Something 4 The Weekend by
Welcome ladies, gentlemen and film
fans everywhere to entertainment manchester's weekly
feature 'Something for the Weekend'. If, as
Forrest Gump once might have said were he a film fan,
cinema really is like a box of chocolates, then think
of us as your mini-menu, steering you away from the
coffee creams and towards the Turkish delights of the
movie world.
They've faced Magneto, the Sentinels and even the rather camp sounding Nasty Boys, but will Brett Ratner be the man who finally bumps off the X-Men? That's the question X-fans across the world have been asking themselves this week in anticipation of the third (and possibly final) instalment in the mega-budget mutant franchise, X-Men 3: The Last Stand. And why does the geek contingent have cause for concern? Well, blame Superman.
By the end of 2003's X2, our mutant heroes were in dire straits. Wolverine's place of origin had been totally destroyed, a previous X-goody (flame-throwing Pyro) had turned to the side of serious X-baddy Magneto and, after Jean Grey's dramatic death, the camera had panned over her final resting place in Alkali Lake to reveal the feint outline of a phoenix, setting up Chris Claremont’s infamous Dark Phoenix storyline in which Famke Janssen's character is resurrected as an evil goddess.
The third movie seemed perfectly poised and fans were excited at the prospect of seeing the darkest moment in X-history brought to life by the talented cast and crew the production had amassed. But just as pre-production was starting up, disaster struck when director Bryan Singer left the project to take the helm on the new Superman movie, Superman Returns.
The move came from nowhere. The likes of Tim Burton and Kevin Smith had been attached to the fourth Superman sequel at various times during its ten year gestation period, but nobody had so much as mentioned Singer’s name. Studio Fox was incensed at his defection and X3 ground to a halt, only cranking into gear once more several months later, first with Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughan (who later dropped out to due to family reasons) and then with Rush Hour helmer Brett Ratner.
Vaughan was an intriguing choice, generally greeted with tentative nods of agreement by the fans. Ratner’s unveiling, on the other hand, was received with the kind of rabid vitriol normally reserved for opposition football fans at local derbies, especially after a typically hyperbolically hateful script review was posted on fan site Ain’t It Cool News. Thankfully though, the response has gradually improved as fevered anticipation has taken over and fans have caught wind of an exciting plot.
Following on directly from the end of X2, Ratner’s film sees the creation of a cure for the mutant X-gene, leading to splits in the X-Men camp and eventually a destructive battle with Magneto. Throw into the mix the realisation of that Dark Phoenix storyline, the addition of fan-favourite characters Beast (Kelsey Grammer) and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and the inclusion of the iconic Danger Room (a sort of giant holographic X-training room) and you have the kind of fan-glee that even the casting of Vinnie Jones as man-mountain badass Juggernaught can't quash.
There is though, still cause for concern. Ratner hardly has the track record of a fitting replacement for Singer and the posters and trailers suggest a style-over-substance approach synonymous with his brand of filmmaking. Let's hope he can defy these reservations and, if this is to be their last stand, give the X-Men the kind of send-off they deserve.
Presumably that will be occupying the minds of most kids this bank holiday weekend, but if the sight of Wolverine bearing his claws and going in for the kill might scare your little'un how about the far sweeter thought of an inquisitive monkey named George.
Based on the yonks-old books by Margaret and H.A Rey, Curious George follows the titular simian and his friend The Man in the Yellow Hat (Will Ferrell) as they investigate the world in a manner so suitable for kids the BBFC have even found it necessary to warn us that no warning is needed, by adding a ‘no sex, violence or bad language’ disclaimer on the ads.
Strangely for a modern-day cartoon, it’s all in traditional 2D animation, unlike the latest CGI toon to be unleashed, The Wild, the tale of a bunch of animals who are trying to bring lost lion cub Ryan back to the wild. Okay, okay, so it sounds an awful lot like Madagascar. In fact, it sounds pretty much exactly like Madagascar. But did that film have Eddie Izzard, Jack Bauer and Captain Kirk in it? This does…
Finally, if you’re looking for something a little more adult-oriented this weekend, there’s Friends With Money, one of those god awful looking marriage dramas with a load of women looking miserable because they hate their husbands. It does star Frances McDormand. But Rachael from Friends is also there doing her I’M NOT RACHAEL FROM FRIENDS thing. So probably best to embrace your inner child and go with the monkey or the wolverine on this one...
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