This isn't the movie it should have been

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2007)

I wasn't very impressed with X-Men 3. There were good things, and there were things that really ticked me off, but it wasn't as bad as say, Men in Black 2. It just wasn't good. If you're a fan of the series, leave it at two, and save yourself the annoyance.
--- Spoilers past this point ---
Okay, I was originally drawn into XMen by the Dark Phoenix storyline, so I knew this would be make-or-break for me. And it was a bad sign that my first thought upon seeing Famke on-screen was, "What did they do to her hair?" It looked like a dye-job gone horribly wrong. There were a few scenes where it almost worked, but it generally just looked bad. Her best scenes were the moment at the lake before she killed Scott; the scenes at her parent's house; and the final scenes with Wolverine. But there was too much missing. Where was her internal conflict? And where was the Phoenix effect?
Now, this is not to say that the change from being a universal force to a top-level mutant bugged me. I understand the need to simplify for movie matters, but if you're going to change something so significant, you need to explore it far more thoroughly than they did. And I understand why Erik/Magneto needed to be part of the plot line. After all, he's been in the other two, so he needs to be in this one. But I don't think he should have been center stage. That should have been Jean's struggle, with Erik moving in the background at most.
Oh, and speaking of Erik... Magneto has never been stupid. He's flawed, yes, but highly intelligent. He simply wouldn't discard someone simply because they've changed. In fact, he'd likely take Mystique and do experiments on her to find out exactly what they'd done to her. And, more than likely, discover that it's not a permanent change.
Other characters:
* Logan was center screen again. Not bad, though he's becoming a one-note character. If they do any further movies, it would get old. I did like the play between him and Jean, especially since they killed Scott so early on in the movie. * Professor X seemed to be sleepwalking through the story, and I get that he was being distracted by Phoenix, but still. And his death, too, seemed a waste. If anything, it should have woken Erik up.
* Scott should not have even been in this movie. It seems as though he had one point to being there (waking up Jean), and then they killed him. I would have liked to see the Scott/Jean/Logan triangle played up far much more than it was.
* Bobby grew up in this film, which was nice. I particularly liked the appearance of his ice-form finally. And the battle between him and Pyro was perfect. But the Kitty/Bobby/Rogue triangle seemed unnatural to me, particularly with Peter right there. I think it was ridiculous to create a triangle like that, to give Rogue a reason to angst about not being able to touch him. It didn't even need to be there at all for her to do that. It could have been entirely innocent and she still would have done it.
* Callisto was cool. I liked the actress, and the Callisto/Storm action actually got to my fangirl heart, even if she wasn't the Callisto from the books. Cause that Callisto would never have put up with Erik's attitude. She would have kicked his butt. :P
* Kitty was great. Not perfect, but lots of fun, and not too far off how I actually think of her. I would have liked more interactions with Peter and less with Bobby, though. The race through the building was lots of fun, and even though her bouncing into the wall was expected, it was great to see how quick she recovered to get the boy out.
* Peter was cool. But where was his accent?!? I was thrilled to see the fastball special, not once, but twice in the movie. Very nice.
* Kelsey Grammar was one of the highlights of this film. His Beast was as good as I was expecting, though I had hoped for more of his quotes during their fighting. But then, he wasn't in much fighting, really, which is a shame. I did love his intro, hanging upside-down from his office ceiling.
* Pyro is so not a level three. I did like that he had gloves that allowed him more immediate access to fire, but without them? He'd have nothing.
* Juggernaut: Hello? He's Charles's stepbrother. Why didn't they at least have a spark of recognition there? Oh, and while we're at it, his helmet is the source of his power. Hence no mutant ability for the boy to negate.
* Warren was only in the movie for two purposes: to give his father a reason to make the "cure," and to rescue his father at the end. At the very least, he should have had an argument with the XMen about letting him go with them, and/or hiding out on the jet.
There's probably so much more here I could cover, but I've gone on long enough. All in all? Too much to cover properly in one movie. It had no proper focus. If Singer had still been in charge, and had the budget not been slashed to ribbons, it could have been as great as the other two. As it was, it was just mediocre. If you're not a fan of the comics, you'll likely enjoy it. But it's just not what it could have been.