Not So Great

Rating: 7/10 (28 May 2014)

Special effects in XMDOFP are amazing as we've come to expect from modern big screen 3D bonanzas.
But the story line is weak.
And that's why I can't rate this movie higher. It just doesn't cut the cerebral mustard. Unsatisfying to me, in the end....I wanted it to be more, and it didn't deliver it. But I am certain that to other viewers it was quite satisfying.
It's a well done piece of cinema.
The movie plot borrows from a number of others (Star Trek '09, Inception, The Matrix, Terminator 2) . . . and wasn't consequently that original. This is too bad. Given the budget and acting talent they had they could have come up with something a little more interesting ...and they should have.
I believe Singer was aspiring to achieve a genuine comic book look....and the attacks of the Sentinels with energy of all kinds being thrown around, he succeeded. However, it was for me too much of a good thing....I found them a bit too weird. Still, the CGI special effects are on a par with the best that have been done. Amazing. Fantastic choreography on the fighting sequences. The movie thrives on such action.
(I think it worth noting that people no longer refer to them as 'computer generated' but just 'special effects' ----the ineluctable transition toward seamless Singularity apparently on schedule) I will say that Quicksilver's actions were to my thinking the best of the movie----the scene in the kitchen of the Pentagon where he takes out all the guards and redirects the plastic bullets by first running around at warp speed: absolutely great ! A Great scene ! Quicksilver is now my favorite mutant!!
Acting is topnotch. I cannot think of a poor character rendition in this....Michael Fassbender playing the young Magneto shows once again why he is one of today's very elite cinema faces....he has a power to hold the camera, to capture the viewer's attention---the mark of a great actor. It's a high-octane cast, and they deliver.
The final plot development didn't work. Magneto's dramatic "relocation" of the sports stadium seemed odd-----visually novel, but a strangely over-the-top ploy that seemed unnecessary. If he was trying to make a statement, he could have done it by other, less excessive means. Maybe I just don't understand how Magneto's mind works.....maybe it's me. Probably.
I was hoping to be blown away by this movie....at least really pleasantly surprised by it. And I wasn't. Held back by a plot that could have been a hair stronger. Again, very good, but not great. 7.75, could we use fractions.