Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS | More
There’s a lot of stuff going on in the newest X-film. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t but it, at the very least, is an entertaining movie. It’d be easy to compare it to Civil War (and we do in this episode) as many sites and reviews have done, but I’ll instead talk about something else: being a dad.
For all of the issues I have with this movie, I really appreciate its attempt at exploring a theme of parenthood. Let us count the characters who have some kind of parent issue: Nightcrawler, Magneto, Quicksilver, Storm, Wolverine. Let’s count the characters who are parents in some way: Apocalypse, Magneto, Mystique and Xavier.
There’s an intriguing contrast between Xavier and Apocalypse when it comes to being a father figure. Both characters strive to make their “children” achieve their full potential, but their methods to do it are far different. The differences could almost be boiled down to intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Apocalypse enhances the powers of mutants to help them achieve their full potential, but it’s not necessarily something they want. Magneto’s on the fence stance about murdering a vast majority of the world’s population is evidence of his fighting conscious. Xavier, on the other hand, asks his children to look inside themselves and grow rather than look for the immediate satisfaction. Jean, of course, is the best example of this intrinsic motivation (within this film).
Arguably, the film leans on the matriarchal evolution of Mystique and her shared history with Xavier and Magneto as evidence that Xavier’s idealism is the way to go.
My last point is also the #obvi part of the whole film. In the climax, as Xavier is getting beat to hell by Apocalypse, he says something along the lines of, “you’ll lose because you’re alone and I’m not”. If that’s not the whole damn point of the movie, then I’m not sure what is!
As a father, I want my son to find the strength in his abilities on his own. I need him to discover his strengths and weaknesses and the things he’s really good at. I don’t want him to end up miserable in a dead end job or be stuck doing something he doesn’t truly want to do. I want what’s best for him and it’s my job to guide him and help him discover these things about himself; not tell him what to do and how to do it.
In that respect, Xavier’s school of Parenting is probably the way to go.
I need to to thank you for this very good read!! I absolutely loved
every bit of it. I’ve got you book marked to check out new
things you
Thank you so much for reading, Kristen!
Loved the podcast! I thought the movie was pretty good. I really liked Xavier and Apocalypse’s battle of the mind at the end. And of course the ideological dispute between Xavier and Magneto continues in this movie from the first two prequels.
I agree that the doomsday destruction was a bit excessive and yes Apocalypse’s powers were pretty cheap and undefined, which made it a little weaker of a movie than the first two. Great commentary!
Keith!
Thanks for checking out the show, man!
I know I gave the movie a 5 or so, but I do understand why people enjoyed it more than me! I think the battle at the end, with Xavier and Apocalypse, had a great idea in mind (no pun intended) but there was a part of me (I might’ve mentioned it on the show) that thought, “hey, Jean, annnnny time you want to help out… stop staring at him, and get in there!”
It was an overall interesting sequence, but I do think they could’ve made it EPIC (I don’t use that term lightly, haha)
Again, thanks for listening Keith! You’re awesome!
– Brandon