Thank you, Brett Ratner!

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2007)

I was very nervous going to see this film. I was a huge fan of the Bryan Singer X-men films and I was uncertain how Ratner would do with the third installment. He ended up creating a great film that may not be as good as Singer's two movies but nonetheless, it is still a great film.
Acting is top notch in this film, as it has been through all the movies. The cast in the previous films all shine. Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, and even Halle Berry. The most notable role is filled by Famke Janssen who brings out her best performance yet. She really has a lot of intensity with her character in this film and it is a joy to watch her on screen. There are some notable additions as well to the film. Vinnie Jones does surprisingly well as a humorous and "tough-as-nails" style Juggernaut and Kelsey Grammar portrays a terrific Beast. I was skeptical of him but he proved me wrong. All in all, the cast of this film is top notch.
The cast may be good, but I feel there are some problems with the characters themselves. One is Cyclops. He is portrayed as such a wimp in this film and it sickens me. The one major line he has is, "Some of us don't heal as fast as you Wolverine." I mean, what a wimp! He is suppose to be one of the true leaders of this team and he gets swept aside in this movie like nothing. I was really disappointed with him. Another character is Angel. I am not really disappointed with his character but I think he is underused in this film. Ben Foster does a terrific job playing that character and he should have been used more. I love how they started the movie off with him though.
There are so many great things about this film. We finally see Colossus in action. We see the true power and capabilities of Iceman. The true leadership qualities of the character Storm. And of course, the major role that Pyro serves as a villain and his powers. There may be many good things coming from a lot of characters, but it seems like the film tries to fit in too many new characters. We get no real back-stories or history of these characters. We are simply introduced to them and watch them in the film. We learn nothing really about them and that is a problem I have with the film and it is difficult to do with so many characters. The movie should have been longer. It was only 100 or so minutes. It could have been over a good 2 hours and then the time could have been taken to learn more about these characters.
The story of the film is very good. Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote a great story although I think they may have been trying a bit too hard in this film. It seems like they may have been trying to create a pure entertainment or pure comic style X-men film which does not really work for me. Although I love the concept behind the "Mutant Cure" and the entire storyline. The action in this film is top notch. As a pure entertainment film, it gets 10 stars. The special effects are amazing, the fight scenes are terrific, and there is some funny humor in the movie as well.
X-men 3 puts a good close to the movie franchise. I just hope the series does not go down the toilet after this film like so many other franchises. X-men 3 is a true X-men film that fits the style created by Bryan Singer in the first 2 films.