BF143227

Book/Film Response
For my Book or Film Response, I chose the topic X-Men, which relates to the films X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X3: The Last Stand. X-Men, overall, has been one of my favorites movies since I was younger and I still have appreciation for it. The whole X-Men saga is mainly about these young mutants, who are feared and mistreated by humans just because they are different. Some humans, who have mutants as children, **stigmatize** (pg 318) their child and brainwash them into believing that mutation is an illness. As a result, these teens will keep their feelings to themselves out of fear of being isolated. They are then found by a mutant, who turns out to be a professor named Charles Xaivior, who believes that mutation is a gift. He then takes them to his school so they can have food, shelter, a place to stay, and education.

The school is filled with children and youg adults going through their **adolescence** (pg 306) and **early adulthood** (pg 370) stages. There are also mutants who are going through what is called an **identity crisis** (pg 342). This means that they don't know who or what they are with a great deal of confusion. So the older mutants, which are the teachers of the school, educate the students and help them with their identity crisis, how to use their powers, and how to survive in the real world. So I would say that the developmental issue is that adolescence children are‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍going through a kind of **puberty** (pg 309), which means that the children's bodies are going through a **physical change** (pg 308), that are both unseen and seen, requiring the needs for reproductive maturity. An example of puberty that can be see from a mutant would be the amount of control they have over their powers. Let's say the mutant's power is fire. You can see if that mutant has control over their powers by noticing that they aren't desinagrating everything and causing havoc. **Brain growth spurts** (pg 308) is another example of physical change that they are going through. 2 types of brain growth spurts happen within teenage years. The first one occurs between ages 13 & 15, and the other occurs around 17 and continues into early adulthood. During the first spurt, the cerebral cortex becomes thicker and neuronal pathways become more efficient. During the second one, the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortext is mainly being developed. The psychological issue is the fact that they are being put in a different environment, must trust their teachers for what they've learned, and be mentally strong when conflicting a human being.

In my opinion,‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ the whole reason with this film is to teach us that it's wrong to treat someone differently or harshly just because they are different‍‍‍‍‍‍‍.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Like when Bobby Drake's (Iceman) mother asked him, "Have you ever tried not being a mutant?" This act of stigmatism caused Bobby to conceal his thoughts and feelings towards his family. Realizing that his family won't accept him for who he is, he makes a choice to abandon his home and live with his fellow mutants. However, in the real world, transgenedered teens or adults go through stigmatism almost every day by peers or their superiors. Teens who suspect that they are being stigmatized, will hide and keep their feelings to themselves. We should give them the same chance and respect as any other individual‍‍.

As for the developmental stages, Scott Summers (Cyclops) is a young adult going through his early adulthood stage in his early 20s. His character is more **foreclosure** (pg 342), since he has already made a commitment without going through a crisis before hand. When the X-Men were going over a mission briefing, Scott thought of a plan on where to land the X-Jet near the Statue of Liberty undetected from the Brotherhood. A 19 year old mutant named Rogue is going through her eary adulthood as well. She was telling her boyfriend how she was going to venture across the Niaggera Falls river just to explore. Unaware of her mutant abilities, she drains the life force out of him as she kissed him. While shocked at the fact that he ended up in a six week coma, she quickly abandoned her home and decided to live life on her own. Dispite her instincts telling her to find food and shelter, she had no transportation and no place to stay. After accepting the fact that her adventure plan has become just a dream, she realizes she must think of a survival plan to stay alive. Luckily, she then finds a truck driver, whom she asks to take her to a bar called Lawthom City to stay. She then finds Logan (Wolverine), who turns out to be an older mutant, and sticks with him. These are all perfect examples, because during early adulthood, teens who are becoming young adults must learn how to make choices, accept the concequences, care for others, and take responsibility. We also have Ororo Munroe (Storm) and Logan going through their early adulthood stages. In my opinion, Ororo also falls into the foreclosure catagory, because she has already made a commitment to join the X-Men, but we haven't seen her go through a crisis yet. However, I don't doubt it if she has been through one in the past. When Ororo was talking to Senator Kelly, who was mutated recently by Eric Lencher's (Magneto) deadly mutation machine, he asked her if she hated humans. She responds with, "Sometimes." He then asked her why. Then she responds, "I suppose... I'm afraid of them." This statement reveals that she is masking her true feelings about humans. She's more of a young adult in her early 20s as well, with more of a foreclosure personality. When I first watched this film, I always thought that since they have all that power that they should be fearless of humans. I then realized that stereotypes about both sides can effect how mutants and humans view, treat, and speak to each other in many ways. She knows that as a young adult she has to deal with the stereotypes and criticism that humans say about mutants. Later on, a big war between mutants and humans are about to take place and she quotes to Logan, "Yeah I'm ready, but are you ready to do what is necessary when the time comes?" This statement shows that Storm is mentally prepared for what she has to do to help her team bring this war to an end. Logan has a very friendly personality, but can be very impatient and short tempered sometimes. His character is more **moratorium** (pg 342), which means he has a crisis in process, but he hasn't made any commitments yet. Due to his amnesia, he only remembers bits and pieces of his violent past. Like for instance, when Logan went back to visit Alkali Lake, he came across a tank filled with water and a tub of adamantium boiling beside it. Flashbacks of him emerging out of the tank and then escaping triggered when he touched it. When he joined the X-Men, he asked Charles if he could read his mind to help him recover the missing pieces of his Violent past. One of the challenges he has to face is finding his missing identity and if he finds it to accept what already happened and move on.

I really enjoyed all the X-Men movies that they've made. I thought it could be better, but overall I really liked the fact that X-Men is now a real-live-action movie. However, you have your movie critics that always wine and complain about something. The criticism was about how the movie didn't follow the comic book's story line. My uncle, who loves Marvel comics as well, agrees with that statement and wines about how the X-Men shouldn't lose to a fight so quickly. I can't really blame them for getting frustrated with a company taking a storyline and remaking it with their own twist, but I think that's going a little too far. I just think that it was one of the best movies I have ever seen.

The Identity Statuses that talk about the crises of the different characters are relevent to the psycological domain. Ororo's foreclosure crisis talked about she deeply felt about humans. She acted as is she was just timid around humans, but deep down she was terrified of them. Logans' moratorium crisis talks about how he hesitated to join the X-Men before he accepted the offer. Since, he had some trust issues from his past, he wasn't reluctant to join so quickly. Rogues' identity achievement crisis shows th she has already been through a crisis and already made a commitment. She was reluctant to join the X-Men since she run away from home and had no where else to go.

If you look closely at this image that I've found on Wikipedia, you will find about 2 symbols that mean or represent something. The big metal X in the middle of the picture symbolizes a group of mutants that make up a team called the **X-Men**. The goal for this team is to bring peace and mutants to live in harmony together. This act is more shown in the 3rd movie (X-Men 3) as the X-Men stand as a fine line between the army of human soldiers and the gang of mutants called **The Brotherhood**. In contrat to the X-Men, The Brotherhood is a gang of mutants that use their powers for their own needs and for pleasure. They hate and fear the humans and believe that mutants are the superior race of what they call "Homosuperior". If you take a seek peek at the preview I've set up for the first X-Men movie, the words "**Trust a few**" means that there are some people out in the real world that actually care about you and will try to help you in any circumstances. Someone who you can trust and tell secrets to. However, the words "**Fear the rest**" is saying that the majority of people out there are willing to harm you, use you, or disregard your existence. Since people fear what they don't understand that makes the word a dangerous place, in other words be cautious about your surroundings and don't just instantly trust anybody. This whole epidemic comes down to one big question, "Will humans and mutants ever live in peace and harmony together?"



[Preview] **X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE** media type="youtube" key="LPmbGzQaOCs" height="315" width="560"

[Preview]: **X-MEN** media type="youtube" key="hq24SxmMcfY" height="315" width="560"

[Preview]: **X-MEN 2: X-MEN UNITED** media type="youtube" key="-F9o9zphwKw" height="315" width="560" media type="youtube" key="kajEhbglG7k" height="315" width="560"
 * [****Preview]: X-MEN 3: THE LAST STAND**

__Movies__ X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Dir. Gavin Hood, Perf. Hugh Jackamn, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Danny Hudson, and Dominic Monagan, Century Fox, 2009. Film

X-Men, Dir. Bryan Singer, Perf. Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn Stamos, and Anna Paquin, Century Fox, 2000. Film

X2: X-Men United, Dir. Bryan Singer, Perf. Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Brian Cox, Alen Cumming, Bruce Davidson, and Anna Paquin, Centry Fox, 2003. Film

X3: The Last Stand, Dir. Brett Ratner, Perf. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Parquin, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, and Patrick Stewart, Century Fox, 2006. Film

__Book__ Boyd, Denise and Helen Bee. Lifespan Developement. New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Paris, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Montreal. 2007. Print.

__Subject Matter—14 points out of 20__ You are very thorough here in your analysis of their development! With all these movies, though, it is even more important that you cite in which movie something takes place, and where exactly within the movie.

__Higher-Order Thinking—20 points out of 20__ : You relate their experiences to the textbook concepts--great job!

__Organization--25 points out of 30__ Your structure moves around a little too much between topics--you need paragraphs with clear transitions

__Format--10 points out of 10__ You have excellent in-text citations to the textbook, and your MLA references are great.

__Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling--10 points out of 10__

__Readability/Style--2 points out of 10__ No paragraph transitions--try breaking them apart using empty lines (hit "enter" twice).

Grade:91/100