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elliest_5 (6)
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Plot explanation: all possible versions [spoilers]
Is this home?
Just saw the trailer
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In sum: I'm not saying these storylines suck, all of them have some merit, but none of them has developped enough throughout the season (and up to the penultimate episode). I like slow-burning storylines, but now we got to the point where basically nothing has happened this season and it all feels like *if there's ever going to be a payoff* it is going to be in the next season, making this current season one giant FILLER.
It's not the action that's missing (I personally never cared about the action), it's a compelling storyline. There's lots of half-baked/half-abandoned storylines this season and it's difficult to see how any of these will pay off in the finale:
- Philip's son: I was expecting this to be one of the major plot points this season, but it's like they pulled him out and are now saving him for the final season next year.
- The crops story (killer bugs / resilient seeds): Also felt like they changed their mind on where this was going - so far it seems that the only role of this now aborted storyline is to act as one more reason for P&E to start doubting the importance, moral ground, and meaningfulness of their job (along with the deadly virus storyline and the aborted "new Martha" mission).
-Tuan & Russian family: OK, there is some build-up there and a little bit of bonding with Tuan (who, ironically, may be the son Philip is spending the most time with) but not enough to warrant the last episode focusing on them (as the penultimate episode indicates).
-Paige & Henry: We finally see a bit of Henry (who in previous seasons was only present in exchanges of the sort "-Where is Henry? - At his friend's") but obviously we need a lot more to have a full storyline about him, whereas all of the Paige drama is quite deflated this season since she seems to be coming to terms with her parents' situation and even starting to warm up to their "mission".
-Stan: What's with the lady-friend storyline? It isn't developed enough for us to invest in it / enjoy some suspense.
- Oleg Burov in Mother Russia: I do like Burov as a character, but boy is this story slow-moving and boring and largely detached from what's happening in the rest of the show.
-Gabriel's retirement: so what? (yeh OK it MUST have some link with them deciding to go back, and we got to see him visit Martha, but come on, give us something more than that!).
Judging it within its genre and within its fictional universe it's almost perfect: for a superhero blockbuster movie and an Xmen movie, it's everything one such movie should be. It has character depth, character development/journey, compelling plot and proper closure, the right amount of characters, it hits all the right notes, it pushes the genre further than its boundaries, it handles being gritty and gory quite gracefully while not betraying the source material (as far as I can tell). I'd say for a superhero movie it's a 9.5/10.
Now, as a standalone movie compared to all movies ever made regardless of genre, it still fares quite well. The important part being "standalone". Even to someone who doesn't know the Marvel Universe it would make sense and it would still retain most of the merits mentioned above. Of course there are flaws: the introduction of **[spoiler]
the new generation of X-kids[/spoiler] towards the end of the movie, introducing a whole bunch of new characters in the wrong part of the movie, some unavoidable action movie/superhero movie cliches (e.g. one-dimentionality of the villains), some action scenes dragging longer than they should... For those reasons it would score something like 7.5 out of 10 (10 being the best movie ever made), but that's still pretty high considering.
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