Ahh, Slacking

What a weekend. I saw X3 Friday night, got up saturday morning and played frisbee for 3 hours in 90+ degree heat, came home and spent some time with Kathreen, got up Sunday to head over to the folks for an excellent afternoon of grilling and impromtu croquet (damn Java's massive comeback to beat me!). Then on Monday I did nothing. Well, not literally. I took like 2 naps and watched 4 episodes of South Park and had some food and read a bit. Really, it was too hot to do anything else. The whole weekend was massively hot, the hottest weather we've had all year. Because it's in the basement, my apartment can withstand hot days without heating up too much. But string them together and add in the fact that it didn't cool down enough at night, and it starts to cook. Fortuneately it's much better today.

X3: last time I posted I said I was nervous about this flick. After seeing, I can say it's an excellent movie. An excellent movie, but....but what? Well, if you're a comic book fan, the storyline of the Dark Phoenix lacks the scope and dramatic impact of the comics. For those of you who don't know, the Dark Phoenix Saga is still one of the greatest X-Men stories ever told. I highly doubt it would work if it was directly adapted from the comics, but I think it could have been done a little better. Also, I was hoping that after getting massively shortchanged in the first two movies, Cyclops would get some good screen time. Ahh, how wrong I was.

But these are all complaints from a comic book fan. This movie, taken on its own, is actually pretty good. Not as good as X2, but a nice follow up with some excellent action moments. It even has a couple of points where massive ethical dilemmas surface. I didn't feel like they were played out as much as they could have been (well, one wasn't anyway), but it was nice to see them in there. Perhaps more than any other comic book, the X-Men have always been a little more in the grey area when it comes to good vs evil. That's why Xavier and Magneto used to work together: their goals are essentially the same, it's just their methods differ (which, of course, makes all the difference). At a couple of different points in the movie, Magneto shows the level of respect he has for Xavier, which I liked a lot.

I did have a couple of problems with the movie just as a movie, but they're nitpicky at best (legitimate, but nitpicky). I will simply say this is an excellent movie, and when you see it, make sure you stay until the credits are over. Also, anyone who thinks that they aren't making anymore X movies is insane. $120 million over 4 days? Yeah, Hollywood just stops making sequels when the franchise is doing that good. Especially when the last two scenes of the film set up the next one.