A basic overview of the plot is as follows: a pharmaceutical corporation creates a drug that 'cures' mutants, basically turning them into normal, boring humans. Evil X-Men enemy numero uno Magneto and his clan take offense to this, play the Twisted Sister classic "We're Not Gonna Take It" tune and decide to stick it to the man. The X-Men, meanwhile, decide to take the role of devil's advocate and go toe-to-toe with Mag's and his motley crew. There are a few modestly skin deep facets to the plot, but they're so pointless they aren't worth mentioning, especially since the movie barely does. A wrench is thrown into the plans when Jean Grey, formerly teats up in the last flick, rises like a Phoenix (pun intended) and decides to bat clean up for the bad guys. It's a battle of good mutants vs. bad mutants as the X-Men make, get ready for it, their last stand.
As a fan of the book, when you step back and look at this third and presumably last movie in the X-Men series you have to admire and get downright geeked out over what this film set out to be and what it almost was. It tried to be so many things, yet sadly, succeeded in none of them.
It had a truckload of great storylines and a wide array of great characters and crammed them all in the trunk of a Mini Cooper and took a dump in it. The result was a myriad of choppy plotlines and flaccid resolution, if any. Screen time with major and supporting characters was split every which way and none of it paid off, not even accidentally.
I'm racking my brain to see a point to any of it and find that I just can't. There was so much unnecessary filler and pointless drivel I wanted a mutant power of my own: go back in time and prevent myself from buying the ticket.
The characters in the film fall into one of four categories: weren't used, were killed, were cured or were named Wolverine. That's it. Aside from being Wolverine, each of those occurrences were handled horribly. The only two subplots of any substance were Wolverine pining, yet again, over Jean Gray/Phoenix and Iceman flirting with Kitty Pride. The former has Wolvey, evidently ignoring the evils this zombie broad did, still chasing her down trying to get into her X-Pants. Seems to be his prime motive in each film, but at least in this flick it gives him something to do. The latter subplot deals with what manifests into a weak story crutch called Kitty Pride. Turns out her power was instrumental in their idiotic plan, lucky them. But that begs the question; when they're taking on a hundred or so evil mutants, and you have an entire school of potential X-Men, why take only six people with you? I don't care if they are kids, bring em' along, they could have been present for the mutant snuff film it deteriorated into in the final act. I want to go through each character and point out the piss poor way he/she was handled, but let's just save space and say they were all equally shafted one way or the other. I did not leave happy with how any of them were handled, not one.
There were some things I liked.
The classic X-Men moments from the comics were great to see on the big screen and a lot of the little things were done right. I think Beast was portrayed perfectly by Kelsay Grammar. Special effects were big, elaborate and even-paced. There was a good deal of character development and storylines that were resolved, for better or worse, from the previous two movies.
The wild-eyed optimist in me likes what the movie wanted to be. The cynical pessimist knows I've seen monkey crap fights that were more organized.
This is by far my least favorite of the trilogy. I was all ready to see it a second time this weekend but now I'm debating whether I will watch it for free on TV.
Final thoughts: disappointed, dejected and really just bummed out. I so wanted this to be good and would have let so many things go but it was too much.
This movie had all the potential in the world to he a homerun, a grand slam even. The result was a big swing and a miss.
I dont want to ruin the film for anyone who hasn't seen it so if you dont want to know some of the things that I am to rant about then dont read this post.
I have just gotten back from watching the late showing at the Port Solent UCI cenima. I have rated the film, by the standards given for this thread, good. If I were going for a rating between 1-5 I would have given it a 4 if not for the total unrealism of the pheonix character, so I rate the movie a 3.
My first complaint is about the death of Charles Xavier. I know that even to the comics Prof. Xavier was inferior to the Pheonix however he is the most powerful pshycic that ever walked the face of the Earth. There is no way that Jean Grey, as the Pheonix or not, could do what she did to Xavier with so little resistance from Xavier.
Secondly Magneto power was, to my knowledge, never tested against the Pheonix so it isn't known who is stronger. I have to say that if a man can create his own safe heavon in space for hundreds of mutants and his own Island hidden from all modern technoledgy and revive long dead creatures (in the comics) then he must be able to at least compete with the Pheonix.
Third, the Pheonix was, in no possible way, as powerful as she was portrayed in this movie. The character was given too much power for this film to even boarder on the realism that it could have had.
Fourth, I was, until the final seen, unhappy with what happened with Magneto, however things may change in the future...
I feel that this 'cure' will lead the way for a fourth movie, if the ending is anything to go by and I don't think we have seen the last of Charles Xavier.
My final complaint is that there was no Nightcrawler all though I did enjoy the Angle character but he was...underused.
"there's only one way to win a war: shout, shout, and shout again!" - The Duke of Wellington ((Blackadder - Stephen Fry))
So i saw the movie a few nights ago, and here's my review (with probable spoilers)...
The Good
The acting, where there was any, was good, though that should be expected coming from the likes of Ian Mckellan and Hugh Jackman. I'd say that Patrick Stewart was good, but for the fact that his role was relatively minor, as was pretty much everyone elses. The overall plot was also good, and showed promise, and the special affects were spectacular, such as seeing Iceman get iced out, or the goldengate bridge getting moved about. And of course there was the Juggernaught line that pretty much made the movie worth it.
The Bad
Well, while seeing this many mutants in the cast roster would generally be a good thing, that only applies if you have more than 1 and a half hours the show them all in. It lead to very little character development. Had there been any, i might have felt at least some sympathy to Rouges character, but as it stands, she basically gave the wonderful impression of a coward, which was disappointing after her roles in the prior two movies. So essentially, most of the characters were as 2-d as a comic book. Though i must say, i found the actress playing shadowcat somewhat cute.
The WTF?
Ok, so here's where spoilers commence. Is it just me, or did the pheonix character not really make any sense, and since when did Wolvy's healing factor recover that fast as it did at the end of the movie. Oh right. Never. And what was the point of having Cyclops in the movie at all, he accomplished a big fat nothing, other than dying off screen (which will probably result in him being brought back somehow) And then of course there was the wonderful ending which leaves it open for yet another sequel, one that would hopefully be far better than this one IE focuses more on the plot and character development than throwing as many mutants and explosions into a movie as possible. The only characters who got any decent treatment seemed to be Wolverine, and Magneto. Despite the amount of screentime she was given, Jean Grey was more of a spontaneous kill everything weapon than a real character, so there was little development there either.
That said though, it wasn't as bad as i felt it could have been, given all that they did.
If they do continue to make X-men movies (as i hope they do, the characters really are fascinating when done justice), hopefully they return to the methods used in the first two movies, and not just make it a a massive mutant display.
Love is a very powerful force, especially when its formed into a coherent beam of death.
I'm fairly certain thats the impression they were trying to make, or if it wasn't, then thats yet one more major thing they've done wrong, as just about everyone's made that assumption
Love is a very powerful force, especially when its formed into a coherent beam of death.
05-25-2006 04:28 PM
Not wasting my $$$$
