beach bum

Last night, Cass and I watched X-Men: The Last SpringFirst Class. I'd already been pretty thoroughly spoiled, because I hate just about everything about the previous X-movies, so I wasn't going to try this one without knowing how much I'd have to brace myself. I was very intrigued by the idea of taking on the story of Erik and Charles' early friendship and split, which is a period that got referred to a lot in the comics when I was actively reading them, but didn't so much get shown. It's hard to articulate why, but Hollywood's been doing a lot better by me in period pieces for the past several years (whether that period is in the past or a decidedly futuristic setting), so that also helped me decide to try this one.

It seems unlikely this is meant as an actual reboot of the movie franchise, particularly given a certain cameo, but I personally keep finding myself pondering the possibilities if it were. I would love a world in which the gorgeous Black, fairy-winged, former-stripper-because-she-had-so-few-choices Angel were the Angel, no rich blond boys need apply, and in which Mystique and Beast have a secret bond, and in which Banshee's frankly riDONKulous costume is given vaguely plausible physics (and in which Banshee shows up at all, even if your average movie viewer has no idea he's actually in the comics, and even if he's cast as a somewhat anachronistic American surfer-slacker, rather than a craggy, taciturn Irishman). Of course, that love is balanced out by my hatred of what was done with Moira McTaggert and Emma Frost (she's the fucking White Queen, and most of the interest of the Hellfyre Club storylines lay in her political rivalry with Sebastian Shaw; making her a brainless supermodel hanging off Shaw's arm misses the entire fucking point of her character), but apparently it can't be an X-movie if they don't thoroughly screw up at least two female characters; though the Frank Miller-esque sensibility that every woman has an inner stripper yearning to be free, even if she's a badass CIA agent, does not bode well for future installments. Also, it would sadden me that there's no longer the possibility of Sebastian Shaw showing up to annoy the hell out of whichever mutant is currently distracting him from his cocktail (and the casting of Kevin Bacon as one of the so-called Immortal mutants is sheer brilliance).

Still, I like how right they got Erik and Charles. Erik has always had this kind of earned nobility in his devastated backstory and his "we are a brotherhood of the persecuted against those who would destroy us" sensibility. He's also a rather simplistic walking object lesson in how the abused can become the abuser, but whether or not you find that psychologically plausible or narratively interesting, it is something every new adaptation needs to consider in deciding how he's going to be portrayed. This version works in part because of his youth. It's only toward the end of the movie that he's falling into the horrific reasoning that all non-mutants need to be eliminated before they can eliminate the mutants (and, to be fair, he arrives at that conclusion based on the genocidal actions of the local non-mutants, as represented by the typically ham-handed Michael Ironside). Prior to that, he's a deeply traumatized young man on a mission of vengeance against the men who slaughtered his people; extreme, maybe, but understandable.

Charles has never had that kind of trauma, and it's clear he believes the only thing standing between him and that kind of trauma is how well he hides by passing as non-mutant. He seems honestly incapable of comprehending why other mutants who can't pass would object to staying out of sight, out of mind, and he talks a good game about cooperation and tolerance, but this movie did quite a fine job of showing subtly and overtly that his overriding instinct is and will always be to take "his people" and hide, even to the point of erasing the memory of a woman he clearly respects and likes. This has always been the twofold danger of Charles Xavier, and it's a balance that's hard to do well, so the character can be very easy to dislike; he can come off as very reasonable and intensely charming, but he has a very definite idea about how the world should be, and he very nearly has the power to force reality to conform. The tragedy of Charles and Erik, no matter which of them you think is closer to the mark, is how very in accord they are, except for this one basic thing: Erik's instinct when threatened is to lash out first, second, and always. Charles' instinct when threatened is to hide first, and he views diplomatic relations with non-mutants as a means to determine the best way to hide. Only when he can't hide does he lash out, and just like Erik, he plays for keeps.

Which brings us to the beach scene, the crux on which this particular iteration turns, and the thing about which it seems everyone who's seen the movie is talking. Charles has taken control of Shaw's mind and thus his body, and it says something that even knowing what Erik's plan is likely to be, even when Erik has shut him out via the anti-tp helmet so he can't talk Erik out of what he knows Erik's plan is likely to be, he doesn't let go. He experiences Erik's slow, agonizing murder of Shaw and still doesn't let go. I think this not only says something about his devotion to Erik, but about the true similarity of their beliefs. They both divide the world into Us and Them, and if They need to die to protect Us, so be it. In any case, Erik is still reeling with the emotional release of finally killing the man who killed his mother, Charles is reeling with the trauma of living through murder firsthand, and then they get hit with the threat of the military of two major world powers bearing down on them with the intent to destroy. It's completely unsurprising that Erik's answer is to launch ALL the Missiles, and Charles stops him less as a means to save the non-mutants and more because Holy SHIT, missiles, they will never stop trying to kill us if those hit their targets, think for a minute, Erik. But nobody's thinking here, not really, and I have to assume that Erik isn't turning those bullets back on Moira either because a) he's strained his power to the point that he no longer has that kind of fine control or b) he's already decided to kill her by other means. And I can totally buy that there's a part of Erik's brain that's always assessing each person he meets and deciding how he'll kill them if necessary, and he's only just acknowledged that the reason he can't decide for Charles is because he really, REALLY doesn't want to kill Charles, a thing he has possibly only felt about his mother before--and then the bullet strikes.

I like that none of this scene was done in slo-mo, that the characters don't have time to react and the audience doesn't have time to react before it's done, the bullet is in and Charles is down and Erik is ready to kill Moira all over again because it's her bullet, but Charles expends the effort to make sure Erik knows this is his fault, if only he'd listened, and it hit me all over again that to Charles' mind, Erik had already abandoned him when Erik put on that helmet, and yet he hadn't let go the whole time Erik was killing Shaw, and now here they are, Charles not saying he can't feel his legs and Erik looking so stricken even before Charles tells him to leave, and this yawning gulf between them even though Erik is cradling Charles like he's planning to never let go (I'm not sure he ever has), and both of them are still so young and already their paths are set. I startled myself by actually sobbing, because this moment right here is the basis of an entire universe of stories in which I've invested so much time and so much money and so much heart...and this movie, for all its flaws, got this thing right. And apparently, to the part of my soul that will always be a hardcore X-girl, everything else is just gravy*.

I will never forgive James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender if they suck me back into this fandom.

*By everything else, I mean "everything but Gambit." If this franchise takes on Gambit, and they get him wrong, and they probably will, all bets are off.