Movie Three: X2

Film: X2

Date seen: 3 August, 2011

Location: In Bed

Beverages: none 

Companionship: In virtual, Arizonana, g-chat spirit, Ian.

Rating: 8 out of 10.  

The Review.  Of Sorts.

Let me state now that my rating is not based on how good the movie is.  Honestly, I am not an arbitrator of taste, and I have no real way of being able to adequately give a rating based on how good a movie is.  What makes a film good?  It's like saying what makes art good.  Or what makes food good.  Or writing.  Does anyone want a blog on the theory of aesthetics and taste?  I mean, I could do that, but my reading is really out of date.  Maybe I'll do a post about Jean-François Lyotard and superheroes?  Or not.  But I'm rating them in terms of How Much I Liked Them At The Time.  Anything in a cinema is probably going to do better, just because i've seen it in a cinema. I really like the cineplex!


So - this X-Men movie was better than the first one.  It was really tightly done, and it managed to juggle a great deal of 'stuff happening' with interesting and relevant character development.  Wolverine became more complex, and continued to not wear a shirt for most of the movie.  Mystique's slightly uncomfortable level of hotness continued (she's blue! but she's naked, all the time.  interesting...).  


The theme of 'otherness' was still really didactic.  Using children in the movie is an interesting move - we've got the innocence of the child not understanding why it is other, and then, the unsympathetic, but occasionally sympathetic children who are normal.  Just think about the scene with Pyro & co at the museum - or when the small child pokes his forked tongue out - the children/teenagers react with revulsion.  Is this an example of how children are programmed to dislike the other? Or is it implying we are all opposed to otherness by default?  


What I've found most interesting in both 1 & 2 is the almost complete lack of 'humans' sympathetic to the mutants.  It's really narrow, and polarized.  Though the recent prequel was not as good in a lot of ways, at least it showed a slightly broader range of humans reacting to mutants.  Good-Bad binaries tend to shit me.  I like that Magneto is more than just evil, and that X is not pure. This gives their actions space to move.  It makes the films less predictable.  


Personally, the Good-Bad binary is something that I know I'm going to find irritating in this process. In almost all of the movies I list as my favourites, one of the clearest commonalities is a lack of good and bad, or a far blurrier line between them.  Take Wings of Desire.  There's no good or evil, as such.  There's no confrontation or point of culmination of conflict, and that is one of the many things i like about it.  Or, to be looking at this from a really different angle, Deadwood.  There are people who do good things, and bad things. There are complicated human beings, being, well, complicated.*  Also - Al. He's fucking great. But the best example of a character who's extraordinarily complicated, and wonderful. And hot. 


Anyhow. This is not me saying that genre films are shit because of these sorts of binaries, or the fact that there is always an other, a bully, a 'force' that needs to be fought. Obviously this is something that people broadly are identifying as happening in the world.  Sometimes, I imagine myself as some sort of slightly inappropriate librarian superhero.  Like Rex Libris, or that lesbian-overtone manga about hot librarians.  I don't know what I'm avenging.  But were i to be a superhero, I like the idea in the X-Men series that 'you are not alone'.   That's significantly different from both Batman and Captain America - both of whom were overwhelmingly alone.  

So there's the theme of isolation which is curious. 


I like movies that help me suspend my disbelief in the scenario.  This one did.  The complexities were interesting without being too complex. The characters developed realistically.  Gender was... well... interesting, but I think i'll leave any more discussion on that until after the third movie, given i know that the playing field, in regards to 'who is the most super powerful' is about to change.  


Go X-Men.




* I will also be always in Deadwood's debt for it teaching me to be OK with violence on screen. It's violent. Far, far more violent than i am used to watching, because I'm a bit funny about realistic screen violence. But after three series straight, I feel far more immune to seeing people shot, stabbed, beaten to death with a log, pushed off mountains then beaten to death with a rock, and so on.  Oh, and eaten by pigs. So, thanks Deadwood!

Movie Two: X-Men (from 2000. the first one)

Film: X-Men

Date seen: 3 August, 2011

Location: In Bed

Beverages: none 

Companionship: apart from briefly discussing the fact that Patrick Stewart was in it (i did not know, and i got excited) with the guy in Arizona i have a spectacularly gratuitous crush on - none.  Dom was out drinking with her father.  

Rating: 7 out of 10. 


The Review (of sorts)


It's a dour week in the Reform School For Girls (which is the code name for our apartment.)  Both Dom and I have distant parents visiting, which is not ... ideal.  I had to see my psychiatrist, who was customarily useless.  (he asked me if i read, because i mentioned i found canberra boring. then he complimented my glasses. it felt like he was trying to flirt with me, and i felt very uncomfortable).  Generally, I went into this one feeling Very Fucking Shit.


However. Patrick. motherfucking. Stewart.  Seriously. His voice is so soothing.  He knows things, people. I bet Patrick Stewart can read minds.  


I'd seen X-Men: First Class in the cinema, mostly because Lachlan wanted to, and I'm fairly easily led.  So this gave me some idea of context.    I was pleased that the pleasing young Professor Xavier grew up to be Patrick Stewart.  Even if these movies came before.  


I liked that people flew!  I liked that once again, the bully verses the world, self-preservation as the only way violence can be done, because it's Righteous Violence, but oh well, there are baddies who attack us so we can show off our exceptional skills with flying and blowing shit up, and moving metal and magical healing shit.  I also like that they all have different powers. 


Anything with hidden walls in it also thrills me in a really childlike way. i never get sick of seeing how the different movies all have different sorts of hidden walls/doors/corridors.  


Wolverine has long sharp THINGS that fly out of him. That is also pretty rad.  


Gender in X-Men is less fucked up than in Captain America. And i know - Captain America was being true to the time, and contextually, that is how women are portrayed.  One thing that i think is interesting to note in terms of how the bodies are represented is that the male form is as much exploited and lifted on high - firm muscular male bodies.  But it's done for very different reasons.  It's not to be eye-catching, or seductive, but it's more of a fact of life that a successful young man must be physiologically fit.  It's early days, here, kids, but the bare-chested Wolverine introduced an interesting question of the role of the male gaze on the male.  I think that's important - as important as the question of the male gaze on the females.


Now. i feel pretty subnormal tonight, so i'm pondering Being Hardcore and watching the next one.  i also got about 15 rows done on my hat.  

On The Road

After work, i traversed the wild roads of Canberra to get to the best comic book store I've been to.  Seriously. I've been to the one in Chicago with is apparently the best in the US, and it didn't have half as good a range, let alone such fantastic, clear, open organisation. Yeah, dank dark bookstores and comic book shops can be nice. But there is something to be said for just being able to Find Stuff.  I am, of course, talking about ........ 

 

 Their website is HERE.  The only sadness is, of course, the inflated Australian cost for books.  

Now, I've been going here for ages - since I first moved to Canberra three and a half years ago.  It's a fantastic, friendly place.  I have a Browsing Schedule - i look at the Dr Who related toys, i look at the boxed sets behind the counter (oh GOD how i want the SiP boxed set...) and then i look at Vertigo comics, then the books, then the locals, then the Indies.  I have never once spent more than a moment or two looking at the Marvel/DC shelves.  

Today, with the help of the amazing, and stunningly helpful comic-book-woman-with-the-strawberry-blonde-hair  (sorry, didn't get her name) I became informed that there were in fact two major separate comic worlds!  DC and Marvel are, in fact, different. Batman is not in the same world as Captain America!  But Captain America is in the same world as the X-Men.  This is progress, people!

I also did my tax return today, like a real adult.  This is less impressive when I admit it covered two years worth, due to being a bit shit at life, and not doing the previous year's tax. BUT the upside is, my return is going to pay for my spectacular new computer - a Macbook Air.  Oh yes. I know, I've been salivating over Airs ever since i first saw their slender, glistening greatness.  I also have my terabit of storage.   

At this stage, I'm going to start with The X-Men movies.  If anyone has any suggestions, please share them.   

I also bought this: 

I am going with 'this is a work related book'.  In a moment of kindness, i thought I'd provide the link to information on it. And then i remembered the wise words that Katchoo has stated in the background.  Look. It. Up.

 

Movie One: Captain America!

 

Film: Captain America

Date seen: 1 August, 2011

Location: Dendy Canberra (cinema 1, which is obviously the superior cinema)

Beverages: 1x Coopers 

Companionship: Lachlan (albeit somewhat reluctant. he only agreed because he's nice, and misses his girlfriend who's in Melbourne).

Rating: 8 out of 10.   

Female Characters: (Peggy Carter) One token woman, who is more noticeable as a potential love interest than as a strong woman - though she does shoot people at one point.  Her Huge Cans & Red Lips were also noteworthy, and perhaps were actually as integral to the plot as the other functions of her character.  I'm still getting a hand on the representations of women and gender in comic books, and the use of Breasts as a plot device, though titillating to my not-so-inner pervert, strikes me as a bit off.  

Male Lead: (Steve Rogers - ie, CAPTAIN AMERICA!)  I wanted him to dirty dirty things to me, but only before he got turned into SUPERHERO STRONG MAN.  When he was a skinny white boy who took a pile of novels to the training centre after being enlisted, he was pretty much my idea of sex, come to life in an easily digestible, morally upright form.  I was shocked and ashamed to discover the following:

The Sad Truth About The Guy Who Played Steve Rogers 

General Thoughts (I'm reluctant to call this a review):

I loved it. There was no knitting involved, though - I can't knit in the cinema, because knitting in the dark is not advisable when you are doing cables.  One thing that I've noticed just through the movies I've seen so far is the absence of guns. Not in the film - but in use by the Superhero/s. They rarely use guns, and if they do, it's minimal, or because there is No Other Way they would escape the situation. It's all hand-to-hand, or using SUPERPOWERS and not the gun, and it appears that they disarm or knock people out more than they kill them.  Given the role of guns in a lot of action movies, it's an interesting theme - even more so with the American Thing of a right to bear arms.

Also - the theme of the Bully As The True Enemy is interesting.   Of course pre-Captain America Steve was bullied - he was skinny, he stood up for himself, he turned the other cheek, he Took It Like A Man.  Seriously, if you are getting that much head injury, you are going to end up with brain damage. I've got brain damage from being hit in the head with a soccer ball.*  Maybe brain damage explains it. Anyhow.  He's bullied. Bad Guys are not Bad because of their race, or class, or gender - it's about being bullies. That's why they are bad, and that's what Steve/Captain America wants to defeat.  He wants peace.  He is gentle, compassionate, and intelligent.  I bet he likes cat macros.  etc.  

I really like WWII - not in a 'yay war!' way, but intellectually, I find the interwar period, and the lead up to WWII very interesting. I like movies with Bad Nazis and Butt-Kicking.   I like this even more when it's fictionalised, and great exciting things are added, like the episode of Doctor Who where the Daleks become Winston Churchill's Secret Weapon.  So, the whole 'Nazis are evil, we are good and need to destroy Nazis because not only are they evil, but they are BULLIES' is really appealing to me.  It's likely this has been borne of playing too much Wolfenstein 3D at an impressionable age. (Do I even need to add how shit i was at it?  I found tetris, and never looked back).

I know it's obvious and somewhat heavy handed (alright. lead handed) but I find it heartening to see them representing heroes as those who are strong of heart, and not just of body.  Of course, they need to have their body match their heart, which is slightly dubious. i like the idea of Steve being Captain America while remaining twiggish and sexy, rather than becoming a hideous, hulk-like monstrosity of muscle and flesh and jaw.  That's very superficial of me, I know. Sorry.

Also, I'm just not even touching the issue of Historical Accuracy In Regards to America's Involvement in WWII, because I willfully ignored it. Only once did I yelp in the process of the film,

'But, America's war efforts were focused in the Pacific...' 

It's interesting.  Using Nazis as enemies is much easier than using the Japanese.  You don't have the nasty racial overtones when you are fighting other white people.

All In All? Righteously entertained. 

*Seriously, kids, if you get hit in the head a lot as a teenager, you can end up with Epilepsy.  Some people just need to wear a helmet all the time if there are balls around, or get really creative about avoiding soccer.  Failure to do so ends Really Badly.

This is a blog about being a nerd, who's not quite good enough.

this is also a blog about comic books, and superheros.

as a child, i was fed gender appropriate toys and television, and was granted little to no autonomy regarding what i watched, bought or consumed. when i started to pick my own TV shows, i tended towards ABC after school teen shows as a pre-teen, and shows about animals, or ponies.  once i hit an age where i had my own TV, well, i was 13.  cartoons about superheros did not hit me, as a 13 year old girl, as what i wanted, because i had The X-Files and everything else was shitter than it.


i am, by my nature, an obsessive creature.

when i was 11, i became fixated on The X-Files.  to this day, i can still recite some episodes by heart,  just because i saw them so many times. i would tape them off the tv, and watch them, over and over and over again.  all until the last two seasons, because we all know they were shit. i watched them, but out of loyalty, not because i cared.

 prior to that, i would read enid blyton's school stories on rotation, or The Baby Sitters club. i'm almost ashamed to say how many of those bastards i owned.  i hit my early teens, and started on epic fantasy, collecting every last David Eddings book i could, and other stuff of that ilk. by fifteen or sixteen, i discovered the second generation Romantics, and The Smiths. these two, and The X-Files, for nostalgia more than anything else (have you noticed how misogynistic it is?) are still things i'm deeply fond of. i have a Smiths tattoo, and a first edition book of Shelley. the headiness of the obsession has faded to something that's almost normal.

so, all this means that i am not well rounded.  and the biggest most shameful area for me is comics. specifically Marvel, superhero comics. i've never understood them. i find them fascinating as an abstract - the broad mythology, the marketing machine that starts kids out as tiny people buying these relatively cheap treats with stories that keep going from issue to issue, supernatural powerful people who might have been nerds or been weak, or been Just Like You, and then become brave and strong and save people - but despite this interest, i've never really seen many superhero movies, or read any Marvel comics.

I like comics.  i have a shelf of indie comics. i love Strangers in Paradise, and Mouse Guard, and Y, i love Black Hole, and Blankets, and Platinum Grit.  i love Ghost World, and i love collections of beautiful pretty creatures. but i know shit all about superhero comics.

so. i am going to fix this.

i am undergoing a project which this blog will attempt to follow.  i like starting blogs because they give me focus.  i like navel gazing -  after doing a visual arts degree i got into the habit of self-reflection to an almost pathological degree.  also, i like writing.  so, i am going to keep this blog as the story of me working out what the fuck the Marvel Universe is about.  as well, i am getting over being sick, so i want to watch movies in bed, while i lament not being able to binge drink anymore.  this requires a lot of movies. you know what there a lot of movies about? motherfucking SUPERHEROS. so, i'm going to watch them.  all of them. well, a lot of them, anyway.  i will do this while knitting hats. i will also take photos of the hats i am knitting. i hope to also knit socks.

it might be clear from this blog entry alone that i'm a bit of a shut in. i live in a cold place, and sometimes, i'm fairly antisocial. however, i'd like to get laid again one day. and i have a very specific type of guy i tend to like. shut in, nerdy weedy guys (or slightly overweight ones) who grew up on comic books, read too much, are socially a bit... challenged, and probably spend too much time in their bedroom.  so, this additional information, while i'm stuck in my house, will assist me in picking up.  shallow, maybe.  but we all have our faults people. don't judge me.

at the point of starting this project, i have seen in recent times:


In the cinema on release
X-Men: First Class
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
The Dark Knight

On my laptop
Batman Begins

clearly, there is a lot of work to be done.