Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[innerSpaceman]

This was the weakest of the three to me (of three not particularly strong, but enjoyable films). I, too, cannot quite put my finger on what I felt was "missing," but it just seemed lacking a certain something. They did the requisite mutant-to-homosexuality comparisions, they killed off or power-neutered most of the characters, and yet it just seemed to lack a certain indefinable thing.

I found it enjoyable though. I really like the bookend elements with the first film, such as Magneto's plot involving the Statue of Liberty, iconic guardian of the east coast, in the first film ... and his plot this time involving the Golden Gate bridge, yada yada yada of the west coast. Also both films ending with Magneto playing chess ... this time, all meloncholy without Charles and sapped of power to move the metalic pieces (heheh, they were plastic pieces in the first film that he likewise lacked the power to move).

[BarTopDancer]

The Usual Suspects is slowing rising to the top of my favorite movies list.

[innerSpaceman]

Having been reminded of the point of the day by G.C.'s memoriam thread, I have switched tonight's DVD menu to feature Saving Private Ryan, one of the few war movies I admire.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Having been reminded of the point of the day by G.C.'s memoriam thread, I have switched tonight's DVD menu to feature Saving Private Ryan, one of the few war movies I admire.

I have never much cared for Saving Private Ryan. There are a lot of reasons but way up on the list is the fact that the whole movie is a flashback by a person who wasn't there.

[Prudence]

My movie companion dragged me out the second the credits started. Can someone fill me in on the post-credit X3 scene?

[Gemini Cricket]

I loved the storming the beach sequence in 'Saving Private Ryan'. It is superbly done.

A couple of my favorite WWII dramas are 'The Longest Day' and 'Band of Brothers'. I consider 'BoB' to be one long awesomely made film. (Although certain parts are better than others.)

Originally Posted by Prudence

My movie companion dragged me out the second the credits started. Can someone fill me in on the post-credit X3 scene?

Spoiler:

Early in the film, Professor X talked about whether it was ethical to inhabit a comatose man's body. If you remember, Moira McTaggert was the doctor in that quick scene. At the end of the film, we see Moira at the man's bedside and the man says, 'Moira?' and we hear Patrick Stewart's voice. She then says, 'Charles?' and then it cuts to black.

X-3: I think a big thing that was missing from this film was one main story. It seemed like several stories all patched together. The other two films main focus was Wolverine, this one centered in on several issues throughout. There's the Jean Grey 'Dark Phoenix' storyline, the Magneto 'fight the cure' storyline, the Storm 'takes over the school' storyline, the Rogue/Iceman/Kitty Pride love triangle, the Angel and jerky father storyline, the Leech 'I want to be free' thing... But being such a huge fan of the X-men since I was a kid, I liked what they did. It played like a comic book. And that's fine, I guess.

I don't know if it's just me, but I cringe when they off characters in the X-Men movies. Even the bad guys...

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, X-3 was a proverbial blood-bath, wasn't it? But I appreciate that it goes very far towards a guarantee that this will be the last X-Men film, despite the great box office and the tag at the end ... which I will put in spoiler tags for no particular reason:

Spoiler:

Prof. X appears to have taken over the body of that Terry Scheivo-esque "vegetative state" patient he earliler showed to his students in class. Dr. Moira is seen attending the patient, who suddenly turns to her and, in Patrick Stewart's voice says, "Moira." She looks at him astonished and gasps, "Charles?!" Cut to Black.

As for Private Ryan, I'm sorry Alex did not appreciate the twist of a seeming flash-back not being a flash-back. I think it was a brilliant device to fool the audience into believing that the main character lives through his harrowing war experiences. In such a literally blood-bath movie, I believe the audience would have otherwise been more than half expecting Tom Hanks' to buy the farm. Since he is such an appealing character, I think his death as a surprise and shock was a worthy goal, completely justifying a bit of cinematic trickery with hokey film conventions of "the flashback."

It is noteworthy that the film did not cut from the Matt Damon's character's present-day close up to a shot of Tom Hanks. There were six or seven shots before Hanks was revealed. And since 'old man Damon' was shown staring at a tombstone when the cut to the past happened, a "flashback" of the person who died is, I believe, quite legitimate.



In light of a certain film currently out in theaters, it was bittersweet to watch yet another movie where Tom Hanks really enlivens an entire picture with his considerable presence.

[Gemini Cricket]

My eyes are crossed. Following link to link across internetdom, I found a wikipedia summary of everything having to do with the X-Men. It's quite a tome. A lot has happened since I stopped reading the comic around the Secret Wars era... I was delighted to find out that Colossus is no longer dead. But maybe we should leave that for the Miscellaneous Comic Book Musings thread.

[Gemini Cricket]

By the way, did anyone catch the CG facelifts that Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart got? 20 years younger. Wow. Pretty amazing, almost flawless. I bet Warren Beatty will want that sort of treatment in his next film.

[Alex]

They ended up looking like Odo from Deep Space Nine (particularly Stewart).