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beccaelizabethI only just watched X-Men 3. I'd decided not to watch it originally. But I saw it for dead cheap and whatever reasons I'd had I couldn't recall so I just watched it.
I rather wish I hadn't.
That was just foul. There were no good guys in it. Not one. There were a whole lot of bastards and a few victims, is all.
What could have been a complex issue gets turned into a bloodbath. Wolverine's claws are not an appropriate response to very much of anything, yet here he's running around slicing people up and stabbing them and... we hadn't seen those people do anything wrong, to start with. They were not best pleased he was heading for where they lived. Okay, one of them stuck him with pointy bones, which is bad. But how many did he kill???
And Magneto of course has to be the one dimensional villain, so he just blows shit up and kills people. The fact that he was right about the 'cure' being used as a weapon gets to be totally swamped under the body count.
And the Professor, and what he does to Phoenix... girl has more power than him so he shuts her power and her rage and her desire away behind a wall in her head, am I getting that right? So the personality he allows her is a good girl, and only just a little powerful. And when the unacceptable parts get out he just tries to stomp them back in a box. And when she kills him - for altering her fundamental personality, which has to be right up there in the really awful things to do to someone - he gets the full on martyr treatment. WTF?
And then she asks to die! The 'good' side of her... What's so 'good' about being suicidal??? And once again mental illness is treated by a good being killed! Oh look, how noble and sacrificial, to risk your life to *stab a girl* when you're surrounded by cure and could have, I don't know, maybe brought some *tranquilisers* if you wanted to capture without killing?
And that 'cure'... the 'good' guys used it on someone against their will, and we're supposed to think they're still good? It's like someone using their feets to kick people with so you cut off their feets. No! Bad!
There's no good guys in this movie. There's a godawful high body count. And people get rewards for all the wrongest things.
Once they've set up the "Have you tried not being a mutant" parallels to other real world issues then that metaphor stays there when someone comes up with a "cure". And that didn't get dealt with at all. It gets used like just another weapon.
Where's the issue about trials and when it's proper to use or risk lethal force and the risks inherent in 'less lethal' weapons and all that stuff? Where's the 'oops we hit a good guy because we think all mutants are evil' part?
Where's the damn good guys?
Nobody behaves well in this movie. It's a nasty nasty mess. I think I hate it quite a lot.
I rather wish I hadn't.
That was just foul. There were no good guys in it. Not one. There were a whole lot of bastards and a few victims, is all.
What could have been a complex issue gets turned into a bloodbath. Wolverine's claws are not an appropriate response to very much of anything, yet here he's running around slicing people up and stabbing them and... we hadn't seen those people do anything wrong, to start with. They were not best pleased he was heading for where they lived. Okay, one of them stuck him with pointy bones, which is bad. But how many did he kill???
And Magneto of course has to be the one dimensional villain, so he just blows shit up and kills people. The fact that he was right about the 'cure' being used as a weapon gets to be totally swamped under the body count.
And the Professor, and what he does to Phoenix... girl has more power than him so he shuts her power and her rage and her desire away behind a wall in her head, am I getting that right? So the personality he allows her is a good girl, and only just a little powerful. And when the unacceptable parts get out he just tries to stomp them back in a box. And when she kills him - for altering her fundamental personality, which has to be right up there in the really awful things to do to someone - he gets the full on martyr treatment. WTF?
And then she asks to die! The 'good' side of her... What's so 'good' about being suicidal??? And once again mental illness is treated by a good being killed! Oh look, how noble and sacrificial, to risk your life to *stab a girl* when you're surrounded by cure and could have, I don't know, maybe brought some *tranquilisers* if you wanted to capture without killing?
And that 'cure'... the 'good' guys used it on someone against their will, and we're supposed to think they're still good? It's like someone using their feets to kick people with so you cut off their feets. No! Bad!
There's no good guys in this movie. There's a godawful high body count. And people get rewards for all the wrongest things.
Once they've set up the "Have you tried not being a mutant" parallels to other real world issues then that metaphor stays there when someone comes up with a "cure". And that didn't get dealt with at all. It gets used like just another weapon.
Where's the issue about trials and when it's proper to use or risk lethal force and the risks inherent in 'less lethal' weapons and all that stuff? Where's the 'oops we hit a good guy because we think all mutants are evil' part?
Where's the damn good guys?
Nobody behaves well in this movie. It's a nasty nasty mess. I think I hate it quite a lot.