X-Men 3: The Last Stand (WARNING: SPOILERS)

Josephus

First of all, I'm serious: don't come here unless you've already seen the movie, or if you don't particularly mind reading some major spoilers about what goes on in X3. Now, on to the post:

I'm curious what other comic fans think of this movie.

I didn't go into the film with very high expectations, mainly because Bryan Singer wasn't involved in this one, and from what I'd read in various reviews the plot suffered from all the action. My fears did not come to pass though. I would say X3 was a weaker movie than either of the first two, but it had its moments.

Specific things I liked: Hank McCoy. The movie's take on Jean Grey/Phoenix, and just why and how she comes about. Charles Xavier's attitude about Jean's powers, and telling Wolverine that he had no right to judge him for what he did to Jean... "for her own good". Professor X's death. The irony of just where Worthington Industries was getting its mutant "cure" from. Storm starting to show that she could be team leader. Hugh Jackman's performance as Wolverine. Ian McKellan's performance as Magneto. The movie version of Callisto. Special appearence of Jamie Maddrox. And Vinnie Jones was just about perfectly cast as the Juggernaut.

Things I didn't particularly like: Angel seemed a bit one dimensional. The new X-Men, aside from Bobby, didn't get much air time at all, and even less character development. The rather cavalier offing of Cyclops offscreen. Pyro. And oh, yes: don't expect this version of Magneto's Brotherhood to pop up again if they decide to do yet another X-sequel, because the body count for Magneto's allies rivals the body count in Hamlet. Which is a shame, because some of those characters had some real potential which wasn't even touched upon.

All told, although this is the weakest X-movie (in my opinion), it was well worth seeing, if for nothing else than for its different approach to the whole Dark Phoenix story. It's a movie I'd be quite willing to watch again, if for nothing else than to try to catch some of the things I missed the first time through.

GhostofMacbeth · Forum Member Joined: Sep 21, 2001 Posts: 613

I liked a lot of the film but I thought it needed help with transitions. Other than the lack of character development throughout that was one of the biggest things that annoyed me. It was just waaaaaaay too jarring when they changed locations and they just needed a few extra minutes of film to pull it together a bit better. I have to write a full review of it so I don't want to write too much but I will write more later. I also need to digest it a bit more.

itisitex · Forum Member Joined: Sep 01, 2002 Posts: 174 Location: Tx

I thought it sucked overall. Yes it had some great action and interesting unrealized plot development.
The movie should have been longer to tackle such a large story. Then they off 3 main characters and for the most part for no other reason than to draw you in emotionally. This is were the character development would have help the movie the most.
Scott had like maybe 3 minutes of screen time (i think it was less than that but i am being nice) Jean and the professor had a little more but it didn't
serve to develope the characters enough.
The best part of the movie was how Kitty beat Jughead i thought. It was great to see the Beast on screen and in action but again not much character development. I do hope that when they release on DVD that the have an extented version that could help save the movie.

GhostofMacbeth · Forum Member Joined: Sep 21, 2001 Posts: 613

I read or saw something someplace and the director said there really wasn't much extra. Just alternative scenes but not much extra. I think it needed those extra bits too and I did agree that certain things were rather pointless.

itisitex · Forum Member Joined: Sep 01, 2002 Posts: 174 Location: Tx

I also like the previews

palmers · Forum Member Joined: Jun 07, 2002 Posts: 397

I started a thread in General Discussions because I hadn't found this one.

I was prepared to like this film. I think the Spider-Man films are almost perfect, Daredevil was okay, Hulk was okay, FF was okay; I liked and respected the first X film and thought the second was okay, although too heavy on Wolverine (but then, Marvel's too heavy on Wolverine these days).

This was crap. The characters were all wrong, Wolverine was shoehorned into a standard Hollywood romantic-action-hero role, heroes were dismissed casually, and I didn't care. Beast was good, but everything else... I'd have sent it back. Try harder.

IMP.
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Mizrael · Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2004 Posts: 259

I honestly don't look to Hollywood for Character Development anymore! They aren't capable of handling it in my opinion. If they knew a thing about characterizations, they wouldn't have had to off the three main figures just to give everyone else airtime. Frankly that's the only reason I can see behind offing the three main characters was that they would have taken too much screentime! That's a very sad excuse in my book.

GnosticAnubis

X3 was a severely compromised movie. Why Singer chose to jump ship to direct Superman Returns is quite beyond me, as is the question of why the hell Fox chose to steam ahead with another director rather than wait for Singer to finish SR. Ratner's not necessarily a bad director, but it seems very obvious that he wanted X3 to be his movie, and he wanted to do the "Planet X" and "The Cure" story arcs, not the "Dark Pheonix Saga". To this end, Rogue was not-so-subtly replaced by Kitty Pryde (because Rogue did not appear in "The Cure", whereas Kitty did), Xavier was killed off (well, sorta - did anyone else see the post-credits sequence?) because he did not appear in "The Cure", and Magneto was out of character (because the "Magneto" seen in "Planet X" was not actually Eric Lehnsherr.) And then Cyclops had to be killed off, because Marsden was in the middle of filming SR. What you ended up with was a mess, which was entertaining in parts, but otherwise very compromised.

palmers · Forum Member Joined: Jun 07, 2002 Posts: 397

You'd think if all that money was being spent, all those compromises would have been unacceptable.

I wonder how much it counts that a lot of comics readers, like us, would go and see the film even if we didn't expect it to be much. Same turnover.

On the other hand, it doesn't cost more to make a better story.

IMP.
_________________
RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com

HowardFilms · Forum Member Joined: Sep 17, 2006 Posts: 16

Did Pyro die?