X-Men 3: The Last Straw

We went to see X-Men 3 as an office function (nice perk, huh) today so I thought I'd share some thoughts. If you have not seen it, please stop now as I'm not responsible for spoilers from this point on.

The good news, is that I didn't hate it like I expected. I had pretty much heard that the film was rushed into production with a crappy director (Brett Ratner) just to beat out Superman Returns because has a bruised ego from Bryan Singer dumping the project to do The Man of Steel. The film did feel unfinished and rushed but it did have some appeal.

Good:
- Xavier was a little sinister in this one. Charlie in the comics has always had a bit of an edge and we lose the Picard influence finally. The Professor did a seemingly bad thing years before and now everyone's going to pay for it.
- Wolverine is still a great character. I like Jackman in the role and hope the spin-off works.
- Bobby Drake "icing up". Very cool to see them pull it off. Colossus also looked good but the effect seemed unfinished.
- Kitty Pryde. Very well done. True to character and very likeable. The scene where she takes out Juggernaut was priceless.
- The final scene with Magneto. Fitting and oh-so-NOT-final.
- Mystique betraying Magneto. Wonderfully fitting and so totally in character. And finally, someone on screen (Maddrox) noticed that she was naked. Only took three movies!

Neutral:
- Beast. Man, I'm not sure about this. When I saw his arms, all I could think of was Sully from Monsters Inc. He could have been a little less blue. Still, I think Kelsey Grammar did a good job. He has a wonderful voice.
- Phoenix / Dark Phoenix. This diverted from the comics even though they have described it three different ways now anyway. I suppose it makes sense, in the context of the film.

Bad:
- Stupid moments. Like why would two mutants carry Worthington II up to the roof to kill him by dropping him? Oh yeah, to set up a frickin' obvious scene with Warren catching him. Yawn.
- Halle Berry. She wasn't as bad as I expected, but I had read several months ago that she demanded rewrites to give her the majority of lines. It didn't seem that way but she has NEVER been the Storm from the comics. Of all of the characters, she's never been true to the source.
- Cyclops is still a total puss. He couldn't even get killed on-screen. Of course, he probably didn't care as Marsden gets to nail Superman's girlfriend a month later.
- The fight between Pyro and Iceman. Could have been more than one punch.
- Flying. None of the flying scenes looked right. It was obviously rigged.
- Where was Nightcrawler? This was an obvious omission.
- A military squad approaches, guns drawn, in a full circle? Ok, everyone, DUCK!!



Was there an obvious missed opportunity? I was certain that they'd use Leech to cancel out the Phoenix power to give Logan the time to kill her. Everything seemed to be going that way and then nothing. I'm not going to go "...I could have written a better script..." angle, but it would have followed the Hitchcockian philosophy of "the gun you see in Act 1 gets fired in Act 3". (Thanks Shocho!)

The ending. Not the ending at the school. The ending AFTER the credits. Oh My God. If you didn't see it, avoid anyone who tries to tell it to you. Trust me.

They keep saying that there will be NO fourth movie. However, it's #2 for Memorial Day Weekend Box office. Someone will come along and make it if there's enough money involved.

I'd give X-Men 3: The Last Stand a solid B. I'll also guarantee we'll see a #4.