X-Maniac said:
This thread is still going!? Okay then...
LastSunrise would probably be shocked that those he/she is criticising also have issues with the movie and I wouldn't think anyone here is a Fox loyalist.
While I enjoyed the movie - in fact I loved it for its energy and for bringing in Angel, Beast, a flying Storm and other things - I've never been 100 per cent comfortable with certain elements, namely:
1) The cure storyline. Although it was a brilliant platform for Angel, Beast, Leech, Storm, Magneto, the Omega Muties etc, it makes the stance of the mutants less 'solid' if they can switch sides and become human (it could be said to be like allowing a black man to become white during the civll rights movement). The focus is blurred from two different sides working for acceptance if a 'cop-out' cure is available that allows the discriminated minority to physically change...
2) The Phoenix saga - Although a vague sub-plot in X1 and X2 (Jean's dramatic comicbook transformation becoming a two-second stare at the Statue of Liberty), many expected to see more of the powerful good Phoenix after the end of X2. While her apparent death (her comatose condition under the lake, the shutdown of her conscious mind) could well be intepreted as be the point at which the subconscious Phoenix came to the surface, Jean's quick descent into Dark Phoenix mode was not the perfect way to do things.
However, it WAS shown in X2 that Xavier kept secrets (from Wolverine in that case) and that Jean's power was linked to her subconscious (the scene in the museum in which her room-shaking nightmares are mentioned, as dreams and nightmares are the product of the subconscious mind...and we saw more of the room-shaking stuff in the infirmary in X3 when the subconscious Dark Phoenix came to the surface).
I still feel the movie and the script didn't go down the best route in telling the story. Her story needed an X3 and X4 to show the good Phoenix at her height and then the decline into darkness...obviously that didn't happen, Fox wouldn't go for that and Bryan left...
Looking at SR, I'm not sure Bryan would have delivered a blockbuster X3 if he were doing it...
I can understand the choices made in making the X3 movie we got, but I don't agree with some of them.
A large part of the problem is that these three movies were never conceived, planned, written or filmed as a trilogy... they have BECOME a trilogy in a loose sense and the third movie made a big attempt to be final, conclusive and wrap up the story...The cures and deaths make it quite hard to do an X4.
Hmm, let's see how am I going to respond to your post.
You love X3 for the energy it presented? So, from the sounds of it, there appears to be a sense of wanting more action and a less story concept for this particular film.
Now, with that being said, you don't think Singer would've made a blockbuster? I don't know if blockbuster is the right word for it, but I think he would've created a deeper, more emotional, and complex Phoenix Saga than the Cure/Phoenix Saga In Name Only story that we received.
He may've not given you an all out action story that you wanted. But I definitely believe he would've put out an excellent film if Fox didn't screw him over. You loved it for bringing in Beast, Angel, and a flying Storm? I thought from your point of view it was so much more emotional than X1 and X2? Make-up your mind already.
The problem with this film is that it's too rushed. The fact that Fox rushed this film showed they cared nothing about the series, the fans, or the overall quality as a whole really.
They were never filmed as trilogy? Do you mean in a sense as being filmed back to back like Lord of the Rings and the Matrix? Or they just never were filmed as a trilogy period? If that's what you mean, then you definitely need to take reading classes and understand overall concepts.
X1 and X2 are part of the trilogy. If X2 wasn't meant to follow X1, then it wouldn't have started off exactly where X1 left off.
The thing is we'll never know what Singer would've done with X3 or X4. The fact that the cure didn't leave Magneto completely powerless, shows that in the end nothing is certain and that he gained his power back. Now that scene could be taken in two ways.
1. That was the last bit of his power and as they were slowly fading away all he could do was move a metal chess piece.
2. Or he simply wasn't cured and they were slowly coming back.
Personally I'm going with the second option, and if the deaths weren't final, then they should've left Xavier dead instead of giving him his own alternate ending.
Half of the people that were vaporized(I hate the word demolecularized) no one cared about anyways. I certainly didn't care about Quills, Archlight, or Psylocke In Name Only.
I didn't care about the soldiers, I didn't care about the poor buildings being destroyed. So the fact that Xavier(Even though he came back), Cyclops(though his fate is not established) and Jean being dead doesn't make an X4 impossible.
That's the problem with fans like you. You just want it to end on a sour note, you just want it to stop just so a much better film can't be made in the future.
Now maybe if the deaths were a bit more tragic, emotional, powerful, and were absolutely final and say if the cures were absolutely final, then I'd agree with you about the possibility of an X4.
And you say the "cures" make an X4 difficult? Please. Half of the mutants that were cured in the final battle no one cared about anyways. The main ones that were cured were Magneto, Mystique, and Rogue. And as I said, the end scene with Magneto shows that it wasn't final.
My problem with X3 is that politics, greed, and petty revenge ruined what could've been the best film of the trilogy. The Phoenix Saga is considered a masterpiece by comic book fans, and the fact that Fox hired two hacks in Kinberg and Penn, and then hired a hack in Ratner showed that it was just a way to get back at Singer and make a quick buck at the box office.
Had they cared about quality instead of money they would've taken their time, crafted a much more focused and dynamic story, and released it to much better reviews and possibly more money in the end.
Yes, it made it's money in the end. Hell, it made a lot of money and is on its way to DVD which is likely to make them more money in the process. However, great films leave a lasting impression, great films make you feel proud to have watched it, and great films go down in history as the type of art that will always be remembered for the concepts that allowed people to care about the characters, the story, and so on.
Driving Miss Daisy, The Green Mile, Lord of the Rings, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Starman, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindlers List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Halloween, The Omen, X1 and X2, The Usual Suspects, Rosemary's Baby, Platoon, Roots, Boys In The Hood, Leaving Las Vegas, The Crow, Spider-Man 1 and 2, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Batman Begins, Superman, and etc, etc are great films.
Now, some of the ones I listed have a long way to go before they'e considered classics. But some that I've listed have already been named as classics.
In the end X3 is what could be considered as a missed oppurtunity to make something great/amazing. Is it the worse film in the world? No. Not by any means, but it could've been so much better than it was and I refuse to accept just a "popcorn flick" as the ending of trilogy.
If you, and other posters want to accept a "popcorn flick" as the end to a trilogy, then that's your right and you are entitled to it. What you need to understand is that some people have standards, some people want more than just wall to wall action.
