FilmFlicking

Lucifer_666 · Site Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 10319

I read this new Magneto Script review and I have to say it sounds the business...I'm looking forward to it now

check it out

What will probably be the second installment in the “X-Men” spinoff franchise (after “Wolverine,” of course), “Magneto” (or the unnecessarily lengthy alternate title: “X-Men Origins: Magneto”) takes a prominent character from the fantastic X-Men two-film series (and horrible, obligatory trilogy-building “X3”) and rolls back the camera of time to reveal an origin story that leads us directly to the beginning of the film series. While the script’s narrative doesn’t seem to take itself that seriously, the film’s subject matter and characters really demand a serious portrayal, and David S. Goyer (and before him, Sheldon Turner) make that pretty easy to do, I think.

We begin at the 60th Anniversary of the Auschwitz Liberation in Krakow, Poland. The Erik Lehnsherr we knew and loved, as played by Sir Ian McKellen, is in attendance in his trademarked fedora and overcoat. He stands with his fellow survivors, and surveys the wrenched, torn, metal gate he mangled in the opening scene of “X-Men.” It takes him back to that fateful day, and beyond, as we learn how Erik survived his encounter in arguably the worst Nazi internment camp in the War’s history. We meet a few new characters, including focal point of the picture, Dr. Kleinmein, one of those super-evil Nazis you see in movies, where they really seem to enjoy their twisted, torturous experiments on human beings. Kleinmein has many followers, friends, and associates after the War ended, and we find out “Herr Doktor” hasn’t quite given up his “practice” when we flash-forward to the 1950’s (which happens to be where the film spends the bulk of its time).

Young Erik wears many hats in this film: orphan, tortured survivor, husband and father, outcast, student, mercenary, and friend. Each identity Erik assumes is as natural and true to the character as anything. The benefit to the audience is, besides a compelling, somewhat tragic story, we can see how each identity Erik assumes is just another step along the road to what he will become: a sympathetic, genocidal villain. The film isn’t written as a tragedy; in fact, there’s a glimmer of hope toward the end. Thankfully, this script assumes everyone has seen X-Men, and doesn’t waste your time trying to explain the irony and delicate contradictions that make up the mutant we will eventually call “Magneto.”

If at any point you watched the previous X-Films and thought, “This guy has a hell of a story,” this movie delivers on that unintentional promise. Erik finds himself on a quest for revenge, after the suspicions of a small town cause the demise of his wife and daughter. While it is never shown, it is certainly implied (and later, confirmed) that he used his powers to decimate the town and murder all who resided therein. Still, we find ourselves rooting for this man. He is initially reluctant to kill, and seems quite happy blending into society and eking out his existence the way any man would. Instead, thanks to the never-ending string of tragedies that afflict him, he is pushed into a personal crusade to hunt and destroy former Nazis who escaped judgment after the War was over.

The motivations of Nazi Doctor Kleinmein remind you that you are watching a movie about a comic book character, though it’s handled with more tact and finesse than your average Blade or Fantastic Four movie. Plus, it’s much easier for you to root for your homicidal protagonist if he’s killing Nazis, for some reason. In this post-War world, Kleinmein and friends set up shop in a secret laboratory within the very capital of the United States. This time, however, thanks to his own personal research on the young Erik Lehnsherr, he is aware of the existence of mutants, using the genetic material of mutant children in an effort to usher in the Fourth Reich. The writer knows this is a weak premise, and tries to concentrate more on Erik’s development (clearly, the more interesting aspects of the film).

There are obvious references to the franchise, with no direct references to the expanding Marvel universe that recent films Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk have not ignored. The script is written as a companion piece, rather than a flat-out sequel or prequel. True, Professor Charles Xavier becomes a main character at about the halfway point, but this is simply because of how integral their friendship is to the core of Erik’s character, and how deeply connected he is to Xavier, and the larger tapestry of the X-Men world. Toward the climax of the picture, Erik and Charles rescue two mutant prisoners (and potential experiments) who look a little-too-much like Sabertooth and Mystique, and it feels as obligatory as it sounds. Do we need that story told? Not especially. Still, the story we do get is pretty damn cool. If you told your friends Magneto was about a Holocaust survivor who becomes a Nazi hunter, you wouldn’t steer them wrong.

Magneto walks a fine line whenever you do a story that portrays any aspect of the Holocaust. It’s so easy to go from tasteful to tasteless, and I think as long as you have a director and cinematographer who both appreciate the weight and intensity of what they’re showing, this could be a either a silly mistake (“Hannibal Rising”) or a tight, polished movie (“V for Vendetta”) about a character who is never, in this script, actually referred to as “Magneto.” I think that says a lot.

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Catnapper · Site Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 6799

It should make for an excellent film

......I like how they're taking characters from the X Men films and giving them their own films. It'll be good seeing how Magneto developed into the baddie he is now and how past events shaped him. I'm curious to see what the reviewer meant by "a glimmer of hope".......

Lucifer_666 · Site Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 10319

What I like about Magneto as a character is that he is not really evil...he just has a different vision to Prof. Xavier about mutants and humans....much of that view and feeling which has been formed due to the evil and hardship he had to endure as a younger person....he's got depth and in a way you almost feel sorry for him and understand why he feels the way he does after all if humans put you in a concentration camp as a child...killed your family and you ended up being experimented on by one of these crazy Nazi Doctors you'd be prety peeved with the human race too and think there was need for a change

I love the concept of the film that he become like a Nazi Hunter and I think he does this with Xavier

Sounds class

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Catnapper · Site Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 6799

Sometimes it's more interesting to get a baddies backstory......you get to see why they turned out the way they did and what made them that way.

I see it's set mainly in the fifties.......that's becoming popular what with Indy 4 being set there too!

Lucifer_666 · Site Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 10319

Its also when a lot of ex Nazis were hunted down too and caught....the more I hear of the film the more appealing it sounds.....though it will have to make them look young looking again like they did in one of the X Men movies
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Emperor Morphetine · Movie Icon Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 2201

Sounds awesome! Magneto's a great baddie, and you can actually understand how he became evil with all that happened to him. Can't wait to see him hunting the bad guys as well, he's quite a moral villain by the sound of things!
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The Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be..unnatural.

Lucifer_666 · Site Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 10319

He's also very much linked with the Avengers too because two of the old members of that team Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver are Magneto's children...I wonder will they get a mention at all too?
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