DISCLAIMER: SORRY IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE MOVIE YET.
The sci-fi action & the funny banter that seems to have been added to Storm & Wolverine's scripts are what kept me going throughout the movie. Personally, I think everyone looked really really slim or having lost weight except Mystique - after she became human - or maybe the NuMetro screens remove 10lbs??? Anyway…
I was so psyched to see Jean Grey’s resurrection, as we all knew she would - since we could see a form in the water at the end of X-men II. So she appeared, she kills Cyclops (oops) but best of all she has more powers! Turns out she’s even more powerful than Dr. Xavier… only that she’s a bit unsure about the power she yields…
Now allow me to digress for a bit.
In traditional Kikuyu history we are told of a time when women ruled the society. And that at some point men got fed-up, planned to impregnate the women to keep them busy & then took over the leadership. Before the Hebrew religion (that we now as Jewish and later Christianity) there was wide spread worship of Female deities. This was however stamped out by the Early Christian church as paganism and eventually most women were killed under the accusation of being called witches. Woman today has been raised under a patriarchal society, where men have the first say, first privilege etc… granted that is changing but it’s still a struggle in many places for example in Burma where being a man is regarded as the best thing in your cycle of reincarnation, while being a woman is a punishment much like being a frog or rat- a country where women pray to come as men in their next life.
What am I getting at here? Simple, there was a time (there still should be) when Woman had equal if not more power to man. And man either due to a bruised ego, jealousy or awe decided to take that away from the world and put himself as the sole being in terms of power.
Back to X-Men III: We see the rebirth of Jean Grey and her new personality Phoenix. She is regarded as the new Mutant leader after she kills Dr. Xavier. Even Magneto can’t put himself in her league. From the time Dr. Xavier dies, she’s given deity status, always standing apart from everyone and at a higher level. She wearing a deep maroon/red (which depicts female power), has long hair, keen and watchful eyes.
Anyway, so the movie progresses and we go through this whole fight between “good & evil” on the Island of Alcatraz. Then at some point Phoenix is angered and she starts destroying everything around her. Only Wolverine can stand against her and she asks, “You are willing to die for them?” and he replies, “Not for them, for you…” She is touched by his ONE LINER changes to the meek Jean Grey and he kills her!
Tell me you don’t see the link here yet again. That once again a man was in fear/awe of the power of a woman and decided instead of waiting for her to get her power in balance he kills her. Dr. Xavier knew of the potential power and hid it from everyone else & even Jean; and because Jean was raised in a patriarchal world, she believed that her power was for evil and not good. She believed that the man had the 411 on what is right & wrong. Fine she was about to destroy the whole world, but we all know woman has the common sense to snap out of it and sort things out!
Kills me that yet again, we have the chance to vindicate the Female Power/Goddess/Deity as a Creatress, Virgin, Mother, Sister, Lover, Destroyer, Warrior, Huntress, Homemaker, Wife, Artist, Jurist, Healer and Sorcerer… instead we let HER die everyday!
