Anyone who’s ever heard me rant about how absolutely terrible X-Men: The Last Stand is knows that I think Brett Ratner is a hack. He took a great movie franchise with a lot of potential, stuck it in his pie hole, chewed it up, and then crapped it out onto celluloid. I emphatically do not like what he did with that series. The third movie was poorly written and badly directed, and other than the Wolverine/Jean Grey stuff (which I occasionally watch without watching the rest of the film), I for the most part like to pretend that movie never happened. (I do the same thing with the sequels to The Mummy.)

Ratner gave an interview to Starpulse in which he bitched, moaned, and whined about how mean the “comic book geeks” are, and how we’re rabid fans who don’t understand his genius, etc, etc. Lucky for me, Screen Rant already ripped his interview to shreds and called him on all of his bullshit rationalizing as to why fans of the franchise which he was supposed to extend hate his movie.

My favorite bit of Ratner bleating: “Mine was the one that made the most narrative sense. And I’m not knocking Bryan’s movie but he just does a certain thing; Bryan uses his brain and I use my eye and my instincts more. It’s a whole different approach to making a movie. I’m not saying my movie wasn’t smart; I just wasn’t intellectualizing it. I was just looking at it as pure entertainment value which is what it was.”

Yours was the one that made the most narrative sense? Really, Ratner? Because from where I’m sitting, as a fan of the comic books and the movie franchise as well as someone who’s trained to analyze narrative, yours was the one that made the least sense. You tried to cram two completely separate comics-based storylines into an hour and forty-five minutes. The narrative sucked. While I can admit that killing Professor Xavier was a bold, interesting move, killing of Cyclops was just ridiculous. I’m not a Cyclops fan by any stretch, but for god’s sake, what was the point in that?

Singer’s two X-Men films were miles above Ratner’s precisely because he used his head. Singer knew that the storyline was ripe for comparisons with modern events, and by using his brain, as Ratner puts it, he was able to create a superhero film that wasn’t just explosions and BIFF! POW! and hot chicks in leather suits. Ratner’s film wasn’t particularly smart, though he did want to give it the veneer of intelligence. The cure storyline, taken from Joss Whedon’s run on the Astonishing X-Men title could have dealt with very serious emotional issues for mutants. In the comics, Hank McCoy really struggles with the decision to use it or condemn it, because he’s had to live most of his adult life in a less than human form and faced even more fear and hatred from humans for it. What did Ratner do with it? He gave Rogue some teen angst and then depowered Magneto, OMG!

Yeah. It’s so smart my brain can’t handle Ratner’s dizzying intellect.

And this comment: “When I was a kid and used to watch that cartoon it was just fun. It wasn’t a deeper meaning for me when I watched the cartoon as a kid. I didn’t read the comic books but it doesn’t matter, the cartoon is the same f*cking thing.”

I… I… I’m sorry, my brain just exploded. The cartoons were certainly not the same thing as the comic books, dude. Saying this pretty much cemented the opinion that you were the absolute WRONG person to direct an X-Men film. The cartoon was silly and fun, therefore I don’t need to use an ounce of intelligence when I make the third movie!

I’m beating my head on the desk right now.

While yeah, the fans are pretty harsh on Ratner, I say it’s justified. He inherited a project that two directors had already backed out of and then screwed the pooch with it. So he can piss and moan all he likes, but the fans are going to keep ripping him a new one as long as he stays on our radar. Honestly, he should probably just shut up about it and go back to making Rush Hour 18 or whatever his new project is.

---

TDF Pamela

The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, is currently working on a MA in English, focusing on children's/young adult literature and popular culture. She reads voraciously, loves geeky movies and tv shows, reads comic books as often as she can buy them, and when she's procrastinating, she enjoys playing video games. She can be contacted at t.d.fangirl @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter at the link below.

profile | twitter