by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology
So I basically just saw the new X-Men movie, X-Men: First Class. In a nutshell, I didn't leave angry, which is real progress! I wavered on the decision to see it, because I was so angry about the state of comic book movies in general and X-Men in particular.
But comic book movies have long suffered from the very thing that draws people into the theater: the coolness factor. I blame CGI, mostly: much of what happens onscreen in modern comic movies have only been possible in the wake of recent computer imaging technology. So you fill the screen with marvelous displays of impossible superpowers, a dazzling lightshow of nifty graphics that overshadows most everything else. At the cost of what, though? X3 managed to ruin the Phoenix Saga, which is really like the pizza of the Marvel universe--it's such a terrific story that it boggles the mind how you could screw it up. You put cheese on bread and melt it! You give too much power to a character that will later go crazy and require her own sacrifice! It's like basic math, people.
But all this takes away from the fundamentals of the superhero mythos that draws young kids into the comics: the battle of being your best self versus the easiest, the struggle of difference, the burden of exception. There's a resonant cultural importance in comic books (Doubt me? read this), and most of the superhero films that get made completely bypass this altogether. People start reading for the nifty powers; they stay for the humanity of it all.
So First Class. You see, there's a lot about the film that's just...awkward; aside from the scenes between Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, much of the story felt like a second draft revision, and the final product was still an edit or two away.
Where First Class succeeds is surprising, because it has nothing to do with the title premise. The 'first class' of the title, the kid mutants that will make up Professor X's first students at his Institute for Gifted Youngsters, are a largely lackluster bunch. It's these scenes that lost me--which is too bad, because if the franchise continues, perhaps some thought should have gone into choosing a class that was, I don't know, interesting outside of their allotted ten minutes of CGI wizardry. I mean, they're cute, but they're not the real first class, you know? Where, I ask, is the rich playboy disowned by his father for his deviation? The orphaned Alaskan boy who turns his pain into stoicism? The requisite Smurfette?
No, where First Class succeeds is as an entry into the much larger and longstanding discussion that rattles through the bones of all comic book movies--the question of adaptation versus accuracy. X-Men: First Class largely succeeds as an apology to the franchise, after the wet-blanket flavouring of X3 and the responding thud of Wolverine: Origins. First Class stands as an anomaly, of sorts, given the devotion of most comic book fans and their derision towards adaptation: I think most who saw it remember the odd feeling of watching Watchmen on the screen a few years ago, and realizing that in trying to replicate Moore's vision exactly (and attempt to appease its fans) all the audacity and thrilling verve of that same vision came out in the wash. There's such a thing as being too faithful.
Let me tell you, as a former X fangirl, there's very little of this film that resembles its comic origins. But is that what matters? First Class is a tidy distillery of the comic book's message about tolerance and its opposite, fear, and I quite frankly never get tired of that. What I love about the opposing world views of the X universe is that if anyone with a critical mind can see the merit to both approaches: while Charles Xavier would reinforce the much less radical view of integrating his charges into the society that hated them, Lehnsherr took the more reactionary (but understandable) defense mechanism of an eye for an eye. It's Malcolm X versus Martin Luther King Jr., though I guarantee I'm not the first to draw such parallels. And in First Class, both viewpoints are given equal screentime, much to the film's benefit: one look at Michael Fassbender's Magneto (mmm, yes please!) and you entirely understand how he evolves into a human-hating hot mess. And Charles, well, he even start talking with that calm, wizened patronizing tone that the real Professor X uses, so there's that too!
It's for that reason this needs to be said: First Class is at its heart, one of the finest bromances put to film. Let me just say this: the film features an extended montage wherein Xavier and Lehnsherr go on little road trips to find other mutants to recruit into their little club. It's cute, an all too brief bright spot of pure win in a tonally-confused two hours. "More tea, vicar?" OMG that was awesome.
And no joke, if the entire movie had been two hours of mini-Professor X and baby Magneto going on little mini-adventures and drinking champagne and wearing mod suits, smirking at each other (AND MAYBE MORE???) while hep music played in the background, that would have been the most rad. I would watch that movie at least eight times. In theaters. And also on Blu-Ray. Theirloveissopure!
"Adaptation is repetition, but repetition without replication." -Linda Hutcheon
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| Faaaassbender! Let him entertain you. |
But comic book movies have long suffered from the very thing that draws people into the theater: the coolness factor. I blame CGI, mostly: much of what happens onscreen in modern comic movies have only been possible in the wake of recent computer imaging technology. So you fill the screen with marvelous displays of impossible superpowers, a dazzling lightshow of nifty graphics that overshadows most everything else. At the cost of what, though? X3 managed to ruin the Phoenix Saga, which is really like the pizza of the Marvel universe--it's such a terrific story that it boggles the mind how you could screw it up. You put cheese on bread and melt it! You give too much power to a character that will later go crazy and require her own sacrifice! It's like basic math, people.
But all this takes away from the fundamentals of the superhero mythos that draws young kids into the comics: the battle of being your best self versus the easiest, the struggle of difference, the burden of exception. There's a resonant cultural importance in comic books (Doubt me? read this), and most of the superhero films that get made completely bypass this altogether. People start reading for the nifty powers; they stay for the humanity of it all.
*
So First Class. You see, there's a lot about the film that's just...awkward; aside from the scenes between Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, much of the story felt like a second draft revision, and the final product was still an edit or two away.
The film lands as a grossly uneven creature-- the transitions between great thematic importance and haywire levity are jarring, to say the least, and play out like wandering between the annoying, high pitched fracas of the kids' table in the kitchen while the grown up are talking sensibly and importantly in the dining room. Tonally, that makes for a confusing two hours.
Where First Class succeeds is surprising, because it has nothing to do with the title premise. The 'first class' of the title, the kid mutants that will make up Professor X's first students at his Institute for Gifted Youngsters, are a largely lackluster bunch. It's these scenes that lost me--which is too bad, because if the franchise continues, perhaps some thought should have gone into choosing a class that was, I don't know, interesting outside of their allotted ten minutes of CGI wizardry. I mean, they're cute, but they're not the real first class, you know? Where, I ask, is the rich playboy disowned by his father for his deviation? The orphaned Alaskan boy who turns his pain into stoicism? The requisite Smurfette?
 |
| Suckas, this is the only First Class my heart will acknowledge. |
Let me tell you, as a former X fangirl, there's very little of this film that resembles its comic origins. But is that what matters? First Class is a tidy distillery of the comic book's message about tolerance and its opposite, fear, and I quite frankly never get tired of that. What I love about the opposing world views of the X universe is that if anyone with a critical mind can see the merit to both approaches: while Charles Xavier would reinforce the much less radical view of integrating his charges into the society that hated them, Lehnsherr took the more reactionary (but understandable) defense mechanism of an eye for an eye. It's Malcolm X versus Martin Luther King Jr., though I guarantee I'm not the first to draw such parallels. And in First Class, both viewpoints are given equal screentime, much to the film's benefit: one look at Michael Fassbender's Magneto (mmm, yes please!) and you entirely understand how he evolves into a human-hating hot mess. And Charles, well, he even start talking with that calm, wizened patronizing tone that the real Professor X uses, so there's that too!
It's for that reason this needs to be said: First Class is at its heart, one of the finest bromances put to film. Let me just say this: the film features an extended montage wherein Xavier and Lehnsherr go on little road trips to find other mutants to recruit into their little club. It's cute, an all too brief bright spot of pure win in a tonally-confused two hours. "More tea, vicar?" OMG that was awesome.
 |
| theirloveissopure. |
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