Thread:Rodangizzardcrusher3/@comment-26687285-20170428015655

Alright, here we go (BTW, I'm gonna start working on that Apocalypse thread real soon).

Positives.

1: First off, giving Professor X dementia is freaking brilliant!. I love seeing great and idealistic characters like this tragically reduced to a shell of their former selves. Giving Xavier brain damage is such a refreshing take on the character and an angle that really has never been explored before in any of the films. More than that, his characterization and the performance given by Stewart might be the best we've seen thus far. Prof. X, in this film more than any other, feels truly sympathetic, inviting, and warm here. His reaction when meeting Laura is one you may expect an old grandpa to have upon seeing his grandchild for the first time, and it's incredibly sweet. And his banter with Logan makes their relationship feel as authentic as ever. His death scene also made for a truly shocking and emotionally riveting end to the character's story-arc.

Also, even though I concede that this is totally coincidental and was almost certainly not consciously put in here by the writers to create some kind of narrative connection between this film and DoFP, I really like the fact that the idea of Charles being on drugs to numb his powers is used again here but for completely different reasons.

Infact, this film is more or less the anti-DoFP, both thematically and narratively. In that film Charles must learn to remaster his powers, whilst here he is forced to keep them supressed. That film was about the characters finding hope in themselves and others, while in this film everything and everyone seems to have let them down. DoFP's story was optimistic, exciting, and opened up so many possiblities for the future of the franchise, whereas this film is harsh, cynical, and very determined to round things out and put the series to rest.

2: Bringing back the Adamantium bullet thing. WOW! Very VERY gutsy!. It really shows a great level of confidence on the part of the filmmakers that they were willing to remind fans of one of the most disliked and ridiculed parts of one of the franchise's worst installements. And not just that, it's even handled better than it was in Origins, as they make it a lethal weapon rather than something that merely erases Logan's memory. Which is a bit more logical.

3: Dafne Keen's portrayl of Laura is one of the best child roles I've seen in a long time. She feels wonderfully lethal and unhinged in her fight scenes, whilst still retaining a level of vulnerability and youth in her performance.

4: And lastly, while this may seem trivial, I am very glad that the film did not include any end-credit stingers.Such a choice would only have only served to compromise the self-contained nature and feeling of closure that the story provides, and I am glad the studio and filmmakers managed to resist the urge to still advertise any of their upcoming films in this one.

Negatives.

1: As great as Charles's death was, I would've liked for him to have gotten a more ceremonious burial. Maybe with some more lines of dialogue or by having Hugh really break down or scream (yes, I know we get a freak out from him a few moments later, but your attention is devided by the shot of the fisherman, which interrupts the flow of the scene. And because he seemed to get frustrated about the car and everything that was going, on I didn't quite get the sense that his outburst was about Charles, so the scene didn't quite land for me). And I know that such a thing would probably have been predictable and easy, but it's usually what I want from these kinds of moments because it's also very effective in getting an emotional response from me. And yes, I know, Logan isn't really the kind of character that does that. But still, it would've made the scene much better.

2: This one is just a personal gripe. I was all for the idea of an evil Logan clone. However, it would've been so much cooler if they'd gone straight up Daken (i.e. the wristclaws: ). I mean they got Laura's claws right, so why not do this one as well?. If this is going to be the last Wolverine movie, why not use this final opportunity to do the two most famous alternate claw designs in the same movie?. Like I said, this isn't really a problem, it's just something I would've really liked to see.

3: While I respect the film's commitment to standing on its own, I am a little dissapointed that there are no ties made to any characters or conglomerates from the larger X-Men world. I would've really prefered to have had the Essex corporation be ones behind the creation of X-23/24 (especially given X-Men Apocalypse's post-credit scene) as opposed to convoluting the series' larger narrative by introducing yet another shady bio-company that does experiments on mutants (a problem I also had with Deadpool). 