Morpheus-24

What amazes me is how one can get the hands on the movie rights of a real classic, which is slow and thoughtful enough to be a wonderful movie even on a low budget, and then decide to change every important element of the story. This is not only a bad movie, it is a horrific simplification and alteration of a potentially wonderful script. The movie might warrant a "2", but the lack of respect to the authors original work pushes it down to a "1". The whole series is about the nature of magic, and the frailty of men and women. They skip everything about the nature of magic, they reshape the shy and tormented Sparrowhawk into a wenching Ged, they make the in the book hardly named prince of the Raiders a powerplayer. His motivation is to get the secret of immortality from the unnamed ones - something that is too no in the book. I could go on forever about how the film has nothing to do with the original work except for a few names, but I don't see the point.

I liked the movie, but I left the theater feeling slightly cheated. The mutants are cool (all the time - the actors hardly have the chance to breathe for the script's demands on them acting cool from start to end), the design and setting is nice and the acting is good (except for Hale Berry who is just cool. Iceman is rather stuffy too).

What irks me is that they start off a lot of plots, and just forgets about them. Another problem is that despite a theme of "are we really fighting for or against ourselves" there is virtually no time for uncertainty or doubt - everyone knows what has to be done, and off they go.

There are also several slips where wolverine and rouge in particular could be used to great effect to demonstrate conflicting ideals and emotions. I feel that the film could have been used to portray really good in-depth characterization and great moral conflict while still retaining's glitz and tempo, if the director had just dared to do it. And the "final solution" to defeat the evil mutants could have been used in wolverine's final moment of truth, couldn't it not?

Despite failing to take advantage of the possibilities in the script the film is a good movie, but hardly a masterpiece. The ones before it are better, both of them.

The story about the sharp-shooting-vigilante-chicks continues in a much more serious context. Set in a post atomic near-future Hong Kong´s fresh water supply has been contaminated by radiation and is on the brink of open rebellion. All available fresh water is controlled by the "Fresh Water Company" owned by the power-mad genius Mr.Kim. He plans to induce a rebellion (by raising prices and cutting water-rations)and with the aid of a corrupt army colonel and a devout religious leader restore order and take over the crumbling Metropolis.

The three friends have separated since the first movie; Wonder Woman is married with a daughter (of course), Thief Catcher is a Water Smuggler and a Rouge (as always) and Invisible Woman works with the allieviating of the peoples suffering. They are brought together in order to find a rumored new source of fresh water, but Wonder W. and Thief C. lacks the motivation to break up with their new lives. Of course momentous events forces the trio together and the villains are in for a major beating.

The settings and moods are much darker and has a strange gothic 1960:s air to it. It focuses on the motivations and fears of the main characters, their hopes to rebuild the future, hopes of escaping to a safer place, their hopes to rescue loved ones etc. Worries of the Chinese takeover are quite everpresent.

When the first one was whacky rough-and-tumble this movie is more slow paced and thougtful and beautifully shot. (I just LOVE the train-station scene with it´s slo mo cartridges and yellow lighting). It has a more desperate theme where the villains succeed and the heroes fail and despair.

Although the story contains a few glitches (like sudden and unmotivated slapstick in the midst of tragedy or the never seen before or again car-wrecker villain) the fan of the HK-cinema has learned to overlook (and enjoy) such anomalies. I highly recommend this beautiful and action-packed gothic drama.