to agree with LazerDude99 when he said that this part is better than in "The Dark Knight Rises," when Bane blew up the Football Stadium.

It’s close to a masterful set piece like Christopher Nolan’s choreographing the van crash in “Inception.”

There are a few flaws that I would like to point out about this film. First off, why does Trask want to use Mystique’s DNA on the Sentinel’s? Mystique was able to shape shift into a different mutant, but she never could mimic their powers. Unless they put Rouge’s DNA in the Sentinel’s later, but they never say. Magneto does tell Wolverine to find him and make him help out the team, convincing him not to turn evil regardless. Doug Walker argues that Magneto does absolutely nothing to help out, which I can see where he’s coming from. Although, Doug’s brother, Rob, argues that maybe he doesn’t want to change. Maybe the reason why he tags along is to cause more damage than repair. When adult Magneto said to find him in the past, maybe he was tricking Wolverine into wanting the future to stay the same and not change. Speaking of Magneto, how was he able to power up the Sentinel’s using train tracks? Also, just like the end of “First Class,” Magneto gives a big speech and no one steps in to stop him. Quicksilver was watching him on his TV. He could have easily run out and knocked the helmet off of him, giving Xavier a chance to get inside his head. However, that problem was kind of in here, but Mystique does come in and shoots him in the neck, unlike in “First Class,” which I don’t hate, but that part in "First Class" was annoying. Like I said, it was kind of the same problem in "Days of Future Past," but I think Bryan Singer redeemed the X-Men series by fixing it in this movie.

But the biggest relief ever in the movie is the ending. Wolverine wakes up and sees that every mutant that we know and love is there in the school happy. I know that all of the mutants were not used to the fullest, but Bryan Singer was only using the mutants that really mattered. Evan Jonigkeit plays Toad and Gregg Lowe plays Ink, but I don’t think they were utilized that much. All you see are their faces and that’s it, if I remember correctly. Lucas Till is back as Havok, but I don’t remember what he did. Maybe you just saw him for a glimpse, and that’s it. We see Anna Paquin reprise Rouge, Famke Janssen reprise Jean Grey, James Marsden reprise Cyclops, and even Kelsey Grammer comes in for a bit as Beast. The ending is like waking up from a long nightmare, and makes you eagerly waiting the next X-Men movie. Bryan Singer must have been flipping off the other directors and telling them, "This is how you do an X-Men movie!" With this movie, maybe the past movies didn't happen, but does that mean we get bone claws instead of adamantium? Well, at the end, William Stryker, played by Josh Helman, saves Wolverine from drowning, but it turns out it's Mystique in disguise, so I guess Wolverine will be getting adamantium claws, but we'll have to see in the next movie. Now this series can do the same thing that all these other Marvel movies are doing, like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and so forth. Although I don’t hate any of the X-Men movies, this one was one of the most satisfying endings in any of the X-Men movies. Plus, unlike the other movies where not all of the X-Men fight, every “X-Men” in this movie is jumping in and fighting. Even though they may or may not have enough dialogue, they still contribute their part in the battle.

In the end, I’m agreeing with everyone in saying this is the best X-Men movie ever. The post credit scene (spoilers) show people in Egypt chanting En Sabah Nur, who uses telekinetic powers to build pyramids, as Four Horsemen are watching nearby. This is building up the Apocalypse movie, which is coming out in a few years.

In the mean time, if you missed the chance to see this movie in the theater, definitely see this when it’s released on DVD, it’s worth the rental. Go rent it from your RedBox, NetFlix, local library, Amazon, or wherever you go to get your movies. Or, buy it from the Best Buys, Target, Wal-Mart, anywhere. Hands down, this movie gets a 10+. Like I said before, it’s the best X-Men movie by far, and another one of my favorites.

Thank you for joining in on “X-Men Week.” I hope you enjoyed these reviews as much as I and reviewreviewer1, for the most part, had making these reviews. I was originally planning on reviewing all of them when “The Wolverine” came out, but reviewreviewer1 was not feeling very well, so we had to hold out on it. Now that we’ve done it, please check out his channel to see his reviews, you’ll love all of them. Stay tuned to see what I will review for the rest of the month.

X-Men Week Part 6

Alright everyone, now we come to the epic 2013 film in the X-Men franchise, “The Wolverine.” I spoke with reviewreviewer1 about this a little while ago, and this is what he thought of it:

“The Wolverine” was hailed by many to be a vast improvement of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Now I thought “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was a very underrated and an excellent film, but I do agree this film was really great as well. It really has a multilayered mystery plot, constantly keeping us guessing as to who is on whose side. It is interesting to see more of Wolverine’s past of how even before he lost his memory; he did good things, like saving a general that was to hold him prisoner in Japan called Shingen Yashida. This is consistent with “Origins,” where we saw Logan always had a human side. Some people complained Logan was at D-Day in “Origins,” but that was a year earlier, and Logan could have been sent to a special mission in Japan because of his skills. Also, it is interesting how opposite an approach the film takes to “Origins.” Now Wolverine is a hermit and depressed without Xavier to guide him, and having been forced to kill Jean Grey in “The Last Stand,” which the film also has a nice connection with.

It is also really clever that Logan is invited to Japan to meet Yashida again, who wants his healing abilities, showing Wolverine is offered the choice to die. Also, it is interesting how long the film builds as a mystery, with two opposing groups of villains going after Logan, who tries to protect Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko, and that Viper has slipped something in Logan’s body that weakens his healing factor. Many found its effects to be arbitrary, but we often saw in the earlier films that just because powers are weakened, doesn`t mean they are removed.

Also it is interesting and creates tension that Yukio has a vision predicting Logan’s death. Many complained it was pointless, but it fits the theme of death in the film. Also, it is interesting. It is a double family scheme, where Yashida’s son, Shingen was to have Mariko killed to have control of the company his father left to her instead of him. At the same time, Viper is after her and Wolverine as well. Also, many people complained Shingen survived being stabbed with poison by Viper, but he was near a room with medical equipment that was extremely advanced, and he’s a trained warrior.

Now, I fully agree with him. Especially since there have been some Marvel characters that have been recasted, like The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine has always been portrayed by Hugh Jackman. “The Wolverine” has been described by Peter Debruge of Variety as “an entertaining and surprisingly existential digression from his usual X-Men exploits.” Even though Wolverine looks like he’s been tired out through battle, Jackman is top shape, taking the opportunity to test the character’s physical and emotional limits. Fans might have wanted better action or more effects, but director James Mangold does better. He recovers the soul of a character whose immortality left something to be wanted.

Despite that a handful of Marvel’s characters belong to Disney now; Fox still controls the rights to “The Fantastic Four,” Wolverine and his X-Men family. Not being on the same level as Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, this movie represents Fox’s attempt to cure everyone of the hatred they had to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which I thought was actually good and did well at the box-office.

Since Wolverine’s back-story has been put into place, screenwriters Mark Bomback and Scott Frank are free to treat an impressive one-off, returning to the character’s failed romance with Mariko Yashida, played by Tao Okamoto, a member of a powerful Japanese gang known as the Yakuza. This is a fan-favorite story arc created by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller in 1982. Taken place sometime after “X-Men: The Last Stand,” we see Logan feeling sorry for himself somewhere in the Yukon trails. Debruge says in his review, “Having sworn off his violent ways, he identifies more with a feral grizzly than with any of the sport hunters he encounters in town, setting up concerns (whether he can overcome his animal nature) and symbols (including a poisoned-tipped arrow) that resurface later in significant ways.”

When a bear is murdered by humans, Wolverine get infuriated, only to be rescued by Yukio, played by Rila Fukushima, a red-velvet haired girl who takes Wolverine to Japan, where a man from his past wants to take his healing ability away. Since Wolverine saved Yashida, played by Haruhiko Yamanouchi, from an atomic blasting that destroyed Nagasaki, he wants Wolverine’s immortality that Wolverine has considered a curse, and negotiates with Wolverine, saying that Yashida will reunite him with Jean Grey, cameo appearance from Famke Janssen, who only appears when he’s dreaming and suggests some sort of connection to the past films.

Past the half-hour mark, the movie has its first action sequence, and when that comes, the timing is elegantly choreographed and definitely inspired by Hong Kong films, as a squad of yakuza break into Yashida’s funeral, attempting to kill Mariko. If I do remember, I believe Mariko’s ex-boyfriend, Kenuichio Harada (Will Yun Lee) and the man she is set to marry, Noburo Mori (Brain Tee) are a part of it. The next sequence is on par with any fight scene in Asian cinema, where Wolverine fights a group of yakuza on top of a train, which is one of the best action scenes in any X-Men movie, and it’s great to see Wolverine putting new fight sequences in his inventory. Even the lines that were said after the train fight were hilarious. See the movie if you want to know what I mean.

Wolverine comes out the winner obviously, but with the downside that his wounds can’t heal themselves. Yashida’s nurse, Viper, played by Svetlana Khodchenkova, has poisoned Wolverine that has hurt his abilities. In the process, Wolverine goes from not only being cool but a very interesting character, since there’s a legitimate risk that he could die and/or be beaten while trying to protect Mariko. On top of that, he bleeds.

Debruge mentioned that, “Even better than this newfound physical weakness is the emotional vulnerability “The Wolverine” allows Jackman to explore. Logan’s self-imposed isolation reveals unexpected new layers of his psychology and suggests that once these iconic characters have been established onscreen, they can be fleshed out in standalone films, just as seemingly non-plot-advancing episodes of “The Sopranos” or “Breaking Bad” deepen our understanding of those series’ complicated protagonists.”

As this happens, “The Wolverine” shows off one of the best pulp-inspired scripts ever. It still has those clichéd dialogues (the punchy one-liners imagined to fit in small talk over the characters’ heads), but there’s a real style to the way it creates Logan’s tormented condition and slowly brings the character around to recovering his brave prospective, carefully setting up and paying off ideas as it unfolds.

Obviously a script is just a blueprint, and it still puts Mangold and his team to pull it off. This is where “The Wolverine” falls withdrawn of magnitude, despite amazing production values, stylish storytelling and an exciting cross-cultural music from Marco Beltrami. Comparing it to other directors, famously Nolan, Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn, all who have raised the genre by bringing pieces of their own style to filmmaking, Mangold’s approach is clean and correct, but does nothing to forward the overall condition of comic book movies, owing largely to how greatly he borrows from others.

However, Debruge does rebound by saying, “Thankfully, his references are relatively upscale, ranging from an elegant “Yojimbo”-like scene in which lone ronin Wolverine is outnumbered by ninjas to a “Diamonds Are Forever” nod involving an unforeseen swimming pool, and he even convinced Jackman to channel some classic Clint Eastwood attitude in his wonderfully surly performance.” Mangold’s idea was evidently to make an Eastern Western, where the setting is in Japan and the antagonists carry samurai swords, but the hero is driven by true grit.

It’s an amazingly successful strategy, all the way to the end, where the film’s finale suddenly feels identical to other superhero works, where Wolverine takes on two villains: one CG Silver Samurai and the other a silly wearing snake-like mutant, Viper, who melts her skin halfway through. Debruge ends by saying, “Whereas the Japanese-ness of everything that came before brought a certain “Kill Bill”-like novelty to the genre, this metal-against-metal showdown seems disappointingly familiar and breaks the cardinal rule when dealing with this character: that nothing is stronger than Wolverine’s claws, except perhaps his spirit.”

In the beginning when Logan saved Yashida’s life from the bombing by hiding in the well, the other soldiers stabbed themselves, but Yashida couldn’t do it because his hand shook when he had the sword in his hand. From then on, Yashida has been a coward and afraid of death. The only reason why those soldiers stabbed themselves was because they didn’t want to be dishonored by saying the enemy killed them. For that, since he realizes the pain that Logan is going through when he killed Jean, he’s offering to take that ability away from him because Yashida is a coward of death and on the flip side, he can never die. I found that interesting since he’s not your typical villain, but is evil because he’s a coward of death and will go to any extreme so he can still live.

Plus, the armor is made completely of adamantium, which is a perfect match for Wolverine. If Iron Man went up against the Silver Samurai, he would have his suit torn completely. Especially when Wolverine’s claws got torn off by the Silver Samurai, I felt the pain and was like, “Wolverine’s claws can’t break! No one can do that!” Apparently I was wrong, as were a lot of people.

Also, how come Jean keeps showing up in Wolverine’s dreams? Did Viper had some psychic powers and was trying to get Wolverine to give the Silver Samurai the healing ability? I wish they had more clarification on that. Even with what Jean said didn’t sound like something she would say. It sounded like someone manipulating Wolverine and trying to just make him accept death. Oh and how come when Mariko wakes up and asks Wolverine “who’s Jean,” and he responds, “She’s a woman I loved. And I killed her,” she goes back to sleep? I think there would be questions arising from that. 

Viper's death in this movie is one of the best movie deaths ever. First, you see Mariko tying some rope around her neck, then she starts going up. Just when you think Viper is going to die from hanging, an elevator comes down and slams right into her, instantly killing her. When I saw this in the theater last year, I was saying, "YES" out of excitement. One of the most satisfying ways to kill off one of the villains in a movie, hands down. 

On a final note, I think everyone could have guessed it was Yashida who was the Silver Samurai, since Yukio didn’t predict it, and she can see everyone’s death before it happens. I guess there were hints that maybe Harada or Mariko’s fiancé could have been the Silver Samurai, but they never played with your head to make it seem like it was them, even though they had some connection with the yakuza. Remember, Yashida is necrophobic, so it would be obviously him.

Spoiler alert, there is a mid-credit scene where Logan arrives in the USA airport after two years and is approached by Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Xavier (who Logan thought was dead, reprised by Patrick Stewart), talking about a grave threat arriving. This is setting up fans for “X-Men Days of Future Past,” which we will cover tomorrow.

In the end, go see this movie, especially if you didn’t like “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” This will make you happy and excited after seeing it. I rate this with a 9+.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the finale of “X-Men Week.”

X-Men Week Part 5

Alright, now we get to “X-Men: First Class,” released in 2011. This film was hailed by many to be a return to the quality of the first two films, and some handful of people said it was the best out of all of them. Now, I think “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” were both great films, and I don`t want to support the haters on those films, but this film is brilliant in its own right, none the less. Some fans were critical of it, and although some arguments were valid, the film still is fantastic.

It tells a really complex multilayered story, showing how Xavier discovers the dangers some of the mutants pose, and he at first tries to work together with the government, but this doesn`t work out, as they try to control the team, and discriminate them. At the end, they try to kill the mutants. At the same time, Sebastian Shaw tries to tempt the mutants into joining him, and tries to influence the Cuban missile crisis. A lot of detractors thought there was too much going on in the plot, which was also used against “Spiderman 3,” “The Amazing Spiderman 2,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Wolverine,” and “The Last Stand,” but as I think all those films are great to me. It just makes the film all the more interesting.

Also, it is really clever how they show both sides playing a cat and mouse spying game, along with all the political intrigue.

The film also has excellent characterization with Xavier being extremely well done. We really see him starting off as kind and optimistic, yet a superficial and intellectual, who is also somewhat unfeeling and self-indulgent, and grows to be a wiser, more responsible and a sweet mentor.

Mystique is done very well, in my opinion. She got praise from Captain Logan, and it is deserved. I think the Blockbusterbuster and Filmmasteradam are wrong criticizing her in this film, so a question. Are you guys Catholics? It is important because it will be relevant when the day of judgment comes, when you will arrive tied up, and I will chose what torture to inflict, that is.

She is deep, likeable, has a detailed back story, and has a complex arc. She is warm, supportive, really loyal to Xavier, friendly, brave, and also proactive, showing of her powers to prove Xavier isn`t a spy, but also insecure and unconfident. Xavier doesn`t understand her insecurities and wants her to hide who she is, and she is frustrated and jealous, yet playful, witty and comforting in how nice she is to Beast. The Blockbusterbuster complains she whines a lot, but that is because she is still in a conflict of which side to pick and whether to hide and be proud, and she is younger. He comments Mystique was a lot tougher in the original films, but there she has decided to be against the world and is inward. Also, she is jokey here, and can be a smarty, like when she claims to Xavier she just couldn`t control her powers, even though she clearly could, and shape shifting into her older form. She is also attractive, and near the end is helpful during the fight. Also Filmmasteradam complaints it was dumb they made her Xavier’s long lost sister, but it makes both characters warmer and has a brighter past that went badly. We don`t see them together that much in the original trilogy. He comments why Mystique would poison Xavier when she loved him. Well, because she slowly became more obsessed with their cause. We see her become very angry at him. Like in real life, after nice break up at first, you can slowly become more resentful. This leaves things up for the next couple of films.

She also has a deep arc in this film. At first she is afraid people will fear her, and hides herself from everyone except Charles. She is frustrated, that he compliments a girl on her mutation. She is passive aggressive, and also needs reassuring from Xavier that he would date her in her true form. Although he accepts at first, that’s hypothetical because she wouldn`t be his sister. When she brings up her true form, he all of the sudden dodges the question. She is actually very open-minded liking Beast’s mutation, yet at first she wants to remove her powers, and is pragmatic. She wants to cure herself. Filmmasteradam calls her bipolar since after just one talk with Magneto, she would immediately change her mind, but from the beginning she wanted to be free. She just didn`t dare to. When she showed herself to the CIA, she already became more open, and when she saw the beauty in Hank’s mutation, she saw the beauty in hers and became more self-appreciating. When hanging out with the other mutants, she became more self-confident. Magneto simply made her realize she was wasting her powers and showed her she was talented. Then, as happens a lot in real life, her inferiority complex became a superiority complex. Also, there is another scene earlier on, where he makes her doubt the cure, by saying he wouldn`t change a thing about himself if he were her. She at first just doubts her plan for a bit, and then Hank made her realize she is doing this because the world hates her, while he is trying to convince her. She doesn`t feel comforted by him, and she then becomes more interested in Magneto. In fact, with Hank not finding her true self beautiful, it was also important she always doubted what she wanted. Magneto’s talk with her just helped. Even then she is first doubtful and talks with Hank. After that, she also at first still uses her human form to seduce Magneto, as she feels appreciated by him, and thinks she found someone who loves her the way she is. When he compliments her on her true form, then she only starts to fully believe in Magneto’s cause. She at first still talks with Xavier. It is really well developed, and then when Xavier is distant to Mystique. Then, she becomes against him and decides Beast’s natural form is beautiful.

So Mystique is very well done. Captain Logan justly praises her, but still asks why she can`t wear clothes. Well, it is a thing psychologist’s call “overcompensating.” Also, he is right pointing out that the cover up for the age inconsistencies with the original trilogy, where she would now be in her fifties makes little sense. Why would she age half as quickly when she became a teenager at regular speed?

Also Hank as Beast is great. Filmmasteradam justly praises him. He is smart, witty, but also insecure, pragmatic, cold, awkward, but also love struck, a bit playful, and sad. CaptainLogan complains he just has weird feet and is a whiner, but people can be very judgmental about minor things. Since reviewreviewer1 has Tourette ticks, he knows. Mystique loves him as she is a fellow mutant. Beast wants to be loved by society. When he is Beast, he is hotheaded and frustrated, but also helpful and proactive.

Captain Logan also praises the love triangle between Beast, Magneto and Mystique. I totally agree. Mystique and Beast can chat and play together, both feel trapped by their mutations, and she likes the different mutation of Beast. However, he doesn`t love his true self, and tells her that her human form is beautiful. He doesn`t love himself and hence not her enough, so she falls for Magneto, as he truly likes her as her true self. However, he is actually hypocritical as he pushes her to be herself, and actually views her a bit as a friendly object. He just really cherishes this object and discriminates her as well, just in a positive way.

The biggest problem for me in this film is the character of Magneto. He isn`t very likeable, his arc is rushed and badly set up, as well as his friendship with Xavier. This to me was a big disappointment when I first saw the film, as I really loved Magneto’s character. I am going to do something that is worse than denying The Holocaust, committing the holocaust, or…um…getting out of the holocaust, starting World War I, or saying to you that I am a nationalist. I am going to negatively compare his character to Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars Prequels, and his relationship with Xavier to Anakin’s relationship with Obi Wan. Dan dan dan dan…dramatic turnaround!

Magneto is obsessed, hateful, sadistic, manipulative, cruel, clever, determined, can be friendly, relaxed and smart. He is complex, but the problem is that he barely changes. He is evil from the start. Anakin wasn`t! No, he really wasn`t. No! Nine! Njet! No! Nee! He starts of being distrustful of humans as soon as he discovers he is a mutant, and to be fair, please here me out here!!!! Anakin already supports a dictatorship in Episode II. However, it was something that Anakin just mildly considered could work. Magneto has the scene where he tells Xavier that it starts with identifying people. That is fine, but unlike Anakin, he immediately refuses to work with humans, but also convinces Mystique she is better than humans, and she shouldn`t in any way compromise. He doesn`t have mildly evil tendencies, like Anakin. He just plainly is totally anti-human, arrogant, and completely prejudice, right when he discovers other mutants. He kills the people who helped at the camps and wants to kill Shaw. Again, Anakin had his sand people, but he did that in rage in one scene. This, on the other hand, is his main goal, and he mainly works together with Xavier to get Shaw. That isn`t a friendship or heroic, he does the same thing as a villain in “X2” with the X-Men. Also, as reviewreviewer1 pointed out in his Star Wars Prequel defense with Kyle, Anakin has loads of scenes where he acts noble, like when he saves Padmé’s life because he cares for her, or saves Obi Wan’s life, or helps fighting the droids and Dooku, or saves Palpatine. He, unlike Vader, has principles where he is loyal to the republic, and although he often whines about Obi Wan, refuses to leave him to die with Grievous. Magneto doesn`t have one scene where he is nice with regular humans, and mainly trains the X-Men to serve his cause and helps them fight near the end to get Shaw. His pushing Banshee off was funny, but he could have died. If that is the nicest team moment he has, that is not very good. His main nice moments are with Mystique, his future fellow bad guy, that follows his evil cause, and with Xavier as an ally, against a common enemy. Like Anakin, he disobeys him and tortures Emma Frost to get information. But here, that is all we get.

Also, his turn to the dark side just perfectly demonstrates this, because what causes him to decide to start his own mutant brotherhood. Well, Shaw holds his speech and he agrees with it. Yes people, just one villain speech was enough. That is like if Blade became evil in the first or even the second “Blade” after the offers he got from his opponents, or that Spiderman, just like that, would take the Goblin’s offer. Really, this makes it seem like the next logical step, and the fact he kills Shaw anyways, as he just needed revenge first for his dead mom. Then he takes his place, which perfectly shows it indeed was the next logical step. To all the prequel haters: Palpatine was like “Leave Obi Wan behind,” and he said “no,” that the Jedi don`t make him a master and tell him to spy on his friend. He still disagrees with Palpatine on the Jedi being similar to the Sith, then they still distrust him. He is more worried of Padme dying, wants to save her, and hears the dark side can make this possible. When Palpatine reveals he is a Sith Lord, he reveals it to the Jedi. With Palpatine dead, all hope is lost, which slowly drives him crazy. Only then, he goes to join the Dark Side. Yet Matthew said in that film, “Hey Anakin, you want to turn to the dark side,” and Anakin says, “Yeah, sure. Why not,” even though Anakin, in only one scene, entertained the notion of a dictatorship where here, Magneto refuses any working together with mutants and consistently sees them as less. Sorry for turning this into an extended prequel defense guys, but I am going to do so some more.

His friendship with Xavier barely exists. Again, like with Anakin and Obi Wan, they have opposing views and fight. Yet, I am going to go Confused Matthew here and say, there is no balance, they have opposing political views. Magneto disobeys him, and both are cool, yet he totally supports Mystique against Xavier, her brother. They just don`t share that much. People are right now screaming of the scene where Xavier asks him not to kill Shaw, but he never considered it. Xavier saves him near the beginning, but Magneto never really saves him. Anakin saved Obi Wan from falling and refused to leave him behind, and Obi Wan saved him in the bar. Obi Wan comforts him when he talks of the nightmares with his mother and when he is nervous to see Padme, and when he thinks she forgot him. Anakin saves him also from Dooku and is in fact convinced by him to temporarily let Padme go, yes. Magneto is trained to find his inner peace by Xavier, but that is near the end, when he is already planning to kill Shaw. After that, he will turn evil and fight Xavier. He doesn`t really take the wisdom from Xavier to be kinder or be just a little bit more caring of humans. He just trains to use a power to kill the guy that killed his mother. In fact, he learns to use powers based on inner peace, while not actually using inner peace and uses this to kill Shaw. I didn`t mind Anakin being a “quote, unquote” whiney boy before he became Darth Vader, but to me it is weird that while Anakin is planning to turn to the dark side halfway in Episode III, Obi Wan teaches him that by remembering the love for his mother, he can be stronger with the force. It turns out he uses this to force choke people. Yeah, I agree Magneto using happy thoughts is an “X-Men: First Class” failure.

Now having focused on this as a standalone problem, this is inconsistent with the first X-Men, where Charles describes him as having helped found the school and at first being his friend, making you think they at first were both at least semi-idealistic. Here, Magneto just hangs out with them because they help him achieve his revenge goal and that`s it. In “The Last Stand” flashback, we see he really helped Charles and cared for the school, and his students. Again, I am not like Redlettermedia or ConfusedMatthew, that I expect him to be a saint before his fall, but just more than, “Well, you guys can help me achieve my revenge goal. Ok, it is achieved. Screw you guys! I am going to my evil lair.”

Also, his back story is he grew up in a concentration camp. As a result, he knew first hand that prejudice is deep, and it is an interesting addition to see that his mother was killed, because they were interested in his powers. This caused him to focus on rage. However, since another mutant did this makes him say humans are Nazis, black and white, thinking less believable, mutants hurt him even more.

Sebastian Shaw is a great villain. He is very arrogant, focusing on his own power, and sadistic, manipulative, methodical, using psychological temptation, manipulation and violence. He’s secretive, pragmatic, and prejudiced, wanting to kill the whole human race, and working with The Nazis. He is very theatrical, acting charming to the people he needs on his side, and intellectual, cruel, but also able to admit real danger, and he believes in a fellow mutant cause, like Magneto in the original X-Men trilogy. He is somewhat caring, wanting Magneto on his side, not killing him at first, saying they don`t hurt their own kind, and also Fascist, believing in their own mutant group and offering others to freely join him as long as they are mutants. He is menacing because he has extreme powers and can very cruel, but also because he plays in on the fear that people indeed hate the humans, that they are the future and should rule mankind. He is intellectual, smooth, and also presentational. He is really strong, he (yes, this joke is unavoidable, it has to be made. I am sorry about it. I really am) so much reminds reviewreviewer1 of his old mentor Adolf. Oh, the Nostalgia! He really has humanity and is actually just very Fascist, finding his goals more important, like Magneto in the original trilogy. Also, interestingly enough, Hitler had humanity also. He was a vegetarian, like Arian kids and was kind to those on his side. Well, at the same time committing mass murder of basically every group that was weak and different. That contrast is perfectly captured in Magneto in the original trilogy and here in Shaw.

People have complained of the mutant team serving no purpose, but the reason they are in the film is to show Xavier grow as a teacher. They first have to be trained, but as the first class team, are crucial near the end. That is what their training built up to. It is their origin film.

Banshee fights Angel, helps Havok escape, finds the sub, and Havok helps takes out Angel as well as Shaw’s other servants. They give a perspective of the difficulty of training mutants as well as how they can abuse their powers and be too immature. However, the need to fight for what you believe in as well as showing how a lot of mutants aren`t properly understood, showing the need for a mentor.

Also people like the Blockbusterbuster and FilmMasterAdam have complained they have no development, but Banshee was shown to be a smarty, irresponsible, obnoxious, but also scared of his powers. He becomes more caring, self-confident, a team player, loyal, and is concerned for his friends. He’ determined not wanting to go back home, and he also is a bit whiney. I disagree with Filmmasteradam and say the scenes where they were talking with each other as a group wasn`t pointless because we saw his irresponsibility, his whiney attitude, and him being a smarty. He said the talking went nowhere, but it actually developed their characters, and we see Havok is irritated, but also caring, helpful, sad, and loyal with him not joining Shaw, and also doubtful of his own powers. Fair that he can acknowledge Hanks great training.

Darwin, on the other hand…Yeah, he was just your token black guy. We knew nearly nothing of him, and all he did was die.

Angel, on the other hand, was good. She was hurt by people discriminating her, yet was a prostitute and a smarty, but also sad and pragmatic, joining Shaw, and aggressively fighting her former team. She showed how hurt mutants were, and therefore, Shaws cause appealed to them.

Moira was responsible, hardworking, sensitive, worried, authentic, caring, and open-minded. She is frustrated of being discriminated. She is serious when not giving into Xavier’s childish advances, sad when he is injured, and courageous. She has a subtle romance with Xavier not liking his childishness, but respecting him when he is responsible and caring. Then they are helpful together, and Xavier becomes more honest with her. They work as a team, and she is worried when Magneto hurts him. When he gets injured, it’s sad and we see how much she cares for him and appreciates him, having grown, yet he erases her memory, as she isn`t a mutant. This made her tragic, not remembering a man she cared for, and only having vague glimpses. Also, Xavier’s more ambiguous and was very poignant.

So yeah, Darwin was a horrible character, but the other characters were well developed and served a purpose.

The film is really thematically deep as well, like the first 4 X-Men Films. It has many deep, smart and nuanced themes.

It has a theme like, in the first 3 films, on intolerance, but also expands on this, developing thematic sides of conspiracy and pragmatism. We see that at first, mutants just live in secret. However, they are mutants themselves, who are planning to destroy humanity. We see that the CIA is skeptical of the idea of mutants and think of it as a fairytale, showing that human fear is often preceded by skepticism. We often don`t believe in anything that could be a threat, which is a fresh angle for this theme in the series. Yet once they show they are mutants, he wants to have them locked up, and they don`t want to face Shaw. We see, like in “The Abyss,” that often once we accept something new, we just put it in a fearful context. Also, we see that they don`t want to use the team at first, showing that often we are unable to work together peacefully with different people, even when they are on our side. This is furthered by how they even state safety is more important than liberty. People don`t really value rights, only stability, which is what has been used to support things like The Holocaust, the greater collective good. It is very Fascist, but we see some people do really trust them and care for them, as they are more idealistic. There will always be heroes on both sides. Also, it’s interesting that Xavier becomes wise enough to realize mutants shouldn`t be known by the government, as this can make prosecution easier. Minorities can always be better on the safe side, and this develops further when the governments decide to drop their mutual hatred for each other for hatred on the unknown that they share. The US decides to turn against the mutants just because they cannot separate the good from the bad, showing how fast people can generalize.

This theme was really smart, as indeed often people generalize not knowing who is on their side, which is why Jehovah witnesses were prosecuted during World War II and Japanese immigrants. The greater good is used to justify many evil and minorities, which are safe for a long time, can always be suddenly prosecuted, like Poland had 3 million Jews before World War II. They were welcome there, which makes sense as it was a Catholic country, but of course The Nazis came.

Also, it has a theme of the fragile state of humanity, how our paranoia as pragmatism is our biggest weaknesses. We see that they are able to have world leaders make moves that will lead to war, just by intimidating them. We see as in real life that we were close to a nuclear war, and the mutants only needed to light a match. We see that it’s also a weakness of anyone intelligent, regardless of race or gender, as “The Hell Fire Club” wants to destroy all humans. Magneto wants to kill even other mutants. They have the same ultimatums be with us, or be against us. Please don`t talk about this having a Bush reference. We have had enough of that with Star Wars Episode III. Also, we see that wars are often caused by those who can best survive it and it has selfish intents, like with “The Hell Fire Club.” It can be justified, like they use their powers to prevent Shaw from starting a war, but that it is best to avoid unnecessary harm, like with Magneto wanting to send the missiles. He could stop back at the military.

Also there is a theme on cruelty and Fascism. That has an angle focusing on hypocrisy:

Shaw had Magneto’s mother killed and used him as a lab rat, using The Nazi’s methods. Why, because they were more effective. That is extreme pragmatism; showing Fascism and pragmatism are much intertwined. He claims they don`t hurt their own kind, but he does by killing Darwin. He kills anyone that doesn`t support his group, and within his group they aren`t even equal, as he is arrogant to Emma Frost and treats her and others like servants. He is also dishonest like killing a general that helped him. We see that often we use people for our own cause. Anyone can be expendable and our cause is often self-centered. We see that group thinking is wrong, as we hurt innocent people, and use it as an excuse to be immoral. The mutants value all good people, including humans. They value the innocent. They save the life of good people, and therefore, Xavier is a wise mentor, as he sees that, like with Hank and The CIA. Humans and mutants can be friends. There are good individuals everywhere, personified in Moira, who is a human that helps both humans and mutants, and Xavier, who helps the humans and the mutants. We see this is why, and also we see fascist group thinking is a common human treat with the humans treating mutants this way. Also, we see that although we should understand of naïve enemies, people following orders is what caused The Holocaust. We see that Social Darwinism is wrong, as Shaw mistreats people as they are weaker, and want to hurt people simply as they are weaker. This is similar to The Nazis and…oh my goodness, I am so looking forward to giving my overview on this. Oh yeah! We see that Fascism is often hypocritical, as Magneto kills Shaw, even though he agrees with his views. Magneto starts his own brotherhood, and Xavier preaches equality, where the humans treat mutants as inferior and Magneto compensates by acting superior. So we see that Fascism is very intertwined with Social Darwinism, as Shaw and Magneto both focus on their own groups, and based membership of this group on being stronger than regular humans. This is both shown to be wrong, as it is hypocritical, as Magneto’s individual happiness and his mother were sacrificed for this cause. He takes revenge for it, yet does the same thing, and it makes abilities more important than morality, as Shaw is murderous and sadistic on women and the weak just because they are weaker and different. They ignore the kind humans that supported them like Moira. It is generalizing and circular, as they excuse humans of wanting to hurt them because they are different, yet they hurt all humans, and only care for themselves. We see Social Darwinism includes even killing individuals, like Magneto’s mother, because they are weaker, and that this is a part of The Nazi philosophy that many people hypocritically adopted.

Now this is a really smart and also very honest theme, as it criticizes Nazi teachings, but also many of its more commonly excepted forms. The film, like the other X-Men Films, cleverly comments on racism, but what a lot of people still seem to ignore is that they also comment on eugenics and Social Darwinism. People say the scene in “X2” where Iceman’s mother asks if he ever tried not being a mutant was a metaphor for how gays are treated. Yeah, that or I don`t know how people with Autism are treated, or with Tourette, ADHD, or OCD.  This film clearly comments on eugenics as we see them trying to use Magneto forcing him to move the coin, Mystique having to hide her abnormalities and mutants being seen as dangerous. These are different abilities, not race differences. They are taught to learn to deal with them instead of being forced to suppress who they are. This makes the film really fantastic thematically, as eugenics are a great evil that people ignore a lot. People constantly argue that homosexuals need to be allowed to be open about their tastes. They need to have bars and model shows, and need to work in every nice profession, as do women and people from different races and religions. However, people with OCD are constantly told that, as they have an addiction, they should be forced to fight it, suppress a part of themselves, they deserve to be bullied and hated on by their teachers as well, as most people. People with Autism or retardation are often used as insults in movie debates. This film greatly comments on the evil of eugenics. It shows people are forced to deal with it in ways they can`t, like Magneto, and are forced to hide who they truly are. We should be able to be ourselves, as Mystique shows by happily showing her true form, and be trained to be happy with it, as Xavier trains them to control their powers. Also, they show Nazi practices were closely related to eugenics. A lot of people know of their racism and hatred for homosexuals, but they also supported the killing and sterilization of the mentally and physically handicapped. This was indulged by psychiatrists as being ok, similar to how know Shaw is a doctor with his own goals. This is also interesting, as the practices of that time have been made tamer, but the principles remain people with handicaps, who are therefore depended on others or different, and a burden due to their differences. They are insulted a lot by Psychiatrists for being a parasite on society and often psychiatrists are very manipulative and cruel in their methods. This film is really wise for showing that, just because your behavior is a handicap doesn`t mean you have to hide it unless you want to. You should be able to be happy with what you enjoy. Also, The Nazi’s ideas survived in many other left winged schools of thought. Man, I love this! Now don`t worry, I am not going to insult most lefties watching this. I am just talking of The China Communists, The Soviets, etc.

The film, like all the X-Men Films, is serious and has a dark tone, with deaths, revenge and intolerance. It has a heavy conflict, deep themes, and can be really realistic, but it is more exciting, colorful and also has lighter moments. It has a lot of humor, s more colorful and this makes it feel fresh within the series, yet it isn`t overdone. Also, it is fun with exciting action in big numbers. It again combines many genres: action, superhero, science fiction, cold war films, political thrillers, character drama, morality plays, and revenge films.

The film is very well paced with always new things happening in the plot, yet developing all existing plot points well. It takes it`s time to develop its characters and themes, but continuously has action and humor. Filmmasteradam complains the stuff with the CIA was drawn out and boring, but seeing Xavier use his powers to read their minds at their meeting showed his laxer morals. We see Mystiques loyalty to him showing her shape shifting, but also it is important that we see how he convinces the CIA of their existence to work with him, he gets them to attack Shaw, and how they get him Cerebro and Hank so he can start recruiting. He does this without the humans showing him, starting to act secretly and cautiously, and it is important how in the end, they turn on the mutants, leading to Xavier fighting Magneto. Also, it’s important was them discussing that they were going to limit liberty, keeping Emma Frost, showing the building paranoia of mutants, pragmatism and corruption. Also, the scene where they green light Xavier leading to the team showed how some people trusted mutants, but how Xavier’s team was already distrusted by the CIA. All of it was actually relevant, heavy and complex.

The dialogue is immensely deep with lines like: “So you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or join me and live like kings, and queens,” showing how he sees it as futile to help the humans because they hate and fear them, how tempting his offer is they can rule, that they should embrace their powers to be all powerful. It shows how power hungry he is. “Maybe I wasn`t clear enough. You will make this happen,” showing how confident he is of his powersm that he thinks people will certainly do as he tells them, just because he is a mutant. Also, lines like, “are you sure,” reflecting how worried Xavier is of shooting at Magneto. “Never looked better, don`t mock me!!” really reflects Beast is enraged and completely can`t handle his new appearance, immediately becoming angry when someone seems to joke about him. “You can`t. You will drown. You have to let go. I know what this means to you, but you are going to die. Please Eric calm your mind,” showing Xavier really learns to understand people’s problems and becomes wiser. Mystique’s line, “I always thought it would be you and me against the world, but no matter how bad the world gets, you don`t want to be against it, do you? You want to be a part of it,” really showed Mystique didn`t want to be pragmatic and Xavier would rather fit in than stand up for her.

The film also has really intense imaginative action. The Blockbusterbuster said the film, unlike the original trilogy, lacked great action scenes for a summer blockbuster. I think the film had many great action scenes that had a real thrill value. Well, the fight in the bay with the CIA, Magneto and Shaw was fantastic. A tornado blew away the CIA, their boats, and then Magneto uses the anchor to smash through the whole ship, crashing windows, walls, and mast. That was really thrilling. It had fluent flexible camera movement and fast editing. Also, Magneto originally moved barb wired, broke people’s guns, kicked them, was quickly shot and edited. Especially the attack on The CIA headquarters where Shaw got shot at by at least 20 cops and by a missile launcher, and used the power to blow up the whole room. His henchmen teleport past soldiers, getting shot at, stabbing them, and taking a machine gun, moving it to shoot through one window, while a storm blows over the other side, smashes everything and throws a guy through the other window. It is very complexly shot, has fast editing, and is a three-way fight, with windows shattering, the whole building blowing up, dozens of people shooting, stabbing, and rocket launchers. This was one of the best action scenes in the whole series. Also, near the end, Magneto pulls a whole submarine out of the water. Their plain gets stuck in a tornado, a whole submarine crashing on the island in great detail, and the Soviets use a missile to blow up one of their own ships. That scene was also shot and edited very detailed.

Also, Filmmasteradam complained the action scenes of the younger X-Men were lame, but they shot one of the guards, and Magneto break a wall behind a guy to push against him. The teleporter takes them up in the air, but they grab him, so he has to take them with him to land safely, as he cannot teleport independently. He grabs Havok with his tail, he shoots lasers over the subs, Angel shoots poisonous fire at them, Banshee blows her away, and has to fly at top speed, dodge subs, saves Havok, gets hit on the wing, touches the water, yet blows himself off the water unto the beach, where a precise laser hit takes Angel down. Beast hits the teleporter, Mystique distracts him and he punches her out. It was explosion packed, fast, you really got a sense of the great heights, and how they still have human sense, nearly crash and have to work to aim. It was gritty, tension filled, and fluently shot, with fast movement that focused on the characters heights. The editing was fast and sudden, and the firings of hundreds of nukes that are turned around and eventually explode midair. Also, the action furthers the story with the opening, causing Shaw to be discovered, Xavier to train against him, realize mutants like Magneto needed his help, and Shaw invading The CIA lead him to recruit Angel. The fight in Russia led to them discovering Shaw’s plan, the fight at the end stopped Shaw, prevented World War III, showed Xavier growing as a teacher, how much the mutants had grown, how they worked as a team and stood by the humans. Yet the humans mistrust them, nearly destroy them, and we so how fragile the human state is, with how quickly war erupts.

The film has great atmosphere. It can really be energetic and colorful, but also suspenseful, spiritual and silent.

The acting is magnificent of almost all the actors and the praise for it is deserved:

James McAvoy is fantastic as Xavier. He is intense, can be witty, exciting, but also serious, dramatic, comforting, principled, cautious, sad, authentic, but also, colorful, cocky, arrogant and obnoxious. He really gets the warm smiles as well as the mentor voice and his stressful looks, as well as his cockiness across. He played his sadness in the end very well. Also, he reminds me of Zach Braff. Yeah, he loves thinking about his ballet class. He excels all the other gals. Sorry, aach, the guilt again.

Michael Fassbender plays Magneto very well. Even when the character is badly developed, the performance deserves all its praise. His voice and expressions are great. He is intense, obsessed, dramatic, creepy, and sad.

Kevin Bacon is fantastic. FilmmasterAdam was right praising him. He is intense, arrogant, slimy, presentational, seductive, power hungry, sadistic, and also a real intellectual. He gets the smooth and arrogant matters, the sadistic voice as well as the power-hungry and hateful looks across very strongly. The Blockbusterbuster complains that he was recognizable as Kevin Beacon, but Samuel L. Jackson was clearly Jackson in “Die Hard With A Vengeance,” and Liam Neeson himself in “Batman Begins.” If a performance is great, you may use it more often.

Now I am going to try and avoid a Jackson reference, but just know that if you dislike “First Class,” “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

Jennifer Lawrence is awesome. She is sweet and innocent, yet, intense, insecure, nuanced, multilayered, and also angry, lustful, supportive, sad, and “so” hot. 

Rose Byrne is also great. She is really attractive…oh wait, I was supposed to be talking about the acting. Well, she really gets the professionalism, her caringn, as well as naivety and sternness across.

Nicholas Hoult is also fantastic as Beast. He can first play the shy, cold, but also intellectual, love struck and conflicted Hank well, and perfectly plays the more violent, angry, yet tough and depressed Beast.

Zoë Kravitz can really play her frustrations, toughness, and physicality very well, and is very subtle and detailed.

Caleb Landry Jones is also great. He is energetic, playful and immature, yet caring.

Lucas Till is funny, dry and very obnoxious, yet likeable.

Now onto the hot January Jones from that hit sitcom “Mad Men.” Although I didn`t mind Emma Frost’s character, her facial expression and delivery, as many said, were unconvincing, wooden and she often seemed bored and distracted.

Now on to the technical aspects:

The direction is very intense and energetic with fluent movement. The sets up are really detailed with complex framing, it uses fast close-ups, its character centered and emotional, very spiritual with making parts of the shots vague and changing focus adding to the hypnotic feeling. Yet, it can also be quite and character centered, with the use of shot reverse shots. The cinematography can be very contrasting and dark for the team of Shaw, and dark and dramatic, but also for moments of colorful romance. With the CIA, it’s colorful, yet ordinary and calm. The lighting can be suspenseful, but also brooding, soothing and optimistic.

The editing is fast with very smooth but fast, energetic cuts, and often we have split screens adding to the energy. Yet, it can also be slow and character centered.

The set design is detailed, complex and warm in our heroes. Their home has soft furniture and color, cold and robotic for the eugenicist. Shaw’s headquarters has cold steals, glass, only grey, and The CIA office is very vibrant, with detailed elaborate rooms, loads of screens and tables, vast corridors and loads of equipment. It is vibrant, energetic and professional.

The props are really great and realistic. They can be comforting and advanced with Xavier’s team, and stale with Shaw’s hideout.

The costumes are detailed and elaborate. Those for Magneto and Shaw are dark and self-indulgent, Xavier and his team as intellectuals, and those of his team colorful and energetic, fitting for teens.

The sound is sharp and intense, fitting the epic story and intense emotions.

The music is fantastic. It is energetic, epic, romantic, intense, dark, rhythmic and very epic.

The Special Visual Effects are amazing, just wonderful. The CGI is wonderful, the water fluid, the submarines detailed, the missiles harsh, the explosions colorful, the lasers lively, the screams natural, the wings organic, the gulls moist, the skins rough, the hears smooth, the crystals reflective, and the digital stunt doubles fluent. The stunts are relaxed. The staged explosions intense, and all the movement and stunts feel real.

So, it was a great production, a fantastic film, although flawed, and the least in The X-Men Film Series. I think it is fairly rated. It is great and deserves praise. Go see it. I give it a 9.5.

Check in tomorrow when we take a look at “The Wolverine,” another amazing film in the series. That one I will put in a few comments from reviewreviewer1, but it will mostly be my own opinion on it, since I promised that to him because at the time, he hadn't seen "The Wolverine" when we were planning on the joint reviews for the "X-Men series." See you then.