X3... Spoiler Warning!

[logisticslad]

I finally saw X3 today and I sure am glad that I had progressively lowered my expectations over the course of the weekend. On the plus side, it was a fun action film. The costumes looked cool. The superpowers and special effects were very well done. It didn't look hokey (a la The Hulk). Many of the actors did the best they could with what they had (I thought that Kelsey Grammer, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn were notably good). I liked how Prof X came off as scarily powerful, equal to Magneto. However, the script had MAJOR problems. It tried to retell too many of the classic comic stories all at once (the Phoenix saga, the Brotherhood story, the Morlocks story, the Cure storyline, etc) and ended up shortchanging each one. The characters behaved in ways that were very out of character. Yes, it was nice to see lots of familiar mutants, but the script didn't give most of them much context or serious motivation or development. It also shifted focus to Wolverine to the point where it almost became "Wolvie and his Uncanny Friends," despite them nattering on about being a team.

I did catch Stan Lee with the waterhose and also Chris Claremont (New X-Men writer) with the levitating lawnmower in the same scene.

I thought that providing dramatic tension by killing off characters was essentially unnecessary. The comics managed to do it without resorting to that, as did the cartoons! The very end where we find out what happened to Xavier was completely out of character and evocative of the Shadow King storyline in the comics. Note that we did not actually see what happened to Scott, so he could be stashed somewhere safe and return for a sequel. And Jean didn't stay dead when Wolvie gutted her in the comics either, so who knows. I thought that they really shortchanged Jean's internal struggle and ultimate sacrifice.

Oh well. Trying to look at it on its own terms, I can see why they may have thought some of the choices made sense. I simply miss Bryan Singer's deft take on the characters and the world they live in. I liked it enough that I will eventually buy it on DVD, but I was disappointed and thought that they could have done so much more.

Comments

[phillyfyre.livejournal.com]

I was VERY disappointed with the movie, yeah , cool special effects, cool set design, cool everything....

except the writing.....


I appluad people with taking chances with old concepts (BSG anyone?) but pointlessly killing off major characters with little or no remorse to the emotional investment the FANS have put into these characters is just wrong. It's hard to believe that Stan Lee had script approval on the story as presented. This along with the pointless sequel mongering; the Xavier coda, Magneto moving the chess piece, the school staying open was unnecessary. Phoenix was one of the more powerful of the comic and cartoon sagas, this treatment of it being a "bad decision" on Xavier's part short changed the greatness of the plot line it could of had.

I would of rather seen the "Brotherhood" uniting with the Xmen to take on Apocalypse than this mishmosh version of "Kill All Mutants"

When's Ghost Rider coming out?

[circesbed.livejournal.com]

This thought didn't occur to me until Sunday, but... after Dark Phoenix "died," the school added a tombstone/memorial stone/what-have-you in the garden for Jean Grey. However, as far as they knew, Dr. Grey died at Alkali Lake. So why wasn't something put up for her then?

Also, I understand movie-listically (yes, I know I just made that word up) why they did this, but it was kind of disappointing why there was no mention of Nightcrawler or Jubilee who were both introduced in X2.

Seriously, Bryan Singer better friggin' deliver with Superman Returns else I'm going to be REALLY angry! lol