X-Men: First Class.
Jun. 23rd, 2011 22:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyX-Men: First Class. Dir. Michael Vaughn. 2011.
Oh, this movie. Oh, this movie.
Okay, first off, as many other people have pointed out: still racist, sexist, victim-blaming and incapable of understanding the Holocaust, Hollywood? Yes? Okay then.
I also have to say, watching this movie, I'm so glad the 20th century is over, just so glad. I'm not saying the 21st will necessarily be/has been any better, but the 20th was the worst in human history by an as-yet unsurpassed margin.
I should note that at this point my memory of the readings I have done about the Holocaust, to say nothing of X-Men comics or even the movies, is not as sharp as it could be. I like to think I have retained the important points about all three, but I am in no way claiming to be any kind of expert.
Things that, having read a bunch of other people's posts, I was surprised by:
- The plot is not as incoherent as I was led to believe. I mean, it's kind of stupid on a structural level, and there are many other things they could have done with the story concept that would have been more awesome and gotten them to the end they wanted without, you know, all the different stupidities and fail on the way, principal of which for the purposes of this sentence is the absolute mutilation of Erik Lehnsherr's character. But that's another paragraph.
- Emma Frost is not as dumb as I had gathered, and nor is January Jones as bad an actress. I mean, I look at Emma and I think, "Oh, another smart woman who has made the best choices she could whenthe plot society is stacked against her and who doesn't believe the bullshit of the men around her!" I mean, she is a telepath, you guys! There is no way she doesn't know what a horrible piece of shit Shaw/Schmidt is and how much he doesn't give a shit about any of them.
I can't decide whether the movie thinks Shaw is actually a Nazi or not. Or rather, he's obviously the villain, but I think the movie thinks his greatest sins are 1) murdering Erik's mother and 2) plotting World War III for the sake of forcing the hand of evolution, with 3) abusing Erik a distant third, and that him being a Nazi is…a symbol or a symptom of that, rather than a symptom of the fact that he is truly an ethical wasteland? Yes, those are some of his crimes, and he deserves to die for all of them, but he actually was a Nazi, what the fuck. Oh, clearly he fancies himself to be smarter and more advanced, and flatters himself that he was just using the Nazi state system to further his own goals, but neither of those things make him any less of a Nazi. He's augmented the dehumanization of Jews, gay people, and other groups with the dehumanization of humanity as a whole along with those mutants who choose to stand with them, and we all saw Emma's projection of his vision in Charles' mind, right?
On that note, Oh My Fucking God Magneto Is Not That Stupid, OKAY. Here's the thing--both Erik and Charles are right at the end of the movie when they tell each other that all humans aren't like Shaw (who was a mutant anyway, which actually has consequences the movie doesn't realize, but let's just go with it) and that all humans aren't like Moira. (That's not actually the point, either, but the movie doesn't realize that.) And there is no way that Erik, if he's gained enough perspective on his experiences to go Nazi-hunting and to tell the Nazis in Argentina what Nazi Germany was like (and clearly he did!), would be stupid enough to believe Shaw in the submarine, to not see that he's attempting to manipulate Erik into carrying on Shaw's twisted vision: race war by other means.
I mean, Erik clearly knows that he is in a revenge tragedy ("Peace was never an option") and I suppose the movie is trying to finesse the switch from Erik the Avenger to Magneto the Supervillain (the particular to the general, in other words) by having Erik agree with Shaw, but then…either way, it's just not right by Erik's character or by historical reality. Obviously, in canon, Erik is about the whole race hatred calls for race hatred concept, but I just can't see the switch being that sudden. Revengers are supposed to die at the end, but we're supposed to believe that he switches immediately from being completely focused on killing Shaw to "mutants against humans!"? Totally incoherent at the level of characterization based on what we know from the movie. And his putting on that helmet from Shaw is a sickening symbol of all those problems.
The other thing about Charles and Erik on the level of philosophy is that Charles doesn't have a moral leg to stand on. He's just as ruthless as Erik by the end (hello, mind-wiping Moira! but see before, blatantly manipulating Oliver Platt's character), if not before, and he has no problem with killing Shaw or people who, in his own esteemed judgment, deserve it: he keeps Shaw immobilized for Erik even after Erik puts on the helmet! And yes, letting Shaw go would put Erik in danger, but it's not like Charles couldn't have done anything else but keep Shaw immobilized at that point. There's no way that, when he's trying to tell Erik to be the better man, he's talking about not killing Shaw instead of not keeping the helmet on, not taking up Shaw's vision. Urgh.
There are arguments to be made against what Erik claims to believe at the end, but no one seems to be able to put two and two together to make them. And here's the other thing: Erik isn't actually wrong about what he says before, either. In a world with metahumans, humans are right to be afraid, and if humanity has shown itself able and willing to commit genocide against people who are just as human as anyone else, or to turn a blind eye to it happening, it's perfectly reasonable to think that humans won't scruple to commit genocide against metahumans, who are obviously non-human in some ways. And saying "never again" to all of that is a perfectly reasonable, and justifiable, response. Charles can't have it both ways: either mutants are a new species and race war is inevitable, or mutants and humans are just different populations of the same species and hostility between them is human nature, able to be changed, or not.epershand made a lot of these points before I did, more succinctly.
This brings me to my other (well, one of many others) major problem with the movie: I really, really, really hate the reading of mutants as crypto-Jews or crypto-Israelis or crypto-gay people or crypto-black people or crypto-people with disabilities, take your pick. I find allegory to be a really dangerous interpretative or artistic style, because everything is not everything else. The particular is important, differences matter, and you can't collapse every distinct fucking set of issues into a generic plea for tolerance and some pabulum about how hatred is wrong. It's no coincidence that Charles and Erik find Darwin driving a cab and Angel in a strip club, okay, and the fact that they're mutants doesn't change what put them there. Which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of Charles' ideals, really, not that he could see it.
On that note: Oh My God Charles Xavier Is An Asshole, seriously, what the fuck. I did love Moira forever for her calling him on his bullshit pickup spiel in the pub, but seriously, wow, what an asshole. I think the movie does have enough brain cells to realize that Raven is right when it comes to Charles' behaviour in several crucial respects, even though it can't really do anything with that because it's already decided that Charles is the good guy. It says a lot about this movie that Charles is the good guy, really, because personally speaking I was rooting for Magneto right up until he put on the helmet, and even then I felt nothing but satisfaction at seeing him put that coin through Shaw's skull, even if, in-movie, he did it for entirely personal reasons. And you know, multiple international human rights tribunals have established that "just following orders" is not sufficient defense nor grounds for exoneration of crimes one has committed on orders from one's superiors, and I don't really blame Erik for what he does on the beach, either. Fire with fire, even if it burns everyoneor gets Charles shot in the back. But that's another story.
You know, for a movie that is, basically, the Epic Romance and High Tragedie of Charles and Erik, there was not that much Charles and Erik! I could have stood for more. And all that being said, I can see why Erik loves Charles, and why Charles loves Erik. Really, I think that sentence right there is the essence of their tragedy, their tragic flaw in the most Aristotelian sense. Because Erik is more than what he's let himself become, and Charles being an asshole is mitigated by all the ways in which he isn't (see: training montage), and their choices obliterate all those things, and all they could have done together. But the movie is at least able to communicate that it realizes what its real focus is; see the ending credits song. I know it's stupidly obvious, but I want someone to make a vid of the movie to that.
Random thoughts: I really wish they hadn't framed the "Charles and Erik capture and interrogate Emma Frost!" as some kind of gang-rape/torture scene. Though, I can see where people were getting the Charles/Erik/Raven OT3 vibes from now, though Charles would have to learn to deal with her walking around in her true form first, obviously. Though quite honestly I don't think Erik's "mutant truth" kink is strong enough to keep him interested terribly long, and I think Charles' mutant kink is more about power in the sense of abilities rather than in the sense of being a mutant per se, and in conclusion, Raven, you're better off without both of them. Finally, I really am not comfortable with the Cuban missile crisis getting the cavalier Hollywood climax treatment, and I can't stand the way the movie sets up 1962 as the pinnacle of American society by quoting that Kennedy newsreel at the end.
I'm choosing to see the Wolverine cameo as the movie crew telling everyone that the Wolverine movie is now non-canonical. I support that. While we're at it, Logan, I'll have another drink too.
Links to other posts much worth reading:
http://seperis.dreamwidth.org/86111.html
http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/307334.html
http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2011/06/x-men-first-class.html
http://lcsbanana.dreamwidth.org/2049199.html
http://marina.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:+x+men
Oh, this movie. Oh, this movie.
Okay, first off, as many other people have pointed out: still racist, sexist, victim-blaming and incapable of understanding the Holocaust, Hollywood? Yes? Okay then.
I also have to say, watching this movie, I'm so glad the 20th century is over, just so glad. I'm not saying the 21st will necessarily be/has been any better, but the 20th was the worst in human history by an as-yet unsurpassed margin.
I should note that at this point my memory of the readings I have done about the Holocaust, to say nothing of X-Men comics or even the movies, is not as sharp as it could be. I like to think I have retained the important points about all three, but I am in no way claiming to be any kind of expert.
Things that, having read a bunch of other people's posts, I was surprised by:
- The plot is not as incoherent as I was led to believe. I mean, it's kind of stupid on a structural level, and there are many other things they could have done with the story concept that would have been more awesome and gotten them to the end they wanted without, you know, all the different stupidities and fail on the way, principal of which for the purposes of this sentence is the absolute mutilation of Erik Lehnsherr's character. But that's another paragraph.
- Emma Frost is not as dumb as I had gathered, and nor is January Jones as bad an actress. I mean, I look at Emma and I think, "Oh, another smart woman who has made the best choices she could when
I can't decide whether the movie thinks Shaw is actually a Nazi or not. Or rather, he's obviously the villain, but I think the movie thinks his greatest sins are 1) murdering Erik's mother and 2) plotting World War III for the sake of forcing the hand of evolution, with 3) abusing Erik a distant third, and that him being a Nazi is…a symbol or a symptom of that, rather than a symptom of the fact that he is truly an ethical wasteland? Yes, those are some of his crimes, and he deserves to die for all of them, but he actually was a Nazi, what the fuck. Oh, clearly he fancies himself to be smarter and more advanced, and flatters himself that he was just using the Nazi state system to further his own goals, but neither of those things make him any less of a Nazi. He's augmented the dehumanization of Jews, gay people, and other groups with the dehumanization of humanity as a whole along with those mutants who choose to stand with them, and we all saw Emma's projection of his vision in Charles' mind, right?
On that note, Oh My Fucking God Magneto Is Not That Stupid, OKAY. Here's the thing--both Erik and Charles are right at the end of the movie when they tell each other that all humans aren't like Shaw (who was a mutant anyway, which actually has consequences the movie doesn't realize, but let's just go with it) and that all humans aren't like Moira. (That's not actually the point, either, but the movie doesn't realize that.) And there is no way that Erik, if he's gained enough perspective on his experiences to go Nazi-hunting and to tell the Nazis in Argentina what Nazi Germany was like (and clearly he did!), would be stupid enough to believe Shaw in the submarine, to not see that he's attempting to manipulate Erik into carrying on Shaw's twisted vision: race war by other means.
I mean, Erik clearly knows that he is in a revenge tragedy ("Peace was never an option") and I suppose the movie is trying to finesse the switch from Erik the Avenger to Magneto the Supervillain (the particular to the general, in other words) by having Erik agree with Shaw, but then…either way, it's just not right by Erik's character or by historical reality. Obviously, in canon, Erik is about the whole race hatred calls for race hatred concept, but I just can't see the switch being that sudden. Revengers are supposed to die at the end, but we're supposed to believe that he switches immediately from being completely focused on killing Shaw to "mutants against humans!"? Totally incoherent at the level of characterization based on what we know from the movie. And his putting on that helmet from Shaw is a sickening symbol of all those problems.
The other thing about Charles and Erik on the level of philosophy is that Charles doesn't have a moral leg to stand on. He's just as ruthless as Erik by the end (hello, mind-wiping Moira! but see before, blatantly manipulating Oliver Platt's character), if not before, and he has no problem with killing Shaw or people who, in his own esteemed judgment, deserve it: he keeps Shaw immobilized for Erik even after Erik puts on the helmet! And yes, letting Shaw go would put Erik in danger, but it's not like Charles couldn't have done anything else but keep Shaw immobilized at that point. There's no way that, when he's trying to tell Erik to be the better man, he's talking about not killing Shaw instead of not keeping the helmet on, not taking up Shaw's vision. Urgh.
There are arguments to be made against what Erik claims to believe at the end, but no one seems to be able to put two and two together to make them. And here's the other thing: Erik isn't actually wrong about what he says before, either. In a world with metahumans, humans are right to be afraid, and if humanity has shown itself able and willing to commit genocide against people who are just as human as anyone else, or to turn a blind eye to it happening, it's perfectly reasonable to think that humans won't scruple to commit genocide against metahumans, who are obviously non-human in some ways. And saying "never again" to all of that is a perfectly reasonable, and justifiable, response. Charles can't have it both ways: either mutants are a new species and race war is inevitable, or mutants and humans are just different populations of the same species and hostility between them is human nature, able to be changed, or not.
epershand made a lot of these points before I did, more succinctly.This brings me to my other (well, one of many others) major problem with the movie: I really, really, really hate the reading of mutants as crypto-Jews or crypto-Israelis or crypto-gay people or crypto-black people or crypto-people with disabilities, take your pick. I find allegory to be a really dangerous interpretative or artistic style, because everything is not everything else. The particular is important, differences matter, and you can't collapse every distinct fucking set of issues into a generic plea for tolerance and some pabulum about how hatred is wrong. It's no coincidence that Charles and Erik find Darwin driving a cab and Angel in a strip club, okay, and the fact that they're mutants doesn't change what put them there. Which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of Charles' ideals, really, not that he could see it.
On that note: Oh My God Charles Xavier Is An Asshole, seriously, what the fuck. I did love Moira forever for her calling him on his bullshit pickup spiel in the pub, but seriously, wow, what an asshole. I think the movie does have enough brain cells to realize that Raven is right when it comes to Charles' behaviour in several crucial respects, even though it can't really do anything with that because it's already decided that Charles is the good guy. It says a lot about this movie that Charles is the good guy, really, because personally speaking I was rooting for Magneto right up until he put on the helmet, and even then I felt nothing but satisfaction at seeing him put that coin through Shaw's skull, even if, in-movie, he did it for entirely personal reasons. And you know, multiple international human rights tribunals have established that "just following orders" is not sufficient defense nor grounds for exoneration of crimes one has committed on orders from one's superiors, and I don't really blame Erik for what he does on the beach, either. Fire with fire, even if it burns everyone
You know, for a movie that is, basically, the Epic Romance and High Tragedie of Charles and Erik, there was not that much Charles and Erik! I could have stood for more. And all that being said, I can see why Erik loves Charles, and why Charles loves Erik. Really, I think that sentence right there is the essence of their tragedy, their tragic flaw in the most Aristotelian sense. Because Erik is more than what he's let himself become, and Charles being an asshole is mitigated by all the ways in which he isn't (see: training montage), and their choices obliterate all those things, and all they could have done together. But the movie is at least able to communicate that it realizes what its real focus is; see the ending credits song. I know it's stupidly obvious, but I want someone to make a vid of the movie to that.
Random thoughts: I really wish they hadn't framed the "Charles and Erik capture and interrogate Emma Frost!" as some kind of gang-rape/torture scene. Though, I can see where people were getting the Charles/Erik/Raven OT3 vibes from now, though Charles would have to learn to deal with her walking around in her true form first, obviously. Though quite honestly I don't think Erik's "mutant truth" kink is strong enough to keep him interested terribly long, and I think Charles' mutant kink is more about power in the sense of abilities rather than in the sense of being a mutant per se, and in conclusion, Raven, you're better off without both of them. Finally, I really am not comfortable with the Cuban missile crisis getting the cavalier Hollywood climax treatment, and I can't stand the way the movie sets up 1962 as the pinnacle of American society by quoting that Kennedy newsreel at the end.
I'm choosing to see the Wolverine cameo as the movie crew telling everyone that the Wolverine movie is now non-canonical. I support that. While we're at it, Logan, I'll have another drink too.
Links to other posts much worth reading:
http://seperis.dreamwidth.org/86111.html
http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/307334.html
http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2011/06/x-men-first-class.html
http://lcsbanana.dreamwidth.org/2049199.html
http://marina.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:+x+men
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-04 22:39 (UTC)["except you killed my mother" was...what? That made no sense whatsoever.]
I mean... how else can one interprete the film? Didn't everyone root for Mystique [as the #1 vessel for the viewer's sympathies] going with the guy who actually appreciates her as a fully realized human being? And didn't Charles' mindwiping totally position him as just as fundamentally flawed (but with LESS excuse) than Erik in the end?
(I don't -- I mean, maybe it's because I'm super-sensitive to consent issues, but did the film really position the midnwiping as *defensible*? I'm not sure -- I don't want to think it did!)
ETA: and because today is my day at talking at you, sorry -- I think I did suspsend my disbelief about the portrayal of Nazism in the film until Erik's "you killed my mother, prepare to die" comment shot that tho hell. I mean, I was like, there's no way Erik doesn't understand the systemic nature of fascism/Nazism *when he lived through it* (and yes, even as a sheltered superhero in training) and sees it *exclusively* as a personal injustice done to him. Because that's just...fundamentally stupid. And historically wrong. But the film really just is that stupid @-@ aw damn.
(I wouldn't even mind him having his priorities so fundamentally selfish -- as in, "Nazi Germany = my personal tragedy first, systemic dehumanization second, because that's how I experienced it as an isolated superhero boy" -- but him not even realizing the larger picture? That just...idk! How can you live through that and then fundamentally agree with its ideology? Not in anyway that the film is able to present credibly, to me. Maybe I'm just that wee bit too educated and too German to be able to handwave that, though >_<;)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 15:38 (UTC)Yeah, that was my response basically.
How can you live through that and then fundamentally agree with its ideology? Not in anyway that the film is able to present credibly, to me.
Yes. It is a possible reaction, but the movie did not sell me on it as Erik's reaction.