X3: Last Stand
Another movie I'm really excited about for this summer is another film based on a Marvel comic: X3: Last Stand. I've really liked the last two X-Men movies (though I disapprove of the names X2 and X3). They did a great job of making a story about mutants seemed grounded in reality. There's a new trailer for the movie on apple and imdb.
For those who may not know, the X-Men were created in the late '60's and were supposed to be a very loose analogy for the civil rights movement. The main story is about mutants with special powers trying to co-exist with normal humans. Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, is supposed to be a stand-in for a Martin Luther King Jr. character. He is working towards the peaceful co-existence of mutants and humans. On the other end is Magneto, the Malcolm X, by any means necessary, kind of character. They developed the story that Magneto's family had been the victims of another form of discrimination during the holocaust and now as an adult experiencing discrimination lashes out in violent ways.
The metaphor is, as I mentioned, very loose. Still, there is a power in that kind of storytelling. The first two films did a very good job of drawing the parallels between the fictional world and current racial issues. The strength of the story is what has made them successful more than anything else. I'm hoping they don't get away from that in this new one.
