Pirates and X-Men…

I started to write a quick review of the latest X-Men film and I realized I hadn’t written anything about that pirate film, so here goes a double whammy…

  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – This is just more of the same as far as I’m concerned. Some of the cast are back. Some new people have been brought in, but my overriding feeling is that I’ve seen it all before. It just doesn’t feel like they’ve brought anything new to the table here. That’s not to say it’s a bad film, I just feel like I could have stayed at home and watched a DVD of any of the previous films instead. This film is not going to sell you on the franchise, but it’s also not going to make you vow never to see another PotC film either. Good harmless fun, if a little uninspired.
  • X-Men: First Class – I liked the first three X-Men films. The Wolverine film was quite cool too. I was really unsure what I would think of this prequel. Sometimes stripping things back leaves them exposed. Sometimes it reveals something new. In my opinion X-Men: First Class really works well. I guess I had not really though about how little I knew (or cared) about Professor X and Magneto as characters. This film fleshes them out a bit more than the previous outings and it worked well for me. There are some really lame characters, like Banshee and Darwin, but I guess this also adds to plot as this is a very immature X-Men team. Probably my favorite character from this film is Azazel, who Bamfs like Nightcrawler, but is not so annoying. What I would give to be able to bamf and avoid plane flights. The cast have been signed up for 2 sequels to this prequel (provided this film makes money). I’m looking forward to seeing them.

Cheers

Tim…