[7.3/10] My favorite part of this one is the courtroom scene. Beast doesn’t want to accept Magneto’s help to escape from imprisonment because he wants to make a public stand for mutant kind. He wants to be a voice for the people, eloquently explaining their plight and showing that they’re not above the law, but willing to have his day in court like anyone else.
And what does he get for it? Or the fact that he only infiltrated the MCA to rescue mutants who’d shown up on their registry and then disappeared? He’s treated like a dangerous criminal and denied bail. The contrast of Beast’s nobility, and the faux-objectivity of the judge who nonetheless denies him what I’d consider his due civil rights in this instance, speaks volumes.
The main part of the episode is good too. I know the backstory between Wolverine and Sabertooth, but I like how they play up the crypticness of why Logan wants this guy out of the compound. There’s some nice charges of hypocrisy going on, with the other X-Men explaining that they took Wolverine himself in even though some people had qualms about him, while Logan points out that Xavier will order the crew to go after his old frenemy, Magneto, but that Wolverine’s not allowed to have the same feelings about Sabertooth.
By god, there’s depth there, and while the presentation on X-Men is often a little cheesy and bombastic, I appreciate the thought that goes into the character dynamics like that.
Speaking of which, this is a nice introduction to Magneto. I’ll admit, I find the changes to his backstory a little odd. Making him from some random country oppressed by some random soldiers takes a bit of the oomph out of his motivations. And making his name Magnus just seems unnecessary.
Nevertheless, I like the core elements they keep for the relationship between he and Xavier. They were once friends working on the same projects. The two of them each working to help people recover from trauma is an interesting angle. You get the sense of them bonding whether they know it or not, over having to hide their powers to get by in society.
In that, a philosophical difference emerges, with Magneto having suffered greater oppression and seen the rigors of war to where he thinks “normal humans” will never accept them when they can't even accept each other. Whereas Xavier, obviously takes a more optimistic view Grounding their perspectives in their experiences and contrasting but grandiose ethical principles makes their clash more than just a bunch of laser beams and energy blasts.
But there’s plenty of that too! Magnet’s plans are pretty generic supervillain stuff. But him trying to direct big ol’ bombs to population centers is a solid enough obstacle for our heroes to have to overcome. Storm rerouting their trajectory and neutralizing them with her powers is a little too easy of a fix. That said, despite their feuding, I appreciate that Cyclops and Wolverine are united by their care for their teammate when it comes time to rescue Storm herself after she exhausts herself in the process. For all their differences, Scott and Logan have the same noble heart, which helps account for why the X-Men are a team.
Overall, this one still has some of the rushed pacing issues that earlier episodes have had, but it also has a good amount of depth between Beast’s hearing, Wolverine’s feelings about Sabertooth, and Xavier’s differences with Magneto.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-07T01:12:27Z
[7.3/10] My favorite part of this one is the courtroom scene. Beast doesn’t want to accept Magneto’s help to escape from imprisonment because he wants to make a public stand for mutant kind. He wants to be a voice for the people, eloquently explaining their plight and showing that they’re not above the law, but willing to have his day in court like anyone else.
And what does he get for it? Or the fact that he only infiltrated the MCA to rescue mutants who’d shown up on their registry and then disappeared? He’s treated like a dangerous criminal and denied bail. The contrast of Beast’s nobility, and the faux-objectivity of the judge who nonetheless denies him what I’d consider his due civil rights in this instance, speaks volumes.
The main part of the episode is good too. I know the backstory between Wolverine and Sabertooth, but I like how they play up the crypticness of why Logan wants this guy out of the compound. There’s some nice charges of hypocrisy going on, with the other X-Men explaining that they took Wolverine himself in even though some people had qualms about him, while Logan points out that Xavier will order the crew to go after his old frenemy, Magneto, but that Wolverine’s not allowed to have the same feelings about Sabertooth.
By god, there’s depth there, and while the presentation on X-Men is often a little cheesy and bombastic, I appreciate the thought that goes into the character dynamics like that.
Speaking of which, this is a nice introduction to Magneto. I’ll admit, I find the changes to his backstory a little odd. Making him from some random country oppressed by some random soldiers takes a bit of the oomph out of his motivations. And making his name Magnus just seems unnecessary.
Nevertheless, I like the core elements they keep for the relationship between he and Xavier. They were once friends working on the same projects. The two of them each working to help people recover from trauma is an interesting angle. You get the sense of them bonding whether they know it or not, over having to hide their powers to get by in society.
In that, a philosophical difference emerges, with Magneto having suffered greater oppression and seen the rigors of war to where he thinks “normal humans” will never accept them when they can't even accept each other. Whereas Xavier, obviously takes a more optimistic view Grounding their perspectives in their experiences and contrasting but grandiose ethical principles makes their clash more than just a bunch of laser beams and energy blasts.
But there’s plenty of that too! Magnet’s plans are pretty generic supervillain stuff. But him trying to direct big ol’ bombs to population centers is a solid enough obstacle for our heroes to have to overcome. Storm rerouting their trajectory and neutralizing them with her powers is a little too easy of a fix. That said, despite their feuding, I appreciate that Cyclops and Wolverine are united by their care for their teammate when it comes time to rescue Storm herself after she exhausts herself in the process. For all their differences, Scott and Logan have the same noble heart, which helps account for why the X-Men are a team.
Overall, this one still has some of the rushed pacing issues that earlier episodes have had, but it also has a good amount of depth between Beast’s hearing, Wolverine’s feelings about Sabertooth, and Xavier’s differences with Magneto.