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.

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fanaddict: a wrestler in Biel picking up both Kane and Seguin (Default)

From: [personal profile] 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...
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