MovieBuff09

31st Mar 2009

X-Men (2000)

Question: During the course of the movie, Magneto is shown to be using a form of flight in the presence of metal, such as the train and Statue of Liberty. Could he perhaps, be able to sustain flight without the presence of metal, such as manipulation via the Earth's magnetic field? Also, what are the limits of such flight?

MovieBuff09

Chosen answer: It is never fully explained in the movie, however in the comics he is shown to be able to use Earth's magnetic field to engage in high speed flight.

26th Mar 2009

X-Men (2000)

Question: During the Statue of Liberty scene, Magneto is clearly seen to be manipulating the copper inside the statue to bind and tie up the X-Men. How can this be? I thought magnetism wouldn't work on a non ferromagnetic metal.

MovieBuff09

Chosen answer: True, but Magneto's power is not EXACTLY the same as magnetism. He can manipulate ANY metal, ferrous and non-ferrous alike. It's just handy to refer to it as "magnetism".

Twotall

Answer: Well if he can control ANY metal...why did he have to wait for the guard to be injected with iron? Couldn't he take iron out of food or water? Or even his own body?

The way he took iron out of the Guard, that seemed very painful and it looks like the guard did not survive. So, taking it out of his own body would not have been the smartest of decisions. He needed to wait for the guard to be injected so he could have enough iron to take out to then turn into a weapon, and transportation.

jshy7979

26th Mar 2009

X-Men (2000)

Chosen answer: He and Xavier has been keeping track of mutants for years, in part by using Cerebro (as seen in X2: X-Men United). And as Logan is a very powerful mutant, as well as part of a government-funded project (which leaves a paper trail), they would definitely know of him and would have collected as much data as possible about him. When Magneto then detected his adamantium skeleton, it was easy to deduce Logan's identity.

Twotall

25th Mar 2009

X-Men (2000)

Question: Instead of using Rogue to power the machine, why not just build in some sort of automated system? Surely a lot less time consuming.

MovieBuff09

Chosen answer: Maybe they tried it and they couldn't. Maybe there's something about the specific energies of Magneto's powers that makes the system work. Maybe it would have made for a far less dramatic film if they had. Script-writers make the choices that they make with the aim of crafting as good a film as possible. Dramatically, it's far more interesting to have Rogue used as an unwilling power source than them building some power reactor thing. You may disagree, but it's the choice that they made.

Tailkinker

21st Mar 2009

X-Men (2000)

Question: In the comics, Magneto can use his magnetism to achieve a wide range of effects, such as super strength, supersonic flight, invisibility, radiation manipulation etc. Is there any indication at all as to why he can't do any of these in the movie?

MovieBuff09

Chosen answer: Probably the primary rationale is that they'd then have to somehow explain exactly how you use a magnetism power to do that sort of stuff - let's face it, it's not immediately obvious how, for example, you become invisible using the power to create and manipulate magnetic fields. Comics have captions and thought bubbles to explain the (often very dodgy) science that goes into these things - in a film, all they can do is have a character verbally explain, which would (a) sound pretty ridiculous and (b) require even more exposition in a film that already has a fair bit. As a result, it would make a lot of sense to restrict his abilities to those that obviously stem from his magnetic power and thus avoid too much explanation.

Tailkinker

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