Ratner blows it

Rating: 2/10 (1 June 2006)

Make no mistake, Brett Ratner does for the X-Men series what Joel Schumacher did for Batman. His direction adds nothing and subtracts much. Hopefully this sequel won't kill the franchise the way Schumacher did, but anyone at Fox that signs him to another movie needs to be sacked.
Ratner directed a mediocre superhero film. Some cool effects and battles, no doubt. Lots of villains, most of whom are dispatched by Wolverine before uttering a word. But in some, the film is flat and soulless.
The biggest things I missed from this film were any sense of developing the characters. This was most apparent in the new characters, including Beast and Juggernaut, but especially Angel, who gets top billing in the ads and promotional materials, and all of 3 lines of dialog. If you've seen the commercial, you've seen a good chunk of his on-screen time. In his first scene (10 years earlier) he is ashamed of his powers, and so is his father. Without explanation, he is proud of his wings in the next scene, defies his father, and hops out the window.
Established character development also failed to make the cut. Given that the movie clocked in at about 90 minutes, Ratner had time to develop characters and conflicts more, but apparently chose not to. The Iceman/Kitty/Rogue love triangle had as much drama (and just about as much screen time) as an acne cream ad. Rogue, basically the heart of the first film, gets barely more than a series of cameos here.
Lingering questions: Why does Kitty miss the snow? She still lives in Westchester County, New York, which is in the snow belt. Why does the San Francisco Bay turn from day to night the second Magneto lands on Alcatraz? How did Angel fly across the country, just minutes after the X-Men's jet? Some might call me a fanboy, but I just like good movies. The first two took plenty of liberties with the characters and turned out great. This one was on-par with Daredevil (minus that film's art-direction).