Sequels SHOULD Singer even return to the X-Men franchise?

[EnDz0n3]

In X3, the team helped save the day in general. Wolverine saved the day from Dark Phoenix, but Jean helped him do so.

How exactly did Jean help save the day? By dying? Is that what you're referring to as teamwork?

 

[Spider-Fan83]

sacrificing your own life for the greater good, and to save others, is probably one of the most heroic things someone can do, her death saved 100's of life’s

I'd call that saving the day

 

[The Overlord]

Excellent post.

You know,...I'm sure most fans (myself included) probably give some kudos to Singer for the effort since it was one of the first major cbm in a while since Donner's films and Burton's films. He did the best he could and for what it was at the time we accepted it to some degree. But I can't help but think that like me, my fellow fans were sitting in the theatres during X1 and X2, WAITING AND WAITING for the moment that those films would feel like you're watching the X-MEN.

It's been said before on other boards and other posts, by various posters/fans, though the words may vary; "when I saw Spider-man swinging through the caverns of NYC, I felt that boyish grin creep over my face". "When I saw that mid-air fight between Doc Ock and Spidey, that boyish grin came over my face--it was awesome". There were also moments like that in TIH and IM. The only time I got that sensation when watching "Singer's X-men" was during the Night Crawler White House attack.

Singer's X-men, for all the effort and good intentions, felt like a half hearted, half-assed attempt at bringing the X-men to life. As JustABill--and myriad of others have expressed consistently in boards all over SHH and the internet, Singer was more concerned about his message than the material. Yes, we know X-men is based on the civil rights movement, i.e. bigotry, prejudice, equality, etc. But did it need to be the only and utter focus of X-men films? Is that all the X-men are? Singer's intentions may have been good, but the difference between his effort with SR and the X-films are obvious. Superman was obviously something he was familiar with and dear to him. X-men, not so much. Frankly, SR felt like a big budget major motion picture, while X-men felt like...well, a half-assed, half hearted attempt.

Listen, I get it, as do most reasonable fans that it's impossible for everyone's fave character to get screen time, character developement, etc. But Jesus! To just ditch all the other characters or white them out as JustABill implied was ridiculous. furthermore, the better directors and writers know how to get character developement and screen time for multiple characters in a story arc. SPLIT THEM UP--DUH!!!

The Wolverine angle or POV has been beaten to death. It was no where as necessary as some like to make it sound. A different approach could have worked just as well. Ditto with casting except for a notable here and there (Stewart, etc.)

It is endlessly fustrating to keep hearing that people want to continue to cling to this mediocre version of the X-men. The X-men are so much more that what we were given. Adding to the fustration is that after seeing the treatment the better-more faithful comicbook films have gotten, there's no reason that the X-men don't deserve the same. There's no reason X-men should be denied the same blockbuster treatment. There's no reason to cling to Singer's vision it anymore.

I have a hard time believing that an X-men film closer to the source material would be some gigantic flop or laughing stock among the genereal audinece that some claim it would be.

....just let the Singerverse go. It's time for the X-men to be given their due in Hollywood. They've earned it.

X-2 is way better movie then Superman returns, X-2 felt more like blockbuster, simply because it had more action then SR.

Every time I hear people complain that the movies are not close enough to source material, I have to ask, in what way?

The source material itself is often convoluted and sometimes contradicts itself.

The space opera and time travel story lines would eat up the budget and I don't think they would add anything to the movie universe.

A character like Cable has back story that most of the general audience would find confusing or laughable.

Besides the Phoenix, most of the space opera stuff is dull and I don't think the Phoenix needs to be connected to all of that, the Shi'ar Empire stuff is dull and the brood are just a rip off of the creatures from aliens. The FF should fight aliens, the X-Men should stuck human and mutant villains. Now the FF movies, there is a series movie that have never gotten the spirit of the comics right, you should count your blessings the X-Men movies didn't end up like that.

So what is missing from the films that would make them better and work on the silver screen?

 

[Deaths Head II]

sacrificing your own life for the greater good, and to save others, is probably one of the most heroic things someone can do, her death saved 100's of life’s

I'd call that saving the day

What sacrifice? In the movie Wolverine killed her and nothing suggested she did anything to help him except her telling him to do so while she was trying to kill him and destroy everything on the island.

 

[EnDz0n3]

sacrificing your own life for the greater good, and to save others, is probably one of the most heroic things someone can do, her death saved 100's of life’s

I'd call that saving the day

Correct me if I'm wrong but the main complaint from the previous posts was that based off of the first two X-men movies, the rest of the X-men did not get to do anything, that there was no teamwork, only having Wolverine save the day both times. "Wolverine got the lion's share of the screentime, both outings" they argue.

Then added that in contrast, X3 gave equal roles, having "Wolverine save the day from the Phoenix, with Jean helping him."

My question is how does Jean just standing there, allowing herself to be gutted out, an argument FOR X3 giving equal amount of screentime for the rest of the team, much less Jean. She was JUST standing there!

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Cyclops coming back would only be a retcon if it was stated the scene between he and Jean never happened. Anything else that happened is just more story.

Though Singer and Marsden do appear to be close, it's somewhat doubtful after the events of X3, both story and productionwise, Cyclops would return. Although, they bothered to put Cyclops into WOLVERINE, so...perhaps the studio doesn't think the character is completely worthless.

In X3, the team helped save the day in general. Wolverine saved the day from Dark Phoenix, but Jean helped him do so.

He walked upto Jean without any help from her, the only moment Jean was in the scene was when she said "Save me" getting upto her was all Wolverine and it was ridiculous.

 

[The Guard]

Some of you have GOT to watch X3 closer.

First, she's not "just standing there".

Second, he does not just "walk up to her".

He fights his way to her even though part of her is trying to take him apart. Hell, in the first place, she'd just have blown him apart like everything else if Jean wasn't controlling the Dark Phoenix force somehow, instead of slowly killing him, much like she did the Professor at her house. She's fighting herself at that point, and that's the main clue.

Jean starts fairly visibly fighting Dark Phoenix as Logan moves towards her. She comes through a little at that point, and helps him survive long enough to get in close. It is apparent in Famke's performance, and in what happens next, that Jean is wresting for control, especially when she ALLOWS him to kill her.

But hey...if you want to believe he just magically walked up to her...go wild.

 

[The Overlord]

Some of you have GOT to watch X3 closer.

First, she's not "just standing there".

Second, he does not just "walk up to her".

He fights his way to her even though part of her is trying to take him apart. Hell, in the first place, she'd just have blown him apart like everything else if Jean wasn't controlling the Dark Phoenix force somehow, instead of slowly killing him, much like she did the Professor at her house. She's fighting herself at that point, and that's the main clue.

Jean starts fairly visibly fighting Dark Phoenix as Logan moves towards her. She comes through a little at that point, and helps him survive long enough to get in close. It is apparent in Famke's performance, and in what happens next, that Jean is wresting for control, especially when she ALLOWS him to kill her.

But hey...if you want to believe he just magically walked up to her...go wild.

She still didn't say or do much from the middle of the movie till the end of the Climax, why was she just standing there for most of the scenes at San Fran?

 

[The Guard]

As opposed to...tapdancing?

 

[The Overlord]

As opposed to...tapdancing?

There was a giant battle right in front of her and she just stands there, why is she there if she isn't going to do anything?

 

[The Guard]

She didn't need to do anything, as she wasn't directly threatened. When she did need to...she did.

 

[Deaths Head II]

He fights his way to her even though part of her is trying to take him apart. Hell, in the first place, she'd just have blown him apart like everything else if Jean wasn't controlling the Dark Phoenix force somehow, instead of slowly killing him, much like she did the Professor at her house. She's fighting herself at that point, and that's the main clue.

Jean starts fairly visibly fighting Dark Phoenix as Logan moves towards her. She comes through a little at that point, and helps him survive long enough to get in close. It is apparent in Famke's performance, and in what happens next, that Jean is wresting for control, especially when she ALLOWS him to kill her.

But hey...if you want to believe he just magically walked up to her...go wild.

I'm sorry, but I'm pretty damn sure that they expected audiences to accept that Wolverine's healing factor was enough to withstand Jean's psychic onslaught. When Wolverine walked up to Jean it was clearly still Phoenix in control saying "You would die for them?" Jean came out and asked Wolverine to stab her when he was already chilling out in front of her. The onslaught on the island wasn't diminished at all while Wolverine was walking towards her. If they wanted to indicate Jean was fighting Phoenix they could have actually hinted at that. Wolverine not exploding can be explained by the fact that the writing is awful.

If it was really a sacrifice she would have committed suicide like in the original story and Bryan Singer's original plan.

Also, are we expected to buy the fact that Jean wasn't fighting the Phoenix at all when she was exploding people including her mentor and father figure as well as possibly her lover? The movie makes it clear that Jean can't stop Phoenix at all but at the end we're supposed to assume she's fighting Phoenix with no indication that such an event is occurring other then the fact Wolverine's not exploding? Especially considering the fact that Wolverine's healing factor is going into overdrive anyway to heal wounds that would have taken him way longer to heal in the previous films? But no, we're supposed to assume that it's Jean fighting Phoenix and not Wolverine just being godmoded.

 

[The Overlord]

She didn't need to do anything, as she wasn't directly threatened. When she did need to...she did.

But then what purpose did her being there serve besides serving as a final climax?

 

[The Guard]

I'm sorry, but I'm pretty damn sure that they expected audiences to accept that Wolverine's healing factor was enough to withstand Jean's psychic onslaught.

Nope. I think they expect you to see that his healing factor is how he heals from her attacks. Not why he doesn't get blown to bits in an instant.

Because as the scene clearly shows, Dark Phoenix can blow entire people to bits in a moment. But all she can do is blow small pieces off Wolverine? Nevermind the adamantium, that's not going to protect his flesh if it's all gone. She couldn't strip his adamantium skeleton clean of flesh and muscle in a moment?

I'd love to chalk it up to bad writing, but that moment was clearly calculated to mean something else.

She was toying with him. They show her enjoying it, and then they show you that Jean is sort of holding back/fighting Phoenix via Famke's performance as he moves toward her. I don't think you're supposed to "assume" that this is what is happening at all. It's what HAS to be happening, or he'd be a skeleton that has been picked clean.

"You would die for them?" is in Dark Phoenix's voice, but she's speaking again. And look at her face. It's a moment of humanity for Dark Phoenix that had previously not existed there. At all. He was getting to her.

If it was really a sacrifice she would have committed suicide like in the original story and Bryan Singer's original plan.

It's a sacrifice of power, and her very life. She allows herself to be killed. That is a sacrifice, any way you slice it.

Also, are we expected to buy the fact that Jean wasn't fighting the Phoenix at all when she was exploding people including her mentor and father figure as well as possibly her lover?

So...you think she wasn't fighting Dark Phoenix when the battle with Xavier occurred?

But then what purpose did her being there serve besides serving as a final climax?

In case she was needed, apparently. And look at that...she was.

 

[Mad Ones]

... she was? Magneto's "what have I done" kind of indicates that he had no purpose for Jean. What exactly did he even expect her to do? Cooperate and take orders because she's so good at that? See, it's just bad writing.

 

[EnDz0n3]

She didn't need to do anything, as she wasn't directly threatened. When she did need to...she did.

The original argument was that the rest of the X-men did not get to do much, that Wolverine got to do the bulk of the heroics/screentime in the third film. You, in fact, just proved it.

 

[Deaths Head II]

Nope. I think they expect you to see that his healing factor is how he heals from her attacks. Not why he doesn't get blown to bits in an instant.

Because as the scene clearly shows, Dark Phoenix can blow entire people to bits in a moment. But all she can do is blow small pieces off Wolverine? Nevermind the adamantium, that's not going to protect his flesh if it's all gone. She couldn't strip his adamantium skeleton clean of flesh and muscle in a moment?

Like I said, Wolverine's healing factor was going into overdrive in that scene anyway. Never has he healed from wounds as quickly as he did the wounds that Jean gave him. So it's definitely a fact that Wolverine godmoded in that scene.

And when I say that Jean didn't try to hold back the Phoenix back when battling the Professor, I say that as the only logical conclusion that could be gained by the premise that Jean held back against Wolverine. She was able to keep Phoenix from instantly exploding Wolverine, but not for Professor X. When Jean is fighting the Phoenix, the Phoenix only has enough control to chip away damage. When Jean isn't, she is exploding people. She exploded the Professor. Therefore, Jean wasn't holding the Phoenix back against the Professor.

Wolverine WAS godmoded in that scene. His healing factor was never that efficient. The two options are that Jean was holding back or that Wolverine (already godmoded) was capable of overcoming her damage thanks to bad writing. And the option with Jean holding back suggests that she wasn't holding back with anyone else.

Maybe it's the fact that they took a scene from the comic that showed Jean's strength as a character (Professor X vs Dark Phoenix) and had the exact OPPOSITE conclusion (Phoenix exploding Professor X instead of Jean combating Phoenix and helping the Professor subdue her), but I felt Jean was extremely weak and had no power over Phoenix.

 

[The Overlord]

Nope. I think they expect you to see that his healing factor is how he heals from her attacks. Not why he doesn't get blown to bits in an instant.

Because as the scene clearly shows, Dark Phoenix can blow entire people to bits in a moment. But all she can do is blow small pieces off Wolverine? Nevermind the adamantium, that's not going to protect his flesh if it's all gone. She couldn't strip his adamantium skeleton clean of flesh and muscle in a moment?

I'd love to chalk it up to bad writing, but that moment was clearly calculated to mean something else.

She was toying with him. They show her enjoying it, and then they show you that Jean is sort of holding back/fighting Phoenix via Famke's performance as he moves toward her. I don't think you're supposed to "assume" that this is what is happening at all. It's what HAS to be happening, or he'd be a skeleton that has been picked clean.

"You would die for them?" is in Dark Phoenix's voice, but she's speaking again. And look at her face. It's a moment of humanity for Dark Phoenix that had previously not existed there. At all. He was getting to her.

But why did she kill Xavier and Cyclops and not Wolvie? Wouldn't those other two be closer to her then wolvie?

As for Phoenix toying with Wolvie, why didn't she use her TK and then take Wolvie apart?

So...you think she wasn't fighting Dark Phoenix when the battle with Xavier occurred?

No, considering she killed him and I didn't see any hesitation on her part. why did she kill Xavier and not Wolvie?

In case she was needed, apparently. And look at that...she was.

No she wasn't, she didn't help anyone, she didn't help Magneto or the X-Men she just did nothing and went psycho and tried to kill everyone at the end.

 

[BMM]

Like I said, Wolverine's healing factor was going into overdrive in that scene anyway. Never has he healed from wounds as quickly as he did the wounds that Jean gave him. So it's definitely a fact that Wolverine godmoded in that scene.

And when I say that Jean didn't try to hold back the Phoenix back when battling the Professor, I say that as the only logical conclusion that could be gained by the premise that Jean held back against Wolverine. She was able to keep Phoenix from instantly exploding Wolverine, but not for Professor X. When Jean is fighting the Phoenix, the Phoenix only has enough control to chip away damage. When Jean isn't, she is exploding people. She exploded the Professor. Therefore, Jean wasn't holding the Phoenix back against the Professor.

Wolverine WAS godmoded in that scene. His healing factor was never that efficient. The two options are that Jean was holding back or that Wolverine (already godmoded) was capable of overcoming her damage thanks to bad writing. And the option with Jean holding back suggests that she wasn't holding back with anyone else.

Maybe it's the fact that they took a scene from the comic that showed Jean's strength as a character (Professor X vs Dark Phoenix) and had the exact OPPOSITE conclusion (Phoenix exploding Professor X instead of Jean combating Phoenix and helping the Professor subdue her), but I felt Jean was extremely weak and had no power over Phoenix.

I agree. Moreover, I think the internal struggle/relationship between Jean Grey and Phoenix was handled poorly altogether. It was virtually non-existent (that's being kind), and that shouldn’t be the case.

 

[Cyma]

I think I want Singer to return mostly because we wouldn’t have to assume things so much like whether Jean was trying to fight Dark Phoenix while killing everyone or what happened to the sun after the bridge collapsed how everyone got back from the island when the Blackbird was destroyed…..what happened to Pyro or Juggernaut. Did Cyclops really die??

Things used to make sense when Singer was around, not to mention deaths and sacrifices had emotional impact rather than, 'WTF? They killed one of the main characters!'

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Some of you have GOT to watch X3 closer.

First, she's not "just standing there".

Second, he does not just "walk up to her".

He fights his way to her even though part of her is trying to take him apart. Hell, in the first place, she'd just have blown him apart like everything else if Jean wasn't controlling the Dark Phoenix force somehow, instead of slowly killing him, much like she did the Professor at her house. She's fighting herself at that point, and that's the main clue.

Jean starts fairly visibly fighting Dark Phoenix as Logan moves towards her. She comes through a little at that point, and helps him survive long enough to get in close. It is apparent in Famke's performance, and in what happens next, that Jean is wresting for control, especially when she ALLOWS him to kill her.

But hey...if you want to believe he just magically walked up to her...go wild.

Guard, but thats just not what I see at all, we even see Jean straining to blow Logan away at one point, just after most of his skin is blown off, THATS what I saw, this argument that she was holding back has totally no basis at all, especially when Wolverine knew he would be able to get up to her just on his (now suddenly ridiculously fast) healing factor.

Maybe YOU need to watch the movie more closely.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Like I said, Wolverine's healing factor was going into overdrive in that scene anyway. Never has he healed from wounds as quickly as he did the wounds that Jean gave him. So it's definitely a fact that Wolverine godmoded in that scene.

And when I say that Jean didn't try to hold back the Phoenix back when battling the Professor, I say that as the only logical conclusion that could be gained by the premise that Jean held back against Wolverine. She was able to keep Phoenix from instantly exploding Wolverine, but not for Professor X. When Jean is fighting the Phoenix, the Phoenix only has enough control to chip away damage. When Jean isn't, she is exploding people. She exploded the Professor. Therefore, Jean wasn't holding the Phoenix back against the Professor.

Wolverine WAS godmoded in that scene. His healing factor was never that efficient. The two options are that Jean was holding back or that Wolverine (already godmoded) was capable of overcoming her damage thanks to bad writing. And the option with Jean holding back suggests that she wasn't holding back with anyone else.

Maybe it's the fact that they took a scene from the comic that showed Jean's strength as a character (Professor X vs Dark Phoenix) and had the exact OPPOSITE conclusion (Phoenix exploding Professor X instead of Jean combating Phoenix and helping the Professor subdue her), but I felt Jean was extremely weak and had no power over Phoenix.

I agree. Moreover, I think the internal struggle/relationship between Jean Grey and Phoenix was handled poorly altogether. It was virtually non-existent (that's being kind), and that shouldn’t be the case.

Exactly, that scene gives NO indication that The Pheonix is holding back, especially everything in the background is being massacred and ripped to bits, Wolverine's healing factor and Adamantium skeleton save the day, and it was simply ridiculous.

As i say above, you even see Pheonix visibly straining to blow Logan away in one scene and that is when most of his skin gets blown off, there is absolutely NOTHING to suggest Jean was fighting against The Pheonix.

 

[X-Maniac]

I think it's open to some interpretation and that's fine.

Similarly, the exact effect of Magneto's machine on Jean and the exact reason she left the plane in X2 are all open for discussion, and have been often debated on here, with no definitive answer.

I don't see why all this X3 stuff is such an issue. Singer built Superman Returns on a foundation of vague history, with no definitive explanations about relationships, pregnancies, etc.

Some of you are overthinking it. It's frickin' three and a half years since the movie, haven't we raked over those coals enough!?

 

[The Guard]

The original argument was that the rest of the X-men did not get to do much, that Wolverine got to do the bulk of the heroics/screentime in the third film. You, in fact, just proved it.

What in God's name does a statement abotu Magneto using Jean have to do with that element of the film?

Like I said, Wolverine's healing factor was going into overdrive in that scene anyway. Never has he healed from wounds as quickly as he did the wounds that Jean gave him. So it's definitely a fact that Wolverine godmoded in that scene.

Yes, he was certainly in overdrive. But he STILL wasn't healing nearly fast enough to survive what would happen to his flesh and muscles had she done what she did to the other soldiers and people. She was holding back a bit, even toying with him by targeting particular sections of his body. She pretty much had to be doing that, just based on the rate of her attack against him compared to her attack on other entities and objects in the same sequence. Just as she clearly wasn't using her full power against Xavier the entire time during their battle, because Jean had a relationship with him beyond the one the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix had.

And when I say that Jean didn't try to hold back the Phoenix back when battling the Professor, I say that as the only logical conclusion that could be gained by the premise that Jean held back against Wolverine. She was able to keep Phoenix from instantly exploding Wolverine, but not for Professor X. When Jean is fighting the Phoenix, the Phoenix only has enough control to chip away damage. When Jean isn't, she is exploding people. She exploded the Professor. Therefore, Jean wasn't holding the Phoenix back against the Professor.

She wasn't holding the Phoenix back against the Professor by the time Dark Phoenix took over, no. But what do you think kept Dark Phoenix from just blowing Xavier to pieces that entire time, when Xavier was trying to reach Jean?

Xavier's powers? Doubtful, because Dark Phoenix takes over quickly from him on the physical realm, which is what she used to blow him to pieces. So what was it? Dark Phoenix was toying with him at one point, yes, but before that, Jean was wrestling for control of herself. Again, you can see that quite well in Famke's performance, especially in this scene.

And even right before Xavier is killed, Jean is obviously still in there somewhere. Look at her reaction to "Don't let it control you."

Wolverine WAS godmoded in that scene. His healing factor was never that efficient. The two options are that Jean was holding back or that Wolverine (already godmoded) was capable of overcoming her damage thanks to bad writing. And the option with Jean holding back suggests that she wasn't holding back with anyone else.

So you think the writers just forgot how powerful Dark Phoenix was?

Come the hell on. Not everything that you don't understand is "bad writing".

Maybe it's the fact that they took a scene from the comic that showed Jean's strength as a character (Professor X vs Dark Phoenix) and had the exact OPPOSITE conclusion (Phoenix exploding Professor X instead of Jean combating Phoenix and helping the Professor subdue her), but I felt Jean was extremely weak and had no power over Phoenix.

Sort of like in the comics? Jean, on her own, isn't NEARLY as strong as Dark Phoenix most of the time. Which is why Dark Phoenix is able to take her over more than once.

But why did she kill Xavier and Cyclops and not Wolvie? Wouldn't those other two be closer to her then wolvie?

Why does she kill ANYONE and not someone else?

In all seriousness, the reason Cyclops died can fairly easily be chalked up to the fact that Jean, upon her rebirth, has no IDEA the Dark Phoenix is inside her, and no idea how to control her powers, even though she thinks she does. Simply put, she had less experience with Dark Phoenix when she encountered Cyclops than she did later in the film. Just as she had issues controlling her powers in X2, then learned to control them better, something similar happened in X3. By the time she encountered Wolverine, she had some idea of what was going on, and fought it, and was able to control it a bit more, but was unable to overcome it. She fought even harder against it before Dark Phoenix took her over in the battle with Xavier.

As for Phoenix toying with Wolvie, why didn't she use her TK and then take Wolvie apart?

Because he was reaching out to Jean, and Jean was still there.

No, considering she killed him and I didn't see any hesitation on her part. why did she kill Xavier and not Wolvie?

Except that she didn't just kill him. Jean fought to control herself, and lost to Dark Phoenix, but Xavier was still making appeals to "Jean". What the hell do you mean "no hesitation on her part"? She took him apart in pieces while he was still in contact with Jean, and trying to reach her. If there was no hesitation, why didn't she just blow him away?

Why did she kill Xavier and not Wolverine? Because he was trying to control her, and had tried to control her, and she didn't want that. She wanted to be free.

Do you recall Wolverine trying to control her? No, in fact, he wanted her to be able to make her own decisions, as per his conversation with Xavier and Magneto.

No she wasn't, she didn't help anyone, she didn't help Magneto or the X-Men she just did nothing and went psycho and tried to kill everyone at the end.

Obviously she WAS needed there, because the Brotherhood fell to the X-Men and the army. Whether she ACTED on that need is irrelevant, because it's fairly obvious she didn't care about them or their cause all that much. She cared about herself and not being controlled or diminished.

Guard, but thats just not what I see at all, we even see Jean straining to blow Logan away at one point, just after most of his skin is blown off, THATS what I saw, this argument that she was holding back has totally no basis at all, especiallywhen Wolverine knew he would be able to get up to her just on his (now suddenly ridiculously fast) healing factor.

Maybe YOU need to watch the movie more closely.

No basis at all?

So the writers just FORGOT the level of power she was at? Come. On.

It's pretty apparent in her performance that even as Dark Phoenix strains to blow him away, there's something going on there beneath the surface, some kind of conflict. Is it the most clear thing ever? No. But the fact that she bothered to put that into her performance coupled with the fact that she obviously was not using her full power against Wolverine despite using it all around him would tend to suggest something more than meets the eye is going on in that sequence.

Exactly, that scene gives NO indication that The Pheonix is holding back, especially everything in the background is being massacred and ripped to bits, Wolverine's healing factor and Adamantium skeleton save the day, and it was simply ridiculous.

That IS the indication that she's holding back. Look at the levels of power she's using...except on Wolverine, who is trying to reach her, and has been trying to reach her throughout the film.

People, I'm not saying it's the most clear or best handled element ever. It could easily have been handled better, or differently, sure. But this isn't a scene they just farted out. You don't spend millions and millions of dollars in effects and not look at subtlies of expression, what's going on in the scene, etc.

It's no accident or mistake that everything else is getting destroyed and Wolverine isn't.

Now, there's no mathematical proof of this, or of the level of her powers, and how that works. There's no formula you can apply to explain why Dark Phoenix does or doesn't do this or that in a particular moment. You have to use some logic. You either see it or you don't. Is it open to interpretation a bit? Probably. Darn near every performance or visual is, in a sense. But would you really rather believe the writers and creators just FORGOT what was going on between Jean and Logan throughout the film (despite the fact that they developed the angle) and suddenly, despite him not being so in any other sequence, made Logan into a GOD, or believe that they capitalized on the themes and story they'd been developing since the beginning of the film?

 

[The Overlord]

Obviously she WAS needed there, because the Brotherhood fell to the X-Men and the army. Whether she ACTED on that need is irrelevant, because it's fairly obvious she didn't care about them or their cause all that much. She cared about herself and not being controlled or diminished.

I don't address such a long post, but this point needs to addresses, look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66weaB1G8Ow&feature=channel_page

It makes pretty good point about Jean's presence making the whole battle scene pretty pointless.