Not what it could have been

Rating: 6/10 (23 September 2006)

OK, heres the deal, I'm a lifelong fan of comic books. This does not mean I am some be-speckled 98 pound weakling who haunts the internet to complain over whats going on with the films. My interest started from the art work, I'm an art major specializing in character design and cartooning and so comics naturally grabbed my attention, adding to this a lifelong love of film and obliviously the current run of comic book based films has my attention. What a viewer who has never read an X-men comic needs to know going in about this film is how much better it could have been.
What I'm saying here is that starting from the direction to the story to the characters, it was all there but it was all lacking. There was not one thing in this film that could not have been done better. When a new viewer watches this movie, they need to know that characters that could have been very cool and very interesting aren't even given real speaking time. Also and this is where the artist part of me kicks in, I grew up on the Jim Lee era X-men, there was a definitive cool x-men look from that time and they missed it here. Juggernaut looks ridiculous, and it follows from there, to me the directors should go for the characters appearance first and then go from there. Hugh Jackman was one such casting decision, he looked like Wolverine. In this new movie though they lost this.
Ben Fosters turn as the Angel case in point. Now from a "look" point of view the casting of Ben Foster as one of the foremost X-men drove me nuts, but I had faith in his acting ability. Angel is the pretty boy with a very dark side(His skin turns blue and he becomes the Angel of Death, so not kidding about the dark side), which after watching Fosters turn in Hostage I was willing to admit he could definitely play. I assumed he was cast not based on his physical appearance but due to his acting ability. Well he says maybe four lines in the whole film, at that point why not hire some Calvin Kline model who's 6' 4", get the look right and not worry about him speaking?
If it were just Ben Foster's character it wouldn't be that bad, but its everything. Brett Ratner packed his film so full of characters in a bid to OUT DO Bryan Singer. So instead of subtle intelligent cool, the viewer is bombarded with a cheap, special effects laden over blown film that feels more like an hour and a half long music video that someone forgot to put music to. There's barely enough time for old characters let alone new ones and They screwed up the story, which drives fans insane, but as a film fan drives me crazy because the only reason to change from source material is to improve on it, well they don't.
The story is one big rush pushing for an ending thats supposed to be climatic but isn't. It's an ending true, but in so many ways it's very disappointing, it just isn't what it could have been.
Now I've done a lot of complaining here and I suppose for me, no this is not a good film I have to much of an idea of what audiences could have seen, but for people who just go to a theater to see a movie I stick by my 6 out of 10. Kelsey Grammar being one of the main reasons, he is entertaining as the Beast and does actually manage to get a character arc in there. The special effects are overblown but there and there is a story with a beginning and an ending.
So if you are a viewer who loved the first two films and is expecting the same level of entertainment and intelligence you're going to be let down. If you just want to watch a movie thats got random people doing things with super powers this is your movie, but hey I'm only one guy, someone else may love this film, OK, critique over.