Review: Xmen - First Class

Xmen - First Class

Starring   

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr / Magneto
Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
Oliver Platt as Man In Black Suit
Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme / Mystique
January Jones as  Emma Frost / White Queen
Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast
Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore

Running time    132 minutes

First, I got a beef.  I rent most of the films I review and it is becoming clear that in some cost savings maneuver, rental disks are becoming much less feature rich.  I have found in the past several disk that had virtually no extras where as the purchased disk was anything but!  Even the DVD had more entertainment value than the rental disk.  I plan on writing Blockbuster a note and if you enjoy some value added to your disk view, write to your rental agency with a complaint...  I really don’t see it changing, but I know I will borrow disks to get the full viewing experience, I certainly am not going to BUY their butchered versions...nope.

ok...on to the review.

I don’t know what I expected from Xmen First Class, but it certainly was more than provided.  Don’t get me wrong, the movie is competently made, but it was like the whole soul was sucked out.

The premise is simple enough...during WWII the US and Germany began to suspect that there were people with extraordinary capabilities.  Sebastian Shaw played by  Kevin Bacon begins searching for a powerful mutant in Germany and finds Erik Lensherr who later would become Magneto.  The US though a CIA agency find Charles Xavier and the few mutants that Xavier has amassed.  

The main nemesis is Shaw who wants to wipe humanity from the globe Professor Xavier works with his group to hopefully stop Shaw.  The climax is during the Russian / Cuban Missile moment in history. Of course what went on “behind the scenes” was suppose to be the telling moment.     

I won’t give away the ending if you by chance haven’t seen it yet, but it is pretty badly telegraphed.   Truthfully that is my gripe for the whole film!  Even in the most powerful moments, the director never once asks you to suspend belief.  The parts were played well, but almost too low key!  It is as though you are watching a travelogue.  

The one really fun moment was Charles’ first meeting with Wolverine. But the whole scene could have been axed!

Overall?  It’s really not boring, but there is NOTHING NEW HERE and it just is not so much fun as the previous Xmen fare.   Overall without extras to pull it up...a 7  You got nothing better to do...watch the movie......

Trailer for new X-Men animated Series

Xmen fans? Anime fans? ok, from Anime News Network via IO9 is news that Madhouse Animation will release an anime version of the X-Men. The article states that "The show debuts on Animax in Japan on April 1 and will air on G4 later this year." Now I am not throwing stones here or trying to start a flame war, but this certainly is not for your average nine year old. Neither is it a cartoon. Being animated doesn't immediately equate it to children's entertainment exclusively.

Here is a trailer for the program...sorry no dub, no sub...straight up.

Review: X-Men Origins Wolverine movie

X-Men Origins Wolverine

Directed by Gavin Hood

Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, will.i.am, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Henney

Again, I am questioning renting DVDs let alone buying them....but I am getting ahead of myself

Let's see, X-Men Origins Wolverine is a prequel to the series of X-Men movies. The film attempts to answer all the outstanding questions about Logan's missing past.

Up to this point I would have sworn that he was not a mutant but a medical experiment gone bad. But I was wrong.

As we know Wolverine now, without the benefit of the origins movie, he has no memory, but a likelihood that he had a military past because of the dog tags he wears but don't have any record of. He is the survivor of an experiment to replace all his bones, which leads to some freakish abilities. Other than that Logan has no memory of his family or his past. Origins answers all of them and more, which I don't think is fair to get into if you haven't rented the dvd or wait for tv.

I will say the movie is action packed as you would expect from a Marvel vehicle. I really can't say that there is anything unusual or different about the movie. Honestly this could be a Highlander film for all that it's worth, but Logan is an enigma. We know he can not remember his past, so throughout the whole movie you're constantly holding the movie up to what you already against what he clearly remembers and does.

Only at the very near end do you get the tie-in and now Logan can not recall anything, but up until that moment you almost speculate that they must be rewriting Wolverine's history...nope it all works. Maybe that is what makes this move work as well as it did. First off, it IS an bit of an untidy ending, but you know where it's going now, so its ok. There is plenty of action yes, but every bit is Tempered by Logan's sensibilities. This makes him easier to identify with. Which puts it miles ahead of movies like the Fan 4 series.

I might recommend the movie, but what about the DVD
Picture and sound are excellent, no complaints there. But if you call trailers and a tobacco psa extra features....you're golden, I don't. I am beginning to seriously consider that the studio are shunting all the good stuff onto the Blu-ray disks and leave the dvd renters hanging. And that is patently wrong! A lot of the older generation is making the move away from the defunct vhs and buying DVD players. If the studios are marketing the high end to the 20/30 somethings because of disposable cash, they are so wrong! The retirement age viewer has much more entertainment dollars, what they aren't is bleeding edge tech adopters. What they are not going to buy is a marginal product. I know many retirement age movie fans that are just now or will be migrating from VHS to DVD. For the movie marketing machine to totally drop the ball on a large consumer base is insane! lol

So people that have waited for the dvd...well I am going to suggest you just stream it from an online service because there is nothing here for value added in the DVD unless you are up for paying the long dollar I guess for some special release... I would give the movie an 8 but for value added 0 which as you can see gives a ridiculous average so I will just dock it 1 and call it a 7 which is unfortunate because the movie is better than 7 but I am not about to waste my money buying it...even renting it I feel a bit taken.... You decide.

Trailer for Marvel's Astonishing X-Men motion comic

Hey, are you an X-Men fan? The comic? How about this "motion comic"? I was reading this article in Topless Robot. Here is an excerpt:

• Here's a trailer for Marvel's next motion comic, based on Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's well-received run on Astonishing X-Men, due on iTunes on October 28th.

I know, the style is familiar, but the subject and the overall feel work for me. I will most likely take a look, being an X-men fan.