Final Push
Oct. 17th, 2011 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMy WiP is almost done. I didn't quite get to the end over the weekend, but the end is in sight. I had planned to get a copy to my most valued beta reader today, and the plan still stands... just probably the END of today.
I just need to get one thing off my chest before I get started on my final push. My Marvel buddy, Sean M. Murphy, came over this weekend and the three of us watched "X-Men: First Class." (We set Mason up in the other room with streaming "Mythbusters" since we weren't sure how kid safe the movie was. I'm glad we did since the f-word got dropped, albeit in the most awesome cameo EVER.)
A lot of people have already noted how the women and people of color totally get short-changed in this film, so I won't comment on it. It is especially noticable, however, since they messed around with canon and had what I like to call "the time of the great gathering" in the 60s (in the comics this was the mid-80s when we saw a lot of new mutants being introduced to the team, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm....) All that just made me realize that the closer Hollywood sticks to canon, the better the superhero films are. Iron Man was almost verbatum his origin story, only with updates of bringing him into Afganistan/Iran instead of Vietnam, and that movie is AWESOME. They could hardly have messed with canon more in this movie, and... well, it showed.
The thing I really wanted to say that I don't think anyone talked about (that I remember) is the hypocracy of Charles Xavier.
Near the end of the movie, we see a scene in which Charles uses his telepathic mind control to make a Russian salior fire a missle that destroys a Russian ship headed for "the line." Ka-boom. The ship and all of its crew is dramatically blown to smitherines. These soldiers are most decidedly INNOCENT because it is made clear that the reason they don't turn around is because of a radio malfuncion. They did not recieve the order to stand down and return to Odessa. We see the poor mind-controlled guy getting hauled off as a traitor to the brig.
Next, Magneto goes to face his old torturer, Shaw. Magneto is getting his ass kicked hard, because Shaw as absorbed the power of a nuclear reactor. Shaw knows about Xavier's powers and has the room he's in "psi-proofed." As Magneto uses his body to wreck the walls, Charles is able to get his mind through. Magneto gets the helmet off Shaw and Charles seizes control of Shaw's body, freezing him. Magneto puts on the psi-proof helmet and very slowly, pushes a Nazi coin (very emotionally symbolic) through Shaw's brain. Cut to Charles screaming, "Noooo!"
But does Charles ever let Shaw go so he can defend himself? Shaw's powers could easily absorb the force of the coin coming towards him. If Charles was desperate for Magneto not to commit murder, he probably shouldn't have HELPED HIM.
Because then, when the Soviets and the US get legitimate orders to blow up the beach that the mutants have landed on, Magneto stops the missles in mid-air and is going to turn them on the ships that sent them. Charles freaks out and starts fighting Magneto. The rockets all blow up in mid-air.
So, let's do a body count of innocents. Magneto, 0 to 3 (zero, if you consider the evil crap Shaw was up to and the previous two Nazis that he takes out from their hideout in Argentina.) Professor X, hundreds (or perhaps more, since I have no idea the normal compliment of a Russian naval ship in the 1960s. Including the poor guy who just signed up to be the cook....)
No wonder Magneto has always been my more favorite character. All his motivations for evil make sense. He wants to avenge Jewish deaths and kill his torturer. These are bad things because he wants to do them vigilante-style and not bring people to justice, but they're also 100% UNDERSTANDABLE.
Xavier tells Magneto he's a villian for WANTING (not succeeding, like he did,) to destroy innocent lives. Magneto tells him that soldiers following orders is no excuse. Too many Jews died at the hands of those who said they were just following orders. What would have made the movie ultimately more cool would have been if Magneto turned and looked his friend in the eye and said, "I'm only trying to do what you have already done. Would you prefer to control their minds and have them blow themselves up? Or, perhaps, you can hold them still while I plunge the knife in their hearts. Does that make YOUR hands more clean of blood than mine???"
I stand with Magneto, who will f**k you up to your face, not behind your back..
Speaking of that, WTF. Xavier so does not seem to see the sarcasm when Magento looks at his massive mansion and says, "Poor Charles, how did you ever survive?" (implied: while I scrapped along in a ghetto and concentration camp.) Dude. Magneto is 99%. That blows my mind.
I just need to get one thing off my chest before I get started on my final push. My Marvel buddy, Sean M. Murphy, came over this weekend and the three of us watched "X-Men: First Class." (We set Mason up in the other room with streaming "Mythbusters" since we weren't sure how kid safe the movie was. I'm glad we did since the f-word got dropped, albeit in the most awesome cameo EVER.)
A lot of people have already noted how the women and people of color totally get short-changed in this film, so I won't comment on it. It is especially noticable, however, since they messed around with canon and had what I like to call "the time of the great gathering" in the 60s (in the comics this was the mid-80s when we saw a lot of new mutants being introduced to the team, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm....) All that just made me realize that the closer Hollywood sticks to canon, the better the superhero films are. Iron Man was almost verbatum his origin story, only with updates of bringing him into Afganistan/Iran instead of Vietnam, and that movie is AWESOME. They could hardly have messed with canon more in this movie, and... well, it showed.
The thing I really wanted to say that I don't think anyone talked about (that I remember) is the hypocracy of Charles Xavier.
Near the end of the movie, we see a scene in which Charles uses his telepathic mind control to make a Russian salior fire a missle that destroys a Russian ship headed for "the line." Ka-boom. The ship and all of its crew is dramatically blown to smitherines. These soldiers are most decidedly INNOCENT because it is made clear that the reason they don't turn around is because of a radio malfuncion. They did not recieve the order to stand down and return to Odessa. We see the poor mind-controlled guy getting hauled off as a traitor to the brig.
Next, Magneto goes to face his old torturer, Shaw. Magneto is getting his ass kicked hard, because Shaw as absorbed the power of a nuclear reactor. Shaw knows about Xavier's powers and has the room he's in "psi-proofed." As Magneto uses his body to wreck the walls, Charles is able to get his mind through. Magneto gets the helmet off Shaw and Charles seizes control of Shaw's body, freezing him. Magneto puts on the psi-proof helmet and very slowly, pushes a Nazi coin (very emotionally symbolic) through Shaw's brain. Cut to Charles screaming, "Noooo!"
But does Charles ever let Shaw go so he can defend himself? Shaw's powers could easily absorb the force of the coin coming towards him. If Charles was desperate for Magneto not to commit murder, he probably shouldn't have HELPED HIM.
Because then, when the Soviets and the US get legitimate orders to blow up the beach that the mutants have landed on, Magneto stops the missles in mid-air and is going to turn them on the ships that sent them. Charles freaks out and starts fighting Magneto. The rockets all blow up in mid-air.
So, let's do a body count of innocents. Magneto, 0 to 3 (zero, if you consider the evil crap Shaw was up to and the previous two Nazis that he takes out from their hideout in Argentina.) Professor X, hundreds (or perhaps more, since I have no idea the normal compliment of a Russian naval ship in the 1960s. Including the poor guy who just signed up to be the cook....)
No wonder Magneto has always been my more favorite character. All his motivations for evil make sense. He wants to avenge Jewish deaths and kill his torturer. These are bad things because he wants to do them vigilante-style and not bring people to justice, but they're also 100% UNDERSTANDABLE.
Xavier tells Magneto he's a villian for WANTING (not succeeding, like he did,) to destroy innocent lives. Magneto tells him that soldiers following orders is no excuse. Too many Jews died at the hands of those who said they were just following orders. What would have made the movie ultimately more cool would have been if Magneto turned and looked his friend in the eye and said, "I'm only trying to do what you have already done. Would you prefer to control their minds and have them blow themselves up? Or, perhaps, you can hold them still while I plunge the knife in their hearts. Does that make YOUR hands more clean of blood than mine???"
I stand with Magneto, who will f**k you up to your face, not behind your back..
Speaking of that, WTF. Xavier so does not seem to see the sarcasm when Magento looks at his massive mansion and says, "Poor Charles, how did you ever survive?" (implied: while I scrapped along in a ghetto and concentration camp.) Dude. Magneto is 99%. That blows my mind.