I cannot stress this enough: if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises yet, do not read any further. The success of the film depends wholly on allowing it to develop at its own pace; any spoilers therein would detract from the overall experience.
Friday, August 31, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises - EPIC Review
I cannot stress this enough: if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises yet, do not read any further. The success of the film depends wholly on allowing it to develop at its own pace; any spoilers therein would detract from the overall experience.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday at the Movies - August 27, 2012
Welcome to Week Thirty-Two of “Monday at the Movies.” This week we continue our long-promised look
at the “Alien Quadrilogy.”
Aliens (1986) – Aliens changes up a lot of what worked
in Alien, swapping director Ridley
Scott for James Cameron and moving from claustrophobic horror to expanded
action. It’s a film that tries almost
too hard to distance itself from the original, but although it’s so different
from its predecessor Aliens succeeds
on a number of levels. Returning as
Ellen Ripley, Sigourney Weaver steps up her performance as Ripley suffers from
PTSD after her encounter aboard the Nostromo; Weaver successfully evolves her
character from fearful victim into proactive hero as she leads a military
platoon against the Xenomorphs. The rest
of the cast is passable: Lance Henriksen
plays android Bishop, but he doesn’t do as much as Ian Holm in Alien, and Paul Reiser is surprisingly
scummy as a company man whose only investment is in weaponizing the creature, while
Bill Paxton plays an entertainingly campy soldier whose every line is a
catchphrase (“Game over, man! Game over!”). And the action scenes are first-rate; much as
it pains me to laud James Cameron, he does strong work filming the chaos of a
full Xenomorph squadron’s assault. But in
this element perhaps rests the film’s greatest detriment; we see entirely too much
of the Xenomorphs (indeed, we even have a name for them now). There was something to be said about the
original film’s refusal to let us see the creature fully, so an element of
horror is lost when the creatures are seen in full lighting; worse, they’re not
indestructible, which makes them mere cannon fodder at times. But what Cameron sacrifices with the visible Xenomorphs,
he reclaims with the Alien Queen, whose final sequence with Ripley and the
iconic cargo loader is as exciting as anything the film offers.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week, but stay tuned later this week for our no-spoilers-barred review of The Dark Knight Rises!
Aliens (1986) – Aliens changes up a lot of what worked
in Alien, swapping director Ridley
Scott for James Cameron and moving from claustrophobic horror to expanded
action. It’s a film that tries almost
too hard to distance itself from the original, but although it’s so different
from its predecessor Aliens succeeds
on a number of levels. Returning as
Ellen Ripley, Sigourney Weaver steps up her performance as Ripley suffers from
PTSD after her encounter aboard the Nostromo; Weaver successfully evolves her
character from fearful victim into proactive hero as she leads a military
platoon against the Xenomorphs. The rest
of the cast is passable: Lance Henriksen
plays android Bishop, but he doesn’t do as much as Ian Holm in Alien, and Paul Reiser is surprisingly
scummy as a company man whose only investment is in weaponizing the creature, while
Bill Paxton plays an entertainingly campy soldier whose every line is a
catchphrase (“Game over, man! Game over!”). And the action scenes are first-rate; much as
it pains me to laud James Cameron, he does strong work filming the chaos of a
full Xenomorph squadron’s assault. But in
this element perhaps rests the film’s greatest detriment; we see entirely too much
of the Xenomorphs (indeed, we even have a name for them now). There was something to be said about the
original film’s refusal to let us see the creature fully, so an element of
horror is lost when the creatures are seen in full lighting; worse, they’re not
indestructible, which makes them mere cannon fodder at times. But what Cameron sacrifices with the visible Xenomorphs,
he reclaims with the Alien Queen, whose final sequence with Ripley and the
iconic cargo loader is as exciting as anything the film offers.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week, but stay tuned later this week for our no-spoilers-barred review of The Dark Knight Rises!
Monday, August 20, 2012
Monday at the Movies - August 20, 2012
Welcome to Week Thirty-One of “Monday at the Movies.” With the summer blockbuster season officially
closed (I, The Cinema King, decree it – so let it be written, so let it be
done), and in the wake of Prometheus,
it’s time for that long-promised look at the “Alien Quadrilogy.”
Alien (1979) – Ridley
Scott has been mostly canonized for Alien,
and not without reason; more than thirty years later the film remains frighteningly
effective and gruesomely imaginative, even with the lights on (how wonderful
this film must have been in a full darkened theater!). The story, a hybrid of science fiction and
horror tropes, mutates frequently, much like its eponymous creature, so that
the audience never gets a comfortable handle on things; instead, we’re put on
edge at every twist and turn. The cast doesn’t
do Oscar-caliber work, but they too are pivotal in subverting expectation, particularly
Sigourney Weaver, in a star-making performance as the heroine Ripley, and Ian
Holm, in brilliant creepy form as the shady scientist Ash. As with Prometheus,
this is a film that functions as much on a visceral level as an
intellectual/aesthetic one, with a pervasive feeling of suspenseful dread over the
whole affair. Scott wisely knows how
much to show and how much to conceal, such that the creature might even be
behind your sofa (you’d best make sure it’s not). But unlike its prequel successor, Alien never aspires beyond its ability;
we don’t need to know why the crew of the Nostromo
is in space, nor do they have any goals but survival – nor, in this case, do
they need them. This is an insular and
claustrophobic film which feels as taut as its scope. Kudos especially to H.R. Giger, whose
sexualized designs pervade the film and give it an offbeat sensibility that quickly
and efficiently distances Alien from
those other spaceship movies while setting an aesthetic tone for the future of
the filmed future. Effective and
intelligent, Alien deserves its
status as a cultural icon.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
Alien (1979) – Ridley
Scott has been mostly canonized for Alien,
and not without reason; more than thirty years later the film remains frighteningly
effective and gruesomely imaginative, even with the lights on (how wonderful
this film must have been in a full darkened theater!). The story, a hybrid of science fiction and
horror tropes, mutates frequently, much like its eponymous creature, so that
the audience never gets a comfortable handle on things; instead, we’re put on
edge at every twist and turn. The cast doesn’t
do Oscar-caliber work, but they too are pivotal in subverting expectation, particularly
Sigourney Weaver, in a star-making performance as the heroine Ripley, and Ian
Holm, in brilliant creepy form as the shady scientist Ash. As with Prometheus,
this is a film that functions as much on a visceral level as an
intellectual/aesthetic one, with a pervasive feeling of suspenseful dread over the
whole affair. Scott wisely knows how
much to show and how much to conceal, such that the creature might even be
behind your sofa (you’d best make sure it’s not). But unlike its prequel successor, Alien never aspires beyond its ability;
we don’t need to know why the crew of the Nostromo
is in space, nor do they have any goals but survival – nor, in this case, do
they need them. This is an insular and
claustrophobic film which feels as taut as its scope. Kudos especially to H.R. Giger, whose
sexualized designs pervade the film and give it an offbeat sensibility that quickly
and efficiently distances Alien from
those other spaceship movies while setting an aesthetic tone for the future of
the filmed future. Effective and
intelligent, Alien deserves its
status as a cultural icon.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The Bourne Legacy (2012)
As the summer blockbuster season winds to a close, The Bourne Legacy revisits a familiar
franchise with a new angle – one of the first “midquels” I’ve ever seen – and a
common twist – “Put Jeremy Renner in it.”
Both end up being profitable decisions, as The Bourne Legacy is perhaps more enjoyable than its forerunners, “Bourne
again” anew.
Taking place sometime during the events of The Bourne Ultimatum, Legacy wisely sets most of the original trilogy aside and allows filmgoers to focus not on unraveling a nebulous conspiracy but on following one man – Aaron Cross (Renner) – and his attempts to stay one step ahead of government officials (led by an extremely dedicated Edward Norton) who want him dead. Along the way he meets up with Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), a scientist coming to terms with her own involvement in the supserspy program that birthed Cross – and Jason Bourne.
After stepping into Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and representing the common-ish man in The Avengers, Jeremy Renner is wasting none of his post-Hurt Locker inertia by stepping into yet another big-league franchise. The decision to focus entirely on Renner is a daring one, since the Bourne name is synonymous with Matt Damon, but Damon’s absence here is barely noticeable, in part because Renner’s performance as an edgy superspy is extremely compelling. His Aaron Cross is a man forced into a difficult situation, and Renner is a master of switching between lethal force and a killer sense of humor; the transition never feels out of character.
But more importantly, the film crafts an interesting narrative around him that renders superfluous any appearance by Jason Bourne. Director Tony Gilroy performs an almost impossible feat by making this film virtually stand-alone, never relying on what’s come before but instead guiding us through a new corner of a shared universe. The film expands on the science behind the secret project that “created” Jason Bourne and goes deeper into the human cost of such a large-scale initiative, but it focuses more on the attempts of the government to roll up the project and obscure its existence – with Cross in the middle.
The highlight of the Bourne films has always been their intense action sequences. Quantitatively, The Bourne Legacy contains fewer, opting for a slow burn rather than a relentless string of big moments. When the film does explode, it does so with a few very well-directed sequences. I won’t spoil any by describing in too great of detail, but there’s a first-rate shoot-out and a breathtaking motorcycle chase that are as well-crafted as anything else in the franchise.
While The Bourne Legacy probably won’t be the greatest movie you’ll have seen all summer, it’s an exceptionally compelling film with thrilling action sequences and a great star who knows how to get the audience on his side. Although I can’t say for certain without rewatching the original trilogy, this may be my favorite of the Bourne films.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Monday at the Movies - August 13, 2012
Welcome to Week Thirty of “Monday at the Movies.” Following last week’s coverage of the X-Men
trilogy, this week we’re taking a look at the two prequels that have been
released thus far.
X-Men Origins:
Wolverine (2009) – As indisputably the most famous X-Man, it’s no surprise Hugh
Jackman’s Wolverine got his own spin-off, and the prequel treatment sheds light
on his mysterious past, unknown even to himself. The film goes all the way back to his
childhood with his brother Victor “Sabretooth” Creed (Liev Schreiber) through
his time as an experiment at the hands of William Stryker (Danny Huston) and
concluding with a visit to Three Mile Island and a confrontation with Weapon XI
(alias Deadpool, here played by Ryan Reynolds).
Wolverine is something of a
mixed bag; while there are truly great moments in the film, even fans of the franchise
will find this movie overstaffed.
Jackman proves himself Wolverine incarnate once more, Huston is a fine
stand-in for a young Brian Cox, and Schreiber is another in a long line of
great comic book performances, lending his Oscar-worthy chops to an ambiguous antagonist
who’s quite literally able to chew the scenery.
The story’s very interesting too, fleshing out a complicated backstory
with a deft credits montage (which could be its own movie) and a
fill-in-the-blanks attitude that resolves some of the unsolved flashbacks of X2.
But while the heart of the film is gold, it’s padded out with an overfull
cast of characters and too many undeveloped sideplots. It’s fun for insiders to see The Blob or Gambit
show up, but the film is so focused on Wolverine (and rightly so) that it barely
scratches the surface of these characters; consequently, so many characters do
so little that many of the supporting actors do little more than phone in their
performances (see Taylor Kitsch’s groan-worthy “accent” as Gambit). The film rushes to its conclusion, no doubt
because of its many side trips, but the news that a sequel will take the
newly-amnesiac Wolverine to Japan is promising, even if only to see Jackman
romp as Wolverine once more.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
– Matthew Vaughn’s period-piece prequel was one of 2011’s surprise hits; after
the bloated Wolverine’s disappointing
presentation, my expectations were low.
But First Class does so many
things right that I’m ready to say it’s the best and most enjoyable of the
X-Men films. James McAvoy and Michael
Fassbender turn in A-plus performances as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr (the
man who would be Magneto), channeling but never aping their predecessors. Their “First Class,” led by Jennifer Lawrence
as Mystique, is a ragtag group that proved before The Avengers that an ensemble superhero cast was doable, and Kevin Bacon
lends an element of well-done camp as the piece’s maniacal villain. The script is ambitious and plays its Sixties
vibe to the hilt, replete with Nazi-hunting, Cold War tension, and groovy
clothing. In the hands of a lesser
director, the script would have flopped, but Vaughn owes far more to the able
cast who breathe life into the characters, realizing fully their inner
struggles and “great responsibility.” It’s
not that comic book movies generally have bad acting; it’s that many of us aren’t
expecting Oscar-caliber. Hence the
surprising strength of First Class,
especially rising star Fassbender’s heartbreaking turn as a man for whom peace
is a waning option. Only January Jones
as the psychic Emma Frost disappoints, drifting lackadaisically through an
otherwise top-notch company. But what First Class wisely remembers ends up
being its greatest strength; for all the sturm
und drang which usually occupies the genre, superhero films are supposed to
be fun, and by the end of the film you’ll agree with Charles – “That’s a groovy
mutation.”
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week, but stay tuned for a full review of The Bourne Legacy this Wednesday!
X-Men Origins:
Wolverine (2009) – As indisputably the most famous X-Man, it’s no surprise Hugh
Jackman’s Wolverine got his own spin-off, and the prequel treatment sheds light
on his mysterious past, unknown even to himself. The film goes all the way back to his
childhood with his brother Victor “Sabretooth” Creed (Liev Schreiber) through
his time as an experiment at the hands of William Stryker (Danny Huston) and
concluding with a visit to Three Mile Island and a confrontation with Weapon XI
(alias Deadpool, here played by Ryan Reynolds).
Wolverine is something of a
mixed bag; while there are truly great moments in the film, even fans of the franchise
will find this movie overstaffed.
Jackman proves himself Wolverine incarnate once more, Huston is a fine
stand-in for a young Brian Cox, and Schreiber is another in a long line of
great comic book performances, lending his Oscar-worthy chops to an ambiguous antagonist
who’s quite literally able to chew the scenery.
The story’s very interesting too, fleshing out a complicated backstory
with a deft credits montage (which could be its own movie) and a
fill-in-the-blanks attitude that resolves some of the unsolved flashbacks of X2.
But while the heart of the film is gold, it’s padded out with an overfull
cast of characters and too many undeveloped sideplots. It’s fun for insiders to see The Blob or Gambit
show up, but the film is so focused on Wolverine (and rightly so) that it barely
scratches the surface of these characters; consequently, so many characters do
so little that many of the supporting actors do little more than phone in their
performances (see Taylor Kitsch’s groan-worthy “accent” as Gambit). The film rushes to its conclusion, no doubt
because of its many side trips, but the news that a sequel will take the
newly-amnesiac Wolverine to Japan is promising, even if only to see Jackman
romp as Wolverine once more.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
– Matthew Vaughn’s period-piece prequel was one of 2011’s surprise hits; after
the bloated Wolverine’s disappointing
presentation, my expectations were low.
But First Class does so many
things right that I’m ready to say it’s the best and most enjoyable of the
X-Men films. James McAvoy and Michael
Fassbender turn in A-plus performances as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr (the
man who would be Magneto), channeling but never aping their predecessors. Their “First Class,” led by Jennifer Lawrence
as Mystique, is a ragtag group that proved before The Avengers that an ensemble superhero cast was doable, and Kevin Bacon
lends an element of well-done camp as the piece’s maniacal villain. The script is ambitious and plays its Sixties
vibe to the hilt, replete with Nazi-hunting, Cold War tension, and groovy
clothing. In the hands of a lesser
director, the script would have flopped, but Vaughn owes far more to the able
cast who breathe life into the characters, realizing fully their inner
struggles and “great responsibility.” It’s
not that comic book movies generally have bad acting; it’s that many of us aren’t
expecting Oscar-caliber. Hence the
surprising strength of First Class,
especially rising star Fassbender’s heartbreaking turn as a man for whom peace
is a waning option. Only January Jones
as the psychic Emma Frost disappoints, drifting lackadaisically through an
otherwise top-notch company. But what First Class wisely remembers ends up
being its greatest strength; for all the sturm
und drang which usually occupies the genre, superhero films are supposed to
be fun, and by the end of the film you’ll agree with Charles – “That’s a groovy
mutation.”
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week, but stay tuned for a full review of The Bourne Legacy this Wednesday!
Monday, August 6, 2012
Monday at the Movies - August 6, 2012
Welcome to Week Twenty-Nine of “Monday at the Movies.” This week I’ll be covering the original X-Men
trilogy. (The prequels will be getting
their own post further down the line.)
X-Men (2000) – In
many ways, we comic book movie fans owe a lot to Bryan Singer, who demonstrated
in this film that the genre was a viable one beyond the self-parody of the
Schumacher era. Singer wisely opts to
throw viewers into the midst of the mythology without a lengthy origin
sequence; we join Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) as they meet
the X-Men, a group of powerful mutants led by Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in
opposition to the evil Magneto (Ian McKellen).
Using Wolverine and Rogue as entry points is genius; diehard fans
already love Wolverine, and newcomers will find Jackman one of the more
engaging comics-to-film translations.
But the film is populated by fantastic actors – including Halle Berry,
who doesn’t do much but does it well – and none are more brilliant than Stewart
and McKellen, who as dueling foes are more Shakespeare than Stan Lee (who
cameos, by the way – his first in a Marvel movie). Even James Marsden, who’s usual more
milquetoast than Patrick Wilson, proves a good fit as the stick-in-the-mud
Cyclops. As director, Singer does a great
job making the soap opera source material accessible and streamlined without
sacrificing the emotional complexity of the characters; there are hundreds of
X-Men, but Singer picks the big ones and never loses sight of the fact that their
interactions are more interesting than the giant machine Magneto builds for the
surreal climax of the film. Above all,
this is a film that feels real, that winks
not ironically but lovingly at its source material, acknowledging its depth
without overloading its audience.
X2: X-Men United (2003) – Singer proves the
rule here with a comic book sequel that is leaps and bounds better than its
predecessor (which, if you’ll recall, was no slouch). Unfettered by the necessity to introduce the
characters and their world, Singer dives headlong into the central problem of
acceptance by pitting the X-Men against military bureaucrat William Stryker
(Brian Cox), whose policy of indiscriminate mutant genocide unites heroes and
villains. Everything successful about
the original stands here, as well, turned up to 11; the acting excels, from
McKellen as caged animal Magneto to newcomer Cox, whose performance drips sadistic
menace with each drawled consonant. The
cast of characters is beefed up a little, but never disproportionately beyond
what the film can handle and never without significant narrative and thematic
purpose; each addition deepens rather than overfills. X2,
perhaps more than its antecedent, operates on the level of metaphor, something
I really want my superhero films to do.
Here the metaphor is on the nature of intolerance, which Singer carries
off without being overbearing; in one standout scene, among my favorites in the
trilogy, a mutant’s mother asks, “Have you tried not being a mutant?” It’s an oddly quiet moment in a summer
blockbuster, but it’s one that reminds us what’s at stake behind the flash of
optic blasts and the snikt of razor
claws. Bonus points for its clever link
with Stryker’s abuse of his own mutant son, which reminds us that bigotry isn’t
a spectrum. Even the previous film’s
villain recognizes this, and McKellen’s nuanced return is a more than welcome
one.
X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006) – When Singer
stepped aside from his pet franchise to direct Superman Returns, Brett Ratner stepped in. It’s a series of bad decisions that led to a pair
of lackluster films (more on Superman
Returns later), which is a shame because there are obvious moments where X-Men 3 is on the right track and other
moments when it obviously goes awry. The
introduction of the “mutant cure” is in many ways a perfect end to a trilogy
about what to do about heterogeneity, but Ratner seems to overcompensate for getting
a shot at the X-Men toy box by cramming the film with scores of new characters
who don’t do much at all. (Ask yourself
how many of their names you can remember.)
Worse, the film kills off some of the more interesting characters very
early on, presumably to make room for the new faces, but for my money the film
never really recovers from (spoiler warning) the death of Professor X. The film trades in clichés, as when a
military drill sergeant is played by R. Lee Ermey or when a character repeats,
dead serious, the bromide about a woman scorned. The climax is among the better action
sequences in the trilogy, if only on a purely visceral level; Magneto’s
manipulation of the Golden Gate Bridge is a brilliant visual, and the execution
of the “fastball special” is as fun on film as it is on panel. But the film fumbles so much before that
point – and butchers the “Dark Phoenix” plotline almost beyond recognition –
that X-Men 3 tries to be too much and
ultimately never succeeds at being much at all.
The trilogy deserved better.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
X-Men (2000) – In
many ways, we comic book movie fans owe a lot to Bryan Singer, who demonstrated
in this film that the genre was a viable one beyond the self-parody of the
Schumacher era. Singer wisely opts to
throw viewers into the midst of the mythology without a lengthy origin
sequence; we join Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) as they meet
the X-Men, a group of powerful mutants led by Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in
opposition to the evil Magneto (Ian McKellen).
Using Wolverine and Rogue as entry points is genius; diehard fans
already love Wolverine, and newcomers will find Jackman one of the more
engaging comics-to-film translations.
But the film is populated by fantastic actors – including Halle Berry,
who doesn’t do much but does it well – and none are more brilliant than Stewart
and McKellen, who as dueling foes are more Shakespeare than Stan Lee (who
cameos, by the way – his first in a Marvel movie). Even James Marsden, who’s usual more
milquetoast than Patrick Wilson, proves a good fit as the stick-in-the-mud
Cyclops. As director, Singer does a great
job making the soap opera source material accessible and streamlined without
sacrificing the emotional complexity of the characters; there are hundreds of
X-Men, but Singer picks the big ones and never loses sight of the fact that their
interactions are more interesting than the giant machine Magneto builds for the
surreal climax of the film. Above all,
this is a film that feels real, that winks
not ironically but lovingly at its source material, acknowledging its depth
without overloading its audience.
X2: X-Men United (2003) – Singer proves the
rule here with a comic book sequel that is leaps and bounds better than its
predecessor (which, if you’ll recall, was no slouch). Unfettered by the necessity to introduce the
characters and their world, Singer dives headlong into the central problem of
acceptance by pitting the X-Men against military bureaucrat William Stryker
(Brian Cox), whose policy of indiscriminate mutant genocide unites heroes and
villains. Everything successful about
the original stands here, as well, turned up to 11; the acting excels, from
McKellen as caged animal Magneto to newcomer Cox, whose performance drips sadistic
menace with each drawled consonant. The
cast of characters is beefed up a little, but never disproportionately beyond
what the film can handle and never without significant narrative and thematic
purpose; each addition deepens rather than overfills. X2,
perhaps more than its antecedent, operates on the level of metaphor, something
I really want my superhero films to do.
Here the metaphor is on the nature of intolerance, which Singer carries
off without being overbearing; in one standout scene, among my favorites in the
trilogy, a mutant’s mother asks, “Have you tried not being a mutant?” It’s an oddly quiet moment in a summer
blockbuster, but it’s one that reminds us what’s at stake behind the flash of
optic blasts and the snikt of razor
claws. Bonus points for its clever link
with Stryker’s abuse of his own mutant son, which reminds us that bigotry isn’t
a spectrum. Even the previous film’s
villain recognizes this, and McKellen’s nuanced return is a more than welcome
one.
X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006) – When Singer
stepped aside from his pet franchise to direct Superman Returns, Brett Ratner stepped in. It’s a series of bad decisions that led to a pair
of lackluster films (more on Superman
Returns later), which is a shame because there are obvious moments where X-Men 3 is on the right track and other
moments when it obviously goes awry. The
introduction of the “mutant cure” is in many ways a perfect end to a trilogy
about what to do about heterogeneity, but Ratner seems to overcompensate for getting
a shot at the X-Men toy box by cramming the film with scores of new characters
who don’t do much at all. (Ask yourself
how many of their names you can remember.)
Worse, the film kills off some of the more interesting characters very
early on, presumably to make room for the new faces, but for my money the film
never really recovers from (spoiler warning) the death of Professor X. The film trades in clichés, as when a
military drill sergeant is played by R. Lee Ermey or when a character repeats,
dead serious, the bromide about a woman scorned. The climax is among the better action
sequences in the trilogy, if only on a purely visceral level; Magneto’s
manipulation of the Golden Gate Bridge is a brilliant visual, and the execution
of the “fastball special” is as fun on film as it is on panel. But the film fumbles so much before that
point – and butchers the “Dark Phoenix” plotline almost beyond recognition –
that X-Men 3 tries to be too much and
ultimately never succeeds at being much at all.
The trilogy deserved better.
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
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