These past few years have been wonderful for my Geekdom. First there was Iron Man, then Iron Man 2, then Thor, then Captain America … and finally, Marvel Avengers. Seriously. I’ve been in heaven.
But I did miss out watching X-Men First Class in the theaters. Luckily for me, I was able to snag a copy of my own and watched it tonight. I’ll admit to a bit of trepidation walking into another X-Men film. Story-wise, the previous X-Men films were sound (and by that I mean the plots made sense and came to logical conclusions), they just weren’t … well … they just weren’t the X-Men I had grown up with. Rogue, for example, was one of my all-time favorite characters and … yeah. It just didn’t jive for me.
Though I confess Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was brilliant. (Never has a man looked so good with so much hair.)
What drew me to X-Men : First Class — aside from the fact that it was the X-Men — was really James McAvoy. I’ve loved that actor since Children of Dune. I would faint if the man ever read one of my works for an audiobook production. (Which, by the way, is a crap ton more work than you would imagine. I’ve been running Deviation through practice runs just in case I do give it out on iTunes for free as a podiobook, and it’s a headache and a half.)
Anyway, Mr. McAvoy has a very distinctive voice. And when I saw him as Professor Charles Xavier, I got a little weak-kneed. Professor X absolutely has to have a distinctive voice. Why do you think they chose Patrick Stewart to play the role in the other films? Now there’s a man with a voice you can’t forget!
So, McAvoy lured me into this new X-Men movie and I loved it. The tension between characters was wonderful, and I admit that I was rooting for Magneto in places where I probably oughtn’t to have been. But then again, the really compelling part of the X-Men for me as a reader had always been the struggle with prejudice. So even in the comics I was often rooting for Magneto … or at least rooting for a way that there might be a peaceful resolution for his character.
But anyway, this is me geeking out. I loved the movie. And I loved the Avengers, too. (I took my son to see it on opening weekend and it really is a riot.)
AJMaguire 