Magneto (Merged) (1 Viewer)

[Andy Sheets]

Yeah, I just saw Nemesis not too long ago and Hardy's mimickry of Patrick Stewart's voice inflections and movements was so accurate it was creepy

 

[Chris Farmer]

I would say Moe that you portray Magento too sympathetically in X-men 1. Regardless of his rationale, the simple fact is he's willing to kill Rogue to get mutant rights. He doesn't care at all about humans, he only cares that they don't get in the way of mutants. If that means making sure no laws are passed to restrict mutants, he'll accept that. If it means killing fellow mutants (remember, Rogue is also a mutant, one of his own kind, and he doesn't mind murdering her to get his desired result), he'll do that. And if he has the chance to kill every non-mutant human on earth, and in the process sacrifice the life of one of his friends (Professor X would have also been killed almsot certainly in his wiping out humanity), he won't stop there. In his path to ensure that another holocaust never occurs, he's become what he hates. As Wolverine puts it so well, he's "so full of shit. If he was really that righteous it'd be him in that machine." Instead, he doesn't care about who he uses, destroys, or throws away in his quest to eliminate the threat to mutants. His actions in X-2 are merely extensions of who he was in the first movie, taken to the next level and hardened by several years in prison.

 

[Andrew Priest]

Ah, Magneto. I'd Argue the prison didn't change him much at all. The Magneto that issued the order to kill all human life was the same Magneto that tried to turn the world leaders into mutants. Neither action was one born of hate or intolerance but was simply the act of pure reason unhindered by any ethical considerations.

The opening scene in Poland establishes the frame of reference for Magneto. Then we have the debate and the encounter between him and Professor X.

Professor X: "Mankind has evolved since then."

Magneto: "Yes; into us."

That exchange perfectly establishes how Magneto feels about humans.

"We are the future Charles, not them. They no longer matter."

It is not some ideal like stopping 'intolerance' that drives Magneto. It's a desire to protect those he feels are his own against those he feels will inevitably try to harm them. By whatever means necessary. Magneto is trapped by the victim mythology and as such he categorizes all humans as 'them'; the other that must be dealt with to end the perceived persecution.

I think it's his controlled and reasonable manner that can be so deceiving. Magneto is a very rational man to be sure, and all choices - even the one to kill all humans - were purely rational.


And thus I disagree. He has no hatred to direct or generalize in the first place. The first movie does not show any altruistic motives in Magneto's view towards humans. It is a mistake to believe that a choice like genocide must be born of passions or dark emotions like hate. Magneto is a man of reason and the choice to kill all humans simply the act of pure reason unhindered by ethical considerations.

 

[Robert Floto]

Cannibalism and incest!?! Huh!?!

See what happens when you stop reading comics...

 

[Chris Farmer]

Well put Andrew. Magneto really is the ultimate Machiavellian. He decides what his end goals are, the whatever ends are necessary to achieve those goals are justified because he believes the goals to be good. Beyond that, ethics never comes into play, he has no ethics. Just whatever means to a specific end.