(...what the hell did I just say?)
If I could, I would just break down and buy the latest comics myself, but the Big Move looms ever closer, and every penny saved is to be treasured.
This past Sunday, my obsession culminated in a miniature X-movie marathon, wherein I watched the first (best) two X-films: X-Men and X2: X-Men United.
(are you sick and tired of the letter X yet?)
I’ve always enjoyed both movies, though I consider X-Men to be almost an audition tape -- a proof of concept -- for what Singer would achieve in the far superior X2. The first movie is like the first season of an ambitious TV show (season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes to mind). It has all the right components, but is still figuring out how to use them to best effect.
X-Men featured a talented cast, a skilled director, an interesting story, and -- something movie studios were only just figuring out at the time -- a healthy respect for the source material that made the movie worth making in the first place. What it lacked, in my eyes, was confidence. The filmmakers knew they had something special on their hands, but also knew they had two masters to serve, each with very different expectations. There was the movie studio, who wanted a tight, entertaining, accessible action flick for the masses, and there was the comic fanbase, who wanted to see their beloved characters brought to the screen faithfully.
Singer and company achieved what seemed impossible at the time, satisfying the demands of both… but the signs of their struggle still showed around the edges. Action scenes were a little too self-conscious to be taken seriously, and edited a little too stiffly to be believable. The quiet, character-building scenes that Singer had shown a mastery of in both previous and subsequent films were edited down to quick, concise exchanges which served only to move the plot forward. The detail and nuance was there, but it was left largely implied. The entire movie is filled with scenes that you enjoy, but wish there was more of. As though something truly special is lurking just on the other side of the cut.
(In the special features of the X-Men 1.5 DVD, we actually see some of these lost and extended moments, and a part of me wishes we could get an extended edition of the first movie, Lord of the Rings style, just to see these scenes edited into it, regardless of pacing. Sometimes, you just wanna watch the characters talk.)
The movie's plot never quite overcame a small air of stereotypical comic cheesiness, but the weight of the subject matter and characters helped to keep it grounded.
Ultimately, we're given something that satisfies on the basic principals of good storytelling, but does not yet show the chemistry of a truly great film.
That we got with X2.
Here, Singer knew exactly what he was doing, knew exactly where he could go, and went there, and beyond, with the confidence and skill of a master. X-Men was a good movie. X2 was something great. A continuation and expansion of the themes and plotlines of the first film, but with the commitment and assuredness the first film lacked.
Here, there is no rush. The quiet character moments are not only left in, they make the movie. Hell, if not for those moments, one of the most important and relevant characters might have been cut entirely, his storyline lost, and so, the deeper conflict and questions the films sets out to ask, lost as well.
The tone was darker, all pretense of “comicky” flash and dazzle abandoned. This movie was a serious science fiction adventure film. Though not without its moments of levity and humor, it never made fun of itself, never winked at the audience. It took place in a real world which only lent weight and believability to the fantastical exploits of its protagonists.
This is why X2 is a great movie.
But what made it a great X-Men movie is that little something extra. Again, a respect for the source material, not only on the superficial level that movies like Spider-Man, Sin City, or Hellboy managed, but in the deeper spirit of the material. The allegory, the world-view, the interpersonal relationships and small details that only fans of the comics would notice. The stuff that made the comic tick was there on the screen, invisible to all but the few who would appreciate it
X2 was such a great flick…
Then came X-Men 3.
...whoof… did it just get chilly in here…?
Contrary to popular belief, X-Men 3 (or X-Men: The Last Stand) was not a bad movie. It was a solid action flick, at times plenty of fun, that took a lot of those aforementioned superficial elements from the comics and plastered them all over the screen in a story that, based on its own merits, was structurally tight and formulaically satisfying. This does not a bad movie make.
But it was disappointing. Because what had come before had aspired to so much more that, well… audiences didn’t want just a fun action movie. They wanted their serious science fiction saga. They wanted greatness again.
To me, X-Men 3’s largest failing is its near-complete ignorance of the thematic elements that Bryan Singer had built into the series since the very beginning. Not the themes of tolerance or feeling like an outcast -- all of that was covered, though in a way that left many dissatisfied with the message it was sending.
I’m talking about the theme that Singer hands us as the very first words spoken at the very beginning of the first movie…
“Mutation. It is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.”
And that, dear friends, is the story of the X-Men movies. The underlying theme, which Bryan Singer even reiterates to us in the final moments of the second movie, and which Brett Ratner and his team were either unwilling or unable to carry through in the third… Evolution.
~*~*~*~
Be sure to check back for Part 2, wherein I descend to levels of nit-picky geekdom the likes of which no person in their right mind would ever want to subject themselves to...
Wait, that's a horrible teaser.
Be sure to check back for Part 2, wherein I am awesome!
See you soon.
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