And that same argument of popularity and success applies to the X-movies too. X3 made the most money, it made a good profit, it exceeded its domestic box office and thus was a commercial success, so clearly its changes made sense to a lot of people too. Was it perfect? No, far from it. But no movie ever has been perfect.
Aside from box office earnings, X3's critical rating matched Transformers and exceeded Pirates 2 and 3, was more than double the rating of Ghost Rider, a higher rating than any of the Blade movies, and higher than Daredevil or either Fantastic Four movie.
X3 made the money it did through the popularity of the first 2 movies, the big drop off after the first week was a big indicator of this, if not for its smashing first weekend, which was based on hype from the first 2 movies almost alone.
As for critical ratings, i do believe X3 was withheld from many critics before and during its release, this also happened with GR, and the first FF movie. TF, and the Pirates movies were not, so that gives X3 an advantage in the critical ratings IMO. At the moment X3 has more reviews on there than any of them, but it has been out longer than TF and POTC 2 and 3 also. Also, with TF, most critics tend to make a decision on Michael Bay movies before they even see them, and the majority of the time, they are right to, but TF was obviously different, and if you want to go into BO, TF smashed X3 at the BO and in DVD sales.
Also, funnily, reading the majority of fresh reviews on there, they all seem to think it is average at best, so how it got such a critical rating is beyond me.
No, I have more common sense - about how things work in the real world, beyond ridiculous and obsessional bedroom fanboy fantasies.
Back to good old arrogant X-M huh, cant say ive missed it of course and if you think i sit in my room having fantasies about superhero movies you assume completely WRONG once again, it would be impossible for me to do that when i am out of the house 5 nights a week.
Went nowhere? An initial clash with Storm in which Storm came off worse. Then they fight again, this time Storm gets the upper hand and dispenses with Callisto in a satisfying way. That's hardly going nowhere. Which version of X3 did you see.? Some murky low-grade bootleg download on your computer once again?
Back to good old insulting X-M now are we, why am i not surprised its your best defense seemingly.
Yes the conflict went no were, Callisto served NO other purpose than to fight with Storm and locate Jean for Magneto, her role was pretty much meaningless.
I wouldn't say he was a straight leader. He said 'hold this line' and since he'd had most experience of combat, that seems reasonable. Take a logic pill.
Whos to say he had the most experience in combat? He cant remember whether he had or not remember, Storm seemed more than proficient in combat.
Taking the cure is questionable, being tempted by it isn't. But, still, in the real world, her mutation would be a seen as a disabling, isolating condition. The manifestations of mutation vary considerably, not all of them are advantageous or attractive. I'd rather she hadn't taken the cure but it made sense within the movie and not one review I've seen criticises the fact she took the cure, so this is clearly a fanboy nitpick.
Or maybe your bias towards the movie clouds your mind into thinking this was a great idea by the writers.
There were obviously deeper reasons for what happened. Namely that Paquin was off filming Margaret and had to be removed from a lot of the script.
Regardless of IMAGINATION, Rogue still has to touch someone to take their powers. She has no fighting skills, no active power of her own.
Kitty's role was hardly insignificant. She took out Juggernaut and stopped him killing Leech.
I do believe that both Paquin and Marsden ended up having more time than they originally thought they would, considering the script supposedly changed daily, couldnt they have done something here, oh right i forgot, Ratner, Kinberg and Penn were running the show, 3 clueless hacks.
As for Kitty, your right, her role wasnt insignificant, those 6 lines she had totally got her involved.
There was no one around in the immediate area when Toad was attacking Storm, therefore your suggestion she didn't want to harm her team-mates is wrong. She was held back because the story demanded a strong comeback against Toad later - just as with Callisto. First she gets her ass kicked, then she triumphantly returns and comes out as the winner. Simple. Basic storytelling.
Jean and eventually were BOTH on the floor below Storm and Toad, and both were close to the fight, once Toad threw Storm down the lift shaft, she was able to go wild enough with her powers to dispense of Toad without harming her team-mates.
Well, I'm glad we weren't all screaming for crystals or alien bird-people. Removing those elements leaves us with the story of 'power corrupts' and self-sacrifice, both of which were presented in the movie. The opening scene mentions the corruption of power, referring both to Phoenix and also to Magneto too, both of whom misuse the powers they have.
Oh yes, and in the 99 minute running time, those theme's were thoroughly explored werent they

.
You've been given valid reasons several times for Jean/Phoenix joining Magneto. Through events, she severed her ties with her former life, with the mansion/school and with Charles and Scott and the others. Phoenix's refusal to be re-contained by Xavier and her then murdering Charles was the turning point. There was no way Phoenix WOULD go back, no way Jean COULD go back. With Xavier dead, who at the school would want her back, who would be able to help re-cage the Phoenix and fix the situation? Xavier's death was a point of no return. Phoenix wanted freedom, so did Magneto; Phoenix was an outcast and a murderer, so was Magneto. He offered her a place to be, it was obviously a better option than going back to the mansion and putting the kettle on to make everyone a coffee and hoping no one would be rather upset and worried. The other option was going off on her own which, narratively, wouldn't work for the movie. Phoenix had to be tied to the main thrust of the story.
NO, i havent been given ONE valid theory of why Jean went with Magneto, or why she never left him once she became Jean again in those few scene's. OR why she standed around doing nothing the final battle, Magneto had been her enemy for years, and had tried to kill her about 4 times during that conflict, so please, tell me again WHY did she go with him.
There's little or no time for in-depth origins in a multi-character ensemble movie. Did we get Nightcrawler's origins? No, just references to the Munich circus. Did we get Storm's origins? Nope, not in all three movies. Did we get Cyclops' origins? Nope. We hardly got origins on anyone. What we got on Beast was fine. Absolutely fine. It needed no elaboration.
We didnt get their origins but we at least got a bit of info on them, we found out very little about Beast, and what we did get was vague at best.
More on Angel would have been good. But he was a symbolic backdrop for the movie's themes and events, a tertiary character. I think I might also change my mind on a cure when strapped to a gurney and faced with a 'jarring transformation' with a big needle... just to conform to my father's wishes. You can see Angel's reluctance and nervousness when he first comes into the room, he was made to feel cornered and decided it was time to speak out and take charge of his life. The reasoning is obvious, even if I'd have liked to see the novelisation's scene of him reunited with his father after rescuing him. His dramatic appearance to save his father was meant to be like...an angel...like the miracle beings of myth and religion.
I have said this before but that is just a bull**** excuse for an obvious plot-hole, no one but you, and ONLY you (not even the film-makers have ever made this observation), have made this poor excuse for that poor part of the movie.
Also on Angel, i would have liked to see what made him go from little kid scared of his mutation to the point of almost mutilating himself, to the guy who couldnt bear the thought of being without his mutation, and we should have got that, but alas, Ratner wanted to get to the next action scene of course.
It was more than passable. Critical ratings and box office tell us that for sure. Not as good as it could have been, but is anything?
As i have said before, BO was due to the previous movies, NOT the quality of the movie, the quality of the movie was responsible for the huge drop-off.
But you are not in a position to know or judge what exactly went on between Fox and Singer and how he was treated. Clearly you have issues with Fox but is any studio perfect? Warner gave Singer all the time and money he wanted and we still got the underperforming SR; Warner also gave us Catwoman, Batman & Robin and Batman Forever. Clearly they aren't perfect at comicbook movies either. Sony gave us Ghost Rider which was one of the worst of modern comicbook movies so far. No studio has yet achieved the perfect result and the perfect formula for these adaptations.
Its obvious how Singer was treated, like ****, and i dont, and will never blame him for leaving. But, as i have said to you COUNTLESS times, Singer was not essential to making an X3 that was at least passable. But instead, Fox ****ed around and we got this piece of ****.