-Overall, some great work. Not necessarily a "perfect movie", but definitely a good, powerful, and intense movie.
-I liked how slim the cast was. It gave it a focus most of the X Films have kind of lacked.
-Caliban was fun, and I feel like they played his death pretty well.
-Hoboy did Jackman earn his salary. Just....man.
-Like, for me just that first scene hit home how messed-up he was. He's getting out of the car, and he can barely put his feet on the ground straight. One of his eyes barely opens. He's shuffling and stiff. Just...yikes.
--I somehow missed the whole "pus on his knuckles" *showing up*, though obviously Caliban mentioned it too.
-At first the whole "claws don't come all the way out" thing was funny, until one ponders why he can't do that. I mean, they're coated in metal but they're still part of his body. It's like if someone couldn't use all 5 fingers, or a cat could only extend most of its claws. Him having to struggle to "unstick" the claw was...yeah.
-Laura being silent over half the movie was a good touch, as was her defaulting to Spanish.
--It was a bit unclear to me if the surgery scene with her was them implanting the claws wholesale, or coating them in adamantium.
-At first I was disappointed Mister Sinister didn't show up in the movie, but thinking about it again, I think he would have distracted from it.
-Ragearine was a bit corny, but there's definitely some strong reasoning behind it, and I think it works.
-The small subtle things that show it's over a decade in the future are a nice touch.
-Gabriella's line was...oof. "She is not my daughter, but I love her. You do not love her, but she is your daughter." Man.
-"Daddy!"
Just....ugh. In the best way possible, ugh.
Finally....Sir Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier is....this may be one of the better "character suffering from Alzheimer's/dementia" portrayals out there.
Earlier in the thread some commented on his own frequent swearing, and some opined he was "just tired of all the shit" or some such. Perhaps Xavier is weary, yes, but I think the swearing is one of the symptoms of his degeneration.
One of the things that happens when someone's suffering Alzheimer's for a few years is that they can get
mean. This manifests in many ways; I recall my grandmother getting snappy at weird times and ways with my grandfather (before things progressed to the point she had to stay in a nursing home and eventually couldn't recognize anyone, hardly). She knew who he was and could generally grasp what was going on around her, but....it wasn't the same.
Xavier curses and is mean at times to Logan, then at other times is tender. He's cranky like a child. He's frustrated with indignities he barely understands (bathroom bit). He acts out his frustration in childish ways (sticking his tongue out to prove he swallowed his pills). He focuses on random memories (commercials). He has a childlike insistence about things (the bit in the elevator when he tries to give Logan the hat). His most lucid moments are ones focusing on times long past or lifelong skills (his exposition about why Laura has claws on her feet; his discussion about being a teacher and running a school at dinner). His struggle to connect things ("I always know who you are, sometimes I just don't recognize you"). The bit with him caring for the plants is probably something they did to give him something simple, repetitive, and mostly harmless to do.
Basically, he masterfully shows someone who's mid-way through a diagnosis of a degenerative mental disease; he's not just forgetting the odd name or face or date occasionally, but neither is he so far gone as to be near-vegetative.
It was a fantastic performance.
And considering it wasn't that long ago my own grandmother passed after something like a decade of Alzheimer's, that performance is
still punching me in the gut. I'm shocked I didn't cry just at his performance in the movie, though I could tell I was close.
So, while this movie wasn't perfect, it was good. Great, even.
