Sunday at the Movies

I never had a childhood. Not much of one, anyway. I could blame it on the divorce of my parents when I was five, which suddenly made me the man of the house, but the truth is I accepted that role freely, even eagerly, and chose how it would manifest all on my own. My mom bought me a couple of comic books--I remember at least one Richie Rich--and I read them quickly, ignoring the pictures, and went and buried my head in some 'real' books. I don't know whence that piece of snobbery came, but I felt that way from very young.
A confession: I don't always "get" the comics. I'm not talking about Doonesbury, which nobody gets. I'm talking about Cathy, Baby Blues, even the odd Garfield. If there are no words to cue me, I occasionally have a lot of trouble trying to determine just what the hell is going on. If there's anything that makes me feel more stupid, I don't know what it is.
I know that comic books--or "graphic novels", which seems to be the preferred term--are to the Sunday funnies what War and Peace is to a Dick and Jane primer...and yet I just can't shake the non-desire to read them. No offense meant to devotees. The artwork, even if it's brilliant, is probably wasted on me.
Not to mention as a child I abhorred violence in any form, even cartoon violence. Maybe especially cartoon violence: it's so over the top. My reading material tended towards realism--I never got into the fantasy epics, not even Lord of the Rings (Blasphemy!)
As a consequence of this snootery, I missed out entirely on Hellboy, Spider-Man, Constantine, Sandman, Tank Girl, and everybody else in their universe. I went to see a Batman movie once, not by choice, and was completely lost within fifteen minutes. You're the first to know this, dear reader.
So bear the following in mind concerning this review of X-Men: The Last Stand. I have not so much as leafed through an X-Men comic book.

I have, however, seen the other two X-Men movies...and actually liked them. The themes that percolate through that particular comic franchise really resonate with me, being as I was called "mutant" and worse through the first half of my life, and feel like an outsider to this very day.

Last weekend, I made a point of re-watching both previous flicks--'cause let's face it, Ken has to try and keep the cast of characters straight: which mutants are good? which are evil? and so on. On Sunday, we went and saw the third movie.
I LOVED IT.
The acting was sublime, which is only to be expected with a cast including Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan. The special effects were truly spectacular, and the storyline was believeable and compelling, right up to the ending, which wrapped everything up well while still leaving the door wide open for another installment.

The Da Vinci Code, surely the most overhyped movie--and book, for that matter--of the century so far, was done fairly well. I never pictured Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, and still don't, to be honest. I think Bruce Willis or Gary Sinise would have been much better.
Audrey Tautou is wonderful. She has the most expressive eyes I think I've ever seen.
This seemed to be my day for Ian McKellan. (I joked to my wife at one point that Sauniere's cryptex, being made of metal, should have presented no problem.)
The pacing of this movie bothered me a tad. I'm not sure how they could have sped it up, there being a whole lot of material to muddle through...making this movie plot-heavy, dialogue-heavy, just plain heavy. But they still managed to entertain and more importantly, provoke thought. Not many Hollywood blockbusters do that, do they?

X-Men: 8.5/10
Da Vinci: 7/10