MaXXXine First Thoughts Review:<\/p>\n
Having just come from the early access screening of MaXXXine, the seemingly final installment in the X trilogy, I thought I would write up a quick review of my initial feelings about this film<\/p>\n
Ti West has become a favorite of mine thanks to his previous two films, X and Pearl, the latter being one of my favorite films of the last decade (and potentially of all time). Needless to say, I had high expectations for MaXXXine. While I wouldn\u2019t say I was disappointed with this new film, it wasn\u2019t exactly what I was anticipating. In many ways, the movie shed a lot of its horror roots for a new set of detective\/mystery clothing. I understand that it was announced that this was going to be a whodunnit slasher, but I was expecting something along the lines of Scream. I wouldn\u2019t say the movie is scary in any real frightful way, more in the way of content and story. You\u2019re not going to be jumping out of your seats with this one.<\/p>\n
Once I abandoned my expectations, I really did enjoy this film. It felt like an interesting direction to go in and a compelling final chapter to the story. Without saying too much, I\u2019ll say that one of this film\u2019s messages feels very modern even in the backdrop of the 1980s. It shows the expertise of a great writer to transcend time with a punching message that can be applied to the period in which the film takes place, and felt as hard in the context of today.<\/p>\n
Mia Goth\u2019s performance was once again amazing, but with an ensemble film, it didn\u2019t feel as powerful as with Pearl. There was a lot of subtlety in the role and she nailed that. One of my favorite parts about this series is watching Goth steal the show in every scene and have a performance that can be watched over and over again without becoming stale. The entire cast of this film did a stellar job, from Giancarlo Esposito nailing the cold\u2014takenoshit\u2014 boss role to Elizabeth Debicki crushing the tough\u2014takenoshit\u2014 director role. It was truly a joy to watch everyone become their character. It never felt like I was watching (said actor) in the role of (character), it felt like these stars were their characters.<\/p>\n
The one element that I\u2019m not sure I loved is the inclusion of the Night Stalker relevance. I know that the reason is to give context of the world we are inhabiting for an hour and 45 minutes, but I would have preferred that had been done a different way. I feel like creating that fear and reason for suspicion could have been done in a more creative way.<\/p>\n
My final thoughts after just one viewing are that I did find MaXXXine to be the weakest entry into this trilogy, but still a great film. The broadening of the world hurt this film when comparing it to the other two. I think why they work so well is that we are really getting a character study of Pearl and Maxine in the previous films, whereas we have a lot of things that are happening to our main character, but not a lot of time just focused on a small, isolated place. I think that opening the world was <\/i>the right choice with this film though. Another\u2014everything happens in one place\u2014 movie would\u2019ve felt repetitive and old. With the style of the film and the period piece that it is, I think X and Pearl do a better job of making the viewer feel like they\u2019re watching a movie from the 1970s or the 1930s (I know Pearl is set in 1918, but the style feels 30s to me). I don\u2019t necessarily think that this is a bad thing. I think if they went all in with the 80s style, it would\u2019ve felt too cheesy and take away from the film, but the vibe of the time was felt in the previous films immediately\u2026 this one, not so much.<\/p>\n
While I still feel that Pearl is the far superior film to both MaXXXine and X, the former has a chance to surpass X in my personal rankings. I need more viewings to really figure out how I feel about this movie.<\/p>\n
I honestly still think this deserves a 10\/10<\/strong>, but that might be recency bias, or just my own bias because I love these films.<\/p>\n I also do love the continuing connection of Oui Oui Marie in all three films. This one being referenced by Maxine’s T-shirt.<\/p>\n (I may re-review this film after a few rewatches.)<\/p>\n As a Film: 10<\/strong>\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n Personal Enjoyment: 10\/<\/strong>10<\/strong><\/p>\n Within its Genre:\u00a010\/10 (Horror)<\/strong><\/p>\n Fun Scale: 10\/<\/strong>10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MaXXXine First Thoughts Review: Having just come from the early access screening of MaXXXine, the seemingly final installment in the X trilogy, I thought I would write up a quick review of my initial feelings about this film Ti West has become a favorite of mine thanks to his previous …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRatings:<\/strong><\/h3>\n