There’s a reason it’s the box office champ. Actually, there are a lot of reasons. Let me count them. Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Iceman, Shadowcat, Colossus, Pyro, Juggernaut, Mystique, Callisto, and yes, even the Beast. Oh, and Sentinels. Yes, there were Sentinels. References to Days of Future Past. Morlocks. Angel. Moira McTaggert, replete with mega-Scots accent. Hey, they even had the Evil Terrorist Wife from last season’s 24.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Kelsey Grammer made a halfway-decent Beast.
The Kitty Pryde character was great. I just love how she handled Juggernaut, whom they portrayed perfectly. It’s a laugh-out-loud moment.
Mind you, there are a few things in the plot that I didn’t like at all, particularly a few disappearances, but overall, wow. The Danger Room. They had a session in the Danger Room! (And fans of the X-Men knew it straight off. I sure did.)
I caught Stan Lee as soon as he showed up onscreen, but I did not know that Chris Claremont has a cameo as well. Now I’ll have to look for him when I go see the film again.
By the way, if you go see it, stay through the entire credits. It’s actually a scene I had a few problems with, but it’s probably important if you want to see X4.
Of course there will be an X4. X3 made $120 million over Memorial Day weekend, and broke the box office record for Friday, I think.
Overall, I’m a happy woman. Now I only have to wait about a month before seeing Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.
Oh. Six commercials. We had to sit through six effing commercials. I hate Hollywood.
Update: Kindly put very long spoiler warnings in your comment if you intend to give away major plot points so soon after the film’s release.
I have to disagree with your assessment of Kelsey Grammer: I thought he was PERFECT as Beast.
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(edited by Meryl. C’mon, Jay, how can you give that big a plot point away in a comment five days after the movie is released?)
And my one “NO WAY!” moment had to be Magneto’s casual discarding of Mystique. His loyal aide-de-camp, who freed him from prison in the second movie at grave personal risk, who sacrificed her very mutanthood to save him, tossed aside so dismissively? Way, WAY out of character. She should have been his MARTYR, his SYMBOL, his PROOF of humanity’s plan for all mutants, not simple genetic trash to be thrown away.
J.
Teenage Jewish superheroines in leather; holocaust-surviving supervillains in stupid-looking helmets; and psychotic canadians who refuse to wear yellow spandex: what could be bad?
It’s definitely on my list…
In addition, check out the article on Kitty Pryde in this week’s Forward [www.forward.com/articles/7829] and also the Jewish Hero Corps, dedicated to fighting apathy and the Forces of Assimilation [www.jewishsuperhero.com]…
DAMN good movie. Took my son to see it on Tuesday. I had to, you see. It’s my duty as a father.
Psychotic Canadians ??!! Maybe I’m not with “it”, but wh was that ?.
Wolverine is Canadian.
Crud. My apologies, Meryl. I plead brain fart on that spoiler. I was thinking of BIG points as spoilers, such as Wolverine and Cyclops’ “Brokeback Mountain” moment, or Colossus getting taken out by Rust, or Angel getting sucked into the Blackbird’s engines. It just didn’t occur to me that I was giving away such a big plot twist.
BTW, didn’t Mystique in the government video look a LOT like Monica Lewinsky?
J.
Now for the big question [for all you Israel/political junkies]:
Who would you rather use as a role model: the supervillian who is a camp survivor and whose rationale for world domination is “never again” or the modern american Jewish young lady whose power is to become insubstantial?
Forward lauds Kitty Pryde as a Jewish role model [“Natalie Portman before we knew there was a Natalie Portman”] but I think that Magneto is not that different from Menachem Begin in his philosophical outlook…
Doctor, I feel I should point out that the “insubstantial” young lady took on — and defeated — the unstoppable Juggernaut, as well as several others in the big fight at the end. She’s mastered her powers to the point where it’s now a matter of “you can’t touch me, but I can touch you any time I want” — a pretty good metaphor for the IDF, I’d say.
J.
Wolverine is Canadian, or Hugh Jackman ?.
Wolverine is Canadian. Hugh Jackman is Australian.
And (sigh) married.
I can forgive that Juggernaught isnt really supposed to be a mutant just for “I’m the Juggernaught, bitch!”
And Xavier’s school for gifted students, where they go to learn to become comfortable witht their genetic heritage and be able to move comfortably into the outside world, is clearly a Jewish Day School [in its approach it looks like it’s affiliated witht the Schechter network…]