X-Men 3: There's Good News... And Bad News

[cheyannew]

The bossman has rented out a theatre for the company, so I'll be seeing it at about 8am (ugh not a morning person) with my family, we shall see!
The kids're excited at any rate.

[Guido]

This is the first part one out of two for my review of X-MEN: Last Stand.

The night of yesterday my friends and I went to watch the premier of X-Men III in my country at my local theater. I really did have expectations for the film, but after coming through the cinema screening I have mixed feelings that the last X-Men delivery on the silver screen substantially fell flat on one end of the spectrum, though it accomplished several production and character values.

WARNING. Please read message on spoiler tag.

Spoiler for ”For those who have not seen yet the film, then stop reading prior to this point. Spoilers ahead”:

The basic problem I have to churn the plot was the lack of confrontation between human and mutant points of view in respect to intolerance and discriminatory speciesism towards each other. The first film established the mutant’s community animosity and frustration against human society plagued of hatred, fear, and jealousy, while the second delivery complimented well to portray human’s inhumanity and indifference upon confused and withdrawn mutant kin.
For the Last Stand, genetic science has allowed ordinary humans to harness an anti-mutant vaccine to willingly? propose to the socially overwhelmed mutants a miracle to be cured of their condition and be reintegrated into human fellowship. Of course, the groundbreaking news is seen as an infamy by the extreme mutant factions led by Magneto, which the uproar snaps them to wage all out war against the homo sapiens. On the other hand, the socially reserved and mainstream mutants’ reaction to the cure is met with mixed feelings, as some voice out their protest that mutant condition is not an illness while others take the easy way out because no longer can they cope with the stress of not fitting in or perceive their powers as a handicap in both physical and emotional realms.
What I’m conveying for this film is that humans are depicted as the altruistic saviors and all bringers of the light to the mutants. However, what about the extreme human factions that always have seen mutants as a threat and inferior freaks? I doubt that they would have remained idle and just stand there while the cure would be administered. They wouldn’t care for a peaceful, costly solution. They would have conspired and strike out to solve the mutant problem on their manners the easiest way possible, that is genocide.
This is what the second sequel lacks that both sides propose their positive and negative stances on the issue. The humans are depicted one-sided and mostly morally good while divided loyalties centered around the cure separate the mutants into terrorist and conservative factions, and I cannot stop thinking about that the passion and heated hatred of the terrorist mutants was seen as an allegory or metaphor to the Muslim communities of the Middle East.
Magneto was mostly fundamentalist of his views and manners of action. The scriptwriters flawed him on the Last Stand, as his character opted for brute force and incendiary action, than tactics and ever present conspiracy politics that characterized him in the previous movies. Magneto should had made plans to conspire against the cure and move strings to organize or kidnap a selectee team of genetists to come up with a counter agent against the vaccine. Or at least to have come up with a contingency plan to catch off guard the resistance. Besides, would have been for the better if the mutant army had used their powers on a strategic approach than just charge in and make their way through force alone.

Moving on with the second topic, Phoenix. The idea for Phoenix is excellent but poorly executed in X-MEN 3. There’s no pacing whatsoever on how Jean gradually transitions into her dark ego or how Phoenix came to be. Phoenix is portrayed as Jean’s total loss of control over her powers for attaching herself to desire and only wakes when Jean breaks under severe distress or life-threatening situations.
What Bryan Singer did for movie one and two was filling the gaps on the character’s back stories consistently so the audience were left piqued with curiosity and on a cliffhanger what’s more to come in knowing about them, bridging film one and two as compatible jigsaw pieces. For example, enough screentime thoroughly explored Wolverine’s past, Rogue’s adolescent mutant crisis and adaptation, and the human-mutant social dilemma.
However, I see Jean’s return as Phoenix as an unfit piece that the writers forcefully tried to set up in-between the film’s continuity. Phoenix does not exudes sympathy from me, as she was depicted as a destructive entity for pleasure and threatened for her powers be stripped from her. Simply put, Phoenix is evil for the pleasure of indulging herself with her powers. In the previous X-MEN movies neither hints were given to the mortal peril of Jean’s telekinesis would bring forth nor is shown an implied deterioriation of Jean’s ego. Therefore, a connection to fit Phoenix into the X-MEN film continuity utterly fails.
Different for the better would have been if the movie had presented a disturbed, child Jean burdened with schizophrenic trauma or being object of domestic violence due to her mutant condition. It would demonstrate the audience that Phoenix’s manifestation on Jean comes from the latter’s power outburst as a reflection of a natural human reaction against inhuman treatment; Jean’s degradation into Phoenix lacked humanist treatment.

Following, the scriptwriters placed Kitty Pride on almost with the same shoes as how Rogue was in the first film, evoking the same frustrations and stress from the latter. The problem is lack of imagination and brainstorming for ideas to flesh out the character’s personality. To give screentime to her the writers chose to pair her along with Bobby and pull the conventional novel device on Rogue fearing that Bobby is two-timing her with Kitty, because her life-absorbing powers are a blunt impediment to further their relationship. In turn, Rogue mistakenly believes is natural for Bobby to distance himself and pry his eyes on another girl.
The Bobby-Kitty pair up works and fails on both sides, because it gives to the spectators an insight on how Rogue’s jealousy is hurting her always reminded of the restriction her power burdens on preventing any type of physical intimacy, one on hand. On the other, I believe that considerable amount of screentime is given to Kitty and Bobby that interrupts the flow of the movie.

My only complain I have for the CGI effects was that the crew went over the top with Magneto’s incident at the Golden Gate. That’s much I could not swallow.

[cheyannew]

Originally Posted by Guido

WARNING. Please read message on spoiler tag.

Spoiler for ”For those who have not seen yet the film, then stop reading prior to this point. Spoilers ahead”:

My only complain I have for the CGI effects was that the crew went over the top with Magneto’s incident at the Golden Gate. That’s much I could not swallow.

The cubs and I saw it this morning, and, if I seperate myself from the woman who grew up on these, it's not a bad flick.

Spoiler for ”The comic geek in me had the following to say”:

The Jean Grey/Phoenix thing was awful; not even counting the HUGE deviation they did from the actual origins of Phoenix/Dark Phoenix, it just seemed like the poor girl was there for lack of any new villains; as opposed to showing more of WHY she was like that; WHY she had this super-powerful persona tamped down in there.
I wasn't incredibly surprised to see Xavier offed, however it also seemed to go against the grain, I mean yes Phoenix was incredibly powerful, but if Logan was able to give her pause, Xavier wasn't? Seems odd, to me.
Rogue was incredibly weak in this; I mean I cannot fathom the "real" Rogue ever wussing out on life the way she did in this movie, it was rather dissapointing. She was always a pretty badass character.
Magneto did pretty good as the leader of the rebellion, as Sir McKellen is an astounding actor, however, his stunt in the first movie drained him terribly; are we supposed to believe all the sudden he can move an entire bridge? Now, Phoenix, yes, I can see her being able to do it, but Magneto just kept on waltzing as if it were no big deal to MOVE A BRIDGE.. Sorry, comic geek or not that seems hard to swallow
I missed Piotr becoming "Peter", as some people kept their accents but Piotr was changed to a non-Russian, my mom thinks the actor they got it pretty hot (which kind of grosses me out to be honest, it's my mother), but I REALLY would've liked him to be Piotr, not Peter. Again, comic geek, it was part of Colossus; so it felt like something was missing.
Xavier's "return"; I rather had an inkling that comatose guy'd play a part in something, but it was pretty hokey, I'm sorry. I had to explain to my mom what was going on, because she didn't get it. It was a tad too hokey, and said "HEY!!! Gear up for #4!!!"
They also didn't mention AT ALL anything about Juggernaut; whilst my entire company cheered at his token like 'I'm the Juggernaut, B****!" they explained NOTHING about his background, or anything. Also, he had his helmet on when he got clobbered by the wall and that just sort of nixed most of who he was, since he wasn't a mutant (I guess that would've taken too much explaining though).
Cyclops, whilst a whiney git in the first/second movies, was not expected to bite it, cause, well, he's Cyclops. Whilst they never show his body (#4 anyone?), it's implied by Jean's own words, etc that he's gone for good. Then again, they said that about Xavier too.
For some reason, Mystique's comment about her "slave name" didn't seem right either; mutants were never slaves so to speak, I thought I was watching Roots for a moment there.
I still have pout-fests about characters like Iceman/Rogue/Kitty being teenagers, bt I guess they had to do that so the younger generation (not us old farts) would be able to empathize with it.

Wow that ended up a lot longer than I thought, I'll shut up now

[Guido]

Originally Posted by cheyannew

The cubs and I saw it this morning, and, if I seperate myself from the woman who grew up on these, it's not a bad flick.

Despite the film’s serious flaws, I applaud the production for having developed the key characters with enough screentime and best visual plus make-up effects in shooting every action sequence.

This is the second part two out of two for my review on X-MEN: Last Stand

WARNING. Please read message on spoiler tag.

Spoiler for For those who have not seen yet the film, then stop reading prior to this point. Spoilers ahead:

The three characters that outstand the most were Storm, Wolverine, and Beast, and awards should be given to Berry, Jackman, and Grammer to congratulate their respective performances.

For the third delivery, Storm was turned into the leader squad for the X-Men team replacing Cyclops. Her attitude changed to take the seriousness of her role and is the first one to voice protest against the cure, defending that mutancy forms part of every mutant’s identity. We got to witness the better and temperamental of her in glorious CGI effects and choreographic battles, yet delivering convincing drama during the most obscure times of the movie. She’s transformed into the elder sister to guide the young generation of mutants, teaching them to stand fighting, and taking full devotion of the side she chose to stand with.
No other actor would be best suited for Wolverine than Jackman himself. The guy assimilates and exudes the wild, feral side of the best known X-Man in Marvel’s history and carves it on film with his trademark style. I can feel for Wolverine, as the film portrays his personal tribulations and sense of blame due to Jean’s apparent death in the previous film. Yet, Logan strives not to be influenced on which path he chooses to believe is the one right for him. At the end, his character comes face to face between his wild passions and human compassion to make a lifetime choice that will forever scar him. The adamantium rage grows as this sequel progresses; Wolverine fans won’t be disappointed as they will be going to see for themselves the full extent of his instinct fury.
Kudos I give to Kelsey Grammer whose performance brought to life one of the most charismatic X-Men to my preference, Dr. Hank McCoy or known as the Beast. If Mr. Grammer never ever read the comics his whole life, indeed the man did his homework on the character with an A+. Beast is mannered on his quirks and exudes finesse, always remaining composed. He’s a knowledgeable scholar on arts and politics. He’s versatile both as a diplomat and as a ring fighter undergoing the stunning acrobatics for which is famous, the same manner that I recalled him from the 1992 animated series. Plus a special thanks goes to the visual department for the coolerrific make-up they apply on Mr. Grammer to transform him into Hank McCoy; this is a Beast that will make fans behold with proud eyes.

My roster also applies to Shawn Ashmore and Ellen Page whose chemistry together as both Bobby Drake and Kitty Pride works verosimile and adds emotional depth to their relationship as a teenage unofficial couple.
Bobby alone is average on the film and his lines are sort of wooden, but his dialogue is limited, fortunately. However, X-fans will receive a well, deserved reward with Bobby mutating into a full-fledged Iceman.
It is Kitty’s character that deserves praise on my part for her role during the climax battle. She’s cunning and cleverly makes use of both her wits and powers to outsmart those foes that heavily resort only in firepower and strength. I am pleasantly relieved that the film does not portrays her as a helpless child unable to handle herself. On the contrary, she’s a wily woman that times the moment when to pawn the enemy with strategy.

I must give a special thanks to Ben Foster as Warren Worthington III/ Archangel. His character was one of those who suffered most on the film, understanding the afflictions and consequences his condition will carry unto himself and his family. In addition, Warren’s feelings are best dramatized natural on screen with fear of being rejected but uncertainty on whether or not will be the best for him to lose his powers. Ultimately, Warren takes the decision on his own hands and renews his mutant identity on himself, after realizing the uniqueness of his gift and accepting it for he who really is.
It is through this acceptance that symbolically comes as the real cure to treat the affliction that mutants should overcome.

At first, I thought for blaming Brett Ratner for the lack of plot substance and loose coherence in the film. However, it was the studio that put pressure to stay on schedule and cut short funds for Ratner to pour resources at reworking scenes that went missing plot development. Indeed, this X-MEN was short in comparison to the previous installments, and I think it needed 20-30 minutes of film to properly mature the other characters that held potential and fix the gaping holes in the storyline. Nevertheless, Ratner found the way to pull the movie in one piece without falling apart, though it was shaking due to the loose plot.

It will be unfair for me to grade X-MEN: Last Stand with a five due to the superior acting of the key characters plus the aesthetically stunning visuals and choreographics, therefore, I will give it a six.

[monster]

Saw it at the midnight premiere and I must say, that as a casual movie viewer, I love this movie. But as someone who grew up with X-Men, among other things, I'm a bit (just a bit) disappointed at what they've done with some of the characters. Hopefully the end scenes with Magneto, and the extra after the credits, is a sign that they may decide to do another one (maybe not in the near future) because I don't like the ending of X-Men to be like what this movie presented.

The best part of the movie is the Kitty action.

[edkwon]

Man i didn't realize the hot chick storm was fighting was Callisto from the comic books, makes sense tho the two constantly having it at each other.



Movie version is much better looking too.

Comic version

Movie version



Wow and i just read that while Stan Lee had his usual cameo, this time as the dude watering his lawn in the OP scene, longtime X-men writer Christ Claremont was the dude moving his lawn, lol.

Ed

[Yakult]

Wow... the ending was so sad in my opinion ): I never actually read the comics or anything but this is the first time a movie got me sad o_o Anyone kind of get reminded of Elfen Lied when they saw X-Men: III though? haha x]

Spoiler:

I loved how the Juggernaut used that line from the online parody x] and when Jean was trying to sex Wolverine up that was really awesome (: They had wild cat scratching sex and leg wrapping action o_o! and she tried to get him naked with her powers haha!

[Aisu]

I was really dissapointed with the movie. In all truth I don't think that the woman that played Jean did a great part. Her acting skills were basic and did not manege to preperly act the high roll she was given.

[jedinat]

The movie was horrible. The quality was way below the first two. Crappy acting and dialogue. The story was pathetic. The actions and decisions of many of the characters made no sense and was inconsistent with their established personalities of the first two films. I'm not even even an X-Men fan and they way they handled a lot of the characters offended me. Overall a very painful experience.
The last scene [with the chess piece] was good though. Prevented me from feeling totally sickened as I left the theatre.

[chrno_the_sinner]

Originally Posted by jedinat

The movie was horrible. The quality was way below the first two. Crappy acting and dialogue. The story was pathetic. The actions and decisions of many of the characters made no sense and was inconsistent with their established personalities of the first two films. I'm not even even an X-Men fan and they way they handled a lot of the characters offended me. Overall a very painful experience.
The last scene [with the chess piece] was good though. Prevented me from feeling totally sickened as I left the theatre.

Oh c'mon now. It wasn't that bad. And that was NOT the last scene of the movie. There is a scene after the credits that was more than worth the wait. If you see the movie, you MUST stay until after the credits.

Spoiler:

I saw Scott's death coming from a mile away. Right away they made him more unlikeable than ever, plus Xavier's dialouge. Speaking of, Xavier's "I'm giving you the school" speach doomed his character as soon as he spoke the words. Parts were predictable, but others weren't. And I thought the movie was well pulled off for the time it had. I had a little tear in my eye, as did my friends (one even actually cried) when Xavier's death happened.

Spoiler for after the credits:

Xavier's second coming was absolutely amazing. I swear I had a fanboy orgasm for almost an hour.

[1.0.7.]

the movie was awful...awful awful awful.. the fight scenes, and indeed the war was uninspiring.. this goes side by side with aeon flux in my book
it was just..horrid.

[Bronwen Stx]

Originally Posted by chrno_the_sinner

Oh c'mon now. It wasn't that bad. And that was NOT the last scene of the movie. There is a scene after the credits that was more than worth the wait. If you see the movie, you MUST stay until after the credits.

Spoiler:

I saw Scott's death coming from a mile away. Right away they made him more unlikeable than ever, plus Xavier's dialouge. Speaking of, Xavier's "I'm giving you the school" speach doomed his character as soon as he spoke the words. Parts were predictable, but others weren't. And I thought the movie was well pulled off for the time it had. I had a little tear in my eye, as did my friends (one even actually cried) when Xavier's death happened.

Spoiler for after the credits:

Xavier's second coming was absolutely amazing. I swear I had a fanboy orgasm for almost an hour.

The only thing I would give X3 credits for is the extreme eye-candy and the a-list actors and actresses. Other than that I agree with what jedinat says.

I feel annoyed with this movie even though I detached my comic!verse self from the movies.

Spoiler:

Inconsistency is pretty much the word that'll describe the movie. There's a sort of sense of detachement from the first two movies with the second because first of all no matter what universe it is, Jean loves Scott. In the comic!verse, Jean struggled a lot with the Phoenix but there was barely any struggle here. She killed like some random psycho and the Phoenix worked on animalistic grounds. But no matter what, the Phoenix could never kill Scott because of Jean and Jean eventually regain control of her body because of her love for Scott. *cries* Scott is supposed to BE prominent in the phoenix saga and yet he is killed in his first few minutes of spotlight.

Ratner just kept dishing more mutants than he can count for either Jean to kill or Wolverine to chop. It's stupid and wholly uninteresting to watch random mutants take moments and do some flashy battle scenes when it would've been better to develop characters.

X-Men, while grounded with plenty of fighting scenes always balanced it with emotional investments for fans to take in. Character developments are important here otherwise these mutants are just some random strong people with special powers.

And I still can't believe Rogue is once again constricted to the role of the poor little girl that cannot touch and the other girl for the subplot romantic triangle of Rogue/Bobby/Kitty. I like Kitty, but man, why does Rogue need to be ignored in order for Kitty to have moments of coolness? I was also hoping for Pyro/Rogue/Bobby triangle if they really needed the love triangle.

I thought that the movie was going to have some lovely Sentinels but must it always be such a tease!!! I also thought that anyone going to Alcatraz will be reduced to a guinea pig for the return of Nathaniel Essex and then Rogue who wants a cure gets captured and experimented and is forced to absorb Carol Danvers and then she gets invinsibility and flying powers. Okay, maybe my love for Rogue is too much...

One thing for sure, that cure is SO temporary. I mean if anyone picked up on the fact that once they were beyond the kids perimeters, they return to normal? And there's that nifty interesting chess piece movement that Magneto did and of course how Charles is obviously still alive.

He rocks by the way.

My absolute favourite parts are probably only with the child Jean and child Angel. Those were awesome and painful to watch because Jean had creepy dead eyes and Angel cutting his wings. Oooh and the small Logan/Rogue moment. I am a fan of their father/daughter or brother/sister relationship. Rogue is a lot like Logan. Supposedly. Both are loners and had quite a hard life but they always deal with it. Both had lots of spunk and bad-assness it's so hard to describe. So I'm disappointed that Rogue was jilted and Wolverine was either a chopping machine or a horny boy with eyes only on Jean.

6.7/10 rating. :P If you were as much of a fan of the comics, you would be disappointed despite it all. It was just too inconsistent and most of the things that were brought up were barely scratched and most of it was simply eye-candy. Eye-candy is all good but not when character development are ignored for it.

[1.0.7.]

not to mention the juggernaut, isn't he supposed to be xavier's brother?

[Shi-chan]

I kinda liked this movie, watched it yesterday in theater. But I figured out that it's more a movie like: sit back, relax and put your brainactivity at 0%.

Spoiler:

Damn magneto!!! Everytime I closed my eyes and he said something I thought I was at Lord Of The Rings , bless god he dies

[DingoEnderZOE2]

Originally Posted by 1.0.7.

not to mention the juggernaut, isn't he supposed to be xavier's brother?

......That quote alone is proof that only the hardcore or loyal fans of the X-men comics would complain on the movies not being like the comics. And isn't Rogue supposed to be older, be pretty strong and can fly by default? yes but Guess what IT'S A MOVIE ABOUT THE COMICS SO OF COURSE THERES GONNA BE CHANGES FROM COMICS. Just deal with the fact that the movies DOES NOT have to be EXACTLY the same as the comics. Some people just can't be open-minded....

[Bronwen Stx]

Originally Posted by DingoEnderZOE2

......That quote alone is proof that only the hardcore or loyal fans of the X-men comics would complain on the movies not being like the comics. And isn't Rogue supposed to be older, be pretty strong and can fly by default? yes but Guess what IT'S A MOVIE ABOUT THE COMICS SO OF COURSE THERES GONNA BE CHANGES FROM COMICS. Just deal with the fact that the movies DOES NOT have to be EXACTLY the same as the comics. Some people just can't be open-minded....

You're right of course. But do bear in mind it's rather hard to part with loyal fans of the comics and then try to detach themselves from the movie. Nonetheless, it doesn't matter if Juggernaut isn't related to Xavier or anything, it would've helped if random mutants didn't pop up and there was plenty of inconsistency to go along with it.

X3 is mindless, ridiculous fun. But it's no great movie.

[Hellychan]

I've seen it last Friday, and wasn't as impressed as the first two chapter, I don't know why, it's just that I'm not going to watch it a 2nd time

Also, I'm happy I'm used to sit until the credits end
So at the end of the movie, most of the people who have watched it just quit the room without even knowing what really happened

[Nuke Mayhem]

I thought the movie was ok, but I have to say that hardcore fans of the X-Men Comics, Mavel Comics and the Pheonix Saga are going to hate this film because it broke some major unwriten rules of franchise based movies.

1.Never kill or depower imporatant key characters to the franchise.
2.Never rewrite the orgin stories of characters.
3.Always leave it open ended for any kind of sequal(well the little extra after the credits might change that).

I heard a 2nd trilogy might come after this, so I'm hoping it's one about Apocalypes.

[cheyannew]

Yeesh, I'd hate to think how they'd butcher the Apocalypse series...

[KaneDragon]

Spoiler:

Wait, who was Xavier talking to after the credits? >_>

Too many random mutants with no backstory that get their asses kicked.