can't start a thread because of my probabtion, anyway's i've seen x3, this past monday, special charity screening, here's my review, and yes, it's real this time
X3: the last stand
Well, I saw X3 this past Monday night at a local movie theater. Before seeing the film, I have tried to stay objective, but have mostly been somewhat negative about this film before its release. Id like to say that my past feelings didnt influence my current feelings and opinion after seeing the film, but Im not sure. Well, I took my seat at 7:15pm, and I was honestly excited about this film, I felt like a little kid again, waking up on Christmas morning. I was sitting next to my GF, and shes not the hugest X-Men fan, shes seen bits and parts of the movie, so there I am, giving her a cliff notes type summary of the previous X-Men movies.
The time is now 7:30, the lights go dim, and the reels start to role. To my surprise there are no previews, usually I would be disappointed, but not in this case, my only desire is to be immersed in the world of the X-Men.
The movie flew by, and when I left the film, I felt very weird. I know I will be mocked for saying this, but I felt l did after I had sex for the first time. I enjoyed it, but it could have been better, and longer, lol, sorry, but that is how I felt, after both of them. Wow, that was bad.
You all know the story, so Im not going to go over that, plus, Im going to try to keep it Spoiler Light, but no promises
Im going to start out by telling you about the things that I liked. First off, Ian is great as Magneto, which is no surprise, he is an outstanding actor, and you can just see the hatred in his eyes when he gives he talks in this movie. I also love the way he knows how to talk to mutants, how he makes each person feel like they are not the outcast, but a god among humans. When he lifts the GG Bridge, it is amazing; it is bar far one of the best special FX I have ever seen in film, it is jaw dropping. My next favorite is Pyro, after X2, I was afraid he would be nothing more then a pawn for Magneto, but in this movie, he is basically Magnetos right hand man. I love the way hes always right by his side, when Magneto is in the church, and hes trying to recruit mutants, then Callisto and her gang confront him, Pyro is right there ready to rumble incase anyone wants to go after Magneto. When hes causing mayhem too, you can see the joy of his hatred in his face, whether its lighting cars ablaze or talking smack to another mutant, he is just crazy cool. Hugh Jackman again is outstanding as Logan, he does feel a little bit watered down in this film, but you know what, hes fun. These movies need a center character, and whether or not you like the wolverine is the main focus, you cant deny that Hugh keeps your attention, and makes you laugh when the time is right. Even though he does crack jokes a lot, when you see him fight (the woods scene it awesome) you get into it, and it makes you wish you had steel claws and could regenerate, hes total badass. Professor X is good as usual, theres not much to say about him in this film though, because he doesnt do much more then he did in the other ones, Im not going to go into spoilers with him, but when a certain event happens, you feel heartbroken, you realize that he is so important to each x-men, he is their father and mentor.
Halle Berry, well this is where Im going to change from things I liked, to things I just dont know about. Halle is a good actress, she has proving herself in other films, but not in any x-men film, including this one, she has an expanded role, but I still dont buy her as storm. When I see storm in the comics, you can see the wisdom and history in her, they way she talks and they way she looks. Halle is a gorgeous woman, but when I look at her, I just see a gorgeous woman, not a woman that was once a criminal or who was raised in Africa. I know none of that was explained in these movies, but being a comic fan, these traits and events are cemented in my mind. Plus I just dont like the way her character changes from movie to movie, the first movie, she had a African accent, then in x2, she lost the accident and talked like a normal woman, now in x3, she talks like she was born in East St. Louis, she seems very urban, and thats not how I picture Storm. I loved her action scenes, when she fights, its awesome, but for some reason I dont buy Halle Berry. I just dont think she tried that hard in this film. Another character I kind of liked was Juggernaut, he was funny, and when he said his helmet makes his face stay pretty, I started to laugh salmon peace for pudding, sorry, had to put it in there. He doesnt get to say I'm the juggernaut, *****! though, it cuts away before the B word, but you can tell he was going to say that. My main problem with him was he didnt do much besides being the Brotherhood Ox, and before you know it, hes gone. I dont mind juggernaut being a mutant in the film, I think showing him as a normal person who discovered some crystal that made him super human, would be to far of a stretch for this X-Men series, but why couldnt they have shown he was Xaviers step-brother, that made me mad. Phoenix, oh my, the lovely Famke, she did a great job in this film when the time came, but for the majority, shes just standing around, not doing much. Her scenes with Logan are great, but feel like there were forced, if Cyclops would have had Logans role in this film, it would have been better, I just dont buy it that Logan loves her, when hes known her for not even two weeks. Also, where is the fire bird, I sure didnt see it in the film; they show it to us in x2, but not in here???
. Plus she really wasnt referred to as the phoenix in this movie. I really feel like the dark phoenix plotline was wasted, it felt like an after thought, the cure storyline was the main focus; you should have saved the dark phoenix for another movie. Beast was another so/so aspect for me, Grammar played the role great, and I was glad to see him fight in the end, dont worry about the reviews you read so far, his fight scenes are not that bad, I like them. I just didnt care that much for the fur suite, it wasnt as bad as I expected, it could have been better, but it could have been worse. The last so so thing for me, was the Danger Room, while I felt like the needed to show the danger room, it just wasnt done that great, plus the sentinel was a waste of time and money IMO, if you arent going to show the hole sentinel in all its glory, then dont show it. Mystique is cool as usual, and I thought her end was very satisfying and heartbreaking. She just couldnt catch a brake in this movie.
Now to the things I dont like or just didnt care for. Lets start with the dreaded Cyclops, while I feel his character has been mistreated this hole series, just playing Yin to Logans Yang, he is really mistreated in this one. If you dont want to know his fate, stop reading now, because this is spoilerific. Cyclops is screwed over big time in this film. You can tell Fox had an agenda to punish Mardsen for signing up to do Superman. He has two scenes basically, and if youve seen the trailers, youve seen all his screen time minus 1 minute. Yes, he is killed in this movie, but not in the way the other characters meet their demise, they dont even show his death, plus, after he dies, no one, you got that, no one seems to care or is impacted in anyway. I said it before and Ill say it again, Fox is giving the one finger solute with two hands to Mardsen. They are telling him, that we dont care that you are doing Superman, in fact!!!!! No one in the film cares about your character at all
To give a Cyclops a smaller role, or a decent death would have at least been tactful, but no, they couldnt even do that, he is nothing more then a sacrificial lamb to the executive fat cat gods at Fox.
Okay, sorry about that, lets go on. All of the other characters are ok in this movie minus the brotherhood, which I will get to in a moment. No character, minus Angel really shines. Colossus is cool, better he looks like the T-1000 from T2 when in metal form, the Rogue / Bobby relationship feels very forced, and Angel, even though I love his character and he is very cool in this movie, has no screen time, and he climatic rescue at the end, is just painful dull and uninspired.
The absolute worst part of the film is the Brotherhood members, it is a mish most of familiar mutant names and different powers. Its lie they went through the comics and picked out names then picked powers from a hat. Also how can you tell who the bad guys are, they wear leather and have tattoos, come on, how much more stereotypical can you get. Dont even get me started on Quills, when hes trying to intimidate Pyro, people actually started to laugh in the theater, oooooohhh, your porcupine spikes, better watch out honestly, what a lame power, and name too, go back to you burrow and stay there. Callisto is boring, the running effect was cool, and she has two very nice friends, if you know what I mean. Pyslocke was wasted, she had a few lines and a quick death, well deserved for a character with a strong fan base and nice back story (and people want to see Gambit, consider his character lucky). And that girl that looked like Christ Tucker, all I can say is
.. Nice hair
Multiple Man was cool, but was a one truck pony.
Now my main beef was Magnetos fate, he was cured, so to speak, well kind off, well I dont know, and to top it off, hes free. Hes playing chess in public, instead of being locked away in jail, how many people have you heard of (dont say OJ Simpson either) that committed murder, broker out of jail, kidnapped people, destroyed the GG bridge and committed terrorism, and are not being hunter by the police or army for that matter, Also, I felt like I was rooting for the Brotherhood the hole movie, Mutants were being hunted and forced to take the cure, and yet the x-men decide to fight, not the people going after them, but the people who want to stop the cure
. I just thought that by the x-men doing that, they really didnt havent mutant kinds best interest in mind, I know magneto was using murder and destruction to complete his goal, but can you really blame him, I mean, this guy suffered through the holocaust, and persecution is happening all over again, and how were the Nazis stopped, force, so how can you blame him for using it
.. I dont agree with his methods, heart in the right place, and brain in the wrong
..idk, very weird situation.
When the movie ended, I felt like there was very little closure, okay, Rogue is cured, now what, Magneto is somewhat depowered, so whats he going to do next, Xaviers back, kind of
.. the cures still around, and what happened to the surviving brotherhood members, are they in Jail, are they free, there was many things that werent cleared up, and I feel another 30 minutes could have helped this. Im not trying to hate on this movie, it has its flaws and its has its strong points, like any movie, but I feel it could have been better. So go see this movie, I was entertained while watching it, and want to see it again, is was great summer fun, and when it comes out on DVD, I will watch all three movies back to back to back, and it will be great, this movie will definitely be better when watched as a third part, not as a separate movie
I give X3 a 6.5 out of 10
X2 was a 9 out of 10
X1 was a 7.5 out of 10
heh... anyway...
