Robin91939
Master Tim
- Joined
- May 10, 2004
- Messages
- 8,892
- Reaction score
- 7
- Points
- 58
It's 2:40 am, and I just returned from the 11;59 showing. As I pulled up to the theater, it was PACKED. Hard doesn't describe how hard it was to find a place to park. I walked in and when I got to the front of the line, I asked the woman how many X3 shows there were. She told me that there had been two, but those sold out so quickly that they just opened a third. I was in the third, and by the time the movie started, there wasn't an empty seat in the house (worst part was trying to save two other seats during this chaos.)
To give you some insight, I had pregamed by watching X-MEN and X2: X-men UNITED from 7 o'clock until 11:20 so I basically watched the trillogy straight through. This may have hurt because as I watched X3: The Last Stand, I instantly thought of continuity. And it is reflected early on in the review.
Anyway, the MARVEL montage rolls, and we see the familiar 20th Century FOX logo. Then, we just jump into the action, with the two flash backs. I have to call this a minor flaw. Where was the monologue by Xavier? Both films opened with one, and this film had one recorded and it was fantastic (see teaser). Also, why not have the action pick up AFTER the Cerebro door instead of before? Minor grip yeah, but oh well.
My next nit/pick is the score. Now, the new score is good, but the original score is just, well, the X-men score now. And while BATMAN BEGINS worked with a new score, and didn't suffer from the lose of Elfman, this film suffers with its loss of Ottman. It just loses that continuity.
Now, as far as the actual action, we have all read enough that I shouldn't bore you by retelling the events of the film.
Besides my petty nit picks, the tragic flaw of this film, is pace. It is SO fast. It just jets across time and space (literally) in minutes. Scott dies, and its not until two scenes later that someone asks Jean where he is. Also, I know that this is the third film, and that they shouldn't have to, but Scott needed a LITTLE more time before he died to give it weight to non-fans. His death was very rushed.
There are only two other complaints I have, and they aren't: Wolverine had too much time, or Cyclops shouldn't have died, because those things worked with the story. Its just that characters like Angel really weren't entirely necessary. I mean he was only there to have his father make the cure. Archlight only existed to disable the cure guns, Calisto was only there to ultimately find Mystique and Jean, Multiple man was only there to fool the army. I mean, with the brotherhood of the other movies, they didn't seem like they only had one brief second to shine.
On the positive side:
Special Effects: While at certain times, they looked flat out horrible, they were 99% great. They were innovative, and stunning.
Acting: Sir Ian was terrific, as was Stewart, and Jackman. Marsden was terrific in his scenes, and Grammer really owned his role. However the show was stolen by Famke. Her as Dark Phoenix was truly wicked and amazing.
Easter eggs/misc: The fastball special made two appearances. Iceman and Pyro had a great showdown, and he FINALLY Iced up, and it really looked great. Moira was really good, down to the accent, and for once we saw a pirate broadcast by Magneto, making demands of the world.
Pyro: Yeah, he isn't Australian. But who cares. He was terrific, a true right hand man.
Juggernaut: He was supposed to be horrible. Vinnie Jones has gotten awful reviews. I found him entertaining, funny, and a total bad ass.
Overall story: Very compelling, edge of your seat, with a cool ending.
Major Upsets:
-Rogue cured
-No Colossus vs. Juggernaut fight
-Wasted characters, use em, or don't! (Angel, Psylock, Multiple man etc)
-Music
-Leach's name isn't Dorian (not big at all, he WAS acted well)
-Pace
GOOD stuff:
-Magneto- Complete bad ass, crushes cars like paper, and man handles Wolverine
-Beast- was introduced just like I imagined, and fought more agile than I could have hoped.
-Pyro- again, awesome.
-Iced up, Fastball special, Sentinel (some cool stuff for the fans)
-Special FX
-Great ending with Magneto
After all is said and done, I still feel it was honestly the weakest of the X-men movies. (subject to change upon repeat viewings). What drags it down most is just the opportunities that were there, and not taken advantage of. A longer film, that delved more into the idea of the cure, and who and why you'd want it, and more essential character development would have been outstanding. The Action, acting and directing even were great. It just was too short a movie and too big a story. I give it a well earned B. In comparison, I rank Punisher a B as well, while something like BATMAN BEGINS, X2: X-men UNITED or SPIDER-MAN (2) are your A's.
Good movie, but not great.
-R
To give you some insight, I had pregamed by watching X-MEN and X2: X-men UNITED from 7 o'clock until 11:20 so I basically watched the trillogy straight through. This may have hurt because as I watched X3: The Last Stand, I instantly thought of continuity. And it is reflected early on in the review.
Anyway, the MARVEL montage rolls, and we see the familiar 20th Century FOX logo. Then, we just jump into the action, with the two flash backs. I have to call this a minor flaw. Where was the monologue by Xavier? Both films opened with one, and this film had one recorded and it was fantastic (see teaser). Also, why not have the action pick up AFTER the Cerebro door instead of before? Minor grip yeah, but oh well.
My next nit/pick is the score. Now, the new score is good, but the original score is just, well, the X-men score now. And while BATMAN BEGINS worked with a new score, and didn't suffer from the lose of Elfman, this film suffers with its loss of Ottman. It just loses that continuity.
Now, as far as the actual action, we have all read enough that I shouldn't bore you by retelling the events of the film.
Besides my petty nit picks, the tragic flaw of this film, is pace. It is SO fast. It just jets across time and space (literally) in minutes. Scott dies, and its not until two scenes later that someone asks Jean where he is. Also, I know that this is the third film, and that they shouldn't have to, but Scott needed a LITTLE more time before he died to give it weight to non-fans. His death was very rushed.
There are only two other complaints I have, and they aren't: Wolverine had too much time, or Cyclops shouldn't have died, because those things worked with the story. Its just that characters like Angel really weren't entirely necessary. I mean he was only there to have his father make the cure. Archlight only existed to disable the cure guns, Calisto was only there to ultimately find Mystique and Jean, Multiple man was only there to fool the army. I mean, with the brotherhood of the other movies, they didn't seem like they only had one brief second to shine.
On the positive side:
Special Effects: While at certain times, they looked flat out horrible, they were 99% great. They were innovative, and stunning.
Acting: Sir Ian was terrific, as was Stewart, and Jackman. Marsden was terrific in his scenes, and Grammer really owned his role. However the show was stolen by Famke. Her as Dark Phoenix was truly wicked and amazing.
Easter eggs/misc: The fastball special made two appearances. Iceman and Pyro had a great showdown, and he FINALLY Iced up, and it really looked great. Moira was really good, down to the accent, and for once we saw a pirate broadcast by Magneto, making demands of the world.
Pyro: Yeah, he isn't Australian. But who cares. He was terrific, a true right hand man.
Juggernaut: He was supposed to be horrible. Vinnie Jones has gotten awful reviews. I found him entertaining, funny, and a total bad ass.
Overall story: Very compelling, edge of your seat, with a cool ending.
Major Upsets:
-Rogue cured
-No Colossus vs. Juggernaut fight
-Wasted characters, use em, or don't! (Angel, Psylock, Multiple man etc)
-Music
-Leach's name isn't Dorian (not big at all, he WAS acted well)
-Pace
GOOD stuff:
-Magneto- Complete bad ass, crushes cars like paper, and man handles Wolverine
-Beast- was introduced just like I imagined, and fought more agile than I could have hoped.
-Pyro- again, awesome.
-Iced up, Fastball special, Sentinel (some cool stuff for the fans)
-Special FX
-Great ending with Magneto
After all is said and done, I still feel it was honestly the weakest of the X-men movies. (subject to change upon repeat viewings). What drags it down most is just the opportunities that were there, and not taken advantage of. A longer film, that delved more into the idea of the cure, and who and why you'd want it, and more essential character development would have been outstanding. The Action, acting and directing even were great. It just was too short a movie and too big a story. I give it a well earned B. In comparison, I rank Punisher a B as well, while something like BATMAN BEGINS, X2: X-men UNITED or SPIDER-MAN (2) are your A's.
Good movie, but not great.
-R
I didn't think Angel was totally wasted, but he wasn't as underused as characters like Colossus or maybe even Moira..
