X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand is a pointless abomination that deserved to be retconned. The ending is quite possibly the greatest failure in logic ever to exist.

X-Men: The Last Stand is easily the worst X-Men movie I've ever seen. Maybe it's because Bryan Singer wasn't involved. I can definitely see why they retconned it.

The entire thing was just terrible. Wolverine's hair looked ridiculous for most of the movie, and Storm's wig was super distracting. Kelsey Grammer was a weird Beast. Nick Hoult is much better. I still don't like Halle Berry as Storm. I do still like Rebecca as Mystique, though. Knowing her backstory gave the character more depth than it probably had for people watching the movie when it first came out. And I still liked Ian, too. Magneto's entire team was more interesting than the X-Men. I don't really see them as villains.

X-Men 2

Nothing really astounding happens in X-Men 2, but I haven't seen an X-Men movie yet that I didn't like (except maybe The Wolverine), and I enjoyed it.

It's been like two weeks since I watched X-Men 2, so this definitely isn't the optimal time to be writing my thoughts. I saw the first X-Men movie when it came out. I guess this one just didn't grab my interest, because I hadn't seen it. I think I like watching pretty much anything X-Men related. Hugh Jackman looks so young here compared to in Logan. He's like a little baby. I didn't really like Halle Berry's Storm. I like it better when they go a more African direction with Storm. Rogue's Lousianan accent was cool.

I loved the interaction between Xavier and Magneto. I think watching First Class and Future Past before this one added some depth to their relationship, and also to Mystique's character. I still think Rebecca is a million times better as Mystique than Jennifer.

If I came in expecting it to be some epic Blockbuster movie, I would probably be disappointed. But a lot of cool stuff happened. And it's perfectly enjoyable as just another episode of the overall X-Men story.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a nice addition to the series. The themes are consistent, the characters are interesting, and there's some cool stuff going on. Considering all the material they have, it seems like they could keep doing episodes like this forever. 

My X-Men exposition feels a little familiar since I just talked about it for the last Wolverine movie, but I'll say it again. I've never read the comics, but I liked the X-Men: Evolution animated series, and the first X-Men movie; I skipped the second one and First Class. I love James McAvoy, so that's pretty much all I needed to be interested in this one. The 70s kitsch might have seemed novel, too, but in practice it wasn't actually very interesting.

Mystique really bugged me. I don’t like Jennifer Lawrence, and I don't get why Mystique has to be naked all the time. It just looks weird. I don't remember how Mystique looked in X-Men, but in this one it really seemed like Jennifer was just wearing a nylon suit. Her hands were so obviously painted, it just didn't work; it made all the wrinkles in her hands stand out so much. I didn't like her hair, either. I don't like seeing her feet, and her body looks bizarre. It seems like she wears clothes a lot in the comics, so I don't see why they couldn't have put some clothes on her.

I have a problem recognizing Michael Fassbender, too. I feel like I just haven't seen him in anything. I kept thinking, "Am I supposed to know who that actor is? I know it's not Jude Law." And that was about as far as I could get with it. 

I loved the opening sequence. It brought you right into what's so cool about the X-Men; all the mutants' powers are so unique, and they can all do such cool things. I wasn't familiar with any of the characters, but I liked Blink's look. She had a lot of cool stuff going on. I wish they could've just stopped and shown us what she looked like. I don't think I like Ellen Paige as Kitty, but I never seem to like Ellen Paige in much of anything.

Cloud Atlas

Not life-changing, but it held my interest.

First of all, someone should really have done a better job promoting Cloud Atlas. Until I saw a review of it, I pretty much just knew it was a bunch of confusing stuff involving Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and the future, and that's not very appealing.

I liked the stories about the future the most. What happened in Neo Seoul was utterly appalling. Some of the stories weren't as entertaining/satisfying as the others, but you've got a lot to choose from, so it's kind of a wash. Some of the makeup was distracting, and there were times when the constant switching between stories got to be annoying.

I think my favorite character was probably Old Georgie. He was such a mystery, and he had a great outfit. The movie leaves a few things unanswered. Not about the Fall or the rebellion, like some people apparently wonder about, but smaller things. It makes me want to read the book, but there are so many upsetting parts I don't want to revisit.

Overall, it wasn't life-changing, but it held my interest.