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Picoreview: Dark Phoenix
Picoreview: Dark Phoenix: not nearly as bad as I expected it to be.
Like X-Men before it, I left the theatre kinda going, “Well, that didn’t suck,” except with X-Men it was an expression of astonished joy and relief and with Dark Phoenix it only…didn’t suck. It was not a great X film. For my money, however, it was miles better than Last Stand, First Class, and Apocalypse, and probably better than both the first two Wolverine movies. That leaves it in the top 5 for me (unless you count Deadpool, which I’m not), which I’m fairly comfortable with.
It is not the fiery, blow-out finale one might hope for, but honestly it’s just a lot more solid than I expected. I happen to love Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, so if you don’t, your estimation of the film may be very different from mine, but to my genuine surprise…it didn’t suck. I wasn’t disappointed.
I mean. There are things I would have done differently. Some of them would have been contingent on, like, this not being the final Fox X-Men film. Others…would not be contingent on that. Some of them are things I’m really unhappy about. Some of them are the fact that it would have been better with a full three-part trilogy leading up to this so we could care more about the actors in these roles, but…IDK. I know “it wasn’t a travesty” isn’t the most glowing response I could give, but I expected one, and sometimes “it didn’t suck” is higher praise than it sounds like it could be. So…there’s me on the topic.
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Picoreview: Logan
Picoreview: Logan: worth going to in the middle of the night, which I did. :)
(I had to, see, or I wasn’t gonna get to see it until THURSDAY, and that would be just AWFUL. So I got a 10:30pm ticket for last night (I guess they can get away with it because it ends on opening day that way), and took a nap yesterday evening, thus ensuring I didn’t WANT to get up and go to a movie, but I’d bought the ticket and so up I got and off I went to a full movie theatre with a couple hundred guys and a dozen women in it.)
Logan is easily the best Wolverine movie there’s been, and probably the best X-Men movie (comparing it to X2 is a comparison of apples and oranges, so I won’t). It’s not as fun a romp as Days of Future Past, but it also doesn’t fall apart at the seams if you think about it at all. And, of course, it’s not supposed to be a romp. Its vibe, as billed, *is* more of a Western than anything else, although it’s definitely in that rare category of Superhero Westerns. :)
Anyway, I don’t want to spoil ANY of it, so all I’m going to say is that Jackman and Stewart were great and Dafne Keen is FREAKING AMAZING and if she is not given the part of Wolverine/X23 in future films it will be a friggin’ *travesty*.
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MCU & Jessica Jones
I’ve watched the Jessica Jones trailer, which is not particularly usual for me, and I’m profoundly torn on it.
On one hand, FINALLY we get a female-led superhero story. Jessica Jones is a good character, long varied comic book history, popular following, etc: all of that is good. Like every character who’s had a showcase of (up until now, his) own, the Jessica Jones trailer has clearly got its own vibe: it’s pretty horror-movie-feeling, which isn’t a direction any of the others have gone. So that’s all to the good. And they appear to be using a major part of her early comic book story line as the plot for the first season, which is high-quality fan service, of which I approve.
On the other hand, the back story they’ve taken from the comic, and the direction they’re taking with it, is very difficult to read as anything other than, “She’s been a victim, but now she’s fighting back.”
And I really, really wish that the first female-led Marvel Cinematic Universe showcase was not based around “the girl is a victim.”
Especially, especially because the only other well-established, long-term female superhero–Black Widow–is also from a hideously victimized background. I am not saying Black Widow is, as presented, a victim; she’s not. But her history is *horribly* abusive, deliberately, Machiavellianly so, and she’s already done the Rise Above/Reject Her Past storyline, albeit off screen.
(I did not see Ant-Man, because fuck them, that movie should have been The Wasp, and I gather Evangeline Lily as Hope van Dyne was pretty terrific, but she is also, from what I understand, forbidden by the male figures in her life to go out and be a hero because her mother the superhero had died in an accident, and her overprotective father doesn’t want her to BECOME A VICTIM LIKE JANET WAS. So 1. fuck them, and 2. female victims, whee.)
Anyway, so I’m really torn about Jessica Jones. I’m going to watch it, or at least the first parts of it, and I hope I’ll be so won over that I’ll happily forgive the “the girl is a victim” setup. Because honestly, I really, really want the show to rock. I want to love it. I want Marvel to do well by their first female lead, and I want, for all that is holy and merciful, for to succeed wildly and kill the stupid goddamned “women can’t open a show” thing forever and ever.
#sigh Anyway, to end on a happier note, my friend Lithera posted this cover of Uncanny Avengers #5
and said, “Oooh, pretty! Of course, that card should be the Queen of Hearts. Not that anybody besides me and Catie care…,” which led me to be happy that she understands both me and the importance of little details like that. :)
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Picoreview: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut
Picoreview: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut: very disappointing.
There were enough longer scenes and stuff that it was clear we weren’t watching the theatre release, but we were expecting something called The Rogue Cut to, y’know, I don’t know, heavily feature Rogue, or something.
And it did, sure, more than the original, but ultimately Rogue did nothing more than what Kitty did in the theatre release, with every hope of payoff just…ffffsshhht. Washed away.
Spoilers ho.
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Downton X-Men
Not that I need anything else to do in my Copious Free Time, but last night I wasn’t even thinking about my Downton Abbey/X-Men mashup (did I mention that? the other day I had an X-Men/Downton Abbey dream and thought, damn, that could work. WWI-era superheroes, that is, more than actually fitting Downton Abbey to the X-Men (which could also work but I don’t see getting to do that any time soon :)) and I realised I could use that world to do Evil Hat Fred’s “World War G” idea, which was a thought he once had where instead of WW2 we had a World War Gamma wherein superheroes were largely created/powered by gamma rays, a la the Incredible Hulk, as the next stage in the Downton X-Men world.
I wish–on another comics note–that I could think of something to doodle for some kind of little web comic. I can think of a dozen ideas for a real artist, but just for me? Pssht. Nothing. Absolutely no clue.
In things I *can* think to write, I have hit 75K on MAGIC & MANNERS, and I get to spend the weekend writing, so it’s 90K or bust by Monday.
ytd wordcount: 26,100
