The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 1x04 Breakdown & Review

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Starting point is 00:01:22 Head to your nearest Chevron station to fuel up and get rewarded today. Terms apply. See Chevron, Texcores. for more details thank you to babble for sponsoring this video of course son you ready that was a jazz let's do it let's jazz it up well yep yep that was a this strange one wasn't it was a little strange i still liked it but not the same level of like wild blinding how does this exist yeah yeah which is an unfair bar i think the other ones i was like emotionally enthralled with and I think the, like, as, as cool as the animation is and as fun as Motendo world is, and as neat as it is setting up his life death story.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Yeah. I did find myself just kind of at a distance with this episode a little bit more than I usually am. I'm not going to, like, write off this show just because of that. Greg thinks it went too woke. Too woke. Where's rogue's ass? Yeah. Bring it back.

Starting point is 00:02:24 Justice for Rogue's booty. She wasn't even in this episode. have a booty, but if she was... If she was, oh, man, I'd be pissed. Freaking making Mojo lose weight. Come on. Come on. What is this?

Starting point is 00:02:36 Body positivity. Then he got fat again. We're supposed to celebrate. Oh, my gosh. Shame, shame. I don't know which we're shaming. I don't know. I think the issue for me was that the Mojo episode was so action-packed.

Starting point is 00:02:51 And then life death is meant to be somber. So it's hard in one 30-minute window to be like, We're driving 100 miles per hour. Take it down to 20. And, like, that is, I think, just a disservice to both because it felt like Mojo had to end in time for life death. And then life death had to catch up on an emotional weight that we hadn't had five minutes ago.

Starting point is 00:03:11 It's like everything felt serial. See, the thing is, I think it was only 10 episodes here. Yeah. Whereas, like, the original animated series was shorter in runtime per episode by a few minutes, shorter runtime per episode. But, you know, they would have their episodes that maybe weren't as serialized whereas here I think they're aiming

Starting point is 00:03:30 to be a little bit more serialized so the Mojo one I kind of accepted that all right yeah this is probably just like their fun episodic because Mojo had been in a few had there

Starting point is 00:03:39 there's a few episodes of Mojo in the original series I was like all right this is cool yeah and I like what they're doing with the video game and the animation I thought that was a lot of fun

Starting point is 00:03:47 and getting to have a jubilee focus episode that was a lot of fun and then it was like no but we gotta keep to serialize serious so I appreciate the effort but it

Starting point is 00:03:57 Didn't allow me to get kind of wrapped up in the heart that I think they were aiming for when it came to forge and storm. Like, everything I had sort of at a distance of an appreciation. But again, it was like the emotional connection that I normally, that I've been finding with X-Men episodes 1 through 3 that was like, okay, maybe on a rewatch. I don't know. It's still good. And I still enjoyed it. But I definitely found that the meta-comedy in the first half was so different than a drama, love, story that it really didn't allow me to pull myself in a direction. I felt like I was being

Starting point is 00:04:33 pulled apart. Like those were such different stories that the issue I think was also like I know life death well enough that when it said it in the opening credits I was watching the movie the first half going like how are they going to go? And then when it happened I was like why would and then by the time it did I was like did it feel and nothing ever like stuck. It all felt like it was moving around. And I think that a 20 minute episode. about Mojo and 20-minute episode about life death, even a week apart would have felt more full than splitting a 30 minute in half.

Starting point is 00:05:05 That's very true. Just a week apart. Why don't you lay down a little bit more opinions for a little while? Okay. Well, Greg's multitask. Completely. Yeah, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:05:13 It's just pretty good over. Life death is a really interesting comic that deals with these beautiful painting-esque. It's, the art is stunning. And they captured some of that. That's a positive. The backgrounds, the vibe, those experiences. But if you think about it from a visual,

Starting point is 00:05:27 standpoint, making a meta commentary on nostalgia and using pixels and making things that are visual humorous plays and then going into like painted vistas, even from a visual standpoint, it's jarring. So, narratively, it goes jarring because you're like, nostalgia's dangerous. That could have been

Starting point is 00:05:43 its own episode because it's a show nostalgia. This is a 97 set show. We're all adults watching a show from our childhood and new kids discovering it are not going to have that same novelty for the 90s, but it's not for them. This episode was for us. So to be so connected to the nostalgia and the meta and then go to these like painted vistas it felt really hard to attach to the new slow westerny pace and then i felt like i couldn't quite believe forge and storm

Starting point is 00:06:08 because the whole time i kept being like feel this remember to feel it uh and that was disorienting well allow me to pitch something to you of what i think they were also going for uh because they had jubilee in the video game yes world like the older jubilee and then in the storm world there was like the mirror of the owl so it's like one was like this beautiful reflection of jubilee from the future and then they had this darker reflection of storm and this i don't know what that owl thing i don't know what that is but it's very like druggy but it's like a psychedelic yeah psychedelic symbolic thing of conquer thyself something yeah tune in next week i'm not sure what was happening there but i was like needo so she is the owl that's cool

Starting point is 00:06:56 I like that. And her and Forge have a romance. Yes. And like there's is a really beautiful. It actually leads into a lot of the really great Jim Lee 90s stuff. Like they have a really beautiful cover where it's like them kissing, but they put them like kind of in the background. So there's a lot of empty space and you just feel that like loneliness of their romance because of the empty space and the frame. And I really like when art has the room to breathe.

Starting point is 00:07:19 So that also, their romance always had the room to breathe. The art and the comics always kind of like made them feel a little. outside of everyone else's relationships kind of in the foreground obviously Gene and Scots and Wolverine

Starting point is 00:07:31 like you know being this little love sick puppy Wolverine and Storm even have a relationship that feels more present Forge it always felt like

Starting point is 00:07:38 a thing that could not be and because of that I would have loved a whole episode leading up to that betrayal and kiss or like leading up to this why can't this be yeah because they were

Starting point is 00:07:49 attempting to have that like more patient pacing with it which I appreciated a drama in animated form yeah Again, yeah, it is the swing. It's the pendulum that's wrong. It is just so completely the opposite.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Yeah. Maybe there are the guys out there who watched it who had no issue adjusting to it. And it wasn't like it was an issue of adjustment. It was like it was an issue of impact, I think, is more about it lead it down to, you know. And that was about it. Hello there, esteem viewer of the Real Rejects. I, Greg Alba, language connoisseur, and worldly gentlemen. I'm here to bestow upon you the secrets of Babel.

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Starting point is 00:10:04 Yeah, I'm still really glad to see Life Death. I'm still very excited for Part 2. I really liked the really fun commentary and nostalgia and how dangerous it is to just live for the past. I really, really, and this is something I've thought about a lot. I personally don't rewatch shows a lot. I don't have the same comfort shows like The Office and Parks and Rec and stuff like a lot of people do. If the office is on, I might catch one or two a...

Starting point is 00:10:25 month, probably not even, maybe, maybe a quarter. I just don't watch shows again. And then the line about, like, escaping the cliffhanger that you know is going to come and there's reliving that comfort. I totally get how people enjoy that, but repetition drives me bring crazy. Because I feel like I'm not living my life. Even watching something new, you're at least living the emotional through line. So it was really ironic that I was like, oh, an emotional through line. And then the emotional through line felt like it dropped it. So, like, I personally don't rewatch a lot because I like living those highs and lows for the first time more than I like the comfort of rewatching.

Starting point is 00:10:57 So it was really ironic that life, death followed and felt like it was kind of a revisit because of the comic. Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair point. What did, overall, though, when it came to... Overall, the Motendo episode, did you like it, though? The Motendo element really liked Life Death, I'm hoping the second part pays off enough that it'll make the whole feel better.

Starting point is 00:11:14 But this would be my... What's tricky is, this show has been like an A so far, and it's really impressed and surprised me. This was like a B, Like, it's still not bad. I just, it's the bar has been so high for one through three that I feel like this skidding to a bee feels way more of a drop than it actually is. Other shows getting a bee is like, oh good, I'm glad this was a bee. I'm glad this was good.

Starting point is 00:11:35 But when this drops, I'm like, what happened? It was interesting getting Mojo in here and there's something about her presence in particular. If I recall from the, at least from the original show, she was, they really honed in on like feeling like a satire. hire of. And they still do that here, like executive producer. And what I thought was funny is they were carefully crafting their lines where at times it was like, this sounds more like a commentary of producers today. So I even had like a full can't get had me canceled line. Which is definitely not of 97. Yeah. That's not a 97 sentence. It was like that's a today sentence. It was definitely for our audience. Yeah. Cheeky. Yeah. But then while having the nostalgic throwback like the video

Starting point is 00:12:23 games, the pixels. I love the sound design in this episode. The sound design, the music changing the sound design of the fights and the battles and like the 16 bidding things was so great. That's the word 16 bit. He was in pixel. Yeah, yeah, 16 bed energy was strong. And I really liked that stuff. So I don't want people to think this was just a negative for me. It's just the ending just felt so like a different show.

Starting point is 00:12:43 So I wish it had been two episodes. And I'm liking that they're having storm earn her powers back. Not just like, boop. Yeah, yeah. And I think, at least watching, again, the trajectory of how I think the original show might have handled it, I think it might have, like, Storm was always a strong character, but there was a lot of, like, wallowing that she would do. Gene's always fainting, Storm's always wallowing. They would have the women wallow. I do like that they gave us the gene mislead by having the one that faint be the real one, though. And I like how Storm was at least being reactive in these situations. Like there was still sorrow.

Starting point is 00:13:21 There was still a yearning to, you know, get her powers back on all these things. But a commanding sorrow. Yeah, there was still, like, agency to her characters. Yeah. And I, and I like how she didn't, like, just accept the love from Forge right away. Right. Like, it took her, like, she rejected it flat out. And also from Forge only being in the days of future past episodes, if I'm not mistaken,

Starting point is 00:13:41 in the original series, it is cool to, like, go back. Like, they're doing that with Bishop. I love his voice. The actor's strong. I really liked Forge here. I liked all the pieces. lot. It just, I think putting all the pieces together was a little jarring for me. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:53 It was like a double feature. It was like, what was it? Death Race and Planet Terror. I'm like, what is happening? I was actually thinking of that. I was thinking of Grindhouse. It's very grindousy. I remember the first time I watched grind house. Like, I actually loved Grindhouse and it took me a while to adjust, though. To watch it as an entire

Starting point is 00:14:09 go from like crazy B-movie Pulp Zombie Flick to, wow, we were watching something that's remarkably slow right now. And you know what this could have had? Commercials in between in Mojovers. Oh, yeah. It could have just embraced it. It could have just embraced it.

Starting point is 00:14:22 It could have embraced it a tiny bit. Put a pizza commercial in the middle, for the 90s. You guys could have animated more for us. That's what we want. You guys could have done more work for us. Now we just sit here criticizing the thousands of employees who worked on this. Shame. Shame on you. And they watch this.

Starting point is 00:14:42 So we're talking directly to those that watch this. Because we talked to some of them at Wondercom. They're delightful people. We did. We'd have a couple of them. And we love you and appreciate your work very much. I'm sorry we had to say a couple slightly. But shame on you. But shame on you.

Starting point is 00:14:57 I hope by next week you've rewritten the next episode for us. I think we handled it fair and delicately. I think we did our best. I also think that maybe we should make a storm video of some kind about how great when she doesn't wallow. We got Koi's Comic Corner coming back, guys. And so keep a look out for that. Stormcentric. But, I mean, I throw it to you guys.

Starting point is 00:15:16 Did you absolutely loathe and hate this episode the same way Koi and I did? Leave your comments down below. Are you quitting the MCU? Are you, did they just go too woke here? Leave your thoughts down below. Subscribe, click that bell. And hey, join us next week. Or hopefully Koi will be here.

Starting point is 00:15:36 You'll know what I mean next week. We'll all find out together. See you guys. Thank you.

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The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 1x04 Breakdown & Review

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