My review of 'Tangled'. (minor spoilers)
By
2short2care,
Posted on: 2010-12-10 09:25 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
I lol'd. 
There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. --The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I'd go see this movie!
The real Tangled...not so much.
Heehee. 
Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!
Yesterday I saw the movie known as Tangled, although the full title is X-Men Origins 2: Rapunzel -- Code Name Tangled, or something to that effect.
Minor spoilers below.
Tangled follows the standard plotline of mutant awakening and rebellion. Rapunzel's main powers include her magical hair that heals, pulls heavy weights and dries instantly without a hair dryer. But they overloaded too many powers on Rapunzel in the film version. Beyond her mutant hair, she also has the typical X-Men powers of exceptional strength, intelligence, and fighting skills, and in addition to that they gave her the Disney princess power suite of extraordinary beauty, luck, the ability to command animals, and the power to walk through miles of uncharted forests in her bare feet. With all these abilities, Rapunzel comes across as a protagonist who is never really in danger. She's the Silver Surfer with golden hair.
Serving as her most loyal friend is Maximus, a riveting character of incredible strength, speed, and dedication to duty. Maximus is the best hero in the movie, and I'd like to see him appear in more X-Men films as well as the comic book. Sadly, one of Maximus' mutant adaptations is a complete lack of genitals -- the film makes that very plain -- so the role of Rapunzel's love interest is farmed out to a boring and trite minor character with no powers whatsoever.
The film draws many background characters from the comic books, including a sinister-looking but noble group that were obviously inspired by the Morlocks, and -- in an innovative departure for Marvel comics -- a villain who is a female version of Ra's al Ghul. They aren't enough to pose a threat to the many-talented Rapunzel, however. It would have been much better if Sabertooth or Magneto had shown up, although I'm pretty sure Rapunzel as depicted in this film could have handled them too.
If you don't mind me spoiling a little more, one of my pet peeves with Hollywood adaptations of superhero movies is that they always want to take the superhero out of costume. Tangled commits this error also. When will they learn that superheroes are iconic, and they just aren't as interesting when you take their masks, costumes, or hair away? I understand the urge to make superheroes more human, but we want them larger than life and kicking ***. Well, I'm sure that in the sequel they'll replace Rapunzel's hair with cool metal claws or heat ray vision. Just as long as they don't overdo it.
All in all I'll give it three out of five stars. Children may enjoy this film, although Maximus' lack of genitals may disturb them.
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