ntcrawler said:
Talk about coming around. From your initial, exhaustive review, it sounded like the movie DIDN'T work for you and that you were clear that you wanted Bryan Singer back.
So we go from this:
And now to this:
Interesting how some people's opinions can change, and how strongly they seem to change. So what happened? Did seeing the movie 7 times help change your opinion? Did it help you realize the depth and character development that wasn't there? Or did you notice things that you didn't notice despite your exhaustive, detailed first review?
That's right, Nell. Good point about trusting your first instinct. I still do.
You're right. My initial review was very harsh, and any review of the movie that I'd give now would be very praising. And I can tell you exactly why I had such an initial "harsh" review.
-The ending of
X2, along with all of the trailers and promotional material promised
X-Men: The Last Stand to be a movie of epic proportions, with depth and character levels never seen before in a comic book movie. I will admit, I got caught up in the hype, and went in expecting a
Return of the King style epic. I forgot that this was a comic book movie.
-
X-Men: The Last Stand wasn't the epic that I had hyped myself to believe it was. Not only was it not the epic I expected it to be, there were also some VERY visible flaws. Though not as harsh, much of my original review remains consistant with my currect opinion. And one of thoses viewpoints is the pacing of the film. The movie wasn't what I expected it to be, plus it had some very glaring flaws that became even worse in my eyes, because I wasn't watching the movie I thought I was going to see.
-I knew EVERYTHING! People talk about the checklist of characters that needed to be killed off, well going into the movie, I had an even longer checklist of plot points and details to expect. Flashback intros? Check. Next. Danger Room? Check. Next. Moira McTaggert? Check. Next. Psi-Battle at Jean's childhood home? Check. Next. Magneto building an army? Check. Next. There wasn't anything that surprised me. And things that would have totally unleashed the fanboy in me, like the Danger Room, like seeing Moira McTaggert, like seeing a Sentinel head... they were all lost on me because I was already expecting it.
-And the most weak minded of all the reasons: My friend that I saw it with at the midnight showing hated it. Not seeing the movie I expected to see, seeing all the obvious flaws amplified by the fact that it wasn't the movie I expected, and knowing all of the cool things that would have fired me up had I not known about them from the get go, talking to a friend that totally hated the movie easily influenced a bit more the "hatred" that I felt for the film after I saw it the first time.
I then saw it the next day... alone because another friend of mine didn't want to go. I saw it, alone, because I knew even walking about of the midnight showing I wanted to see it one more time before coming to my official opinion. The movie's pacing slowed down a bit, and things just worked better. The reason being, my expectations now were a bit more realistic. I knew it wasn't going to be a
Return of the King epic. And now that all the pre-production and AICN script review hype has worn off, I can go back and watch the movie with a bit less of a tainted viewpoint. And now, I see the qualities that the movie has to offer. Qualities that I was blind to the first time around, because I was looking for something totally different.
Yes, my opinion of the movie has taken a complete 180 turn... but there is still a lot of my review that remains accurate to my feelings towards the film. In fact, I went back to the link you posted and re-read my review, and I found myself still nodding my head to a few of the things I stated back then. This movie is flawed. And as great as it is (I like it better than
X-Men still, though not as much as
X-Men: United), I can probably still honestly say it's the most flawed of the 3. However, I've also been able to find the things that were done right with this film. And in my opinion, what was done right, and what remained consistant with the previous films, outweighs what was done wrong and what was inconsistant.