X-Men: First Class – Movie Questions Without Answers
Watched X-Men: First Class a few months ago and have been meaning to post my thoughts about it. Though I liked the movie as a stand-alone interpretation of the X-Men story (and probably one of the best superhero films ever produced), I don’t think it adds up chronologically to the rest of the movie franchise or even historically (someone needs to either watch the TV show, Madmen or read up on their 1960’s history).
At some points I found it hilarious (the funniest was that Mystique and Charles Xavier were BFFs?? And living in the mansion???)
Here are few questions that I start to bring up while watching it and moments thereafter:
1. Who was Xavier’s mother? How did he inherit or have all the money to afford that castle? And was he suppose to be English?
2. How did Erik escape from Sebastian Shaw during the years of torture?
3. Wait…Whose movie is this about anyway? Last I heard it was called X-Men, not Magneto Men but yet Erik is allowed to make a grand speech while Charles takes a bullet for good measure….The title of this movie should have been X-Men: The Rise of Magneto.
4. Not to sound chauvinistic, but was there any women working for the CIA in 1962 as a agent or spy? At what level is she to call the director directly while he’s in a meeting with the military and others? And also wearing short mini-skirts in 1962 (this is again, 1962 and not 1969)….
5. What? No Stan Lee cameo? LOL
6. Why didn’t Emma Frost sense the presence of Moira hiding in the room.
7. Damn, just how many women does Magneto need to be by his side?
8. What was Shaw’s endgame? Destruction? Take over? Burning down the White House?
9. While shooting at Shaw at the CIA compound a guy just happens to have Bazooka. Who brings a Bazooka to a gun fight?
10. Who was the dude with the power to control the wind? Storm’s father???
11. Why did the only Black guy in the movie get killed…but the Red devil guy is running around killing everybody?
12. Why did the Russians make the helmet for Shaw in the first place?
13. Ummm, not really a question but….that girl with the wings is NOT the real Angel!!
14. Uh…I thought Alex Summers was Scott’s little brother and not the other way around???
15. How did the United States and Russia agree to attack the mutants so quickly when they refused to agree on the missile blockade….and even that went back and forth for 13 days…plus, are the writers saying both Kennedy and Kruschev were mutant haters? That they ordered the assault on these people on the island? Did they even know what a mutant was/is...?
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Check out this video that tries unsuccessfully to explain and connect all the X-Men movies and related films:
INCEPTION An Introspective Overview by Torrence King
Christopher Nolan attempts an epic task with his dream-based film but its accomplishment hinges on the world in which it inhabits.
Was it all a dream? Or just a reflection of a distorted reality…slightly bent?
Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the sum of humanity’s most shared in-between life-to-death experience. No one can remember being born; Very few has ever come back from the dead and live to tell about it. But everyone eventually sleep and, therefore, dream. Inceptionpresents no exception to that rule. In this reality, dreams, may well be, the stuff of life.
Some viewers of the film have called Inception a “masterpiece”, while others, “visually stunning”. Critics and moviegoers alike have applauded the mere daring of such a creative undertaking.
I, for one, must say that it is, for lack of a better word, interesting.
So far, my favorite movies by Nolan, are Memento, Batman Begins and The Prestige. While, to me, his most popular movie to date, Batman: The Dark Knight was too quick in its edits and did not include the nonlinear Nolan-style from scene to scene which was completely obvious in comparison to its predecessor Batman Begins. Nolan was out of his usual element with doing such a straight, blockbuster of a movie. (What? No flashbacks? No out-of-sync time-lines?)
My opinion is that Heath Ledger’s untimely death changed the way that movie was edited and expectation demanded a “summer blockbuster” and Nolan complied. It was a huge hit but not a Nolan-styled movie. For this, I cannot say I hate Dark Knight but neither can I say I love it. I will say I’ve seen it several times to get at the heart of Nolan's vision and that itself speaks for his gift. His movies make the viewer think, try to understand it and/or dissect it. Thus is the way I felt about Inception; it’s not a “love it or hate it” movie, it’s a motion picture work of art, whether you care or do not.
Then again, there are several questions lingering within Inception from scene to scene.
Such as, was it all a dream? Maybe.
Another question I pose: How can you use machines to put a dreamer to sleep within a dream of a dream?
This brings up the fact that there are two forms of Science Fiction/Fantasy storytelling difficult to convey: Time-Travel and Dream-Worlds. Both are not easy to accomplish if one point of the story is not covered. For example: In Back To The Future when Marty McFly saw himself at different points in time and could not prevent the other from accomplishing their missions or in Nightmare on Elm Street when someone falls asleep and Freddy Kruegar is in complete control of their dream world. With Inception, the effort is hampered by the fact that there is no origin or simple base story to be your guide through the twists and turns of the movie.
Was this “entering” of one’s dream a gift? A power? A scientific experiment only a chosen few are allowed to master?
And, also, what era are we to assume the “outside” world takes place? Past, present or future? No one will ever know because Nolan never explains it.
I would have appreciated some foundation given the fact that this journey is new to audiences in general.
When you watch a James Bond or Mission: Impossible movie, you have a preconceived notion of spy movies, though they may be different in their styles and delivery, you eventually come into a Jason Bourne or any other spy movie with some sort of expectation and your mind is pretty much on auto-pilot not unless there is a unexpected twist along the way.
Inception feels not so much like a fresh start but more like starting in a story’s middle with no beginning and no ending. Just know that you’re here and really don’t know how you got here.
The lyrics to Once In A Lifetime by the Talking Heads come to mind: And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself: “Well...How did I get here? Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dominic Cobb addresses that in the movie to explain to student Ariadne (Ellen Page) what it feels like when you fall asleep and dream. No point of origin. You’re just there.
Did Nolan want audiences to feel that way too? You’re here. Enjoy the ride. Destination unknown.
To take us on this journey are a top-notch ensemble of actors: DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, Pete Postlethwaite, Lukas Haas and Michael Caine. Their performances are all played well with Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s characters being the great action heroes of the story.
Pivotal scenes and camera angles are also excellent and reminiscent to another great director, Stanley Kubrick. I noticed this even in the first set of trailers. Most recently, I learned that the Christopher Nolan was influenced greatly by Kubrick, so I approach this film with that in mind. By my estimation, I do believe Kubrick would have been proud of Inception with its style and cinematography as a reminder to his approach to film making.
There are very few directors like Nolan and Kubrick that want the movie audience to be a participant of their films no matter how uncomfortable visually or mentally it can be. (A Clockwork Orange, anyone?)
Finally, for our viewing pleasure there were some noteworthy points of reference Nolan may or may not have intended to present:
1) Édith Piaf's song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" plays in various scenes. Actress Marion Cotillard who plays Mallorie "Mal" Cobb, Dominic Cobb's deceased wife, also starred as Piaf in 2007 film about her life, La Vie en rose. 2) On a somewhat lighter note, there is a scene with DiCaprio where his character Cobb is trying to talk someone down from leaping to their death. I could only be reminded of him doing the same thing in Titanic over 10 years ago as the doomed character, Jack Dawson calming down Rose (Kate Winslet) from jumping off the edge of the ship. That effort doesn’t bode so well this time.
Besides the loops and turns of this film, moviegoers are definitely in for a treat. Nolan has done it again visually but making it all work as a story only distracts slightly.
Then again, not unless it was all a dream. At which point, the story doesn’t matter and the scope of Inception can be taken in for all its daring.
The attack on Pearl Harbor (called Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters (Operation Z in planning) and the Battle of Pearl Harbor) was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but two of the eight were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,[nb 2] and one minelayer. One hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8) the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for isolationism, which had been strong, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy".
Love can hold time.
Love can measure time.
Love can make time stand still.
Love is the substance of all things.
Those things hidden from the eye,
Those things hidden from the ears.
Into the sky, under the ocean,
Love endures the shifts and changes.
Every rain, every storm.
Love stands against it all.
What burden?
What worry?
What fear?
What sorrow?
Love conquers them all
And with every mile,
Moves forward.
This power is strong.
This thing called love.
Time may seem stronger
It may test this mortal world.
Time, O, it may age us all
But a love that binds
Is ageless.
