This is my review of x3, better late than never i say...
best to put it here i suppose...
Spoiler:
I went to this movie dreading it, wondering what they could possibly do to ruin the x-men franchise any more than they already had (just my opinion 😛), but I have to say I was surprised, at times pleasantly, by the form x3 arrived in. I think it has the budget it really deserves, and I think if it truly is Ratner’s vision, then he’s done a fine job. He seems more at home with combining the mutant theme with a very fantastical (sp?) superhero story. I’d always felt Singer didn’t think big enough when making the last two movies (in fact there are very few nice words I could say regarding Mr. Singer 😉), but I think Ratner has got the right frame of mind. X-Men is one of the deeper comics in terms of themes, its parallels with homosexuality and racism evident for years now. That said, it was also a comic about people with these wonderful abilities that defy belief, and that’s just as much a part of x-lore as the more serious themes imo. The balance is very hard to maintain, it could end up being too heavy and dark, or else it could be too biased towards the whole superhero side (like Fantastic Four was imo, though I liked it.). I think Ratner has a better handle on the balance than Singer did, and he seems equally comfortable doing the serious stuff with the big action set pieces. I know I’m repeating myself here, so I’ll shut up now… 😄The Movie: More good points than I’d expected, and easily more than the previous movies imo, though there are plenty of faults to go with it…
Mckellan, Stewart, Amazing, Period.
Kelsey Grammar’s Beast… just awesome… with me, when I see a superhero movie, and one of the actors comes in screen and is perfect for the role, there’s this little switch in my head that just turns on and goes ‘Yep, that’s (insert characters name here) as far as I’m concerned.’ I had the same reaction with Reeve as Superman, Stewart as Xavier and Keaton as Batman. Beast was imo the best thing about this movie, and is close to eclipsing McKellan and Stewarts character accuracy. Just excellent in every conceivable way…
I’ve never been a fan of Ashmore’s Iceman, I’ll admit it, but I was actually quite impressed with the shift in his character. They balanced his seriousness with some much-needed mischievousness, and it’s about damn time. Iced up Iceman looked, for lack of a better word, freakin’ sweet. And yes, beating down Pyro didn’t hurt either… 😛
The scene with the convoy was just great imo, very comic like Magneto, everything done with minimal effort, really, really cool imo…
The end battle was really good too in some ways, Beast kicked so much ass, though the overuse of Jackman and Berry, plus the very end of the fight was just dumb imo…
I didn’t think Shadowcat was that bad, but in my eyes she was just too young (or looked it, I have no idea how old the actress is). Not that bad though…
Colossus was greatly underused imo. Maybe they thought Cudmore wasn’t up to a bigger role, or they just didn’t like the character that much, I dunno, but I (like a lot of people I’d imagine) wanted to see him go toe to toe with Juggernaut. I didn’t like the armour either, I thought in X2 he looked pretty damn good already. If it aint broke don't fix it… 😬
There was WAY too much Berry and Jackman in this movie… Halle Berry needed x3 more than it needed her, yet they pandered to every whim she had… It was nice to see Storm having a bigger role, but for me Berry was the wrong choice…
Jackman, I dunno, I’m not a Wolverine fan (if its not already THAT obvious), so only Wolverine fans can really be a good judge of how good he was imo… But he had WAY too much screen time… it was shocking… and killing the f*cking Phoenix? I knew it… when it was first announced that the Phoenix would be the story in the movie, I said (and posted I think) to people, ‘How do I know Wolverine is gonna be the one to kill the Phoenix?’ I knew it, bastards. She may have been holding back, but she didn’t with Scott, so that would mean it was his healing factor. What is he, the Hulk? Just dumb imo…
One thing that struck me about Logan and Storm was that a lot of their dialogue would have been ideally suited for Cyclops, e.g. “Hold the line,” and “We do this as a team.” Even if those lines were a tad hammy...
Speaking of Cyclops… just criminal. I know there are people who like Marsden as Cyclops, and they’re free to like him as much as they like, but for me that guy will never be Cyclops. Physically, vocally, in the ways that matter I just can’t see it. What dialogue he did have was actually better than the last two movies imo, but I dunno, it just doesn’t seem like Cyclops to me. His beams looked kinda crappy too compared to the last two movies imo, and he can’t cry, but anywho, I know I’m being picky, I can’t help it… and Jean looks too old for him, I’m sorry, but Christ, they’re supposed to be similar ages.
Famke’s Jean was ok… she did the whole ‘Psycho b*tch from hell’ thing quite well imo, and they did a good job explaining the Phoenix’s origin, making it practical, making it work imo…
On the whole, I think the movie was a step in the right direction. As I said, I think Ratner seems more at ease combining the superhero thing with a serious story than Singer did. The dialogue as well seemed to be a lot better, the actors seemed to have a lot more to work with, and that can only be a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I left the cinema feeling a lot more fulfilled than I had after watching the last two movies, which seemed rather fleeting in many ways. That could be attributed to the deaths, but I think it’s a lot more than that.
I won’t give it a score, but if I had to choose one movie to own out of the three, it’d be this one.
Just a short comment. In a recent interview, it was reported that Vinny (sp?) Jones had signed up for X-Men 3, 4 and 5. If that’s true I wonder how they’ll sort the whole ‘lots of people are dead’ thing. I know how I’d do it… 😖hifty: