They were trying to do too much like most sequels. Phoenix became a plot device instead a real emotional backbone for the story.
Yeah well, some sequels try to do too much but little happens. X2 for example.
And as far as I remember I saw plenty of true emotion regarding Phoenix. From Wolverine, Xavier, Cyclops and Magneto. But if you want to see it that way, every character could be considered a plot device.
Either you do one story (cure) or the other (Phoenix) not both. An if you do both, make it cohesive and epic. It felt like nothing was really thought out in the narrative throughline.
Now I see you mention Phoenix and the cure and you apparently think two plots are way too many somehow? Where's the rule where both stories can't be mixed? Is there a rule where sick Spider-man losing his powers and 'Spider-man no more' plots can't be merged. Adaptations are the realm of merging, characters and stories.
Xavier killed by his dearest pupil, Magneto actually defending Xavier a couple fo times and the final massive battle. Much better and epic than anything in X2, it seems to me there's a real vital need to hate this movie.
Old characters die without any weight. Xavier and even worst Cyclops die without any gravitas. In fact the entir movie just poops on Cyclops. Meanwhile the new characters didnt have much to do. Besides Beast anyway.
Well, Nightcrawler did nothing besides getting into the White House. But I guess new characters in X3 also had fun displaying his super-powers.
And then, any death in X3 had more gravitas than Rachel dying in TDK for Bruce Wayne, just to name an example. And at least this time deaths were deaths - the only thing I truly hate about X3 is Xavier's 're-incarnation.' Jean in X2 died for like 4 minutes.
I mean, I even felt Cyclop's, Xavier's and Jean's deaths more than Uncle Ben's, which was, this time, only a quick plot device to make things going on back in 2002.
I also hated how Storm blatantly murders Calypso. Okay....
I loved that. It was great to see her doing something, unlike the previous movies.
I think X3 can be viewed as a fun movie with some good action but it's story is so wishy-washy. Come on now; It's been too many years here to not know that X3 is a very polarizing movie.
I can't give two ****s in a row about fans calling it 'polarizing' as some evidence of anything. It is not.
But I'm puzzled as to why the hate. Singer having to leave, fans knowing the original plot beforehand and then comparing it to the actual movie. Beats me. X2's borefest didn't give me any hope for the third movie and I was pleasantly surprised. At least X3 had to do with the mutant condition; X2 was merely Wolverin trying to find out his origin and finding out NOTHING, Xavier being endlessly under hypnosis and Jean and Wolverine flirting without going anywhere concrete, which is pretty much the same they did in X1. Zero character development.
Because it tried to cram all those things into a 90 minute movie so none of it held any weight.
All those things being only two plotlines. And 104 minutes for two plots that went somewhere was far better than 133 minutes of things that barely changed throughout the whole X2.
Rogue went to get cured... that is the last we see of her. No real development or pay off for her character.
So, her being unable to touch his boyfriend, his boyfriend becoming increasingly interested in other girl, Rogue having to see that and then, as a consequence, making the decision to become a normal person is no development.
I'll tell you what's no development: Rogue not being able to touch his boyfriend and then her being still unable to do it. That's all what happened to her in X2.
And then Wolverine knowing little about his origin just to end up knowing little about it. Or him and Jean talking about how they kinda like each other but had better not do anything about it because of Cyclops. Which we already knew in the first movie. That is called no development.
Jean Grey became the Pheonix, but wasn't really a character, just a plot device.
Strange. She acted and looked different than when she was Jean. She was a different person (aka character). But sure, when you have dozens of super-powered beings, like in every X-Men movie, then you cannot probably develop everyone as much as you want.
They should have picked on or the other. The Cure or Pheonix story line. Not try to cram them both in, because like i said, it left both story lines under developed.
On the contrary, they were able to develop both stories pretty well, unlike in the previous movie were nothing went anywhere. Ah, okay, Jean died in the last scene, that's the only true change I saw in any character of X2.
Superman the Movie has a dated atmosphere (70's NY) and Batman (89) has dated effects (Batwing) and music (Prince).
But because of nostalgia and how well those films define these icons I gladly forgive those flaws and consider them among the best comic book movies to this day.
I have never got this 'dated' concept based in technical stuff. It's like calling Mozart dated because he didn't use synthetizers.
