X-Men 3 Review (Spoilers)

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-05-27 02:13am

Since no one has started one yet…

Overall, the movie was enjoyable, for the most part; I was left unsatisfied with many issues, though. First and foremost, the movie was heavily action driven which meant character development was little. I would’ve appreciated more Jean Grey background, other than that tidbit at the beginning, perhaps a few minutes of how Jean and Scott met and fell in love. Not only would it give Cyclops more screen time so that it didn’t seem like he was a pushover, pointless character in this movie, but it would also make the whole Phoenix-killed-Cyclops bit more tragic, at minimum.

Second, I also feel that examining Magneto’s past would’ve helped people to better understand why he hated normal humans so much; it wouldn’t require much, just a minute or two or even blurbs. I think this ties in with one of my biggest complaints about this movie which is that the characters do not do enough contemplation or that there is not enough character reflection.

Third, the story developed too far away from the original Wolverine story line. This was what really made the first movie so good. After Wolverine was the Xavier/Magneto plot. I really believe that they should’ve never brought in the Phoenix story and should have focused on the Wolverine story. I mean, they introduce him, have the whole Alakli Lake plot, and then they just suddenly drop everything. I also believe that the whole trilogy would have worked much better if the general concept of movie three was reversed with movie two.

Fourth, I think there were too many characters, which really weakened the plot. Not only that, but the third movie focused so much on Jean Grey without even really revealing anything about Jean Grey! I can’t recall many of the main mutants with Magneto, other than Pyro. And was it too hard to give Colossus a Russian accent? That and, where was Pyslocke? I couldn’t find her.

Enough with my complaints; I really enjoyed Magneto’s attack on the convoy with the cars getting crushed and flying around like a drunken Hillbilly with a blood level of 0.3. The attack on Alcatraz was enjoyable and I particularly liked Magneto’s lines during those scenes, “In chess, pawns move first.”

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie, albeit a bit short. There were too many unanswered questions left open, more than likely so they can continue to milk the cow for cash. And yes, I still found Halle Berry very annoying; too over done but I can live with it. I’ll just make sure to skip her little speeches when I get the DVD.

B average or 4 out of 5.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-05-27 02:26am

Hm. I thought it was a pretty mediocre movie; the second was the best IMO. Last Stand was still enjoyable but seriously lacking on a lot of fronts. For one thing, I thought the musical score tried to do too much work. I found it grating in scenes where I ordinarily really wouldn't care much - Cyclops/Phoenix, every scene with adult Angel, etc. I still think Rogue was cast poorly and I still miss her 90s cartoon incarnation. The final scene after the credits earned a giant "wat" from my friend and I (although thinking about I get it now, but it's still wat-worthy).

R Lee Ermey fucking rules as always, though.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2006-05-27 02:36am

Yeah. When I saw that, I was literally said "What the fuck?" Was the voice that came from the man in the hospital bed Xavier's? I thought it was.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-05-27 02:49am

For those who don't get it, it ties in with the beginning of the movie where Xavier is teaching his psychic class about the ethical concerns surrounding a man who has no higher brain functions...

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2006-05-27 03:00am

Enjoyed the movie itself. Funny dialogue, nice scenes, good music, hot blooded action. I'd rate it a hair's width beneath the first movie. And my favorite it is X2.

If taking more consideration of it as a sequel to the previous movies I didn't feel quite good about it. I don't like how they treat the Phoenix part. At the end of X2 the notion I recieved was that something positive/good happened to Jean Grey despite her sacrifice. And then we get this "actually it's her big bad unlimited evil unleashed" thingy going on. And I disliked the Phoenix visual effects in this film. What worsens this is she basically does nothing but kills people, gets torn over it, and then kills again.

Scott's death was a total, fucking, big, fat waste.

Xavier? Died too early.

Too many characters diluted character development. It's nice to see some new mutants but shouldn't we see some more from the previous? I thought the introduction of Multiple Man was kind of excessive. Oh yeah, at least Halle "Catwoman sucked fucking wind so I want a comeback" Berry had a lot more scenery this time

That and, where was Pyslocke? I couldn’t find her.

The purple haired Asian gal who had something like invisible powers and threw Worthington down the building. I'm quite happy that her name isn't clearly stated besides the end credits. TOTAL POINTLESS WASTE.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2006-05-27 03:04am

JLTucker wrote:Was the voice that came from the man in the hospital bed Xavier's? I thought it was.

It totally slipped my mind that the nurse answered "Charles?"

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-05-27 03:06am

Grand Moff Yenchin wrote:
That and, where was Pyslocke? I couldn’t find her.
The purple haired Asian gal who had something like invisible powers and threw Worthington down the building. I'm quite happy that her name isn't clearly stated besides the end credits. TOTAL POINTLESS WASTE.

When did Psylocke have invisiblity powers? She's always been a telepath with some telekinetic powers. I suppose the Asian part comes from that she was a ninja.

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2006-05-27 03:11am

Fire Fly wrote:When did Psylocke have invisiblity powers? She's always been a telepath with some telekinetic powers. I suppose the Asian part comes from that she was a ninja.

The same reason why Callisto has super-speed and mutant sensing ablilities in this film?

Kojiro · Post by **Kojiro** » 2006-05-27 04:58am

Psylocke picks up shadow melding powers, which admittedly aren't invisibility but are along the same 'I'm invisible now' lines sometime around Uncanny #330 or so. That said when Claremont came back to the book he stripped her telepathic powers and gave her telekinetic powers (amusingly he stripped Jean's telekinetic powers and amped her telepathic powers).

Right now I must run but I'll give my full opinion soon.

Mark S · Post by **Mark S** » 2006-05-27 09:55am

Haven't seen the film yet, so I can't comment too much, but the news paper names the woman with purple hair 'Arclight'. Don't know if they were the ones to screw up the name though.

Gustav32Vasa · Post by **Gustav32Vasa** » 2006-05-27 10:12am

Mark S wrote:Haven't seen the film yet, so I can't comment too much, but the news paper names the woman with purple hair 'Arclight'. Don't know if they were the ones to screw up the name though.

Arclight was there too. She had more scenes then Psyloche, I only remember one scene with Psyloche.

Danny Bhoy · Post by **Danny Bhoy** » 2006-05-27 11:10am

Arclight as in B-52 shockwave punching Arclight from the Marauders? Colour me WTF. Well IIRC she did have purplish hair so I suppose...

Aeolus · Post by **Aeolus** » 2006-05-27 11:17am

Grand Moff Yenchin wrote:
Fire Fly wrote:When did Psylocke have invisiblity powers? She's always been a telepath with some telekinetic powers. I suppose the Asian part comes from that she was a ninja.
The same reason why Callisto has super-speed and mutant sensing ablilities in this film?

Callisto could sense mutants in the comics as well. Thats how she colloected the morelocks

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-05-27 11:43am

I liked this movie, nothing more then a popcorn flick, but definetly an entertaining flick.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2006-05-27 11:51am

Arclight was the one who blew up the plastic weapons. She's referred to by name by Magneto. Pay attention, kids.

Now then. Everybody went into X3 a little worried. New director, rushed development, strange rumors about the casting, plot, character choices...talk of poor characterization, the film not living up to its predecessors. In so many words, a lot of bad vibes were coming off this movie.

Bullshit.

X3 kicked ass. It stayed true to the arc the movie characters had embarked on in X1, introduced new characters that both had plenty to do and have room to develop in future movies (if this does well, there will be future movies), and above all provided an absolutely epic mutant battle.

Let's get two things out of the way: yes, Cyclops and the Prof died. If this, in and of itself, upsets you, then I'm sorry. I thought it was great. Cyclops was rapidly becoming a fifth wheel (he always seems to me to be, despite being the leader), and his death was quite appropriate, and it also set up the blistering power of the Phoenix. The Professor/Phoenix fight was amazing. Without resorting to any hokey "telepathy beams" or similar effects that many productions use to indicate a psychic battle, you clearly got the message that these were two immense telepathic powers struggling to utterly dominate one another. The entire time the Prof was melting, I was sitting there literally going, "No...no...come on...come on!" But then, POW! It was just a gut-wrenching moment, because you never thought it would go there. And, of course, the foreshadowing with the "this is an ethical dilemma -- this guy is braindead" sequence, which is paid off at the end (you did stay through the credits, right?) was utterly awesome. I have a history of missing foreshadowing when it's presented to me (I didn't catch on to the twist in KOTOR, for crying out loud), but when that end scene with Moira rolled around, I wanted to cry, "YES!"

Some people have complained that he didn't need to die, and I disagree: the Prof had to die for the entire movie to work at all. If he was around, he could flat-out disable the entire Magneto army, other than Magneto and Phoenix, with a thought (as demonstrated in X2). He is, essentially, too powerful to allow something like the big mutant battle to happen, so he had to be put out of comission. Granted, they could've just 'disabled' him, but I think what they did was really smartly done, because when you kill Professor X, you really cut the feet out from under the audience. Cyclops? "Whoa, she just killed a main character! But, meh, Cyclops. No one likes him." But Professor X? That shows that no one is safe.

And his resurrection would've certainly been gimmicky had they not altogether set that entire thing up earlier in the movie. But since they set it up, and since it played out exactly the way it did, I was very pleased with it.

Other points of awesome:

Juggernaut. Most people felt great trepidation about Juggernaut. He's too small, his helmet looks terrible, bad casting, etc, etc. No way. Vinnie Jones was perfect for the Juggernaut they constructed for this film. And the inclusion of the internet meme line, "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" had the entire theater cheering.
Beast. Holy shit. Everything was dead-on. "Oh my stars and garters..." to the quote about Churchill, which he then cuts off with "Oh, you get the point." And his fighting sequences were dead on. Beautiful, beautiful work.
Mystique. I thought this was handled brilliantly. Magneto's reaction to her departure, her betrayal, and Magneto's anticipation of it -- excellent.
Wolverine vs. Phoenix. There aren't really any words. This was the only way it could've gone, and it was gorgeous. It was also reminiscent (to me) of a scene described in the Wolverine origin novel wherein Wolverine is exposed to the open radiation of a nuclear reactor, which he is simply disregarding as it melts off his skin, which continues to heal. Just...wow. The only concern I had was that Hugh was going to end up naked, which would've been unnecessary.
Magneto. What a journey. I particularly loved the end bit with him. You watch his hand, think "Dude, his powers are back!" and then nothing happens...and then it wiggles for a frame, CUT TO CREDITS. That was awesome. Brilliantly cut there.

However, the movie wasn't flawless. The 95 minute running time raised many eyebrows, and honestly it was right to. This movie, if it suffered from anything, was that it was moving at breakneck speed. There were many, many plots going on. The movie didn't suffer from having these many plots -- in fact, this was one of its strengths. However, it "suffered" from not spending enough time developing them. An extra 15-25 minutes would've taken X3 from being the second best movie in the X-franchise and making it the absolute best (ahead of X2).

Ultimately, I wouldn't miss this in the theater (even if I weren't an utter X-geek), and I certainly won't miss getting the DVD when it comes out.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2006-05-27 12:14pm

I thought the movie was excellent.

Firstly, young Xavier and Magneto were vaguely amusing. If only for seeing the actors with their skin pulled back.

I knew Cyclops was going to die, because of an article Joe posted some time ago. I didn't like him anyway.

The Professor's death had me shocked. I kept thinking "Who's going to step in here? Wolverine? Magneto?". When the Prof dissolved I was in some sort of denial. Though the inner cynic had me waiting for some grand reset button. I damn near cried in the funeral sequence. And yes, I missed the bit at the end.

Rogue's storyline had me a little puzzled, though I wonder if she'll be back for X4.

Kelsey Grammar (Beast) was awesome. Doing a character he does so well, with some action sequences.

As usual, Sir Ian MacKellan was great. Slimline Magneto was handled in such a nice subtle way, and I liked that he's got a respect for Xavier. The sequence at the end where he moves the piece shocked me. I thought he was going to knock over the king piece, to signify he was plotting a comeback. Instead we got .25 of a second that speaks volumes.

At the end of the film, I decided that I liked it enough to immediately go in and see another session.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2006-05-27 12:32pm

Splendid review! I really loved the movie. When Xavier died, I sat there with my mouth open in awe for at least a minute after the scene was complete. My favorite character in this film has to be Jean/Phoenix. The magnitude of her power. Whoa.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2006-05-27 12:32pm

Am I to assume that the cure was just temporary? It was assumed to be permament but in the end it was only temporary?

Danny Bhoy · Post by **Danny Bhoy** » 2006-05-27 12:54pm

Aeolus wrote:
Grand Moff Yenchin wrote:
Fire Fly wrote:When did Psylocke have invisiblity powers? She's always been a telepath with some telekinetic powers. I suppose the Asian part comes from that she was a ninja.
The same reason why Callisto has super-speed and mutant sensing ablilities in this film?
Callisto could sense mutants in the comics as well. Thats how she colloected the morelocks

Could she? I thought she used Caliban for that.

Cej4096 · Post by **Cej4096** » 2006-05-27 01:13pm

I would say that the Dark Phoenix storyline should have been left out. It felt too crammed in there. The ending of it was good though.

The violence was nicely brutal, with Magneto crushing cars with people inside, Pyro barbecuing people, and a hero who basically runs around slashing and stabbing the bad guys with knives.

One thing that I was quite surpised by in a good way was that Rogue took the cure. I was expecting her to reappear at the end and say something about how she couldn't do it, and that this was who she was. Considering her "powers" are almost completly detrimental, there's not really much logical reason for her not to use the cure. I wasn't expecting the film makers to see that though.

Magneto was great. Though I would have preferred something along the lines of "You go girl" instead of the cheesy "What have I done." I initally missed that the chess piece at the end moved, and when someone pointed that out to me, it severely detracted from my opinion of ending. I liked the sense of closure the movies had with him losing his powers.

Xavier turning out to be alive is fine with me since, I assume, he's lost his powers, and thus it isn't a total cop-out.

The film could have used some more closure on the cure, as there's no mention of whether it's still being produced or not.

Overall, I'd say it was an enjoyable movie.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2006-05-27 01:18pm

Gandalf wrote:Firstly, young Xavier and Magneto were vaguely amusing. If only for seeing the actors with their skin pulled back.

This was actually done digitally. Younger photos of the actors were given to a specialty company that exclusively does body alteration on video footage. They filmed the scene as themselves, and then their faces were digitally altered to appear younger. That really impresses me.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2006-05-27 01:21pm

Damn lack of edit button.

Cej4096 wrote:I initally missed that the chess piece at the end moved, and when someone pointed that out to me, it severely detracted from my opinion of ending. I liked the sense of closure the movies had with him losing his powers.

If I recall correctly, Magneto has completely discorpealized in the comics before, and come back.

Magneto is too god-like a mutant for something as petty as a cure to stop him.

Xavier turning out to be alive is fine with me since, I assume, he's lost his powers, and thus it isn't a total cop-out.

I hadn't thought of this, and it's an interesting point. If its intrinsic to Xavier's "soul" (ugh), then he'll still have them. But if it's a specific ability granted by biology (i.e. mutation), then he shouldn't have them anymore. That'll make for some very intersting character development in the sequel to this one.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-05-27 01:22pm

I was pretty unimpressed. The action was passable, but it lacked the creativity of Brian Singer's direction- there's no awesome scene like where Magneto escapes from his plastic prison like in X2.

Character gripes.

1. Cylcops. This is pretty fucking major. Yup, they did it alright, they killed the leader of the X-Men and the major protagonist (apart from Jean Grey herself) in the Phoenix storyline in the first ten fucking minutes. Utterly fucking shameful. Not only that, they didn't focus on the massive deal that would be Jean Grey killing her first love whatsoever. They were far too busy focusing on Wolverine, whoose close to fucking irrelevant as far as Dark Phoenix is concerned. Poor.

2. Professor X re: Cylcops. What the fuck? Professor X talks to Storm and casually mentions he wants her to succeed him, she asks what about Scott, he blows that off with "oh he's a changed man"- I don't buy that bullshit for a second. Cyclops was one of his first goddamn students, like a son to him, and he doesn't try and fucking help him whatsoever, he just writes the guy off? I was disgusted.

3. Storm as leader. Halle Berry has no credibility as Storm, 2IC of the X-Men, and never did.

4. Iceman/ Shadowcat/ Rogue: oh who CARES. There's nothing I could think of mattered least in this movie than this love triangle. I mean, let's be serious- fuck Rogue. She's utterly useless in the movies. Her losing her powers at the end meant nothing and was no loss to anyone.

5. Juggernaut: what a disappointment.

6. OMG, they killed Professor X, you bastards! Did I mention Storm has even less credibility as Professor X's replacement?

7. Magneto losing his powers- and then getting them back! Well done, you retards. I suppose you geniuses didn't realize that by taking that road only to have him nudge a chess-piece at the end, was basically telegraphing to the audience: "hey! everyone! nothing that happened in this movie mattered! the shit didn't work anyway!"

Pfft.

I agree with the criticisms here as well- especially way too many characters. Colossus not having a Russian accent was especially annoying.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2006-05-27 01:24pm

Vymp, you're trying to shoehorn the movies to be the comics. Take them as their own entities, and they stand very well. Being upset that they "didn't follow the comics" is, essentially, meaningless.

Cej4096 · Post by **Cej4096** » 2006-05-27 01:27pm

Enigma wrote:Am I to assume that the cure was just temporary? It was assumed to be permament but in the end it was only temporary?

I don't know. Magneto is supposed to very powerful, so maybe the cure just wasn't strong enough to completly block his powers. For all we know causing small pieces of metal to wobble may be the most he'll ever be able to do from now on. If anything, that kind of frustration could be worse than totally losing his powers.

But presumably we're supposed to think that he will eventually recover his full powers, and thus he's still a threat.

Whether or not other mutants who took the cure voluntarily, and thus won't be trying to regain their powers will also begin to revert isn't clear.