X-Men: First Class – The Dilemma

[rheasilvia]

I've been reading X-Men: First Class slash lately. I'm a bit out of the loop, but it seems like this is the latest boom fandom, correct? And I have to say – yes. I get it. Very much so.

This fandom has many elements that are perfect for me. The relationship between Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier could have been created just to hit my buttons.* The character Erik Lehnsherr – ditto. Plus, XM:FC reminds me of early Smallville with it's high fanfic output (including many wonderfully long stories) and the exceptionally high percentage of good writing.**

BUT.

I have still not watched the movie, and I think it would be a very bad idea for me to do so. Because I am pretty sure my reaction would be:

- 15-25% of the movie: very nice! Slashiness and angst, yay. Also, Emma seems like she's pretty bad-ass.
- 50-60% of the movie: extremely boring. Why are there so many scenes about people I don't care about that are treated as extremely portentous (AKA Ta-Daaaah, Meet Your Future Boring Heroes)? And why are there so many boring action sequences? Yaaawn.
- 25% of the movie: hate with virulent passion. HATE. WITH. VIRULENT. PASSION. Because there are some things that Hollywood has never done well, and the context gives me complete confidence that it will do this VERY BADLY INDEED.
- Also: I rather suspect Charles Xavier might be a Gary Stu of Wesley Crusher magnitude. But that is a side-issue.


* Although I do have some problems with their ideologies, because in both cases, they seem too simplistic and dumb to be believable for these two men – especially in the case of Erik, who really should know better. But hey, Erik's blinders are understandable, and smarter people have made themselves believe in dumber things. I can deal.

** Of course, this impression may not be entirely accurate, seeing as I've been following recs and bookmarks rather than braving the wilds of unfiltered slush piles.***

*** However, there has even been grammatically correct German. In several different stories! This is unprecedented. I mean, I only just watched the first 10 minutes of the Grimm pilot ep, and a measly four barely legible words written on a sword managed to incorporate at least one basic grammatical error.



So, this is an odd situation. I am very interested in the fanfic. I would like to watch the canon the fanfic is based on. But I don't dare, for fear it would destroy my enjoyment of the fanfic.

Comments

[anotherslashfan]

I think this is the moment where looking at captioned gifs or slashy scenes as uploaded to youtube would be better than watching. This movie really is as bad as you fear, I'm sad to say.And the plot is negligible anyway.

[rheasilvia]

Argh, I was afraid of that... thank you for confirming my fears.

I'm pretty sure I've gleaned what there is of the plot from various stories by now. So yeah, it's probably better not to risk it.

[lilacsigil]

Charles is, fortunately, very much not a Gary Stu. Sadly, though, Emma does not get to be badass in the slightest, and that 25% of the movie with virulent hate should probably be swapped to the 50-60% (the action scenes are actually pretty good, and meeting your future heroes has a musical montage). But the way they treat ALL the female heroes (and one villain) and ALL the non-white people actually shocked me. I'm saying this as someone who enjoyed the movie and writes lots of fix-its, but omg so many things were TERRIBLE.

[rheasilvia]

Good news about canon!Charles not being a Gary Stu - it's hard to tell through the medium of fanfic, where it's not always possible to say just where the Mary-Sue-ism is coming from. ;-)

The rest of it certainly doesn't sound promising, otoh... and I'm not sure how much the musical montage can save. ;-) Although a nice plucky soundtrack with a sense of humor would probably improve the more boring action scenes for me! *g*

Yeah, I think sticking to fanfic is probably the best way for me.

Thanks for the warning!!