X Men First Class, or: an X-men movie that doesn't suck

[Lumenskir]

Misanthropy is indeed the baseline for these movies.

Ah, we're running into a "This Movie" v. "Movie Series" schism again.

Anyways, I just found out that this movie wasn't actually directed by Brian Singer, like I thought, but rather Matthew "Kick Ass" Vaughn. I'm glad to see he can actually direct movies that don't rely exclusively on the total awesomenicity of a little girl saying 'cunt'.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Originally Posted by Magus

I'm pretty sure he gave a big long speech about how he and Mystique are never going to fit in because they are hideous freaks...well I mean one of them is a hideous freak and the other has weird feet, but anyway...it was dumb.

I'm pretty sure my wanting to see how Xavier overcame his problems with his powers and life to not be a misanthrope like Magneto or Mystique doesn't mean I want him to be misanthropic or more characters to be misanthropic (as I think you are implying). I think it was more just me wanting to know more. As for misanthropic being the baseline in these movies...well it is the baseline in these movies so far. Are you going to say it isn't? Which major characters in these movies haven't had the "curse" of their mutant abilities played up? It is basically the thing with the X-Men as far as I can tell. Everybody fears and hates them because of their super powers, and sometimes the powers or their appearance keep them from getting close to others (see: Rogue, Cyclops, Jean Gray, Wolverine, Mystique, Nightcrawler, etc.) Misanthropy is indeed the baseline for these movies.

I assumed that the reason why Charles is such a nice guy is because reading someone's mind let's him know how they feel and why they feel that way. He has empathy for people because he understands them almost instantly.

[Magus]

Yeah, that's what I said in my first post. But that's just me explaining it in my own head, they didn't bother in the movie.

[MFD]

Originally Posted by Magus

Well this post is probably gonna spoil stuff for you since you haven't seen it yet (not sure why you want to get into minutiae when you haven't seen a flick, I often pick on things that look bad when I haven't seen them, true, but usually go no farther than "man this looks bad"), but anyway--

To each his own. I want to know what is bad to see if it's bad I care about.

And no, Angel in this movie is not the same Angel I am familiar with, anyway. One is a stripper chick with fairy wings who spits fireballs (a pure invention of this movie, I believe, as the idea is pretty bad), the other is a rich guy with feathery angelic wings (who wasn't even born during this movie's time frame, though putting him in it would have helped establish it as a reboot instead of the poorly thought out prequel that all evidence points to it being).

There is an Angel with insect wings who spits acid in the comics. Her real name is Angel, not a codename.

As for explaining why Charles is a nice dude, the movie goes out of its way to explain why Mystique is alienated (she has creepy scaled blue skin), Magneto is alienated (was put in a concentration camp because he was a Jew, seeks vengeance), all the other mutants like Emma Frost, Havok, etc. are alienated (sometimes just because their feet are HORRIFYING, but there seems to be a reason, since Havok is in jail because he can't control his power and Frost as we remember was a prisoner in Origins...despite that happening after this one, in which case we could go back to why this is a bad reboot but anyway). Is it too much to ask why Charles isn't a misanthrope? I mean hearing people's thoughts has got to have some downsides to explore, instead the only info we are given on Charles is he is an affable rich kid who grows up to be some kind of biologist or geneticist (actually he seems to be more like an anthropologist since he does zero experiments in this film, but anyway) because he's fascinated by mutants. We get very little character development out of the film for him despite him being one of the principle protagonists (the other two probably being Magneto and to a lesser extent Mystique).

I guess its not too much to ask the movie to go into more depth about X's motivations. It was a little much to hear you just questioning why a character has to be so damn nice.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by MFD

There is an Angel with insect wings who spits acid in the comics. Her real name is Angel, not a codename.

Ah, well, that explains the confusion, then. Apparently the writers of this movie were also confused by Angel not being a codename...I am confused as to why they thought she was an interesting mutant to go with since she seems like one of the mutants the comics writers came up with late at night when they were maybe slightly hammered and facing some sort of deadline.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Magus: Something tells me that you would come out of the theater loving this movie if you watched it right after Green Lantern.

[BloodyMage]

Well, I'm late to the party but I went and watched it yesterday. Might have been due to having just some out of an ability assessment but I didn't find it that bad. I'd admit that it does seem to largely ignore the continuity of all the previous three films rather than just the last two, but it was a nice little film none the less.

[Marc v4.0]

I picked Super 8 over this for movie night.

[Fifthfiend]

Just from reading this thread it sounds like Xavier's not-hating-everybodyness is pretty well explained: He comes from a relatively comfortable life of priviledge and, you know, has no real reasons to be angry or hateful at anybody.

[BloodyMage]

Can't privileged people be hateful too? Like against the inferior or less privileged because all they do is show weakness, or they're just servants or butlers? Heck, he should at least have mother issues since his mother never made him hot chocolate...