So the absence of Bryan Singer was heavily felt during this one.
A pharmaceutical company has discovered the "cure" for mutation offering it to any mutant who wants to be "normal." This severely angers Magneto, who's determined to wipe out the humans with a war. Meanwhile, it turns out that Jean didn't die at Alkali Lake. Cyclops begins getting messages from her from "the beyond," so he heads to Alkali Lake only to disturb Jean's state of dormancy. When she emerges, she kills him. As it would turn out, she is an incredibly powerful mutant and the Professor was keeping parts of her subconscious mind under control as to prevent her powers from becoming unstable. The hibernation in the lake broke such mental blocks and she is now her fully dangerous self, now named The Phoenix. Magneto sees this as an opportunity to use Jean as a "secret weapon" during his "war."
Such high hopes I had for this, since its predecessors were so bloody awesome. But alas, there was plenty of disappointment to be had. Here's another list, only it's not of the stuff I liked:
1. The film is too disjointed. It tries to cover too much in a very short amount of time. The split between the cure and the Phoenix felt forced, like they were grasping at straws as to what to put into the movie. They just didn't mesh well.
2. I thought the dialogue in X-Men was slightly campy in parts, but this one has it beat to death in the cheesy lines department. A majority of the lines are just plain laughable, and it makes me wonder who seriously writes crap like that in earnest. And while we're on the subject of bad writing, let's observe the complete lack of character development. The first two movies had me really feeling something for the characters, but in this one it was like watching caricatures of those same characters in the previous two movies, with an exception for Rogue. I still felt really sorry for her.
3. Which leads me to the acting. On average, it was dreadful. Most of the supporting cast put forth no real effort in humanizing (term used loosely, of course) their characters, helping the poor script along in its caricaturization.
4. Supposedly Magneto wanted to use the Phoenix as a secret weapon in his supposed war. However, when the actual battle (not a war) came along, she just stood there looking pissed off and bored. She didn't do anything till the fighting was over and they started attacking her alone. Again, just another contrived plot device.
5. Didn't like Beast. Not one bit. What is the film series' obsession with blue mutants anyway(e.g. Mystique, Nightcrawler, Beast)? It's like "pick another color already." Also, I didn't like Juggernaut. Not one bit.
6. In all the promotions for the film, they made the biggest deal out of Angel being in the third movie, then they barely showed him. Did he even have 5 whole minutes of screen time? Why bother?
I hate to complain so much...okay, that's not true. But there were some things I liked, such as Magneto's de-mutantization (it's a word, trust me) and of course Wolverine...always Wolverine. The opening scene which took place 20 years prior with Jean, the Professor, and Magneto was pretty badass, and I like the simulated training exercise and the end battle at Alcatraz. In the end though, the movie just wasn't very good overall. Don't get me wrong, it's not downright painful and I'll still watch it when I sit down to watch the other two, but I still walk away feeling cheated out of an awesome ending. At least it didn't have a random Emo sequence and Kirsten Dunst singing, unlike another third installment of a comic book movie franchise that shall remain nameless *cough*Spider-Man 3*cough*.
5 pieces of fan mail:
I think they had to make a big deal about Angel so viewers wouldn't be mad when they killed everyone else off.
Could be, but it didn't really help ease the pain.
I'm in total agreement with you about how bad this film was.
The first two were, as you rightly claim, brilliant and this felt rushed, tired and above all, compromised.
It had to watch some of it through the gaps in my fingers as my hands were on my face. Why did they do this? I know the money machine doesn't stop around for long but they could've taken a little longer crafting this film instead of just spitting it out.
Still, it's not as bad as Spider-Man 3. Then again, not many films are.
Good review, this one was a huge let down for me. Terrible writing.
I also never knew who to cheer for, the good guys were defending the "cure" which seemed like an attempt to exterminate them.
This was a horribly executed movie.
Ibetolis: In all honesty I blame Bryan Singer for backing out at the last minute to do Superman, leaving the studio to draft Brett Ratner (gag!) to take over. Poor choices all around.
Tony: I never thought about that before, but you're right. Neither side of the "war" (does one battle equal a war?) were exactly cheer-worthy.
Post a Comment