Excerpt of myself from another era. (What era? Well, I was listening to Diggnation and being surprised by Firefox having a spell-check function.) Just reposting here for convenience of linking.
There were some oddly creepy gender issues, especially pertaining to Jean Grey and Rogue. The way they repurposed the Dark Phoenix storyline was positively Victorian in its overtones. On the one hand, the meek and demure, self-doubting Jean Grey we know, and on the other hand, a raving, man-eating monster of unchecked emotion and sexuality, with daddy issues to boot. I’m shocked that the Professor didn’t break out a room-sized steam-powered vibrator. Not to mention the symbolism of the end of her storyline.
Rogue’s story arc centered on how hung up she is about not being able to touch her boyfriend. I’m actually very fond of this thread in the previous movies, because it’s certainly the most interesting quirk about any of the characters’ abilities that makes it into any of the films. And while I was really looking forward to the angst, soul-searching, and polemics her character would have regarding the possibility of a “cure” (there were no angst, soul-searching, or polemics in the film, for reasons that elude me; she just went out and got it, sort of the way pro-lifers want us to think women get abortions. Oops, pregnant again; better stop at the clinic on my way back from the bar tonight.), they framed it totally unnecessarily around a possible love triangle involving her, the freezy guy and the chick from Hard Candy. The resulting message is: The magical power that sets you apart from everyone else results in sexual frustration for your boyfriend, who doesn’t get to touch you. He starts flirting with some insubstantial (literally; the Kitty Pryde (sp?) character walks through walls) bitch; you get yourself a drastic medical procedure to make you normal at the expense of removing what makes you special.
They tried, but failed, to balance the message with Wolverine’s sage advice that she can do what she wants, as long as she doesn’t do it “for some boy,” and her totally unconvincing repetition of same argument back to her boyfriend, but of course they close her storyline with her holding the dude’s hand, when clearly it ought to have ended with her slapping him and sending him on his way. This is all very inconsistent with the character as it appears in the comics, I think. (Actually, my memories of Rogue are all from the animated series.)
