Tuesday, May 30, 2006

X-Moolah

So X-Men: The Last Stand, despite its suckiness, made a helluva lot of money over the weekend. That depresses me really. I knew it would do well. I'm not sad that it did well. I'm sad because Hollywood is stupid enough (just watch) to think this means that Brett Ratner was a great choice to direct.


Ed Wood coulda opened this thing huge. When it comes to the opening weekend of sequels, it's about three things: 1. The marketing. 2. The competition. 3. The previous film and the public's feelings about it. X-Men: The Last Stand had a decent marketing campaign, no wide opening competition (none whatsoever), and everyone and their dog loved X2. The giant opening was a no-brainer.

Credit for this opening weekend should go to Bryan Singer and the quality of X2. But Hollywood is dumb.

tags: movies, XMen, Comic Books, X-Men, Marvel, film, Box Office

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually enjoyed the 3rd X-Men movie more than I did either of the previous 2 movies. But I'm not a huge fan of the franchise in general, or of the X-Men comics in the first place. Don't know if/how that might effect my perception of it.

Pfangirl said...

I wouldn't say the film sucked completely (some of the set piece action sequences were exciting, and I loved the visual realisations of Phoenix and Juggernaut).

However I was very disappointed by the dismissive to downright blasphemous (to the X-Men mythos)treatment of certain pivotal characters.

X-Men 2 remains the best, and most soulful, of the series by far.

Quite interesting is this article on the final post-credits sequence:

http://www.superherohype.com/news/x-mennews.php?id=4307

I've been hearing a lot of people going on about how Magento and the chess piece suggests the 'cure' is only temporary. But this link suggests something more in line with the post-credits sequence.

Jason Adams said...

What surprised me, coming out of the film, was how Brett Ratner had effectively neutered my X-love. I walked out not angry, just... a little more dead on the inside.

Reel Fanatic said...

You're dead right ... A drunk chimpanzee could have made this movie, and the goodwill from Singer's X2 would have still propelled it to mad box office cash .. here's hoping it spirals down to a fiery demise in week 2

NATHANIEL R said...

ah but Bruno ... cool kids don't understand the misfits. they abuse them. It's like having a football captain with very limited leadership skills direct a school play featuring a pack of geeks.

blech.

action (zzzz) dark phoenix (special effects uninspired. drama totally d.o.a. zzzz) political allegory (seriously this is the worst. it is completely misfires on every thematic level when it comes to "the cure")

my C - is generous if anything.

Anonymous said...

The film isn't bad per se, it's just TERRIBLY mediocre.

See, I forgave MI3 and Posedion because they didn't have much to work with. (MI3 on second viewing went down the tube, and FAST. I may be the only person in the world who thinks that J.J. Abrams is terribly overrated. Posiedon had a few parts that were MESSED UP, ex. kicking poor Freddy Rodriguez to his death, but the film itself had a few surprises that helped it work. Good 2 1/2 stars.)

Da Vinci Code I didn't read, and the film itself wasn't as bad as Cannes panned it. Paul Bettany was magnificent and Ian McKellen was a ball to watch. Audrey Tautou was her usual beautiful charming self, and i love the scene between her and Silas. LOVED IT.

But the film was terribly melodramatic, and for the first time I felt that Tom Hanks was out of his league. Never in my life did I think I would say that, but it's true. It's evident there in the film. A good *** for being entertaining though, and making you think just a tad.

But X-3 was unforgiveable to me. First off, Singer is enormously talented, (don't know where Bruno comes off saying Ratner's amazing... only thing he's done of certain significance is Red Dragon, and even in that he managed to make Edward Norton BORING. ...how is that even possible?!?!) and has made great, critically-acclaimed films so far in his career. His participation and direction made X2 one of the best films dealing with superheroes ever made. He had a touch, a kind of... control and understanding of the characters that made it just... beautiful.

So to go from that, to this, where you have characters cut completely from the film (Nightcrawler, anyone?) and others dramatically undercut (won't name them here), it just... was almost offensive. And then there are the exits, shall we say, of characters that really? I didn't feel anything. No tears, no remorse... they just didn't have IMPACT. No gravitas. Because I didn't feel any kind of suspense, I just felt like it was a Gandalf in LOTR type thing... you KNOW he's coming back in one way or another. (Although Jackson handled that demise to perfection.)

There were great additions (Kelsey Grammer did well as Beast, and Ellen Page solidified her position as one of the most talented young actresses I've ever seen. I'll answer why if you choose to ask), great special effects (big whoop) but... the story just sucked. It just... I don't know. I had my knives dull at the beginning, but by the end they were sharp as can be imagined.

The Phoenix Saga, one of the best things I've ever seen done in the modern age in terms of entertainment, was if you really think about it, Shakespearean in it's scope. Its brilliance is, just... unimaginable. To see it downplayed, and to see moments that should have hurt so much you couldn't breathe come out being... "ehh" at best, hurt.

I'm harsh on Ratner, yes. But that's because he HAD something to live up to. He HAD expectations put upon him. I just felt that the emotion, the warmth and the love that was so completely evident in X2 was just obliterated beyond measure in this.

...that's why X3 pissed me off.

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