X-Men: Apocalypse

All things considered I think the new X-Men movie was decent enough. I certainly had fun watching it. Having read all those early reviews about how horrendous it was , especially one article I read that actually said it was slightly better than Batman V Superman---a movie I really loathed--- got me to think twice about seeing it in the cinema. There are movies that are meant to be watched in the cinema and some questionable ones that are better suited to see at home via cheap pirated copies of DVDs or free downloads. Good thing I decided to watch it on the big screen. Sometimes those reviews have a way of taking the fun out of potential roller coaster rides simply because you decided to see things the way the author insisted you to see it.

The movie takes place in the 80s this time around. First Class was the 60s, Days Of Future Past was the 70s and I'm guessing the fourth one will be in the 90s. Expect some Nirvana and loads of flannel on that one. 

They certainly had enough pop culture references during that decade: Return Of The Jedi, Nightcrawler's 'Thriller' jacket, and another one of those tongue in cheek soundtracks that  accompany Quicksilver's activities. This time around it's The Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) instead of Jim Croce's Time In A Bottle. Fun, but the novelty of that sequence worked a lot better the first time. 

Instead of indestructible robots we have a thousands of years old mutant as the major villain, plus four cohorts standing for the four horsemen and a much younger version of the original X-Men cast. And this  cramped party, I believe, is where the critics balked. There were just too much new faces and characters that a movie with a limited running time can accommodate. Even Magneto's motivation to do what he did in this movie seemed rushed and oddly detached compared to his quiet intensity and one-track mind in the previous two films. 

Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse is a good villain. A megalomaniac with delusions of being a god always looks great when he realizes he finally met his match. And we finally get to see how Prof. X gets his bald pate. Would have been more fun if the reason wasn't as serious as what the movie has shown. Like maybe simply shaving his head because of some counterculture fascination but that's just me.

Hang on tight for the fourth one set in the alternative 90s.

X-Men: First Class

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Matthew Vaughn’s take on the recent installment of the X-Men franchise is the director’s audacity to actually take a well-established series and wrench it out of its mold, and reshape it into a brilliant and original near-reboot that is a far-cry, yet similar in tone to the ones that Brian Singer did. 

When initial news about the prequel hit, it was greeted by an onslaught of dismissive and vitriolic kiss-offs from fans and casual moviegoers alike. Largely because it looked like it was jumping into the trend of putting out prequels with the hope of ressurecting a dying, or already dead franchise, and because Brett Ratner’s ‘Last Stand’ did not generally sit well with most critics and fans of the comics. It left a bad taste to most that any mention of making another movie remotely connected to the franchise is deemed to be a guaranteed failure.

But in 2010 Matthew Vaughn directed and produced Kick-Ass. A very underrated, but excellent and ultraviolent and funny movie that talked about extreme superhero fanboy fantasies. In a way it is a lot more ambitious than actual superhero movies. Here was a guy making a superhero movie about average people trying hard to be superheroes in a ‘realistic’ world and actually coming across the screen as such. As far as misifts doing things for the greater good is concerned, the guy is no stranger to the material.

Early reviews from advance screenings had critics comparing Vaughan’s work from JJ Abrams’s Star Trek. That was all the guarantee I needed to conclude the film won’t be a letdown. Or at least a minor disappointment at worst. 

The fact that I’m not a Star Trek fan and I walked out of that movie happy with what I saw is no easy feat for a director--- to make an almost exclusive series with a rabid fanbase palatable to the average moviegoer who couldn’t care less about quantum physics, technobabble coming from pointy-eared Vulcans, or the fact that the film is often identified with 40-year old geeks living in their mother’s basement. 

The film did not require a first-timer to read through all the fanfiction and sift the entire Star Trek Wiki before watching it just to get a rudimentary grasp on what he’s about to see. And that is the mark of a good movie. Or at least for an adaptation of an established material. 

And it it precisely the reason why Vaughn’s take on the ‘origin’ of the seminal super group worked. I was seated next to moviegoers I knew who, based on their comments, had zero knowledge about the main characters yet managed to appreciate and empathize with them (“Sana wag mamatay si Charles”, “Ay… naging magkalaban pala sila?”). Even cheering constantly that proved to be a little annoying. But I do understand their enthusiasm. It is a genuinely good movie after all.

A large chunk of the credit goes to the two lead actors. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (Professor Xavier and Magneto respectively) work through the tale of two friends-turned bitter enemies with great precision. It’s great to watch the two bounce off each other’s differences and complement the other’s shortcomings. It contrasted the different circumstances on how the two men were brought up: Xavier in a life of wealth and surrounded by people who loved him; and Lehnserr being a concentration camp lab rat and holocaust survivor-turned Nazi hunter.

Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw was unfortunately not given that much breathing room as far as showing off or engaging other mutants in a titanic face-off of pitting his full power against his enemy’s (presumably Magneto) than his henchmen. The little-known Riptide and Azazel had the most fun. But as the leader of The Hellfire Club, he nailed the smug, arrogant air of the mutant aristocrat with a crazed Darwinian theory about human evolution that ultimately found its way to Magneto.

As for the discrepancies with the comics/continuity that most purists have been complaining about, what can I say? Go make your own damn movie.

'Komiks'

I am a product of komiks. Truckloads of it from every known publication around the world, but i never grew up to become one of those die hard collectors who treat comics like fine pieces of China, skimming through it one time probably using a pair of tweezers and seal it back with its protective plastic covers to be preserved in mint condition and wait several years for its market value to appreciate. I love comic books too, just not that way. My comic collection are a bunch of tattered material whose pages have long been separated from the staple wires that bind the books from too much reading, lending, and rereading. It would have been nice to see them preserved like it was just bought today but i believe that's how reading materials eventually succumb to.

As far back as I remember the earliest books I had any recollection of actually reading and comprehending were the pocket komiks made by Atlas Publishing during the early 80s, long before any form of digital and cyberspace entertainment were the norm (a nostalgic sentiment also echoed by Sandwich via the brilliant single 'betamax'.). All thanks to a father who majored in fine arts and idolized the great comic illustrators like rock gods (see Gerry Alanguilan's komikero.com for an in-depth look). and when I say great illustrators, ladies and gents, I am not merely referring to those confined within the walls of the two comic publishing giants like DC and Marvel Comics but of the entire genre, including those in Central Europe and artists residing in Bulacan.

As early as kindergarten I already had comics titles like Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Swamp Thing, Superman, Batman, The Shadow, and even Mr. Miracle. Of course I relied on my father to read those to me as a sort of bedtime storybook to put me to sleep, as I don't know how to read and even comprehend english. I remember most of them were the National Bookstore reprints with advertisements at the back cover of new text books for sale at their every branch. They were good though, and affordable compared to the originals and I especially enjoyed looking at the pictures/drawings. But the ones that really got me were the pinoy Action and Ninja pocket komiks made by Atlas Publishing. If there's one thing I greatly regret, is the fact that I lost both copies of the maiden issues from these titles.

One thing I'm proud of is that even if I'm still watching cartoons like the Smurfs and Voltron I was already reading complex subject matters designed for more mature readers and actually comprehending them. I suspect watching Lito Lapid and Dante Varona movie fillers during early afternoons helped a lot as most of the plotlines in these komiks were similar to those hyper-campy but enjoyable "bakbakan" films of yore. It was relatively easy to learn reading the tagalog komiks because: 1) we're also tagalog speakers 2) there were pictures that go along with the dialogue--so basing on the actions within the frame it was easy for me to deduce what the characters were actually saying. During kinder 2 I was already reading lines written by Carlo Caparas, Vic Poblete and Rod Santiago--a few of the notable writers at the time. The komiks appeared weekly, if I remember correctly, and my father never failed to get the latest copies. He didn't admit it and said he merely looked a the illustrating styles (even ridiculing tecniques of some guest and mainstay artists), but I suspect he was following a series from both titles ("Valorra" in Action/"Kenja: The Last Ninja" in Ninja). I followed all the stories. I can even remember the titles: Wang Ho, Zato-Jari, Kenja..., Ninja Bonita, Markang Agila, Boy Paltik, Valorra, Lazer Man, Kapitan Aksyon, and Kamagong.

People tend to look down on most pinoy products and i'm sure these komiks are no exception. snobs may dismiss it as too parochial and lacking in style and innovation but I owe everything to these titles. Every book I enjoyed reading would not have been read had my interst in reading wasn't sparked by these "lowly" pinoy komiks I devoured during my youth. This is also the reason why I do not look down on those pinoy romance novels. While most of them are obviously not gonna win the Pulitzer anytime, there is no doubt that they also stimulate and exercise the imagination. This, if we are to believe Einstein, is more important than knowledge. And just the fact that many people are reading is a welcome thought, specially in this age where written communication is being overtaken by the text lingo-abomination of the 'wer na u? hir na me' variety and reading is fast becoming a relic of the past.

Good thing my father was a fanboy or I wouldn't have developed any interest in literature or any form of printed matter.

Those Rolling R's

Going to bookstores offers a different and amusing respite from my day to day routine. Specially high-end ones like Powerbooks with its browser-friendly lounges and mini coffee shops and nearby record store (Tower Records in Megamall) where most so-called bibliophiles and audiophiles swarm. Most people find the place spectacular because of the amenities and reader-friendly comfort i just mentioned, however those are not the reasons why I find the place so amusing.


My work like any regular office jobs, starts at Ten AM and I leave the office at Six Thirty. Sometimes, when my girlfriend and I decide to meet after hours I loiter around powerbooks to wait for her until 8 pm as she's in the graveyard shift for a call center in Ortigas, where I also work. So I usually spend my waiting time reading something that had its protective plastic cover torn out of it by some overeager browser---which I am also guilty of from time to time especially when it comes to comic books. 

It's usually when i'm already within a quarter of the book/magazine that I am reading when I usually hear it. Anybody would have heard it too, every time one goes there or any other bookstores in some other business center. At first it would be just some random comment about this or that book; or how this author stinks and how the other one is brilliant. Commentaries like that are often voiced out in that unmistakable burgis-just-came-back-from-d-isteyts twang with a hint of boredom as if what the speaker is voicing out is already common knowledge. You'd hear cerebral comments like: "My god! How come there's a lot of books about Hitler?! Don't the publishers know the gravity of their actions?!" to "Hillary Clinton? She's a bitch. But I like her."


Susmaryosep.


Sometimes you'd be lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) to catch a group of artistes sitting around a large table in the center of the store discussing art and all sorts of pseudo-intellectual masturbatory aides at the top of their lungs. They're not yelling, but they see to it that everyone gets to hear what they say. You can actually feel the self-congratulatory pat in the back everytime someone blurts out a comment or critique about a certain film/book/music. I swear, hearing those exchanges make Roger Ebert seem like an amateur. The way they voice out criticisms in their discussion you'd feel like they'd do a better job than the hapless author they choose to eviscerate in their little soiree. Oh, and the discussion is, of course, in English. with a dash of taglish every now and then for that token coño effect. Because, as you can see, intellectuals in the philippines voice out their opinions in perfect, American english. So there.


Now that's entertainment you can't buy.