movie review!

[rivendellrose]

Those plans of getting a lot of work done? Well... the work is happening. But I had to take a quick break to do fun things. Like see a movie for the first time in months! So did I see something deep and artsy? Something political? A work of great intellectual genius? Of course not. I saw X3, of course!

I should warn that I've never read the comic books, although I've heard a lot about them from friends. But I really liked it. Yeah, the dialogue wasn't fabulous, and neither was the direction, and parts of the plot were fairly iffy. But I thought it was good fun.

Review and spoilers within:

The first scene is absolute slash-tacular. I'll admit, seeing Sir Ian and Patrick Stewart de-aged by twenty years kind of blew my mind - I haven't seen Patrick looking that young since the eeeeearly episodes of TNG. And Sir Ian was just plain gorgeous. Which made me feel slightly wistful about the two of them looking like such perfect dapper old queens. ...I mean that in the kindest way possible, of course, but seriously - they so looked like a couple in that scene. And in every other scene after. ;)

Jean Grey... let me just say that I never worked up a fondness for that woman. She just irritates me - she's such a canon-Sue, and while I'm sure she's fascinating in the comics, she's just plain boring in the movies. So imagine my enthusiasm when she came back, more important than ever, just like I knew she would. :P And then the Bad Things - normally I'd be kind of iffy about someone killing off Patrick Stewart (gods know I wanted Picard dead more than a few times in the old days...), but I've really grown to like Professor X... and watching Sir Ian during that scene was enough to practically break my heart. I'd have begged to save the devil himself, if it kept him from making those faces. That poor man. The effect of her mind ripping things to shreds was pretty neat, if traumatizing, and I did like the way her capillaries kept popping all over the place. That was nifty.

While I'm on the subject, I think that's one of the best things about these movies - I'm not sure how true it is in the comics, obviously, but Magneto is the absolute best kind of villain in these movies. No, it's not just my Sir-Ian-love showing through - although that doesn't hurt - it's just that I love me a good morally ambiguous character, and Magneto is fabulously so. He genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing, and not just in a Bond villain sort of way - in a way that you genuinely can understand how he arrived at and why he does the things he does. Actually, the second most heart-rending moment for me was when he rescued Mystique... and then left her because she'd been 'cured' by the compound. That made me so sad! I loved Mystique, particularly for her relationship with Magneto, and seeing him betray her like he did was just awful. And then to follow it right up with the bit with Professor X... so sad. So much ♥ for Magneto.

(Why yes, I do fall for villains - why do you ask?)

On the hero side of things... Hugh Jackman. Yum. He was absolutely smoldering. Dear god, he must be the only man on earth who looks good in mutton chops. But man does he look good in them. And, as always, he puts so much beautiful emotion into everything he does, as opposed to Halle Berry, who is gorgeous but whose acting has always somewhat left me cold. She's stunningly beautiful, but somehow... I don't know. I would normally peg Storm as the kind of character I would fall totally head-over-heels for, but here, nothing.

Speaking of nothing, I got the sense that I was supposed to be very upset by Jean's death, but... bleh. I felt worse for Wolverine than I did for her, that's for sure, and that just made me want to snuggle him. And then made me laugh when the post-death exactly paralleled the death of Anna in Van Helsing. No, seriously - see this, then quickly rewatch the very end of Van Helsing. The angle is different, but everything else is almost exactly the same. Including the half-naked Hugh Jackman. Mmm. Come to think of it, all his movies can keep that bit.

Beast was really nifty, and I loved the way Kelsey Grammer played him. Which shocked the hell out of me since, as a devoted fan of David Hyde Pierce, I've always felt he was just another actor whose publicity was too much for his talent. But he did very well! I liked him. So yay.

Hmm. Anything else... oh, the end. Poor Magneto. *Snuggles him* And the bit at the end of the credits is nice, since I was afraid they were going to make a throwaway of that bit at the beginning. Nice to see they hadn't forgotten.


Previews Seen:
A Scanner Darkly (er... animated-ish thingummy with Keanu Reeves - title not so memorable): probably I'll wait til it's on DVD, if ever. Special effects rock, however - I read an article on it a while ago, very impressive.
PotC 2: Dead Man's Chest: Ought to be called "Captain Sparrow and the Two Morons," but for Johnny Depp as Captain Sparrow, I will see anything. Plus, it genuinely looks fun.
An Inconvenient Truth: Oh dear.
1. Going from movies to politics may occasionally work (eg. Schwartzenagger, etc), but the reverse? Umm, no. Al Gore, you embarass me. I voted for you, you idiot!
2. Happy as I am that global warming is getting more press, must they always insist on getting the science wrong? If the ice caps melt, the gulf stream currents will fail, and that will cause a new ice age, not a global "Waterworld" theme park.
3. Dear liberals/democrats/environmentalists: while I'm sure making a big movie will get us more publicity, it will also make us look like total propagandist jackasses. Is this what you want? It certainly seems to be.
Nacho Libre or something like that. With Jack Black. Entertaining, but unlikely I'll ever actually see it unless the stepbrothers are watching it while I happen to be home. It looks like their kind of movie.
Beowulf: Vikings! Except pre-Viking Vikings, if I recall the story correctly, which makes that gorgeous ship something of an anachronism, but who the fuck cares because they're Vikings! If Gerard Butler makes this one bad, I'll be seriously pissed off at him. :P I hope it'll be something I can actually see without, you know. Spending the whole movie covering my eyes. I loooove period dramas, but sometimes they're a little much for me.

Edit: And for our daily moments of fandom synchronicity:
Summer Glau apparently auditioned for the role of Kitty in X3, which I find rather amusing, and the woman who played the female doctor (assistant to whatshisname-Angel's-father, the one killed by pincushion-boy) is supposed to be playing Mary (yes, that Mary, as in mother of God) in a movie called "Nativity." Aside from my horribly blasphemous notion that some people really do turn religion into a fandom (or fandom into a religion, take your pick), this qualifies as fandom synchronicity because of the person who will be playing the angel Gabriel in said movie. I'm glad I'll probably never see it, because I'm not sure my poor little brain could handle a much-matured Julian Bashir announcing the birth of Christ. o_O

Incidentally, title role in Hannibal and a new movie with Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley? Go Sid. *Rather impressed* And he looks oddly good in a beard, too.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

A Scanner Darkly:
As with most Phillip K Dick books-turned-into-movies, I fear.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Is that who wrote it? I could tell it was probably a book-to-movie deal, but I couldn't remember who the author would've been. Interesting.

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

But...use the fear... it so works with PKD *grin*

Seriously though, maybe they got this one right? There's always hope.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Seriously though, maybe they got this one right? There's always hope.

*crosses fingers*

But they always make shitty movies out of Philip K. Dick books, I'm afraid.

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, it is because they try to make his books into pure action-adventure, ignoring the deeper and darker psychological aspects of his stories.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

1) They're making a movie of Beowulf? Schweet.

2) If A Scanner Darkly is anywhere near as good as the book, you will want to see it before it's on DVD. IMHO.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

1. Dear gods I hope so. It's one of those movies that has the potential to be really cool or really really bad. And either way it'll probably have me hiding behind my coat. But it might be worth it!

2. Huh. Might have to consider, in that case. It looked... interesting. Nothing like the kind of movie I usually see (despite myself, I tend toward seeing only the Big Sci-Fi Movies and the occasional historical or comedy, avoiding the little intellectual flicks completely), but it might do me good to get out of my box.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

It's one of those movies that has the potential to be really cool or really really bad.

You know, I was just saying that about The Celestine Prophecy today. But it's probably just bad and new-agey. :(

...it might do me good to get out of my box.
Yeah, Philip K. Dick is pretty much out of everyone's box. :p

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

You know, I saw The Celestine Prophecy on the marquee at one of our local theaters, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what the original book had been about. Wasn't it one of those cult-y new age books from the 70s or something?

Philip K. Dick is pretty much out of everyone's box. :p

That's definitely been the impression I've gotten, yup.

Incidentally, I don't suppose you understand layer masks, do you? I was reading through a tutorial with them over the weekend, and just couldn't seem to get a handle on exactly how they work.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it one of those cult-y new age books from the 70s or something?
Sort of. I read it at an impressionable age (fifteen or so), when I was attempting to figure out my beliefs, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for it. Haven't read it since then, however, so I can't vouch for the actual quality of the writing, but I remember being inspired by a few of the concepts in there. It talks a lot about the way energy moves through groups of people, and how if everyone's paying attention, it becomes very clear during conversations among large groups whose turn it is to speak, and that sort of thing. The actual plot is a little new-agey, but if you're just reading it for some of the concepts, it's not so bad.

Movie probably blows, though. It would be very difficult to focus on the interesting parts and not so much on the cheesy parts, even if that's what they were going for, which it probably isn't. New-agey stuff aggravates me anyway, because a lot of the time it's based on Buddhist or Hindu concepts that I've studied in depth and believe to be true, but the new-agey crap distorts the message so much that it eradicates any real insight. *grumble*

Layer masks are easier than they sound, and certainly easier than my explanation would seem. Adding a layer mask is basically erasing part of a specific layer so that the layers underneath show through, except on a masked layer you use a paintbrush instead of the eraser tool, so that you can undo any mistakes you might make. Usually, you'll want to add a white layer mask (white = part of layer that still shows through the mask), and then use a black brush (or another dark color, but the darker, the better) to stamp on the layer mask. The black area on the layer mask will seem transparent on the original layer, so that the layers underneath show through.

This icon here:
was made with a layer mask. Once I got my image looking the way I wanted it to look, I flattened it and added a yellowish layer on top, although it could have been a texture, another pic, or any other color. I added a white layer mask to the yellowish layer, and then stamped one of these masking brushes here:

onto the layer mask in black, so that only the small lines on the edge remained visible.

Phew. That was complicated to explain, but it's extremely easy to do. Hope that helps, and if you need any clarification, let me know.

Also, a nice thing about layer masks is that you can basically edit the masking brush if it doesn't fit your icon by using a white brush to re-visibilize (I'm making up words!) any part of your icon that was covered up by the black brush. If that makes any sense. I'm going to stop rambling now -- just try it!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I get it. The thing I could never understand before was how the effect was different from, say, doing a layer with a white brush. But I think I get the concept now... we'll see.

...Now I just have to keep myself from trying it until my papers are done!

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

I've heard such mixed reviews for X-Men 3. I like the concise way that you spoke on it though.

As for not reading the books, I think that that can help some of the time. Because always when they adapt a movie, it can be tricky to get it all in. And in my experience, if you haven't read the books first, you don't get the whole, "but it wasn't like that!" That can really get in the way of the movie experience sometimes when it's a book that you really love, or know really well, etc...

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

My general experience is; if there's a film coming out soon that I want to see and it's based on a book, I will wait and read the book after. I usually enjoy both film and book far more that way.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

You must have a very unique definition of "concise" - I don't think that's a word that's ever been applied to me, before. ;)

if you haven't read the books first, you don't get the whole, "but it wasn't like that!"

That's it exactly. I mean, yes, you also don't get the fun moments of "that's exactly how it should be!!!", but it might be worth it for the sense of coming to something fresh and new.

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... go with my weird definition *grin* Maybe concise was the wrong word? Either way, I appreciated your review. *grin*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I can never quite resist teasing about unusual word usage. Bad habit, but I mean it with the best of humor.

I'm glad you enjoyed it - I always worry that my reviews are amusing only to me, so it's nice to know that someone else got a little bit of amusement out of it. *g*

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Jean is just as canon-Sue boring in the comics. I have never, ever liked her. In fact, I would probably have liked Cyke more if he hadn't been so True Love involved with her.

And, I feel the same way about both Sir Ian and Magneto. He is just fabulous. Fabulous! He is totally my big gay hollywood boyfriend. <333333333. And the scene at the end, where he moved the chess piece, made me feel 400% better. If they had killed Magneto (they don't have to kill Erik Lenshher to kill Magneto) I probably would not watch the next movie in protest.

And, Alexander Siddig? Dude. As disturbing as that might be, I don't think I could keep away from that if I chained myself to my desk!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I wondered if that wasn't the case. She seemed... interesting, but very very Sue-ish, to my mind, in a "I'm the most powerful mutant ever, and Logan and Cyclops are both desperately in love with me, and by the way both Magneto and Professor X seem to treat me like The Daughter They Never Had Together."

He is! And yes, the end bit in the park was delightful. You just can't keep a guy like that down, after all. And have you seen this? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499519/) It has great potential to suck, of course, but... more Magneto! ♥

I haven't actually seen Siddig in anything since the old DS9 days - I meant to see a few of them, but always either forgot why, or realized that they were probably going to be really appallingly bad and that I wasn't willing to watch them just for him. So by the time I finally get around to seeing the poor guy, it's going to break my brain to realize that he's not cute, skinny, earnest little Julian Bashir anymore. I had such an awful crush on him when I was a teenager.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Argh. Obviously there was meant to be a "kind of way" or something similar to that at the end of that first paragraph. I really should wait til the morning caffeine has kicked in before replying to people. :P

[ryunohi.livejournal.com]

Only oddly good? Damn the man, I was going to refer you to his website to see his picture, circa Syriana filming, when he's downright hot, but he's changed it. Not sure about this Nativity movie, but at least he's got the best role. Did I ever mention my confirmation name is Gabriel, or was, back in the days when I was Catholic. Not sure that sticks with you after you jump ship. But Sid and Colin Firth in one movie is about enough to make my brain melt. If only it also included Rupert Everett.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

He's always downright hot, curse him. I don't know how, but he is. His features shouldn't work. But they sooooo do. (And I'm secretly (or not so much, apparently...) mad at him for not staying thirty for ever, or at least until, you know, now. It saddens me immensely to know that he's now 41, since my mental image of him is forever stuck at the last season of DS9.)

...Syriana, huh? Might have to hunt down screencaps of his (presumably tiny?) part in that. We are talking about the man for whom I briefly considered seeing Reign of Fire, after all.

I know. Sid + Colin Firth = Jen's brain go 'splodey. I'll take Johnny Depp over Rupert Everett, myself, but Rupert is pretty darned attractive... have you seen the infamous nude picture of him? It's very tasteful, but it's... definitely nude. I can email it, if you haven't. *g*

[ryunohi.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! There's a tasteful nude picture of him? Hell, who cares if it's tasteful. There's a nude pic of him? Yes please.

Calming down.

Yes, Sid in Syriana. Haven't seen it yet, but I know he plays the oil prince who I believe is interested in liberalizing his country or improving international relations, or something like that. The gorgeous shot of him I want back is not from the movie. Oh, wait, what's this. I have it on my computer. Time for a new icon. I'll exchange it for Rupert if you like, but I have a different email address I'd rather you use, and I imagine your UW is expiring soon.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and it's lovely. As is that icon. Oh my. I would never have figured him for a long-ish hair sort, but it looks quite nice. Also, have you seen this? (http://barefoot.provocateuse.com/) I can't remember if Sid is on any of the pages or not, but it has loads of other lovely people even if they haven't noticed him yet.

And there's always SidCity.net (http://www.sidcity.net/). Ah, I love URLs so simple that I don't forget them even after years of not keeping up with them. And while we're at it, we must snub Amy, because she saw him in a play in London. Our boss laughed at us, because I squeaked when she told me.

...Right, sanity. That thing I don't have. So, I'll be paying for the alumni association and related stuff, which should keep my UW email as a forwarding service, but my other address is always accessible - hearts_fire (at) hotmail.com. Where should I send the lovely naked Rupert?

[ryunohi.livejournal.com]

SidCity is where I got my picture from. I think I only discovered it this year. Please send Rupert (with care) to nicolerehorst, also a hotmail address. And I must also say that Johnny Depp is of course capable of causing me to melt. If you were to make me choose between Jack Sparrow and Arthur Goring (have you seen An Ideal Husband), I would...well, never be able to choose.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Rupert has been sent off to the address you specified!

Johnny Depp... oh, Johnny Depp. It's half the amazing hotness of him, and half that I truly believe he's one of the most talented actors of this generation. The man has a knack, and he's also very clever with the parts he chooses - he has the looks to be just another pretty-boy actor, but he intentionally refused to do that, and chooses roles that allow him to really stretch his possibilities, which makes him sort of my hero in terms of the art.

I've seen "An Ideal Husband" (Oscar Wilde is one of my all-time favorite playwrights), but it was quite a while ago. I do remember Rupert being gorgeous as always in that movie, though. He's not quite my usual type, but ohhhh is he pretty.

[iamlovely.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Summer had auditioned for it. I haven't seen it yet, I really really want to though, I'll probably go tomorrow or Thursday.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

At least that's what was reported on IMDB's trivia page for the movie!

I hope you like it - I know a lot of folks have been iffy, but I've also known a lot of people who've enjoyed it. I know I did.

[ex_mrs260625]

I've heard mixed reviews of X3, but as long as Sir Ian gets something meaty to do, I'm sure I'll be happy. :0)

And Hugh. Mmm, Hugh.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that people who've followed the comics loyally tend to dislike the movie, whereas people like me who only know the franchise second-hand tend to love it, so... take that as you will. Definitely not Academy award material by a long shot, but a fun movie. And oh yes, Sir Ian has quite a bit to do in this one.

He's a lovely, lovely man. It's a rare fellow who can pull off mutton-chops like that, and he makes them look good.