Kate Saunders Britton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bonny_kate) wrote2006-08-17 10:58 am
bonny_kate) wrote2006-08-17 10:58 am
Entry tags:
Death Cannot Stop True Love
Why can't Jean be saved? Where is the third option?
(some major spoilers for X-Men 3, because of what I want to talk about, and also a few Phantom of the Opera spoilers)
I watched the latest X-men movie at the dollar theatre, and thought it was the best superhero or futuristic movie I've seen in a while. The story was well written. The characters were interesting, and had more depth than I expected. I never felt like slapping any of the characters for being complete idiots (which I often felt like doing with both the first two Spiderman movies). The action scenes were great, the special effects cool, and there was even a nicely placed Shakespeare quote. But when I got home, I found myself with the niggling sensation that something was dreadfully wrong with the movie. I finally realized what bothered me. Wolverine kills Jean.
Wolverine is faced with an impossible choice. He loves Jean; there is no doubt about that. She has become so powerful that she cannot be controlled; that is also quite obvious. He can let her go on destroying things, and more importantly, people, or he can kill her. Neither option is satisfying. She isn't a villain, so when Wolverine kills her it is horrible. She is out of control, with no apparent way to save her, so he can't just let her go. What if there was another way? What if Wolverine surprised all of us, and did something completely different? What if Jean was saved from herself?
The idea of redemption is startling. It takes an impossible decision between two bad choices, and chooses neither. This is beautifully seen in Phantom of the Opera. Christine is faced with an impossible choice. She must either choose the Phantom, and live with him, hating him, or watch Raul die, loving him. If she stays with the Phantom, she loses her true love because she is married to another, but if she does not stay with him, she loses her true love because the Phantom will kill him. In one of the most beautiful moments of the opera, she sings "God give me courage to show you, you are not alone," and she kisses him. She takes pity on him, and she loves him. It is a striking image that goes beyond any explanation I could give, and the Phantom is redeemed. Her love redeems him. It is one of the reasons that the opera is so deeply satisfying.
But I still have not answered that first question; why can't Jean be saved? I think it is because the writers do not understand the power of love. The simple story of the movie gives a certain power to love. Wolverine loves her enough to kill her. Perhaps that is a great love. But a greater love is capable of redemption. A greater love saved the Phantom. Dante saw perhaps the greatest love. Beatrice the good, the beautiful, and the pure, leaves her footprints in hell to redeem Dante. The greatest love harrowed hell and sent Beatrice. Dante woke to find himself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone, but all was not lost, even then. You can't get any more lost then Dante, or the Phantom, and yet both were redeemed. It seems a lack of imagination to think that Jean could not be redeemed.
I was disappointed in the story told in X-men. I want a greater love that echos myth. I want a love so great that it moves will and desire, and transforms. The specifics of this aren't that important (perhaps love could have made her a whole soul, both feeling deep feelings and able to think rationally, or perhaps love could have burned away those bits of her that were the Phoenix). But I find that the essence is terribly important. I am steeped in stories that give impossible hope, love, and redemption in impossible situations. Those are the only stories that I can find deeply satisfying.
(see also: Jane Eyre, Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the original Star Wars trilogy, etc)
(some major spoilers for X-Men 3, because of what I want to talk about, and also a few Phantom of the Opera spoilers)
I watched the latest X-men movie at the dollar theatre, and thought it was the best superhero or futuristic movie I've seen in a while. The story was well written. The characters were interesting, and had more depth than I expected. I never felt like slapping any of the characters for being complete idiots (which I often felt like doing with both the first two Spiderman movies). The action scenes were great, the special effects cool, and there was even a nicely placed Shakespeare quote. But when I got home, I found myself with the niggling sensation that something was dreadfully wrong with the movie. I finally realized what bothered me. Wolverine kills Jean.
Wolverine is faced with an impossible choice. He loves Jean; there is no doubt about that. She has become so powerful that she cannot be controlled; that is also quite obvious. He can let her go on destroying things, and more importantly, people, or he can kill her. Neither option is satisfying. She isn't a villain, so when Wolverine kills her it is horrible. She is out of control, with no apparent way to save her, so he can't just let her go. What if there was another way? What if Wolverine surprised all of us, and did something completely different? What if Jean was saved from herself?
The idea of redemption is startling. It takes an impossible decision between two bad choices, and chooses neither. This is beautifully seen in Phantom of the Opera. Christine is faced with an impossible choice. She must either choose the Phantom, and live with him, hating him, or watch Raul die, loving him. If she stays with the Phantom, she loses her true love because she is married to another, but if she does not stay with him, she loses her true love because the Phantom will kill him. In one of the most beautiful moments of the opera, she sings "God give me courage to show you, you are not alone," and she kisses him. She takes pity on him, and she loves him. It is a striking image that goes beyond any explanation I could give, and the Phantom is redeemed. Her love redeems him. It is one of the reasons that the opera is so deeply satisfying.
But I still have not answered that first question; why can't Jean be saved? I think it is because the writers do not understand the power of love. The simple story of the movie gives a certain power to love. Wolverine loves her enough to kill her. Perhaps that is a great love. But a greater love is capable of redemption. A greater love saved the Phantom. Dante saw perhaps the greatest love. Beatrice the good, the beautiful, and the pure, leaves her footprints in hell to redeem Dante. The greatest love harrowed hell and sent Beatrice. Dante woke to find himself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone, but all was not lost, even then. You can't get any more lost then Dante, or the Phantom, and yet both were redeemed. It seems a lack of imagination to think that Jean could not be redeemed.
I was disappointed in the story told in X-men. I want a greater love that echos myth. I want a love so great that it moves will and desire, and transforms. The specifics of this aren't that important (perhaps love could have made her a whole soul, both feeling deep feelings and able to think rationally, or perhaps love could have burned away those bits of her that were the Phoenix). But I find that the essence is terribly important. I am steeped in stories that give impossible hope, love, and redemption in impossible situations. Those are the only stories that I can find deeply satisfying.
(see also: Jane Eyre, Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the original Star Wars trilogy, etc)
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Movie!Jean can't be saved because, quite simply, she doesn't love Logan. Whether or not he loves her (which I kind of doubt, actually) becomes a moot point, because he himself doesn't mean enough to her. In the original comics Dark Phoenix arc, it's Scott who brings her back (with some help from Xavier). It's so telling that it's her lover and her mentor who played this key role -- all the weight of her history with Scott is ultimately what redeems Jean. For, er, obvious reasons, this couldn't happen in the movies, and I'm actually glad the filmmakers had Logan kill her in the end. As soon as Scott and Xavier died, I knew there was no way I could be happy with an ending that did anything else. You can't let Logan and his two week flirtation with Jean trump years of patience, love, commitment. You're right in wanting the great, mythical love... and I think the film was right to show that such love wasn't what Jean and Logan had (whether or not it intended to do so).
/two cents
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I can't help but think that's truly tragic--he can never remember or learn from pain.