X-Men: First Class

[rivkat]

Loved it!  Am largely in agreement with Abigail Nussbaum's review, except that I think the heroes of the movie are Erik and Mystique, and that the movie (absent metatextual expectations that Charles is the good guy because of all the other canon) validates Erik's viewpoint and makes Charles out to be an idiot who thinks he's smart and thinks that his privilege will protect him. 

And by the way, where does the guy who's willing to mindfuck humans not just to carry out secret spy activities but also to protect his own ass get to have the moral high ground?  Also, he must have mindwiped all the people who met him the first time around at the CIA, given that McTaggart specially requested to go meet him in particular, which meant there were records of who he was, but I'll just assume he had the brains to do that because that doesn't involve an iota of emotional intelligence.

I mean, how epically dumb do you have to be to make your plea for the survival of hundreds of sailors be "they're just following orders" when you are talking to a Holocaust survivor?  Especially when the truer "hundreds of men on those ships have no power at all and they'll be dying for the actions of a few" is also available?

I appreciated that the theme of "saying just the wrong thing" was consistent, though.  While Xavier walked away with the gold, bronze goes to Havoc for calling Hank "Bozo," and silver to Hank for telling Mystique that she was only beautiful when she wasn't herself.

But this is why I loved it!  There was character momentum and Erik was a badass Mossad agent without an agency to back him up.  And the great powers did what they do, which was unite to face an apparently greater enemy (the Soviets were our friends while we fought the Germans; then the Germans were our friends while we didn't directly fight the Soviets; allying against an apparently greater threat was perfect Cold War logic).  

Could've done with Darwin surviving and Emma Frost having an actual motivation, to be sure, but overall I am now wholly invested in Mystique/Magneto(/Xavier or any combination thereof).  What abbreviation are we using, and is the fandom eligible for Yuletide?  I hear there's a kink meme, but I haven't gone looking to find whether there is good stuff there.

Comments

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

I can't see Magneto as the better man here. He's convinced that mutants and normals CANNOT live together in peace.

I think it would be basically impossible for Xavier to truly be naive, since he's telepathic. He KNOWS the horrible things that people think about mutants. OTOH, this also gives him the knowledge that it's impossible for the quest for mutant acceptance to be anything other than a long, painful struggle.

[rivkat]

Well, Erik has just seen really compelling evidence that humans will put aside all other differences--including the ones that were about to start a nuclear war--to attack mutants, so I think he's entitled to some skepticism about whether they'll rethink without a show of force. He's right that they aren't living in peace, and the question is whether there is any hope, but I can see why he'd think the gesture ought to come from the humans given what just happened.

I would be more able to accept the idea that Xavier really understands the world if Xavier had ever shown anything other than naivete in the film itself. Relevant topics he perhaps should have understood more about: how life is if you can't pass; how it is if you aren't wealthy; how long it will take to convince humans to live together and what it will take to do so, instead of thinking it's cool to show the most paranoid branch of the US government powers that, from anyone's perspective, are truly terrifying: mind control and mind alteration; not even mutants like having that shit done to them! Xavier doesn't have to read minds, and he doesn't seem to as a matter of course, only to find specific information, which may be why he's failed to develop understanding of how it's like to live as someone different from him.

[fanaddict]

Wandering through from a friend's page, although I'm going to friend you on LJ and here if that's ok?

Relevant topics he perhaps should have understood more about: how life is if you can't pass; how it is if you aren't wealthy; how long it will take to convince humans to live together and what it will take to do so

I just wrote a post about why I think this movie needed to expand upon Charles becoming paralyzed at the end because I think it could be essential to how he goes from the Charles Xavier in this movie to Prof X later on, man who can empathize with a rock and seems to understand that humans could easily turn on mutants but some won't and others can be taught not to. I think it's intentional that XM:FC Charles is shown as being completely unaware of how his white, straight-assumed, rich man's privilege defines how he views the world. His mutation is easily hidden and so he can "pass" so easily he seems to view himself as more a human with gifts than mutant. He doesn't understand what it is to be Other. I think the movie should have added on maybe 5 more minutes as Charles learns from his wheelchair what it's like to be an Other in an able-bodied world. He obviously realized his mistake with Mystique (whose journey was very well shown I thought), and he saw to his shock how the humans reacted with immediate hostility to the mutants after they saved their lives. At the end, Charles got his assumptions shaken up about several things, but I honestly think it's learning to be an Other that is that final transition to Prof X. Maybe that's for the sequel? I hope so, but I'm not completely sure the writers/directors quite understand that so much of what he did, so many mistakes were from his position of unconscious privilege.

[rivkat]

Welcome! I crosspost everything but have declared bankruptcy over at LJ; DW is my main home now.

I see your point--Xavier definitely needs to go through a journey to become the more practical man we meet later. I would like to see him understanding that he changes not because the paralysis makes him different, but because the paralysis makes the world different to him: losing privilege rather than gaining magical disability grace, if you see what I mean. And I'd really like to think that the writers of a sequel could pull that off, but it's hard to be sure.

[fanaddict]

losing privilege rather than gaining magical disability grace

I hope that's how it would be shown - although it's hard to say. If they intentionally showed all the ways in which Charles was blinded by his privileged position - and since they were numerous, I do have some hope - then I would expect it to be somewhat addressed if there is a sequel. Or if there isn't, maybe in the extras/commentary for the DVD - certainly McAvoy has alluded to it slightly, in between describing the movie as a love story between Charles and Erik.

Of course, characters suddenly gaining grace without the journey is something Hollywood does all the time...