And this time, I actually know what everyone is talking about while they are talking about it!

[sour_idealist]

By which I mean: Tonight I saw X-Men: First Class.

To the surprise of nobody, I have thoughts!

So, I was going to say "Y'all can go enjoy the Erik/Xavier, I am OVER HERE IN THE CORNER WITH EVERYONE ELSE," and then I got to the 'move the satellite' scene and realized my hands had started miming the process of physically shoving their faces together without asking for my permission first. SO UM THAT. Look, they're jerks and all, but snarky domesticity and the possibility of mindporn sort of did me in. That said, OTHER THINGS I SHIP:

• Raven/Angel: Potentially adorable. They can swap stories of their different lives! Raven can forge Angel's wings! (Wow, I spent way too long in Inception fandom.) They can get drunk and cuddle a lot and wake up in the morning and go "Oh Lord did we have sex? We didn't, did we? We didn't? Great.... :(" And then they do, once the hangover is gone. (This can, really, happen either before everything blows up or later.) GIRRLLFRENS, BASICALLY.
• Raven/Emma Frost: Shapeshifters! Bonding over the true-forms thing! Liking each others' true forms without being all Pygmalion-y about it (Magneto.) Giving Emma characterization up in here!
• Emma Frost/Moira MacTaggert! Okay, so this is basically one I came up with earlier in the movie because I was determined to come out armed to provide femmeslash, and then the bit where Moira was sneaking through the nightclub and it cut from her view through the bookcase to another gratuitous shot of Emma's cleavage, which probably wasn't meant to be a POV shot, and there turned out to be easier femmeslash ships to work, but I kinda got attached to this. Angsty foe-yay and futher mindporn! (All Emma Frost ships may be assumed to involve sex via telepathy, but in this one they lack the opportunity for anything else, SO.)
• Raven/Hank: Yeah, he was a jerk about her mutant form, but given that was his own internalization I have a lot more sympathy for that than Magneto's aforementioned Pygmalion-y approach, and, basically: GET IT GURL. No, really, I did love that she got to be the one making clearer advances there.
• Darwin/Alex: This is based entirely off of two looks and the outstretched-hand thing, but Darwin's general kindness and protectiveness as combined with Havok's loneliness could be interesting, and there is enough space to make up common ground, and DAMMIT DARWIN WAS AWESOME HE DESERVED BETTER.
• Edit: bb!Raven/bb!Charles BFF OTP. The kids were really cute.

So basically I am on allllllllllll of the shipping trains.

Beyond that... I mean, as I said and as can be gathered, my interest in the movie stemmed from thinking I might like to be a part of the fandom, or at least know if I had enough of an interest for that. In and of itself, it had great visuals and passable pacing, fairly well acted, but it was a summer blockbuster. Also, SUPERPOWERED LADIES WITH SEXUAL AGENCY ARE EVIL, BLACK DUDES ARE DEAD, ANYONE BUT A WASP DUDE IS EVIL DEAD OR BORING, OUR HERO IS A HYPOCRITICAL JERK BLIND TO HIS OWN PRIVILEGE (oh yes, you expect better of your sister than a little drunkeness, Mr. Keg Stand), OUR SCREENWRITERS HAVE UNFORTUNATELY NOT BEEN SHOT FORCIBLY SUBJECTED TO SOME LESSONS IN WHY THIS IS BAD. I was expecting that - others have discussed it far better than I ever could - and I was able to compartmentalize enough to really enjoy the movie. I don't feel any need to own it, I don't feel a need to see it again, but I had a fun time watching it and I am now wondering whether it's possible to switch fandoms for thelittlebang, because a) this fandom needs a femmeslash epic, I suspect, and b) it will, actually, be easier to wrestle 15,000 words into existence when I can make some things up and am not constantly distracted by my desire to write about the Farron-Viliers family, which is going to be a problem if I keep trying to write Final Fantasy XIII stuff.

(This is, of course, a decision for the morning. And may not be possible anyway.)

Comments

[wake-the-dragon.livejournal.com]

I have to say I liked Charles in this movie but at the same time almost no characther annoyed me more than him. Mostly it was his complete lack of understanding of people that bothered me: he couldn't understand why mutants like Mystique and Hank weren't happy about their mutations, and he completly messed up with Erick (really "They're just following orders" really Charles). Also, his mindwiping of Moira really bothered me. I think what they were trying to do was show that he wasn't always the wise Professor X and he had to learn from his mistakes.

I was annoyed that Darwin was the only one to die of the main mutants in the movie. But I hold out hope that he can come back; maybe he can adapt to survivng death.

My main ship was Erick/Charles, but I also liked Hank/Mystique (and I groaned when he gave her the formula and said people would never accept their mutant forms) and for some reason Angel/Banshee (I have no idea why; it just occured to me during the movie; maybe because I think she'd be the dominant one....nevermind sometimes you just like ships for really no reason.)

For me (besides the whole Darwin dies thing) I loved the movie and only thought of some unfortunate implications later.

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Darwin dying, just...ugh. Not only does the black dude die first, but it's the black dude whose power is that nothing can kill him, just for bonus side-eyeing. And Charles, well. I loved his characterization, even as I would never want to be friends with him. And a lot of his issues regarding Raven speak towards them being siblings. He just doesn't pay attention to her, because she's his kid sister. Not that it's still not rather asshole-y of him, but it works for me.

In other news, all the ships. Just. Yeah. This movie is so freaking shippy, in every direction. And I may have possibly spent a large portion of the last week on one of the kink memes, where they totally do need more femmeslash.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

My impression of Charles was that in a lot of ways he's a typical 20-something when the movie starts - hence awful-but-hilarious-in-their-awfulness pick up lines, and his double standard over his little sister (also, that is so Truth In Television, from what I know of older brothers, which is not much but still). A lot of the other issues for him, to my mind, were that he's a mostly good-intentioned guy, but they took him from 20-something to putting Patrick Stewart-type lines in James McAvoy's mouth. Guys, guys! He's not old enough to be the venerable Professor X, I highly doubt he had this philosophy so very developed already!

Also, I think you've just made me realize why this film is making Charles/Erik try to push my longheld Magneto/Mystique ship into second place. Snarky domesticity. (Is a snark!kink possible?)