See, at least with the first and second films, Wolverine, for all the focus they put on him, he still ultimately ended up just being "part" of the team. He was the guy to have your back. X3 just dumped everything on him, and positioned him to be THE leader, which is totally against character. The scene when they suit up to go to Alcatraz still infuriates me, not only because Wolverine would never force the students to join him and the X-Men on a mission, but because an actually scene was filmed illustrating that fact!! The alternate scene had Bobby and the others volunteering, and Wolverine telling them they couldn't come, at which point it's Bobby that makes the speech and convinces Wolverine to let them come. In his mind, he figures he can at least watch their backs, which is exactly the kind of character Wolverine is.
And this is something that's always pissed me off about the scenes that get cut from all the X-Men films. They add very little time to the film's runtime, but they offer a wealth of character development. Especially in the first film. Great conversations between Rogue and Storm, Scott and Xavier, and especially Jean and Xavier. The deleted scene with her meeting him after he tries to use Cerebro again to find Magneto NEEDED to be in the actual film. It illustrates the father-daughter relationship between them perfectly, and alludes to Jean's evolving powers, which becomes a major plot point in the subsequent films.
Honestly, the only thing worse than thinking about how a film could be better, is KNOWING that things were done that could have made it better.
I agree. Especially with the cure storyline in X3, I wish they would have kept in the Storm/Rogue interaction in X1. The scene with Xavier and Jean was really nice, but they couldn't add it in unless they also added in the deleted portion of her speech to the Senate, 'cause it alluded to the deleted portion where the Phoenix telekinetically snatched some documents out of the Senator's hand to display her powers. (In the original script, though, they had her catching a bottle can that some kids threw at her. I don't get why that was changed, then ultimately removed. It was a nice way to get her to use her powers in front of everybody: she was justified, but it would still scare the people around her.) It would have also been nice to have that brief look at Jean and Scott holding hands while teaching that auto class or whatever.
I also wish they would have kept the campfire scene with Bobby, Rogue, and Pyro in X2. It was only 20 seconds, but it was pretty powerful with Rogue and Pyro. Also, there was a line in the original script after Pyro blew up Bobby's front yard where Bobby yells at Pyro something like "You think that was funny? Let's go burn your house down!" and Pyro says "Too late". It's a great little insight into his past that I think would have been very useful, and it would've lasted only like 5 seconds. If time was an issue, they could have cut out Bobby staring out the window of the jet.
As for X3, I think that Rogue taking the cure was the best way to go IF they do an X4. I do, however, wish they would have had Bobby giving the speech to Logan instead of vice-versa, or else have Storm give the speech if they didn't want one of the kids to. They hinted at Storm being the leader, but they did give too much control to Logan. As for the fight in Jean's house, they should have included the part where Storm zaps Logan; however, I'm glad they removed the psychic dialogue between Xavier and Jean. As great as Famke was for the most part, I thought she did a really bad job with that.
Primal Slayer said:
Xavier and Jean are really the only two that interacted and talked to Scott. X1 started out nicely with Scott and Storm working together though, part of my favorite scenes from the first film.
His interactions were fine in X1. He had several interactions with Jean and Logan, a touching scene at Xavier's bedside, and a little interaction with Storm at the final battle. He was gone for most of X2, but did have interactions with Xavier, Jean, and Logan. In X3, he interacted only with Logan and Jean. I guess his absence in X2 is okay, 'cause they had so many characters to develop and didn't really have time for him; but it would have been nice to see him in X3, since the Phoenix storyline WAS his and Jean's.
I guess Hugh is more marketable? Iunno, I always thought Marsden was hotter, and he acted very well - especially considering the fact that he couldn't use his eyes. Hugh's a good actor, too, but he does a lousy North American accent (kinda like Halle's African and Anna's southern).
Am I rambling?
), and there needs to be more warmth between the X-Men as though they've been friends for years... 
