Not as intelligent or deep as its predecessors, but X3 is still a fun-filled action-fest

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2008)

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two X-Men films directed by Bryan Singer, especially X2, I was (like many other people) skeptical when a new director was announced, perhaps because of which X3 didn't leave a very bad taste in my mind when it ended, although there were many things that could've worked much, much better than they do. My biggest contention with the film (and I'm sure most people's as well) was that it relentlessly prefers quantity over quality when it comes to characters.
Apparently the studio wanted to end the X-Men franchise with this film and make it the bona fide "last stand" for the series, so director Brett Ratner crams in as many characters as he can, so that everyone gets to see their favorite character. Unfortunately, except for Beast, all new characters are cardboard-thin. Even worse, certain vital characters  who had been nicely fleshed out by Bryan Singer  are conveniently wasted away to accommodate the new characters in the movie's 100-minute runtime.
Cyclops is ridiculously killed off in the movie's first 20 minutes; since his death is off screen, I was hoping throughout the movie that he'd make comeback, but unfortunately he doesn't. Mystique, Magneto and Rogue are stripped of their powers by the mutant cure; Rogue, who's barely used in X3, deliberately takes it (ugh, morals). Jean Grey's Phoenix incarnation, the movie's other main storyline besides the mutant cure, is also killed off by Logan in the end, but (thankfully) in a fairly befitting and appropriate manner. Her death is also not very touching because of her character's misuse; first, she (apparently) kills off Prof X (more on that later), and then she stands for 20 minutes like a statue besides Magneto while he destroys Alcatraz during the climax.
As far as wasting characters goes, the "head" of the X-Men, Prof X, receives the worst treatment. First, he's disintegrated to fragments by the Phoenix at Jean Grey's home, yet the post-credits scene shows him in a hospital room being tended to by one of his mutant-researching human colleagues. First of all, he shouldn't have been disintegrated in the first place; but once it was done, just killing him off would've been better than this nonsensical ending. Many of the newcomers to the series (Callisto, Arclight, Quill, Multiple Man, what-not) are apparently killed off during the climax, while Juggernaut's fate is left undecided. I was also disappointed by the unexplained absence of the Nightcrawler (one of X2's better characters) in X3.
The difference in direction brought forth by the change in directors is also felt. In X2, after Pyro destroys the police cars at Bobby Drake's home, the X-Jet is chased by military jets all the way until it nearly crashes; even Jean wasn't able to stop both the missiles. Yet in X3, after the Phoenix crashes her house down from 10 feet in the air, neighbors don't notice at all and the surviving mutants leave in peace without any aftermath. Similarly, in Singer's films Magneto was put in a plastic prison after he was caught, but after his powers are neutralized during the climax in X3, he's seen playing chess with himself in a park! No police, no aftermath of all the trouble he caused. Note how Singer tried to tie up as many untied knots left behind as possible while Ratner just wants to move on quickly.
Since both of X3's story lines are strong enough to hold their own, the movie could've done better if it went with only one of them  either the mutant cure or the Phoenix. Fortunately (in this case), X3 is also the most action-heavy of all X-Men films, and the movie packs healthy doses of thrilling, high-impact action for every cardboard-thin character introduced or vital character wasted away. However, X3's use of the mutants' powers during action sequences can sometimes favor aesthetics over logic; for example, Jean Grey uses her powers during the climax when they would look most impressive, not when they would be most effective. Same goes for Pyro and Magneto's "flaming cars" combo during the climax; why not simply burn the entire place?
On the other hand, certain characters  Colossus and Kitty Pryde  that were limited to cameos in the previous films take part in full-fledged action sequences here. Kitty is also a substantial supporting character, a major player in the climax, and also a well-used plot mechanism as Bobby's 'other girl' and the reason Rogue wants to get cured. Ellen Page, the third actress to play Kitty, also gets a lot more screen time than any of her counterparts in the previous films and fits right in Kitty's personality  spunky, hot, and short; maybe "short" is Page's specific trait, but she turns in a decent performance regardless.
Aside, the acting is decent as usual from most of the cast, although Kelsey Grammar plays Hank McCoy / Beast to near-perfection, complete with a Churchill quote humorously wisecracked while trampling people during the climax (and seeing him do that is always fun). On the downside, Multiple Man is narcissistically played to the point of self-parody, the 80-something guy playing the president was a talking corpse, while the Juggernaut was apparently written for comic relief  when he's rescued by Magneto, his first line is something along "Do it quick, because I need to pee". Dialogue-wise, X3 is lightest in tone of all X-Men films, and features an assortment of blunt one-liners (in contrast to X2's usually tactful dialogue). But X3 does provide some powerful moments (e.g. Jean's confrontation with Xavier at her house) and dialogue to offset that, and most of the time the humor works well, since the movie doesn't take itself too seriously anyway.
X3 is an action-fest type of movie that despite not being very smart or deep is still pretty fun. RATING: 7.5/10.