X-Men

Logan

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Logan
  • IMDb: link

Logan movie reviewFinally learning that bigger isn’t always better (see X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: The Last Stand), 20th Century Fox has moved away from the super-sized team film. With both Logan and Legion (FX’s new series based around the X-Men character of the same name), the X-Men universe is taking some interesting turns with a darker tone and smaller character-driven stories. Logan may not be as entertaining as Deadpool, but it definitely ranks as one of the better X-Men films (and easily the best of the Wolverine standalone movies).

Set more than a decade in the future, Logan gives us a Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) we haven’t seen before. Inspired by Old Man Logan, the Logan we see has aged considerably since the events of Days of Future Past and his healing factor has begun to fail him. In a world where mutants are all but extinct, Logan works as a limousine driver making ends meet and keeping himself, Caliban (Stephen Merchant), and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) out of the limelight. Of course that changes when a young girl (Dafne Keen) with very similar abilities to his own shows up on his doorstep hunted by those who want her dead.

…

LoganRead More »

Logan Read More »

Legion – Chapter 3

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legion – Chapter 3
  • wiki: link

“Everybody in here keeps saying that I’m sane. What if they’re wrong?”

Legion - Chapter 3 television review

Leave to the craziest character to make the most logical deduction. Ever since he left the mental institution, David (Dan Stevens) has been surrounded by people telling him that he isn’t sick and that all his episodes and mental problems are only manifestations of his powers which he never properly learned to deal with and control. The idea that no one, other than David himself, has raised is that it isn’t necessarily and either/or proposition. Mutant or schizophrenic? Why can only one of those be true? Just because he’s a mutant doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t also have mental issues. And if a mutant of David’s ability is indeed crazy, what does that mean for the world?

…

Legion – Chapter 3Read More »

Legion – Chapter 3 Read More »

X2

/ / Home Video
  • Title: X2
  • IMDb: link

X2 Blu-ray reviewThis week’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to 2003’s sequel to X-Men. Bringing back most of the cast of director Bryan Singer‘s first film, X2 explored the origins of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) with a series of flashbacks which would be further explored in the best-forgotten X-Men Origins: Wolverine six years later. Although Magneto (Ian McKellen) returns, he’s not the villain his time around. Instead the villain is William Stryker (Brian Cox) who is using his own son’s mutant abilities to start a war against mutants in hopes of wiping them out completely. His maneuvering includes brainwashing Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) to try and assassinate the President and attacking the X-Men in their own home.

Along with Nightcrawler, the franchise expands mutants with the additions of Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), and Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), and a number of mutant children living in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

…

X2Read More »

X2 Read More »

Legion – Chapter 2

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legion – Chapter 2
  • wiki: link

Legion - Chapter 2 television review

On his own outside of the mental institution, David (Dan Stevens) accepts the invitation to go with Syd (Rachel Keller) to a sort of summer camp for mutants run by Dr. Melanie Bird (Jean Smart) who hopes to repair David’s mind and teach him that his delusions are actually manifestations of his powers. With the help of Ptonomy (Jeremie Harris), David begins reliving memories from his past, but it soon becomes clear there’s more going on in David’s mind than Bird or Ptonomy bargained for. The folks at Summerland also discover David’s willingness to cooperate has its limits as his time in a MRI ends with another impressive use of his powers, while also showing David’s ability to touch his sister’s mind from miles away.

…

Legion – Chapter 2Read More »

Legion – Chapter 2 Read More »

Legion – Chapter 1

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legion – Chapter 1
  • wiki: link

Legion - Chapter 1 television review

Imagine the most powerful person on the planet might be an escaped mental patient. Taking a far different tact to introduce us to mutant than any of the X-Men films (which were very quick to introduce and explain the abilities of each character), “Chapter 1” of Legion is more methodical as we witness David Haller (Dan Stevens) interviewed about recent events which led to the diagnosed schizophrenic leaving the mental institution. The episode slowly reveals to us, and eventually David, that the government agents are lying to him and know and understand more about David than he does himself. In the scenes of the institution we meet David’s best friend Lenny (Aubrey Plaza) and his girlfriend Syd (Rachel Keller), both of whom it appears will continue to play important roles for him outside of the institution.

…

Legion – Chapter 1Read More »

Legion – Chapter 1 Read More »