X-Men: First Class

[ZaCHw117]

Agreed

Spoiler

Screecher dude was cool, but Darwin was just such a likeable character imo, and his power was very interesting. When I first saw him on screen, I knew he wouldn't live much longer.

kinda had a funny feeling about that as well. Darwin is a complete B.A. and his power is much cooler too.

 

[Kabukiman]

Spoiler

Killing Darwin is no easy task. It happened to accentuate that the fact that Hellfire Club is not to be ____ed with.

 

[ironwez20]

Loved how he just joined the team for 5min too.

 

[FQRizzo]

Spoiler

Darwin's powers are too Deus ex machina to fit into this movie. That's why he died.

 

[Blood Electricity]

Saw this tonight. Really enjoyed it. It has a fun feel to it, despite it being sort of bleak at parts. That feels like a comic book to me..reaching some dark territory but still having enjoying reading it. I recently rewatched the first x-men movie and it seems to really just drag compared to this.

Wasn't crazy about havoc or that angel chick. Everyone else was a lot of fun for me. Was hoping for more beast. Magneto was very cool throughout the whole thing.

I couldn't help but feel there was alot of watchmen stuff going on. Not as much a caricature of reality as snyder did it, but a few things felt really similar and stood out visually...a few tv clips, and some russian dudes looking out over moscow. Although, I think I liked this better as a very subtle period piece. It didn't really feel important and I didn't really think about if it was accurate for the time or anything like that.

The ending though:

Spoiler

the superheroes turning two super powers against them in order to stop a nuclear war was very close to what snyder did with the end of watchmen. But still a very good jumping off point for prof. x and magneto to go their separate ways. I felt more like magneto's POV made more sense.

I hope they make some more that continue the fun. I'd love to see more mutants.

I gotta rewatch x2, but honestly, I don't feel like those ones are aging that well. They seem a bit dull to me.


Oh, and I also was not really paying attention to continuity at all. Honestly, I think it could be further removed from the previous films.

 

[LipSmack]

Darwin was the token black guy of this film, I loved tus movie but the clasic racial thing kinda irked me

 

[ZaCHw117]

Yeah, I knew thats what it would be like when i first saw him.

 

[The Mike]

Interesting that you'd use the word "token" especially considering you had Zoe Kravitz involved with the same amount of scenes. The whole joke of a token black guy is that there is only one throughout which I guess you could argue since Zoe isn't a guy.

The thing you have to remember is that this occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis which was in October of 1962. The American Civil Rights movement is credited from 1955 through 1968 with the major progressive event of the March on Washington not even occurring until 1963. Hell the Freedom Rides occurred in 1961. The fact that any of characters were black and there wasn't even a mention made of it by any character is definitely a nod to our progressive times and not the actual mindset of many of the people especially the older folks characterized within the film itself.

Darwin's death was a show of Shaw's power plain and simple. It was to show how strong Darwin was in terms of being able to adjust his body to almost any situation and how easily Shaw disposed of it. To give it any racial undertones is ridiculous and reaching at best. This isn't a stereotypical horror film where someone said "kill the black guy first".

 

[Khev]

I loved FC but I do admit to getting an "80's token black guy" vibe from Darwin as well.

Darwin's death was a show of Shaw's power plain and simple. It was to show how strong Darwin was in terms of being able to adjust his body to almost any situation and how easily Shaw disposed of it. To give it any racial undertones is ridiculous and reaching at best. This isn't a stereotypical horror film where someone said "kill the black guy first".

You also just described the purpose of the boxer in Jason Takes Manhattan. Dude has a unique skill that you think can help him stand up to the bad guy, then nope he goes down with a touch. Just like Darwin.

 

[batfan08]

He was a cab driver in New York, wasn't the civil rights movement mainly in the south at that time? Just a theory as to why it wasn't in there,

 

[fuzzylojiks]

I loved FC but I do admit to getting an "80's token black guy" vibe from Darwin as well.

It's hard to just add characters to an original team tho' and they really messed up and just randomly added characters who were not supposed to be there, but Darwin did give that feel to me as well.

 

[The Mike]

He was a cab driver in New York, wasn't the civil rights movement mainly in the south at that time? Just a theory as to why it wasn't in there,

There were at the CIA compound which is in Langley, Virginia. You're missing my point though. I wasn't looking for it to be there, just pointing out that it was completely missing from even being stated. There are parts of the US where the mentalities before the Civil Rights movement still exist and they did even more so back in the 1960s. The Civil Rights movement was largely focused in the south due to the policies and laws but occurred all over the United States. There were Civil Rights issues occurring as high North as Boston.

I loved FC but I do admit to getting an "80's token black guy" vibe from Darwin as well.

I don't know, given that Singer openly compared Xavier and Magneto as mimicking Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X respectively and talked about how he took their ideals regarding the Civil Rights movement as if they had been friends how those conversations would have worked in printed interviews, I find it hard to believe that then he'd be okay with throwing a token black guy into the mix just because.

I still maintain that the "token" viewpoint is people of these times putting their cinematic lenses on and judging that through history of what we have viewed instead of something thrown in purposefully.

 

[IrishJedi]

The thing is... Darwin was the least interesting of any of the characters anyway.

 

[ZaCHw117]

The thing is... Darwin was the least interesting of any of the characters anyway.

I don't know about that. It's pretty cool to be able to adapt to any environment/situation to survive. a much cooler power then to scream really loud or have dragonfly wings.

 

[IrishJedi]

I'm not necessarily talking about the powers, though. He was a bland, uninteresting character all around. The only one more dull was Riptide.

 

[meanstreak]

Riptide was the tornado creator dude? I thought he was better than Darwin.

 

[IrishJedi]

Yeah. He had cooler powers and actually did stuff. But if I'm not mistaken he never utters a single word or even changes facial expressions.

In a movie with guys like Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy chewing scenery throughout that dude may as well have been a wooden puppet.

 

[The Mike]

a much cooler power then to scream really loud or have dragonfly wings.

You've been bagging on Banshee quite a bit in this thread. I don't know about anyone else but seeing a character who has been around in the X-Universe since the 60s and played a huge role in the X-Comics in the 1990s was a nice nod not to mention that his costume was relatively unchanged. Also seeing Siryn in X2 (his daughter) it made me smile with the idea that there was a progression of character where he attended Charles' school and then ended up sending his daughter there as well. To me Banshee was far more important to see on-screen than even Havok only proceeded by Mystique and Beast as far as students go because of the history of the character. Darwin was fairly uninteresting and used as a barometer of power and nothing more.

 

[slipknotpredator]

Im watching it again today

Was thinking of watching Baygayformers3 but i´ll wait for the DVD.

 

[ZaCHw117]

You've been bagging on Banshee quite a bit in this thread. I don't know about anyone else but seeing a character who has been around in the X-Universe since the 60s and played a huge role in the X-Comics in the 1990s was a nice nod not to mention that his costume was relatively unchanged. Also seeing Siryn in X2 (his daughter) it made me smile with the idea that there was a progression of character where he attended Charles' school and then ended up sending his daughter there as well. To me Banshee was far more important to see on-screen than even Havok only proceeded by Mystique and Beast as far as students go because of the history of the character. Darwin was fairly uninteresting and used as a barometer of power and nothing more.

I haven't bagged on him that much, I just stated that I didn't like him. I'm not going off the comics. I haven't even picked up an X-Men Comic in my entire life. Just watched the movies. But Banshee, was really lame to me. He was the only part of the movie that I felt added the cheese factor in. I dunno, Maybe if they gave him something a bit cooler to add to his power. Not sure, but to me Darwin was MUCH cooler.

But don't get all mad and go on a huge rant just cause someone doesn't like something you do. It's just my opinion I'm not trying to change yours.