Neo Ultra Mike
Creeping Shadow of "15000"+ Posts
"Fire Made Flesh" You know it occurs to me that the first episode "To Me My X-Men" even if you weren't really aware of the original series at all you could go into it enough and still get the right amount of information and point to still enjoy it. Yeah the whole "Professor Xaiver is dead and we're still processing it" is a fairly big theme but the idea of having to deal with these anti mutant groups and the X-Men suiting up to take someone out is explained well enough. "Mutation Liberation Begins" though really demands you be aware of a fair amount of the history between Magneto and Charles and the world to get the most out of, and then this episode you have to deal with two Jean Greys and finding out the one we've been following is in fact a clone that was created by Mr. Sinister but has all of these memories and connections to the other Jean and becomes a battle between the two that... yeah I'm not sure how people are going to enjoy this going into this one blind. Like you need a good base line of Jean Grey and her struggles to really connect with this one which though a big point of the last two episodes was on her pregnancy and Nathan being born still wasn't a focus enough to really work... if you know this was a standalone story we were just jumping into.
See this is something THIS series and the original got about doing these kinds of stories the movies never did; we need an actually solid base line for who Jean Grey is and what matters to her for any of this drama to hit. The first two X-Men movies didn't really do enough of that for even if Bryan Singer did The Last Stand for the Phoenix story to matter. I do feel Dark Phoenix due to having a better focus got that more but yeah this one is far more solid because this is a revival that uses what came before as a benchmark for what the characters are going for. I guess the only one you could argue that's not the case is Roberto as his stuff with his parents has only been mentioned really once but that's not really a major plot point as more focus is given to Gambit freaking out if Rogue and Magneto are a thing or Morph being used and abused and yeah who Scott can really trust of the two Jeans. See though very creatively staged and grotesque in a way the original series couldn't get away with (again I do appreciate that these episodes have a slight bit of edge to them where you can see blood and here a "hell" but they aren't dwelling on it either) the whole night mare sequences wouldn't really work if you didn't know about the characters and their struggles and since this is a show banking off another show you have that baseline for it to connect. I also really dig that they did have the stones to go "the Jean Grey we've had since this series started and for who knows how long is Madeline Pryor the clone and the one who just came in is the original" while still not making it clear when the switch is. As that makes the situation fairly messy especially when both have all of these memories and they aren't really sure who is who. It's not overly obnoxiously uncomplicated either like I feel it was in the comics and honestly having Madeline being taken over by Sinister to make her The Goblin Queen still allows both to be sympathetic and not just say "oh Jean broke bad just out of trauma". I guess you could argue it does make the whole ending pretty melodramatic with Scott not being able to be around as Nathan is sent into the future and Madeline leaving just with Jean setting her out as she tries to lead her own life but it's done seriously without needing to pepper in any jokes (like after the Dante's inferno references I do appreciate they don't bother with comedy at all in the later half and just let the drama sit that was the right call. I guess Goblin Queen teasing Scott about who he should be with or saying Magneto was "a villain playing dress up" but it was the dark twisted kind that didn't kill the mood) and feels right to not really have anything and take this whole thing seriously.
And though the last couple of episodes had some pretty impressive action scenes I think in a way this one topped even that. From that moment of Cyclops shooting at Forge and him channeling all that power to how Goblin Queen took control of Morph to fight the others to Magneto using all of that glass around the church windows and then having it be spun on him to yeah that whole psychic battle between Jean and Goblin Queen. I feel the original series was good at these sort of out there mental battles (I did see the one between Carol Danvers and Rogue in her mind scape involving Gene) but this one gets to flex even more on just how horrid it could be. Like Jean seeing how her friend died in her memory really did hit same with seeing all of those images flashing by with the two unsure who was exactly in control. I guess if I did have any issues with this one after all that build up Mr. Sinister so easily slinking away did feel a bit lame but yeah that's really it. I really do like the rest and honestly I am glad we are focusing on other character issues then just the whole mutant predjuice angle. That was well done last time but I was wanting something else so focusing on this whole debacle with the clones was good and I also like how it tied into other ideas like Rogue and Magneto having something going on, plus Logan connecting with Jean and telling his feelings which yeah if Pryor is the mom who had Nathan and was more connected to Scott this would be a way to actually go back to more that love triangle the three have had in the books, and yeah ending with Storm meeting Forge and him talking about helping her get back her powers. I am hoping that yeah Storm gets her powers back but it's like an arc that extends more then one episode like this was well done for an episode but I could see that being in the background for a few as we focused on other things. Still solid episode all around and hope the show continues getting the super solid ratings last week gave them.
See this is something THIS series and the original got about doing these kinds of stories the movies never did; we need an actually solid base line for who Jean Grey is and what matters to her for any of this drama to hit. The first two X-Men movies didn't really do enough of that for even if Bryan Singer did The Last Stand for the Phoenix story to matter. I do feel Dark Phoenix due to having a better focus got that more but yeah this one is far more solid because this is a revival that uses what came before as a benchmark for what the characters are going for. I guess the only one you could argue that's not the case is Roberto as his stuff with his parents has only been mentioned really once but that's not really a major plot point as more focus is given to Gambit freaking out if Rogue and Magneto are a thing or Morph being used and abused and yeah who Scott can really trust of the two Jeans. See though very creatively staged and grotesque in a way the original series couldn't get away with (again I do appreciate that these episodes have a slight bit of edge to them where you can see blood and here a "hell" but they aren't dwelling on it either) the whole night mare sequences wouldn't really work if you didn't know about the characters and their struggles and since this is a show banking off another show you have that baseline for it to connect. I also really dig that they did have the stones to go "the Jean Grey we've had since this series started and for who knows how long is Madeline Pryor the clone and the one who just came in is the original" while still not making it clear when the switch is. As that makes the situation fairly messy especially when both have all of these memories and they aren't really sure who is who. It's not overly obnoxiously uncomplicated either like I feel it was in the comics and honestly having Madeline being taken over by Sinister to make her The Goblin Queen still allows both to be sympathetic and not just say "oh Jean broke bad just out of trauma". I guess you could argue it does make the whole ending pretty melodramatic with Scott not being able to be around as Nathan is sent into the future and Madeline leaving just with Jean setting her out as she tries to lead her own life but it's done seriously without needing to pepper in any jokes (like after the Dante's inferno references I do appreciate they don't bother with comedy at all in the later half and just let the drama sit that was the right call. I guess Goblin Queen teasing Scott about who he should be with or saying Magneto was "a villain playing dress up" but it was the dark twisted kind that didn't kill the mood) and feels right to not really have anything and take this whole thing seriously.
And though the last couple of episodes had some pretty impressive action scenes I think in a way this one topped even that. From that moment of Cyclops shooting at Forge and him channeling all that power to how Goblin Queen took control of Morph to fight the others to Magneto using all of that glass around the church windows and then having it be spun on him to yeah that whole psychic battle between Jean and Goblin Queen. I feel the original series was good at these sort of out there mental battles (I did see the one between Carol Danvers and Rogue in her mind scape involving Gene) but this one gets to flex even more on just how horrid it could be. Like Jean seeing how her friend died in her memory really did hit same with seeing all of those images flashing by with the two unsure who was exactly in control. I guess if I did have any issues with this one after all that build up Mr. Sinister so easily slinking away did feel a bit lame but yeah that's really it. I really do like the rest and honestly I am glad we are focusing on other character issues then just the whole mutant predjuice angle. That was well done last time but I was wanting something else so focusing on this whole debacle with the clones was good and I also like how it tied into other ideas like Rogue and Magneto having something going on, plus Logan connecting with Jean and telling his feelings which yeah if Pryor is the mom who had Nathan and was more connected to Scott this would be a way to actually go back to more that love triangle the three have had in the books, and yeah ending with Storm meeting Forge and him talking about helping her get back her powers. I am hoping that yeah Storm gets her powers back but it's like an arc that extends more then one episode like this was well done for an episode but I could see that being in the background for a few as we focused on other things. Still solid episode all around and hope the show continues getting the super solid ratings last week gave them.
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