MY MOVIE SHELF: X-Men

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 131 Days to go: 91

Movie #309:  X-Men

I came into X-Men cold. Unless the rare Betty & Veronica counts, I never read comic books growing up, and I had no idea who’s who or who had what powers or any of the mythology or interpersonal baggage that existed in this universe. I’m exactly the kind of audience member X-Men had to woo and win over in order to build a successful franchise. Quite obviously, they succeeded.

Outside of the almost universally known worlds of Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, worlds that have been the subjects of massive pop culture enterprises for decades, superhero / comic book stories used to be an incredibly niche market. (When Mallrats came out in 1995, Jason Lee’s character was mocked and misunderstood for his obsessive comic book collection and knowledge.) X-Men kind of single-handedly changed that. The Marvel universe is so successful on film now, in fact, that DC is scrambling to expand its own universe as well. I’d almost kill for a summer without a superhero film release at this point, but that’s not happening for at least another decade, it seems. For better or worse, X-Men is the primary cause.

The movie is actually a great introduction to comic book films, and probably why it’s become so successful where others have failed. There is a huge cast of characters, all with different powers that can be made to look super cool through special effects. The sheer number and variety of histories and conflicts and relationships allow for countless plot possibilities. Moreover, the types of conflicts inherent to the X-Men world are basic battles for human rights and acceptance, just in a mutant setting, making the films and their characters highly relatable and easy to become invested in.

X-Men sets the stage, as all first films in a franchise must, but does it in a way that ultimately tells a good and interesting story. There are mutants among us. Humans treat these mutants with fear, mistrust and paranoia, so most mutants are underground, hiding their identities or living off the grid. Some government officials, however, led by Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), think there should be mutant registration. “Good guy” mutants, led by Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) try to fight this legislation through proper channels using reasoned debate. “Bad guy” mutants, led by Magneto (Ian McKellen) — who lived through a similar registration order as a Jew during the Holocaust — have the far more nefarious solution of simply turning everyone into a mutant. To do this, they need a giant radiation machine strapped to the Statue of Liberty (which they have) and one particular mutant named Rogue (Anna Paquin), who can absorb the power / life force of anyone she has skin-to-skin contact with and use it as her own. Rogue will help power the machine, since it’s too taxing for Magneto to do on his own, so they kidnap her from the protection of Professor Xavier’s school and her sort of adopted old brother figure, Logan (Hugh Jackman). It’s up to the Professor’s “X-Men,” then, to save her and also all of humanity.

It’s a solid, simple story with clear lines of demarcation that make it easy to follow and easy to invest in. (These lines will become far more muddled in later films.) It’s a great point of entry, and the characters further build the movie’s allure. Wolverine, as Logan is also known, is a big fan favorite, and for good reason. He has an adamantium skeleton, complete with indestructible claws that slide out from between his knuckles, and he has infinite healing powers to prevent him from ever sustaining a lasting injury. But there’s also Storm (Halle Berry) who controls the weather, and Cyclops (James Marsden), who has a laser beam stare. And my personal favorite, Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), though she’s Magneto’s cohort, is just the coolest chick imaginable. I love her strength and her acrobatic fighting, and I love the way the movie indicates she’s transformed into another body by flashing her yellow eyes at us.

There are things I don’t love, though. I don’t really get why Logan is so infatuated with Jean. I mean, it becomes a bigger plot point in later films and I accept it as fact, but he’s barely met her when he decides she’s the one for him, and he causes all sorts of tension with her husband Cyclops because he’s irrationally fixated. It’s weird. Also, the thing Magneto does to Senator Kelly, and the Senator’s ultimate fate, grosses me out more than just about anything I’ve ever seen in any film ever, not that it turns me away from watching.

X-Men drew me into its world, and it fascinated me. It made me a fan of these strange and different characters. It made me care about their all too familiar fight. And I embraced it so much that I’ve watched every single subsequent film to come down the pike. Some are better than others of course, and I don’t own them all, but the original X-Men will always hold a special place in my heart.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Iron Man

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 226  Days to go: 227

Movie #151:  Iron Man

I have at least one friend who’s going to be upset I don’t own any of the Iron Man movies, but those are the breaks. I actually like Iron Man 3 quite a bit, I just don’t have it. But Iron Man 2 is a messy, convoluted piece of garbage. At least from what I can remember of it.

I went into Iron Man completely cold. I’d never heard of Tony Stark or Pepper Potts or any of the mythology or lore surrounding Iron Man at all. So the movie had to do the heavy lifting of introducing me to this character I’d never encountered before without making it tedious and without feeling dumbed-down to the millions of Marvel comics fans who were coming to the film with dozens of pre-conceived notions and expectations about who and what Iron Man should be. In my completely unscientifically based opinion, I think it did an excellent job.

Everything you need to know about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is shown, not exposited (well, just a little exposited), in the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie. He’s cocky, he’s slick, he’s a genius and an incorrigible lothario. He’s also a mega-multi-zillionaire who sells weapons for a living.

So the movie sets up the capture of Tony Stark via attack by unspecified Middle Easterners using his own weapons against Americans, provides a little bit of backstory, then goes right into Tony’s captivity and how he secretly builds himself an armored super-suit to bust out of there. When he gets home, he modifies and perfects the super-suit, becomes Iron Man, and maybe gets drawn into additional unspecified Middle Eastern conflicts because of his emotional baggage on the subject. There’s also some sexual tension with his uber-assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) — who doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but which I excuse because she’s basically the most competent, level-headed, boss chick ever and it never once feels like she’s just an errand-girl for Tony, but more like his keeper, his handler, his employer and she holds a lot of sway over him — and a nasty bit of betrayal from inside Tony’s inner circle.

I have to admit, I never really thought of Jon Favreau of any kind of Hollywood player before Iron Man, despite his breakout turn as the writer of Swingers. I certainly didn’t think of him as a director, and given the only big thing he’d done before this was Elf — which I almost categorically hate, truth be told — it’s understandable how blown away I was by his success with Iron Man. The story is tight and focused, the effects are amazing, and scenes are not wasted but rather used to their full potential (or thereabouts). Plus I think it’s pretty fun that he also plays the role of Happy Hogan. (You know, Raj on The Big Bang Theory really has a point about Stan Lee’s obsession with alliterative names.)

Since Iron Man is basically an origin story film, it works well that there’s not some external Big Bad nemesis to defeat, rather an intimate friend-turned-traitor who provides the impetus for said origin. It’s more contained that way, and allows the audience — particularly ones not familiar with the characters — to get acquainted, while still being entertaining. One of the reasons I think the current Marvel/Avengers franchise is so successful, in fact, is because Iron Man set it off to a great start. It’s definitely one of my favorite of the current films and one of my favorite of the current characters as well (but not the top spot, which goes to a single character in a single movie, yet to come). It’s a solid film that provides an excellent foundation for all the great, fun, imaginative Avengers movies yet to come.

And you’ve got to love a superhero who doesn’t mope around in his secret identity for once, right? Right.