tomorrow, mankind will know that ponies exist.

[heather]

I have watched this three times.

Click to view

No regrets.

I haven't said anything about X-Men: First Class really -- I wasn't intending to see it but the friend I was with didn't want to see Super 8, so. As a longtime X-Men fan it was really exciting (seriously, Charles/Erik's one of my o.g. OTPs and

Comments

[silvernatasha]

I may have watched every single episode of MLP:FiM over the last week. And I want to rewatch. It's adorable, fun, ridiculous crack. That trailer mash-up is glorious.

[heather]

haha dude hey are all over the internet lately! I think this is what'll finally make me go and download it. It looks DELIGHTFUL.

[silvernatasha]

Yes. Delightful is the perfect word. It's not condescening like some kids shows. And passes the Bechdel test. It was actually recommended to me IRL by a couple of 19 year old guys, which says a lot about the fandom!

This is the first trailer mash-up I saw that got me interested:

[selenak]

is easily the WORST when it comes to how the women and PoCs fared.

Err... I haven't watched Wolverine but I don't think anything can beat X3 in this department. X3 managed to change the Dark Phoenix saga into "Jean first kills some people, then stands around a lot being used by Magneto, then is saved by Wolverine via him killing her". It reduced Mystique to the a woman scorned cliché - Magneto dumps her and immediately she switches sides, as if she had no convictions of her own. (Whereas First Class made her decision about what she wants to do with her life, not about Charles, Hank or Erik.) Rogue's arc, in as much as it exists, is the exact opposite of young Raven's - her boyfriend trouble leads her to take the cure and give up being a mutant. The only woman doing remotely well in X3 is Storm and that's only because nothing bad happens to her, not because she actually gets to do something good. As for POCs, are there any in X3?

Give me Moira, young Raven and Emma Frost any time.

[heather]

wellll you could be right when it comes to X3 -- I came away from this one more annoyed, but that might be because I haven't seen X3 in a while and my level of awareness wasn't as keen then as it is now. I do remember hating what happened to Rogue and Jean, and I thought X3 was bad for a whole lot of other reasons on top of that

[zahrawithaz]

Not that this made the film not suck, but X3 had Storm. I can't think of anything good or even neutral to say about how race in First Class was handled tbh.

Although I have tried without success to block all memories of X3 out, I do recall that at Halle Berry's insistence it went to some effort to establish Storm as the X-men's leader in the absence of Prof X. Badly-scripted effort, but still...she does more than fight Callisto in the ridiculous "the two black women mutants must have a catfight" scenes. The film also has that deleted scene that establishes that Raven was acting on Magneto's orders and using the "woman scorned" thing as a front (which you may or may not think counts), and Moira McTaggart as a scientist.

All of which is damningly faint praise, but still better than anything I can think to say about the treatment of women, and more to the point characters of color, in First Class.

[selenak]

re: Emma - you know, I got introduced to Emma via Astonishing X-Men, where she is fantastic and definitely badass, and then I read her original appearance back in ye olde Dark Phoenix days, back when the Hellfire club first appeared, and well, she does do errand work for Shaw there (and is definitely not badass). She's not in charge and not yet the character she will be later. Now I also read a later comic with Hellfire Club flashbacks which (ingeniously, I thought) retcons this as part of Emma's coming into herself process (i.e. bossed around by Shaw was a stage, but she got past that eventually of course), but that doesn't mean they've retconned it out of existence. During Dark Reign (I think?) there was a great bit where Emma tricked Shaw who tought she'd jump at the chance to work for him again and dealt with him very satisfyingly, and chillingly, but part of that satisfaction was the awareness he was treating her in just the way he did in the film

[zahrawithaz]

Heather sighting!!! *is very excited*

it should've been the best film in the franchise but is easily the WORST when it comes to how the women and PoCs fared.

YES. THANK YOU. *gives you a big hug*

I couldn't believe that fridged Darwin and turned Angel in the same damn scene. It was so awful, and it really ruined the experience of watching a film I had up to that point loved. Not to mention recurring instances of the people of color/women/people coded as people of color without actually employing actors of color switching sides or joining up with people who have killed their friends and allies without good reason.

I couldn't even enjoy Mystique's arc, despite Jennifer Lawrence's tremendous acting, because of the skeevy, sexist way her relationship with Magneto was portrayed. And the less said about Emma Frost the better.

X-3 is a genuinely awful movie with far worse pacing, acting, and script problems, but at least it insults all its audience members equally.

[heather]

*tacklehugs* Z!

Ha, yeah, it felt like every time I'd settled into the film, something slapped me in the face, and it's somehow more disappointing when I KNOW it's a movie I'd have loved without the abuse.

Mystique's characterisation was great, but I agree, I feel like the way Magneto approached her was unnecessarily skeevy.

but at least it insults all its audience members equally

LOL, truth.

[zahrawithaz]

Also, that trailer? OMG. The most hilarious thing I have seen in ages.

[heather]

It's always worse when it's something you really WANT to love, you know?