X-Men 3: An Action Movie that Takes a Stand
This is an incredibly interesting film to emerge on the silver screen during a nationwide debate over immigration and immigrant rights, not to mention amid a nation already fighting a war of attrition with gay rights and various other civil liberties. The premise of X-Men 3 lies in the idea that Worthington Industries has developed a serum that will “cure” the mutants of their “genetic disease.” A lot of the wording in the film regarding genetics is eerily similar to that of anti-gay groups in the late 1990s, and plays a good deal on the somewhat common idea that genetics is something that can/should be “fixed.”
We see this play out on several different levels, from the factions of mutants who militantly oppose the newfound “cure,” to Storm’s strong argument that mutation isn’t something that needs to be “cured,” and again to the suggestion on behalf of Beast and Rogue that when one can’t “pass” in mainstream society, giving up a part of one’s identity can often seem preferable to being socially shunned.
Perhaps the most amazingly passionate display of this in the film comes from the character of Angel Archangel, who is seen trying to destroy all evidence of his mutation before ultimately accepting who he is. The scenes with Angel are enough to make even the most stoic moviegoer tear up.
The reason that all of this works, of course, is because this movie (and the two before it) has created characters with whom we all can relate. We want the characters to fare well, and while the characters with whom we side says a lot about us as individuals, I don’t think that I’ve ever heard anyone, while discussing an X-Men movie, ever state that they just couldn’t maintain interest in the characters.
Making gentle social commentary and being subtle in doing so only works if people are already enmeshed with the characters on the screen; this allows them to bond with the various superheroes and take their lessons home with them. If art is truly meant to affect social change, then this is truly an example of the best way to do it. You really want the characters to win and overcome their challenges because they’re a slightly glorified version of you; in rooting them on, you’re rooting yourself on, and while there’s no shortage of films that do this, I would suggest that there aren’t too many that do it this well, and certainly very few in the action genre.
There are, however, some serious flaws in the film, although these glaring errors are perhaps ones that only a comic book reader or purist would notice. The problem lies mainly in the fact that Marvel already had a very solid storyline worked out through the various comic books, and regardless of how touching and moving the reconstructed plotline is, fans of the comic will argue (quite vehemently) that there was nothing at all wrong with the first one.
For all you naysayers out there who would argue that a few plot compromises are necessary in the change to the big screen, I have to point out that these are not at all subtle changes like the omission of the potion scene at the end of the first Harry Potter movie or the merging of Gwen and Mary Jane into one character as in Spiderman. These are huge, incontrovertible rends in the original story fabric that change loved characters into complete strangers.
Angel was really Archangel, and Phoenix was really Dark Phoenix. Simple enough, right? Wrong. Archangel, while in fact the son of Worthington’s head man, was also not a teenager, but was far closer to Wolverine’s age. This becomes amazingly significant later, as he leaves the X-Men because he and Wolverine have too many conflicts. He attempted to pursue a relationship with Jean Grey, but was spurned when she began to date, and ultimately marry, Cyclops, and when Jean Grey became Dark Phoenix, he was there with his alternative band of mutants to bring her in.
Jean Grey, on the other hand, became Dark Phoenix after being greatly affected by heavy doses of radiation after saving her cohorts in a scene similar to that at the end of X2, and not because she was overwhelmingly powerful to begin with, or because she was in possession of a mental condition. The new Jean Grey is a very empowering image, albeit in a rather broken and flawed way; buffing up Grey’s character ultimately makes up for the uncomfortable shift of powers that we’ll see later in the film.
While adding a teenaged Angel and Rogue and a mentally ill Jean Grey makes some nice moves towards social commentary (and people say it was omitted entirely!), it serves little other purpose and ties up some pretty nice plot development down the line. What does “down the line” matter if this is the last X-Men movie? Well, it wouldn’t matter, if this were truly the last one.
Rumors abound that former director and X-Men mastermind Bryan Singer has stated that while this will be the last of the first trilogy of X-Men movies, he (and Marvel) fully intend to make more of them. Considering that the X-Men films are what saved Marvel from imminent bankruptcy and are by far their biggest money-makers, why would they stop making movies that they know that people are going to come to see? Despite consistent removal from the original Marvel universe, the movies still manage to rack in the dough and bring viewers (even the stalwart comic book fans) running out to the theatres.
If you’re going to the theatres to see the film, make sure that you stay for all of the credits as well; perhaps the most telling moment of the movie appears after the credits are over.
