X-Men Go Dark
X-Men 5.7 “Old Soldiers”
This episode punches Nazis.
Actual Nazis.
It’s a flashback to a mission Logan went on with Captain America during World War II, and exists solely to…well...honestly?
I think it was just an excuse to include Cap and an oddly poorly drawn Red Skull. WWII Logan is just as grumpy, but they did manage to write him as less traumatized. It’s also entertaining that he’s hated a guy for decades because nobody actually debriefed him after the war when it was safe. Sounds about right....
X-Men 5.8 “Hidden Agenda”
Somehow, this episode felt longer…it had a lot packed into it. We see a mine collapse…from which miners are rescued by Cannonball.
Who has to…well. No. The X-Men are all set to rescue him from a secret government program, but turns out Sam Guthrie is quite, quite self-rescuing.
Rogue will never hear the end of using Gambit’s name as an alias.
We may or may not have seen the last of Sam, but we haven’t seen the last of the “government agency” with the decidedly fascist uniforms. Definitely not.
Well, except there are only two episodes left…
Superman & Lois 4.5 “Break the Cycle”
Okay, time for Lex Luthor’s tragic backstory. Assuming he’s not lying. We all assume he’s lying.
Elizabeth, his pregnant daughter, is convinced to try and talk to him by Lois and Clark…the latter being a bit of a Superjerk about it. No, don’t put Luthor’s problems on the poor kid.
But this is all about the cycle of domestic violence…and worse…and the only way Elizabeth can break it is to leave.
Meanwhile, Lois talks Doomsday down. I don’t know that I like this episode. Partly because I don’t like this Luthor, but also it feels like it should be closer to the end of the series. There’s some pacing weirdness going on here…or is there?
X-Men 5.9 “Descent”
Another backstory episode. This time, we get to see Mr. Sinister, who was apparently creating mutants in the 19th century. An ancestor of Xavier was involved.
Is Sinister actually responsible for all mutants? I doubt it. More likely he was tracking them down and isolating them, learning from them.
But there’s…well…he’s up to something. Quite a few things, even.
I almost feel sorry for him. Mad geneticist, true, but…maybe if Darwin had taken him seriously…
X-Men 5.10 “Graduation Day.”
Xavier is attacked and lies dying. Mutant uprisings wrack the globe.
Magneto is convinced to come help Xavier call Lilandra, who takes him off to Aval…I mean Shiar.
The end.
What happened to the mutant uprisings? Is Duluth now a mutant enclave? (I am amused. Duluth?)
This is completely unsatisfying and I feel sorry for the kids who were left with this as the ending. It would have been better to just have a regular episode. Or something.
If it wasn’t for the sequel series, I’d be pretty mad.
I suppose this is why somebody wanted to revisit it.
Question is when and if Xavier will return to Earth in the new series?
X-Men ’97 1.1 “To Me, My X-Men”
Xavier is off planet. To the world, he’s dead. Scott is in charge, but Jean is pregnant (with Nate, presumably) and there are Sentinels again.
The art style matches the original well, with a bit more modern clarity to it…but not too much. It’s very clear they wanted this to be a true continuation.
And now Magneto is claiming Xavier left the school to him and he wants to lead the X-Men.
This isn’t going to be pretty…
X-Men ’97 1.2 “Mutant Liberation Begins”
Magneto goes on trial. The trial is attacked. He manages to…well, this is good Magneto. For now. We all know it won’t last.
Storm is not permanently depowered, either, although I should have known they were going to mess with her from the return of the mohawk.
She’ll be back. Meanwhile, Jean gives birth to Nate…and Rogue steals the knowledge of a bigoted ob-gyn to deliver the baby. He had it coming, just saying.
The slightly longer format doesn’t really feel necessary, although modern audiences do expect it.
I’ve always been a fan of good Magneto. Oh, and he’s properly Jewish again, we’ll just ignore continuity and fix it. Thanks.
Review: Wicked Part 1
That, my friends, is how you adapt a musical. With tons of star power and some of the most incredible production design I’ve seen lately, seamlessly integrating physical sets and digital effects with some insane choreography, Wicked respects the original (unlike a certain other recent musical “adaptation” that shall remain nameless).
Cynthia Erivo is a brilliant Elphaba…a talented actor with an instrument up to one of the hardest roles on Broadway. Except she only had to do it for a few takes, unlike the equally amazing Alexia Khadime. (It’s no accident that both are Black women and Erivo is also queer. She understands what she’s playing).
Ariana Grande has received some criticism for being cast for her voice not her acting. But she’s a good foil to Erivo in a role that really requires more voice than acting…Glinda is a wonderful character, but definitely the easier of the two roles.
Expanding the show to two movies does work. I know some people have criticized it, but it did give the story more space to breathe. Particularly, we get a bit more space to sell ths enemies to lov…I mean friends arc.
I mean friends.
I’m not sure Erivo and Grande meant friends. They came over as shipping their own characters hardcore. Despite taking out “We weren’t exactly friends” with its hint of queer coding…maybe they did that as a sop for mainstream audiences…this version was definitely moresapphic than the one I saw in London, not less.
The choreography was insane. They did costume choices that conventional wisdom says would “look stupid” on screen. Pro tip: They’re kind of supposed to.
The munchkins were well cast without going into problematic territory.
Peter Dinklage had way too much fun playing a goat.
Jeff Goldblum had way too much fun chewing down half of Emerald City as the Wizard.
They got around the potential problematic imagery of painting their Black lead green by giving Elphaba natural hair, in long braids so the hair tossing scene still worked.
Fiyero’s arc was stronger for the slight foreshadowing in the form of his conversation with his horse. (The horse and actor have worked together before).
The lion cub was too small. I’ve seen lion cubs that age, they’re about three times that size. It did make it easier to manhandle him, though.
Why did they change “I don’t hate anyone that much.” “Yes, you do.” It’s not nearly as funny without the spoken response.
I’m going to stick out my neck right now and say this one will win the Academy Award for Production Design. I could also see it being at least nominated for Best Costume Design. Will it be in the mix for Best Picture? It’s not impossible. It’s also getting a Hugo nomination from me. I’m trying to decide on the Bradbury as it’s such a tight adaptation…the criteria are slightly different.
But I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to part 2 next year.
X-Men ’97 1.3 “Fire Made Flesh”
Oh, should have known the Jean who wants to leave isn’t Jean.
Hi, Madelyne.
Oh, and hi, little baby Cable.
Poor Scott. Married a clone, and gets dumped by a clone and has to let his kid go into the future in order to survive.
It’s a wonder he doesn’t go full emo.
Probably he’ll go full emo.
Logan has a chance with real Jean? Nah, not likely.
I’ve never been a fan of clones in superheroes (Orphan Black, quite different), but at least they kept that bit fairly short…
X-Men ’97 1.4 “Motendo/Lifedeath Part 1”
A split episode, presumably to use material that didn’t quite hit the 30 minutes.
The first part sees the return of Mojo. A desperate, starving Mojo who kidnaps Jubilee and Roberto and traps them in a video game made from Jubilee’s memories. On her 18th birthday. Ouch.
(Blame Magneto, he wanted her to train on her birthday).
The second half sees Forge trying to help Storm get her powers back, because he blames himself for her losing them. Oh, and he’s in luv with her.
This concludes…in episode 6. Weird.
X-Men ’97 1.5 “Remember It”
Scott and Jean are fighting over Madelyne.
Madelyne has realized Cable is Nathan.
But above all, Genosha. During a celebration of UN recognition, anti-mutant terrorists attack and kill a lot of people. Apparently dead: Madelyne Prior, Banshee, Marrow, Sebastian Shaw, Dazzler, Callisto, Moira MacTaggert, Squid-Boy, Magneto, Leech, Erg, Ape, Tommy, Gambit.
Good thing we have a time traveler who’s been trying to stop it. Cable’s “Not again” is a clear message that there’s a time loop involved here.
But it might be a couple of episodes, as 1.6 returns us to Storm’s situation.
X-Men ’97 1.6 “Lifedeath Part 2”
Interwoven narratives can be a bit confusing. This one works, but I would almost rather they’d done it as a split episode…then again, they needed both characters to arrive at the same point.
Storm discovers part of why she lost her powers is a mental block and has to face a literal demon (and her claustrophobia) to break it. Right as she admits she loves Forge, she finds out about Genosha.
Xavier, meanwhile, is being challenged to prove his loyalty to the Shi’ar Empire by having his memories of Earth erased. He almost goes through with it, then calls the Shi’ar out for their colonialism…
…then finds out about Genosha.
We know they aren’t likely to leave that many characters dead, but right now? It’s got Xavier back.
Cable, when are you?
X-Men ’97 1.7 “Bright Eyes”
Rogue goes rogue. I mean, you can’t blame her…killing both guys is not the way to resolve a love triangle!
At one point she steals Cap’s shield and throws it into the mountains. Poor Cap.
They catch up with Trask, the architect of the Sentinel program, who’s quite willing to sing like a canary.
Rogue murders him. Oops.
Well, double oops, as he then turns into a human/sentinel hybrid, the spiritual ancestor of certain advanced sentinels, and beats up the remaining X-Men.
Meanwhile, Roberto tells his parents he’s a mutant, and they’re now going to ground him and forbid him to see Jubilee because “optics.” That’s going to end…badly.
Oh, and the bad guys know Charles is alive, but not that he’s coming back. This is getting tense.
X-Men ’97 1.8 “Tolerance is Extinction Part 1”
Is Genosha really a fixed point in time? That’s a lot of characters to stay dead. Magneto is, of course, alive (there was no body, so we knew that).
“Magneto is right.”
Xavier is back almost too late. I still doubt that Gambit and the others are dead permanently.
The human sentinels is a brilliant metaphor for radicalization. I didn’t need it, but it makes the point quite nicely. You have to feel sorry for them.
You have to destroy them.
They even used “online message boards” which had started to exist in 1997.
Roberto is a prisoner because his stupid mom believed they didn’t intend to kill him. Sigh.
X-Men ’97 1.9 “Tolerance is Extinction Part 2”
Okay, so this has gone grimdark. It’s hard to imagine how they are going to find any kind of even bittersweet ending from this.
Jean appears to be dead at the hands of a mind controlled Nathan.
Xavier is Magneto’s prisoner and Magneto just removed Wolverine’s skeleton.
Storm and Forge are down.
The Earth’s magnetic field has been so damaged by Magneto that everyone’s going to die except the mutants on Asteroid M.
It’s…honestly too dark for my current mood and I’m having to force myself to watch, but the only fix I see here is that Bishop is off somewhen.
Time travel?
X-Men ’97 1.10 “Tolerance is Extinction Part 3”
The X-Men are dead. Killed saving the world.
Except they’re not.
(And I’d also note that except for Gambit, none of the Genosha casualties left bodies either).
Next season is apparently going to be a time hunt.
Also, Jean, that’s the other Nathan. Just saying. The one you haven’t popped out yet. Because time travel.
It’s a spectacular ending, but I hope they have a two year contract or that’s some cancellation chicken right there…
Time to move on…if I can figure out what to ;).