Incredibly bad - And I mean 'incredibly'...

Rating: 3/10 (23 June 2011)

Incredibly because I had read more than a dozen reviews on IMDb before I saw the movie and went in expecting to be very entertained. Every review said the same thing 'Great movie!' I settled back, a smile on my face, and after the first ten minutes I went 'Uh? Is this really the plot - that this mutant-powered kid after seeing his mother shot, and after trashing a room full of heavy metal objects, and after crushing two Nazi soldiers inside their helmets, DOESN'T at least try to kill the guy who killed his mother??" Then it seemed to get worse. The acting was so bad that I was waiting for the joke to be sprung on me - this must be a play within a play, where the play within is really obviously poor...
An hour later, remembering the glowing, enthusiastic reviews, I checked my ticket in case I was not seeing the same move. Then I told myself the second half must be amazing, how else could anyone admire this drivel? The costumes were embarrassing: they reminded me of an Austin Powers farce; the dialogue was so amazingly clichéd that I was guessing the next lines without effort, or error. The director seemed to be missing, presumed dead. The CGI was CGI; after the third time thru watching Raven turn on her blue-skin I was starting to think fondly of Transformers 3. The plot seemed to have been designed by a committee; I imagined a room full of brainstorming writers saying things like 'Wait! let's put Kennedy in there? We got any footage? Cuban Missile Crisis!" "Right! hey we need some really heavy type Russian general types, like in Dr. Strangelove only different." "Yeah, and lets put a twist in there where after the mutants have saved humanity, all the ships, get this Russian AND American, blow them to smithereens for no apparent reason." "Oh yeah, I love it!" After what I was sure had been 2 hours I ran from the theatre as the credits rolled. I was amazed to find it had only been about 100 minutes. Time flies when you're having fun, and drags when you're not.
My 17 year old son loved it. When I told him I thought it was stunningly bad he asked me if I was in a bad mood. I didn't feel in a bad mood, although my mood had been better when I bought my ticket. I said, "No, I don't think so. I just think it was a very poor movie. I think it's INCREDIBLE that IMDb had so many positive reviews. In fact, I feel a bit strange about that." That's the incredible part.