What Action? What Acting? What Story?

Rating: 4/10 (25 September 2006)

I saw this movie a while ago, but I am very surprised it has such a high rating here on IMDb. Let me first say that I loved the first two movies. They were great action movies, and had spectacular pacing and suspense when needed for the story to keep moving. This third installment is a disgrace to the first two movies. I'm not even talking about the story, though it did disappoint me. I'm talking about the fact that there really was no action in this movie. I mean, there was a big fight at the end. That's it. And the choreography was pretty terrible. Choppy scenes of people pretending to get hit in the face, beast just flailing his arms about, and Wolverine gliding around on strings after Colossus (who just stands there otherwise) throws him into the air. Then Wolverine will fall on somebody. That's it. There was an interesting "chase" scene I guess you could say, but it wasn't anything special. Other than that, that's the action.
The whole movie just felt tacky, save for the one pivotal scene involving Professor X and Jean. (if you've seen, you know what I'm talking about) That scene was really intense, and the rest just felt cheesy.
Okay, and I'm going to say it, Halle Barry destroyed this movie. What could have been okay and salvageable plot points and dialogue, she butchers the hell out of. Every line she says is so dry, forced, and badly acted. If you've seen, you know. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch it again and actually pay attention when she's on screen. You'll want to stab her.