“Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long.” – Logan
SYNOPSIS: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X somewhere on the Mexican border. However, Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces. – via IMDB
Finally! Got out to see Logan, something I have been looking forward to, but also slightly wary of after The Wolverine, which I absolutely detested. I was hoping that this would be the movie we have all been waiting for for the Wolverine, and let me tell you, it totally is! Hugh Jackman returns as our favourite animalistic antihero, and man, he was just perfect again. As always.
Logan definitely touts a darker, more grown up story, and is so much more human than I expected. This movie isn’t about let’s save the day and take down the bad guys. No, this one looks more at Logan, his relationship with Professor X, and how he is getting on in life, yet is still angry and bitter about many things. Ever the antihero, I suppose. Logan has feeling, and this is evident every step of the way. There is some humour tossed in, nice and dark, but for the most part this is quite an intense drama, and the Wolverine movie we have been waiting for for years.
The effects were really good, and the movie was shot well. You were engaged from the off by both the story as well as the way it all came together, and the movie touts some excellent choreography, which we always wish to see when the Wolverine is out there. The cast is good, too, and I was particularly impressed with Boyd Holbrook, an actor I am familiar with from Narcos. While he was good in that show, he absolutely shone here, and I found myself incredibly surprised. Also, big fan of his fancy arm.
Logan is heavy, dark, emotional, and just what the doctor ordered. It is a solid outing that will linger for some time after, and definitely cuts to the bone. Longtime fans will be particularly thrilled with how it all comes together.
“Everything they’ve built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one!” – Apocalypse
SYNOPSIS: With the emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan. – via IMDB
Yes! I finally went to see this. My husband wasn’t thrilled (he loves going to the cinema), but he knew it is one of the few superhero movies I will insist on seeing in the cinema. Screw that, any new movie in this franchise will have me tripping out, no matter how many installments. I know, it sounds mad. I think the reviews have been unjustly harsh towards X-Men: Apocalypse, though it is by no means a perfect movie. It definitely doesn’t have the wow factor of Days of Future Past, and the plot is a little messy (okay, maybe a dash more than a little), and there were some holes, and the pacing was a bit off. The villain, Apocalypse, was also quite disappointing in the long run. As much as I like Oscar Isaac, this was really not good. There was so much more that could have been done with this character! His rising and the X-Men battling him was so rushed and quick, his true power and danger is never really realised, which is a pity. Besides that, the cast is, as is to be expected, excellent. McAvoy is a fantastic Charles, and Fassbender, of course, delivers as the tortured Erik. I wish that the two of them had been given more screen time, if I am being honest, but I loved them when they were there. Also, Nicholas Hoult could have done with more screen time, too. Okay, I think one of the large flaws of the film is that there are a ton of characters, and none are really done any real justice. Evan Peters returns and owns as Quicksilver, which I loved. I must say though, his hit scene from DOFP was recreated here, and as entertaining as it was, it wasn’t perfect like the last one, and didn’t thrill me as much. It also felt squished in, like it was expected. Fun, but a little off. Sophie Turner really impressed me as Jean Grey (and trust me, this was something I was extremely leery about), and Tye Sheridan’s Scott Summers didn’t manage to peeve me endlessly, which in and of itself is a feat. Last but not least, I want to talk about how awesome Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler is. I was so stoked to see the Nightcrawler return, and to see him get such a large role was fantastic. Happy as can be! Look, he is no Alan Cumming, but he was still wonderful, and I am hoping to see more of him in future movies. Also, a young Storm? Yay! Yes, I had a total ball with all these things. I actually think this film is going to appeal more to people who love the X-Men franchise, and not necessarily newcomers. That being said, I enjoyed the story, but didn’t love it, it was flawed, but a fun film, the effects were good, but there were issues, but I would definitely recommend it for a watch. I really am such a fan of going back to see how the X-Men formed, how the relationships were, how everything was before, and I really think a great job is being done with that. I am going to stop now, before this review gets excessively long.
I was so stoked about X-Men: First Class. I mean really. There were just way too many things that were going for it for it to bomb, so there was that. It was also nice to have a less Wolverine-centric movie than we have seen in a while, though I must admit that the Wolverine certainly had a cameo that was just perfect on so many levels.
If you have a scene that you would like featured, drop me a mail at sporadiczoe@hotmail.com with a picture/gif/video of the scene and an explanation as to why (should you want to include it).
Taking from Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s comic arc of the same name, The Wolverine is set after the traumatic events of X-Men: The Last Stand, following Logan (Hugh Jackman) whose past come back to haunt him. A Japanese soldier who he saved from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) invites him to Tokyo so that he can share his parting gift of mortality, when his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto) is caught up in a Yakuza plot.
As the sixth film in the X-Men franchise, I’m sure many were wondering if it was really necessary to have another solo Wolverine film, especially after the travesty that was Origins, and how close it came to killing off the series altogether. But surprisingly, The Wolverine is quite decent. Jackman, as always, delivers as the titular character, but this time around he adds a new level of emotional depth to the role, since Wolverine has become a directionless soldier, trying to forget his past, or as one of the characters call him: “a Ronin, a samurai without a master”. It’s clear that he’s fed up of being immortal and outliving everyone he loves, a point which is hit home by the recurring hallucinations of Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen), who still plagues his nightmares after her demise in the third film. And despite being a clichéd technique, it serves its purpose, and Jannsen serves as the embodiment of Logan’s guilt. Another aspect that the director, James Mangold, examined was Wolverine’s immortality, and by inhibiting this, his character is made more vulnerable and stripped to the bare bones (at one point quite literally).
Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine
One of the major flaws of the first Wolverine film was the severe mismanagement of supporting characters, and to a smaller extent, the problem remains. This is especially evident in the antagonists of the film, since both Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) and the Silver Samurai weren’t particularly memorable, and their motivations were a little sketchy. They just felt as if they were there so that Wolverine could have some kind of threat. The other minor character that suffers is Mariko, since she isn’t really developed apart from a half-hearted romance sub-plot that never really comes into fruition. However, one character that really surprised me was Yukio (Rila Fukushima) a precognitive mutant assassin that takes Logan to Japan. Her backstory was layered, without it getting in the way, and she had some decent martial arts sequences that added to the setting. In fact, Yukio is one character that I wouldn’t mind coming back, as there is still a decent amount of potential left for her.
Rila Fukushima as Yukio
The action scenes were quite grounded, apart from the climax of the film, which descended into the ‘suspension of disbelief’ territory. Yet by reducing his healing capabilities, it was refreshing to see Wolverine taking on ninjas and Yakuza members with the potential of him not walking away than unscathed. This was a nice contrast to the huge clash of indestructible characters that we have grown accustomed to in comic book films of late. One particular highlight was a scene on top of a bullet train, which was better than I thought it was going to be. Unfortunately, it is let down by a mediocre and forgettable plot that is used simply to engineer these situations.
The Wolverine was a film that nobody asked for, but I’m not upset that we got it. It furthered the development of Hugh Jackman’s character, but the intense focus on him impacts the secondary characters. The plot is a little lacking, held together by some good action sequences. After five major film appearances and a cameo, people have started wondering if he is outgrowing the role, but with a central role in the upcoming Days of Future Past, and a third solo film on its way, Jackman’s Wolverine is here to stay, for a while longer anyway.
Thank you Matt for contributing this review for my X-Men Blogathon, this has been most fun!
I’ll get to the point of this review straight away. X-Men: The Last Stand is complete and utter shit. I know I don’t speak for everyone but you’ll struggle to find anyone who really likes the film. It would take about about a week for me to explain all of the aspects that I hate but by then Days of Future Past will have been released and you’ll all stop listening. You see, talking about the movie actually makes me nauseous so I’ll do it through the medium of art (let’s see if those 8 years of study at the finest art colleges* in the world pay off).
* this may or may not be a lie.
Thank you so much Mikey! Really appreciate this, and love the layout! Really sticking to the theme haha!
So when Zoë shared her plans to have an X-Men Blogathon to prepare for the upcoming Days of Future Past, I was totally in. I’d been thinking I ought to do something to get in the spirit, and I think this is just the ticket! Kudos for the awesome idea, Zoë!
When given a choice between the X-Men films to review, I immediately snatched up X2: X-Men United. In my opinion, this is the X-Men film to beat. Let’s talk about why, shall we?
Synopsis: “The X-Men band together to find a mutant assassin who has made an attempt on the President’s life, while the Mutant Academy is attacked by military forces.” –www.imdb.com
Why it’s awesome:
That opening! X2 doesn’t waste any time getting right into some action. I mean, an assassination attempt on the president within the first five minutes? I’m paying attention! And as for the would-be assassin…
NIGHTCRAWLER IS THE BEST. Seriously, he might be my favorite thing about this film. Played brilliantly by Alan Cumming, Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler is just too freaking cool. His look, his power, his personality—I feel like this film nails it. He looks scary, but he has a heart of gold, and with only a few details, you get a sense of his tortured past. Plus, I love the designs on his skin. “One for every sin,” he claims. Very nice touch.
Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier. Yes, Professor X is a character we’re introduced to in the first film, but he continues to shine here as the strong, wise, soft-spoken patriarch of the X-Men family.
Hugh Jackman just…is Wolverine. At this point, I do believe Logan a.k.a. Wolverine has been a bit overexposed (he has a huge role in every X-Men film except First Class, where he’s limited to a brief albeit delightful cameo), but this is the surly tough guy’s second film appearance, and it’s great.
Ian freakin’ McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto. So much yes. Aside from Tom Hiddleston’s irresistibly fun Loki, McKellen’s Magneto is my very favorite Marvel villain. He’s wonderfully suave, clever, and brutal, and his complicated “frenemy” relationship with Professor X is brilliantly portrayed. Also, his prison breakout scene is arguably the best moment of the film. Sheer awesomeness.
Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkholme a.k.a. Mystique. We don’t know much about her, but what we do know is that she’s sexy, sassy, smart, and an undeniable badass. She has some great moments in this film, but my personal favorite is when she breaks into William Stryker’s facility, then slides through a closing door while flipping her enemies the bird. Win.
The coolness of Colossus (Daniel Cudmore). We may not know much about him, but man does he look awesome.
The creepy intensity of William Stryker (Brian Cox). It’s hard for a plain old human villain to measure up to mutants, but Stryker does the job perfectly.
Bobby’s “coming out” scene. When Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) leads a group of mutants to his family’s house, he has to confess to them what he really is. The family’s reaction is less than favorable. You can’t help drawing parallels between this and the struggles of the gay community. It’s a smart tie-in to a very relevant social issue.
The Phoenix teasers. There are a couple of them in this film, and even though Phoenix a.k.a. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) doesn’t turn out quite like fans had hoped, the hints of power are still pretty great.
Yuriko Oyama a.k.a. Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu). When those adamantium claws sprout from her fingertips and she takes on Wolverine, it’s the best.
That scene near the end where the mutants talk to the president. Everything freezes, it’s dark and stormy, the mutants speak from the shadows…Mr. Prez, you’d better LISTEN!
In general, I just think the script is really sharp for this one. The dialogue is great, the pacing pretty spot-on, and the story, though ambitious, works well. Kudos, X2!
Clearly, I love this one. But if I have to pick on a few things…
The (few) things that bother me:
I don’t love Jean, Rogue (Anna Paquin), or Storm (Halle Berry), and I hate that because they’re all such potentially awesome characters. The problem is Famke Janssen can’t act her way out of a paper bag, Rogue doesn’t have nearly enough sass and is a little whiny (I blame the writers more than Paquin), and Storm is miscast as well as sans the cool African accent she is supposed to have. I read a list the other day of miscast X-Men where the writer suggested Angela Bassett instead of Berry in the role. Anyone who has seen Bassett in American Horror Story: Coven knows why that idea made me giddy.
BEST. STORM. EVER.
I hate the Logan/Jean/Scott love triangle. Is that a thing in the comics? I hate it. I hate how it makes Scott a.k.a. Cyclops (James Marsden) act toward Logan, I hate how Jean kind of leads Logan on, and I hate how it makes Logan a bit mopey. Do you guys feel the same? I don’t know. Maybe the prevalence of love triangles in, like, every recent book and movie has made me bitter toward them.
make them staaaaahp!
Stryker’s team breaks into the X-Mansion like it’s child’s play. Isn’t that place supposed to be super duper guarded? I feel like Professor X would’ve put more thought into that.
John Allerdyce a.k.a. Pyro (Aaron Stanford) is just an annoying psycho. There’s not much done to develop his character, and by the time he abandons the X-Men for Team Magneto, I’m like, “Whatever, bro.” Could not care less. Do we even really need him?
So if you’ve gotten this far, I’m sure you don’t care about spoilers, but SPOILERS! So Jean heroically sacrifices herself by stepping outside of a jet full of her X-Buddies and powering it up before rushing waters come to drown them. Here’s my question: Why couldn’t homegirl power up the jet from the inside? I guess you could argue that she also has to hold back the waters, but earlier in the film she stopped a missile from inside the jet. I see no reason she couldn’t hold back the water from inside it, too.
GET IN THE JET, YOU DUMB BITCH.
Summary:
I love this film. In my opinion, it’s the best X-Men so far (we’ll see how Days of Future Past stacks up), and it does all the things a good sequel is supposed to do: show us more of the characters we love while introducing a few awesome new ones, thicken the plot and put it on a grander scale, and improve upon and/or equal the previous film in greatness. Check, check, and check. This is one of my favorite superhero films for good reason.
My Rating: 9/10 (Probably an A on my rating system)
Thanks so much for letting me participate, Zoë! X-Men Blogathon ruuuuuules! 😀
Thanks a million for participating Cara, this was an awesome review! I would have loved to see Bassett rock the Storm role!
“Why do none of you understand what I’m trying to do? Those people down there – they control our fate and the fate of every other mutant!” – Magneto
Yes, I know this was something I reviewed a while ago, and I have been threatening to review it from scratch again along with all the films that fall a part of this canon and just never got around to it. Here I am updating it for my X-Men run (finally)!
A new generation of man has emerged, and this generation is being drawn into the public eye more and more, and needs defenders to back it up. This is the generation of the mutants, their genetics altered from the average person, making them irrevocably different and ultimately special. Dr Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) is the public face for the mutants, defending them and attempting to veto ridiculous votes such as registries and acts to segregate the mutants from the rest of the American population. The forerunner against the mutants is Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), and nothing he learns will sway his stance on the subject.
“Mankind is not evil, just… uninformed.” – Professor Charles Xavier
Marie, a.k.a. Rogue (Anna Paquin) is on the run after almost killing the first boy she ever kissed, and meets up with Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) at a bar outside a town, pegging him for being different. She sneaks in a lift with him, and he finds her. They are ambushed by a group of mutants, and are saved by another group. Wolverine and Rogue are taken back to an area that they learn is a school for the mutants, established by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Here they have a place where they are looked after, accepted and taught life skills. Being the loner, Wolverine wants out, and is intent on making that happen. He is, however, very taken with Jean Grey, and her boyfriend Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops (James Marsden) is not impressed at all.
Soon they learn that Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto (Ian McKellan), is after Wolverine, and they are sure it has to do with his abilities to heal. He believes that a war is imminent, and has en evil master plan to win no matter the costs. Magneto sends in Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) to capture the senator, and from there his evil plan becomes slowly unveiled. Professor X is convinced that given enough time the normal people will accept the mutants, being very much the idealist. As a realist, Magneto and his troubled past knows that people do not accept that which they do not know, they ostracize it, and make it suffer. He wants to hurry up the genetic mutations in people. Senator Kelly escapes and rushes off to Jean Grey at the mutant academy, not knowing where else to go now that he is one of them, and desperate to survive this. Magneto kidnaps Rogue, and Professor X uses Cerebro to locate her. Suddenly it makes sense to all of them why she would be the one. He is willing to transfer his powers to her briefly to implement what he is too weak to do, and not willing to die for.
“Mutants are not the ones mankind should fear.” – Dr Jean Grey
The X-Men need to gear up and get ready to fight Magneto and his vile plans to save the rest of the world from being wiped out. Magneto has no patience, and also no desire to let people choose their own paths, their own destiny. Wolverine feels he owes Rogue, and is intent on saving her, but will he be in time? The X-Men band together to fight evil, but will they save the girl? Will they be able to save the people?
“If they have anything that can pick up our jet, they deserve to catch us.” – Cyclops
A 7.5/10. I have enjoyed this movie since I was a child. The first time I watched it I literally finished it, rewound the VHS and started all over again. You know how kids can get? Obsessive, I think, would be the only way to summarize it correctly. So because of that I have a soft spot for it. The effects were not bad for their time, but are a little dubious should you look them over too closely now. The story is alright, but has a few holes, and is slightly rushed, but not to the extent that none of it makes sense or that nothing sinks in. Hugh Jackman is so perfectly cast as the Wolverine, and I don’t think anyone could play it as successfully as he did. I am putting it out there right off the bat so it has been say, I have never been a fan of Scott Summers or the red that makes him Cyclops. I think he is a total chop, and I was not a fan of the casting, though it might be more due to disliking the character than anything else, not so much the actor. Halle Berry really had terrible acting skills, and she is truly not amazing, and doesn’t really bring much to the story. Her character was incredibly weak. Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart rocked their roles (I expected nothing less), and have a great chemistry to show how the friends have turned on one another, though still respect each other. Very well done for that! Every time I see the piece of Magneto in the concentration camps I get to sad. Definitely worth checking out, and a really fun set of films to watch. This is definitely a good entry to the superhero genre. X-Men truly sports a fantastic cast and is very well done and holds up pretty well, even after all this time.
Finally! Got out to see Logan, something I have been looking forward to, but also slightly wary of after The Wolverine, which I absolutely detested. I was hoping that this would be the movie we have all been waiting for for the Wolverine, and let me tell you, it totally is! Hugh Jackman returns as our favourite animalistic antihero, and man, he was just perfect again. As always.
The Sporadic Chronicles 