Whether flying or crawling, time always moves

[wishfulclicking]

It's been forever since I've posted. Still not dead. Just been lurking on tumblr and dealing with other issues.


Posts that exist in my head but not actually online (yet):

+ Bridesmaids is a fantastic movie; not without flaws but I haven't enjoyed a movie so fully in a very long time. Don't let the advertised grossout humor detour you, this movie hits the emotional beats hard and rises above what lesser movies would probably have done.

+ X-men: First Class. There's a lot I love about this movie and a lot that I didn't. There's been so much written that I could probably compose a post fully of others' words but I'm too tired right now. But there will be posts on the film because I've grown up on X-men and I've seen every movie from the franchise.


Glee hired six writers, two of which are women. Rejoice? This news inspires me with cautious optimism.

How have you guys been?

Comments

[saekhwa]

I wasn't sure about Bridesmaid so thanks for sharing your feelings on it. I wanted to go see it based on the previews, but then I had a horrid thought that it was just going to squick the hell out of me and be all about the MENZ anyway.

I would love to hear your thoughts about X-Men: First Class. I've been devouring all the meta I can, because thoughts. I have them, too, but I haven't been able to really articulate everything I want to say about this movie.

[wishfulclicking]

I'm going to try and discuss Bridesmaids without spoiling. Your fears are definitely the same ones I had going into it, I was also brushing against the whole 'save female comedy (and your feminist cred) with this movie ' vibe I was getting ahead, plus the whole positioning of it as a female Hangover or the anti-Hangover was kind of turning me off. Yes, there is a romantic subplot but the main character's relationship with the dude is no where near primary. The main relationship is the one between Annie, the main character, and her best friend. Those two have awesome friend chemistry and I loved watching them on screen together. The conflict is also around Annie feeling threatened by her friend's relationship/growing friendship with Helen (Rose Byrne's character) and how Helen and Annie are so different yet have a friend in common.

Does puke gross you out? The scene in the previews is gross but it's not the dominant form of humor.

Wow. X-men. I don't want to go all making a post in a comment so I'm going to try and keep this somewhat short.

Honestly it feels like I could make three separate posts on this film and have all of them contain my feelings on it. It's truly a case of adoring something with caveats and being fully aware of the faults because while sitting in the theater watching the film McAvoy and Fassbender just had me completely--I could see shades of the men from the later movies and they're both such strong actors that it was a pleasure. They rose above the material--but killing of Darwin, sending Angel to the bad side without much establishment of her character or reasons, that awful moment where Shaw is talking about slavery and the camera stays on Darwin like subtlety doesn't exist, mindwiping Moira and then having her go through that horrible scene with the CIA guys, sending Emma Frost for ice, Erik choking her with a metal frame like she's not made of diamonds--all that made me not enjoy the film as much as I wanted after I sat down and let the high wear off.

The film was rushed and the pacing was off and it felt like there were two movies fighting for space, and I think the split between Erik and Charles should have only been suggested and they could have dropped Magneto in the costume at the end.

There are ways to display the racism and sexism of the era without the film endorsing it. The strength of the first films was they had a diverse cast playing a part on both sides, and this one ended with the 'good guys' being all male and all white, while the 'bad guys' actually had more diversity. This left a bad taste with me after Shaw's speech especially as if their dealing with oppression in life led them to believe in eradicating all non-mutants. Of course the iconic team has Storm and Jean but still, Darwin could at least have lived. Banshee could have turned and Angel could have stayed if they needed an aerial fight.

Okay, I could go on. I'll stop here.

Darwin didn't have to die!

Okay, I'm done for real now.

[saekhwa]

Oh, no, please keep going, because while I made my post on Angel, I tried and tried to make a post about Darwin, and most of it was a lot of hurt and anger and capslocking. I never read Darwin's arc in comics, but yay for the Internet and learning more about him, because HE SHOULD NOT HAVE DIED. It is absolutely impossible for him to die given his mutation. So to see him die FIRST, that was horrific and painful. And I cringed when the camera panned to him for the slavery spiel. It was just a moment of: REALLY? ARE YOU REALLY DOING THAT RIGHT NOW?

I absolutely adored Fassbender and McAvoy, and the Erik/Charles was beautiful, but yeah, like you, after the high wore off ISSUES. And so many of them. Including Emma, who does not ever get your fucking ice, Shaw. UGH.

It was horrible to see the X-Men really become the X-Men replete with lack of any dissenting voices or alternative perspectives. And of course, that skews my view of Charles, because wow his privilege.

I have so many thoughts on it, I could go on and on, but uh, I won't spam you with them. ^_^