X-Men is my favorite superhero franchise. Not my favorite superhero movie (that place in my heart belongs to V for Vendetta), but still it’s a pretty baller set. But after that disastrous third movie (I don’t even know if you could call it a movie as much as it sacrilege), and an even worst prequel (is Hugh Jackman ever going to get out of this role? Or will I forever be doomed to thinking, “What the hell is Wolverine doing in Australia?”), my hopes of an adequate reboot were pretty sufficiently shot to hell. Which is why I wasn’t expecting much going into it.
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| I'm gonna slap a BITCH. |
I’m actually pretty content to say that it wasn’t awful at all. It was even pretty passable in comparison to some of the other crap they’ve tried to holster into the franchise (I’m looking at you, Ratner). I’m not going to say I’m head over heels in love with it, but it was a satisfying enough two and some hours of superhero movie-ing. It had all the things that make a good superhero movie good. It was funny, exciting, had a lot of explosions and had some subtle political undertones. After watching this movie, I’m absolutely convinced that the whole franchise is an allegory for gay rights. If I learned anything from X-Men: First Class, it’s that they gays stopped the Cuban Missile Crisis with their glamor powers and fabulous spandex outfits. Thanks a heap gays.
But unlike most superhero movies it’s actually real well acted. We got James Mcavoy, who’s a the top of the acting food pyramid, as Professor X and some real good acting chops both from Jennifer Lawrence (who’s probably bound to be the next big thing after The Hunger Games hits) and Michael Fassbender with some good “you killed my mother” moments. Kevin Bacon is also apparently in this movie, and I spent the entire time thinking that he seemed really familiar and kept hearing Kenny Loggins playing in some obscure portion of my head. The ensemble cast exists solely for the purpose of having quirky personalities, showing off some cool special-effect powers and to exploit tween romantic tension, just like a good superhero movie ensemble cast should.
But this movie’s not perfect. It’s cheesy, and not always in the good way. It doesn’t make sense, and not always in the good way. And it feels like they crammed an awful lot into the movie. It doesn’t feel long (and it is kind of long), but it certainly feels bloated. We’re exposed to certain things for brief moments and then they’re wrapped up pretty quickly towards the end or they kind of just seamlessly meld into being all good.
I guess in the end I was satisfied. I wouldn’t go see it again, but I’m happy enough to know that even after two bad movies, there’s still hope for the series. Just because a good series hits a rough patch doesn’t mean you should just give up. Not when you’ve got such a strong franchise to begin with. And this isn’t like Pirates. There’s still a story to tell. There are still things to explore and things to do. Why would you just give up at the first sign of failure? That doesn’t make sense. It was just two movies. Yeah, they sucked. They sucked BIG TIME, but there was still a decent movie after. If they had just given up, they wouldn’t have known. And they’ll keep making them and maybe they’ll get out of their funk and they’ll start making really good movies again. They didn’t just stop. You don’t just stop.
It’s stupid, absolutely juice-box sucking retarded, to just give up on a good thing.
Final Consensus 3/5
Samuel Wolf is a freelance writer for Pop Connect. Pop Connect assembles various blogs centered on pop culture from our writers and then compiles an actively updated website. We are based in San Diego, CA. We are currently no longer accepting job application. Check out our website for updates.
Samuel Wolf is a freelance writer for Pop Connect. Pop Connect assembles various blogs centered on pop culture from our writers and then compiles an actively updated website. We are based in San Diego, CA. We are currently no longer accepting job application. Check out our website for updates.
