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Sen To, X-Men 2
liquidbrains writes "With 'Princess Mononoke' fresh in our memories, the number one highest grossing film in Japan -ever- is coming to the US. Thanks to Disney and Pixar's John Lasseter, who has supervised the dub, we can soon expect a fine English adaptation of animation master Hayao Miyazaki's latest masterpiece, 'Spirited Away'. See the trailer here." Reader thefalconer writes "It seems that Apple has just released the very first trailer to X-Men 2 on their website. From what I've seen this movie looks like it's going to rock! Too bad I have to wait for May of next year!"
Check out Nausicaa.net for more about Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. These people are brilliant, and Disney bought the North American distribution rights because they're (as much as I hate them) good business people. Porco Rosso, Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Castle of Cagliostro and Tonari No Totoro are all examples of pure brilliance.
This is what Animation should be. Also, Disney's trailer sucks, ignore it, the trailer for the French release was WAY better, check out the official France site or follow the "La Fiche du Film" link here (they took down the really good trailer, damn). There are other trailers around, anyone got links?
I don't know about the rest of the /. crowd but I extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed the first X-Men movie.
As an avid comic book reader (and a one-time X-Men fanatic) I was apprehensive about the film adaptation of my favourite band of super heroes.
After all, the track record of comic book characters on the silver screen wasn't exactly filled with success - Superman, Batman were both good movies but their follow-ups got progressively worse, Judge Dredd had so much potential (see Robocop, which even includes some classic Dredd on-liners) but was such a disappointment, The Punisher, etc. (The less said about Supergirl the better.)
Compared to all of these, X-Men rocked.
Not only was it true to the comic book in most regards but it got across the underlying moral message of the comic book title - that no matter what we look like on the outside or what we can do, we are all equal - without having to excessively spoonfeed the audience or dragging its feet.
OK, if we're nitpicking then Rogue shouldn't be a teenager and neither should Bobby (Iceman). Jean Grey should be called Marvel Girl - or Pheonix at a pinch - when in costume not Jean (did anyone else find it silly that her's was the only alter ego that didn't have a proper name?). Ororo should have either had a headpiece or a mohican hair cut. Toad should have been fatter and stupider. Mystique should have had a costume. It should have been the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
But, there are things that will work in comic books that won't work on screen. The writers allude to this when they have Wolverine question the fashion sense of the team's costumes, to which Cyclops replies "What would you prefer, gold spandex?" - any X-Men fan will recognise this immediately as a reference to Wolverine's own comic book costume, which was originally blue and gold and later orange and brown.
In fact, this was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, and even my girlfriend who wouldn't read a comic book if you paid her laughed along with the joke.
Bottom line is this: rather than nit-pick over minor details why don't you just enjoy the film?
Brian Singer, the cast and the crew did a great job. Would it kill you to acknowledge it?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg