To me, a movie is a collection of moments, and if you come out of it feeling good, it had enough good moments.
And I think if we're honest, X3 has more good moments and more genuine moments than WOLVERINE does. Easily. It has better performances, too. A better overall story and themes. X3 actually deals with issues. WOLVERINE talked about them, and was essentially a half-ass revenge flick.
Thus, X3 is a better film, period. In terms of structure, dialogue, effects, you name it, except maybe for action. But ultimately, X3 has less varied, but still better and more believeable action. Even Wolverine's action sequences in X3 are arguably better than they are in WOLVERINE, his own movie.
And as far as acting goes...you can say Liev Schreiber was good. Ian McKellan's Magneto wipes the floor with him and Stryker if you combine them. As does Famke's Jean/Phoenix. Patrick Stewart was fantastic. Even Halle Berry sucked much less than usual. And Kelsey Grammer was phenomenal. Even James Marsden was great in a limited role. Whereas Ryan Reynolds basically just played himself, and Wolverine's love interest could barely emote. I'll put X3's cast up against WOLVERINE's relatively cardboard characters any day of the week.
It always amuses me that people hate X3 for the following reasons:
1. It's not what I expected or wanted it to be.
2. They killed Cyclops and Xavier and Jean, and it didn't happen that way in the comics.
I mean, it's almost laughable at this point. If all you care about is faithfulness to the comic books, then you should be hating on WOLVERINE and the prior two movies just as much as X3, because WOLVERINE made just as many changes to the source material.
Yes, Cyclops died in X3. Before they killed off Cyclops, they gave him a fantastic couple of scenes with him mourning and with Wolverine, and frankly, one of the best and arguably most tragic romantic scenes of any superhero movie.
Yes, Xavier died in X3. Again, one of the best and most powerful scenes of the trilogy before his death, and a fantastic use of the character before that.
And Angel was developed? Beast? Magneto's cronies?
Angel had some of the best emotional sequences of any superhero film. Magneto's cronies may not have been developed, but they WERE given motivation by the cure storyline and their allegiance to Magneto's cause. Something you cannot say of the Weapon X members, or even Stryker, beyond his recycled "I hate mutants because of my son" motivation from X2.
Wolverine. X3 was a huge mess. I don't see how anyone could think it's better over this really. Brett Ratner totally disrespected X-Men fans by taking a huge dump on what was established in the first two movies.
How did Brett Ratner disrespect X-Men fans? What did he dump on that had been established in X-MEN and X2?