The Spiderman 3 of X-Men

Rating: 3/10 (14 March 2014)

To prepare for Days of Future Past coming in two months, I bought EVERY SINGLE X-Men movie to watch so that I'd be up to speed for when it hits theaters. A few days ago, I just finished #3. What the actual and incontrovertible hell happened?! Now let me make it clear why I'm so angry with this film. The acting and cinematography was all well and good. When you have Sirs Stewart and Mckellan, you're ALWAYS treated to a good performance. And I felt that Jean going Gollum was an interesting way to provide tension to Logan and the overall story. But my main gripe with this film is the fact that a whole heap of characters are just taken out of the film entirely without the proper set-up or lead-in. I'm not saying killing characters off or having them leave CAN'T work. I'm saying that having Scott killed in about 10 or so minutes since the film begins is way too damn fast. But what I'm MOST upset about is the death scene for Professor X. I can sort of get what they were TRYING to do with it, maybe leave the team in a state of hopelessness so that their comeback will seem all the more better, but like Scott's death, it was done too quickly and didn't fit the pacing AT ALL. How much MORE fitting would it have been if Xaiver lived long enough to chase after Logan when he tries to convince Jean to leave Magneto and come back to him and Xaiver sacrifices himself to save him from a blow that would have killed him? It would show him how attached to Jean he's become to the point where it blinds him from keeping everyone else safe, and has now cost him their resourceful leader. When I first heard that the Professor died, I thought it would happen at the climax, or AT LEAST near the end of it, but as is, it just doesn't flow well in my opinion. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but as useless as Rouge seemed in the first two films, she was pretty much non existent in this one. I can buy that she'd be tempted to use the cure to make her normal. What I CAN'T buy is that she'd be more than willing to just up and leave the people who housed and fed her when she was virtually homeless and not show up again until AFTER the final battle. Oh yeah, the Professor's dead and Magneto's raising a mutant army to eventually take over the world, but who cares about any of THAT when I can finally touch my boyfriend without gloves? And in her place, we get Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde. No offense to her acting, I'm sure she's wonderful, but she's always been a BACKGROUND character at best for the first two movies. Those watching the films without reading the comics or watching the shows know NOTHING about her. So why the hell would you switch out a character we've known for years and can relate so well to with one that we've never heard utter a word until now?! And I hear she's set to have a much BIGGER role in Days of Future Past. It had BETTER be good.
Bottom line, it wasn't TERRIBLE, but it should have been SO MUCH better. And fans should thank Odin that Bryan Singer is back in the director's chair for Days of Future Past. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch the theatrical debut of will.i.am. May God, or Odin, have mercy on my soul.