I guess this is just another sign of the major problem this film had... it's ADD pacing.
See, with most of the plotlines, the connections ARE THERE for the story arcs, characters, and even to the other 2 movies. But the explanations are always just "okay, this is HOW it is", but it never gets into WHY anything is the way it is.
We don't know WHY the Phoenix ego was able to take over. Was it because Jean's normal conciousness "died" at Alkali Lake, so the alternate personality was able to take over?
We don't know what it was that destroyed her mental blocks. Was it Magneto's machine in X-Men? Was it dying in X2? It's just not explained WHY, it's just explained that it happened.
We don't know WHY Pyro has this hatred all of a sudden of Iceman. They were buddies, afterall, in X2. And I could understand a rivalry, but all of a sudden hating the guy, even to a point of wanting to kill him? Again, it's there, it makes sense, it's just not explained WHY.
We know that Callisto and the Morlocks (I refuse to call them Omega Muties), Multiple Man, and Juggernaut join up with Magneto. But WHY?
Now this. WHY does Storm give up on Jean so easily? We know it happens, but we don't know WHY.
Stuff just happens, and it's not always explained why. And some stuff isn't even really fully explained what's going on. Like the whole Jean contacting Scott thing. The movie doesn't imply that it's been happening the entire time since his death. We just see him once in his room, and it's happening.
This movie is just too much "this is what's happening, so accept it", and not enough "this is what's happening, and here is WHY it's happening"
And I think that's one of the major problems with this film. As an X-Men fan who knows these characters inside and out, I know their motivations inherently. I know why they do certain things. As a huge fan of the movies, I know why certain things are happening. But if I went in, not knowing anything about the X-Men except for the 1st 2 movies, I might not totally get what's going on.
Too much was taken for granted by this creative team. It was too much taken for granted that the audience knew all this stuff that was happening, or that they knew who these characters were. This movie really didn't need to force itself to an hour and 44 minutes. It really needed to be a bit longer, slow down a little bit, and dive into more of WHY things are happening, and WHY characters do what they do. The writers made one fatal error when making this film, and that was ASSUMING that the audience KNEW what they were trying to do.
For a fan like myself who already knows the connections and motivations, it doesn't hurt TOO hard. But for people who just don't know, it's turned into a typical summer popcorn flick that you either enjoy cuz it's got some nice action, or you dislike because it doesn't involve you enough in the world.
