15 july 2000
x-men: the review
hey, shove over.
The quote of the day:
"I never thought I'd find dialogue like 'You're a dick' funny."
-- me, after X-Men.


One year ago: Mary shows up all other new moms with her regimen.

Three years ago: I reflect on Hideki Irabu.

Four years ago: I make a list of things I have to do in preparation for my move to LA.


Sophia is sacked out beside me on our bed. She has been sacked out for the better part of four hours now. Considering it is 10 at night, she should be sacked out for another, oh, eight. I wonder how lucky we're going to get.

I came home from this afternoon's hilarity in Burbank and sacked out for a couple of hours myself. It wasn't a restful nap -- it was more like I was awake but completely immobile. I wasn't really awake though; I know I had a dream that was somehow to related to the mystery novel I was reading, Fade Away by Harlan Coben. But when I woke up I was groggy and disoriented.

I took a nap after yoga on Thursday too. Somehow I knew that Sophia would wake me up after an hour or two and she didn't, giggling and kicking. I got on the intercom and said, "One baby, going cheap." Darin came down and got her, but it was too late, I was up.

 * * *

Yesterday, after a spur of the moment planning session, Darin said, "Mind if I go see X-Men this morning?" I said no, so he ran off to catch the first showing with Brent. Boys.

This morning Darin, Sophia, and I went out to have breakfast with Al at Barron's Coffee Shop. Al mentioned his big plan for the day was to see X-Men. Darin asked if I wanted to see it, and I said no. Then I thought about it some more: a)it may not be a movie I'm overjoyed to see, but it is a movie and b)if Sophia goes nuts, Darin can leave the theater, because he's seen the movie.

So Darin went to see X-Men two days in a row, which probably tells you more about the movie than Diane seeing it at all.

But I did see it (and all of it, yay Darin) and I enjoyed it very much. I don't know a damn thing about the X-Men, having read no Marvel comics (we're a strictly DC/Vertigo household). Although, as Darin pointed out, the movie does for the most part center on the one character I had heard of (though I knew nothing about him): Wolverine.

X-Men tells the story of a world in which mutants have started appearing among the populace: humans who have a variety of strange and wonderful powers -- instant physical healing, or the ability to walk through walls, or the ability to read minds and control others's actions. Regular garden-variety humans fear and loathe the mutants, of course, and want to do something about it, whether it's lock them up in concentration camps or simply ostracize them from society.

Magneto (Ian McKellen) has been there, done that, thanks -- he was in a concentration camp as a boy and has no intention of letting homo sapiens tells homo superior what to do. He has The Plan that will benefit mutants and put humans in their place.

Needless to say, not every mutant is on board with The Plan, including Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and his band of mutants, including Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine, Storm, and Dr. Jean Grey (what kind of superhero name is that?) played by a variety of actors. We mostly follow Wolverine, a rough-and-tumble sort of fellow who makes his living as a brawler and doesn't much cotton to these fancy folks' way of doing things. But when the X-Men catch wind of what Magneto's up to, Wolverine is right there with them, metal claws popping out of his knuckles and all.

Darin said yesterday that this was the best comic-book adaptation he'd ever seen, and I opined that was damnation with faint praise. Now that I've seen it, I totally agree: there's a fairly clear storyline, the characters have some development, and there's none of the impressionistic and hard-to-understand nonsense of the Batman films (any of the Batman films). I was entertained and feel I know a little about this series now. One thing I liked is that it's not severely heavy on the action -- it takes its time in various places and shows you what's going on. Even the exposition was entertaining.

In case you're a huge comics fan and are sure this movie is only for the newbie, our comics-fanatic friend Mike, who owns every single issue of every single Spiderman title (I think) wrote to Darin yesterday and said, "Go see this movie! It's totally great!" So the comics contigent recommends it too.

There isn't much subtext in this movie, no matter what Robert Horton says in that review I pointed to yesterday. Magneto talks about any means necessary, whereas Professor X is a rather peace-loving fellow; if you need the arrows drawn and the points underlined, this may be too difficult a film to follow.

 * * *

I think the fenugreek and new nursing regimen are working. I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't had a chance to pump all day, but my breasts definitely feel fuller.

 * * *

In the Forum:

Mysteries: name your favorites. Or even ones you didn't like and want to warn others against. I also want to start a conversation about cliches in mysteries.


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Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
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