Trash

Rating: 1/10 (17 March 2010)

People on this site have taken Ratner to task for the film, and of course as the director he should shoulder much of the responsibility: it is no good for him to deplore fan-boy obsession and point out that Xavier was killed off in the comics five times (actually, probably more than that). The point is, few of Marvel's writers would have wanted to (much less dared) dispose of the founder of the X-Men in the same pointless, over-CGId, pathos-lacking ham-fisted plot twist as he did. Of course, Ratner's not really to blame for that, the script writers are: ghastly people who clearly have no interest in the subject matter they are writing. It is they, together with the artistic void at the zenith of Fox's hierarchy, who should be consigned to the lowest circle of Hell (a la the Divine comedy) and forced to watch the soulless, artless trash they churned out for the rest of eternity. They might meet George Lucas there I suppose The death of Scott Summers in the first twenty minutes is probably the most inexcusable wrong. It is true that the writers and directors of the previous two films also had problems finding a role for Scott (though why is anyone's guess, they've got forty years of material to work with that demonstrates very successfully what role Cyclops has). But this character's treatment in X3 went beyond the pale: "cursory" is too generous an adverb. Anyone who bothered to read the Phoenix saga, and indeed the history of Scott and Jean's relationship would understand that the idea of Jean killing Scott is on par with Romeo murdering Juliet in cold blood. Jean's love for Scott was the very thing that made it impossible for the Phoenix to kill him. Of course, the crassness of the rationale behind the death is an order of magnitude less than the offensiveness of not actually showing him being killed. Bad enough that Juliet offs Romeo, but the fact Romeo isn't even given a decent demise is appalling.
If Cyclops' death is simply cynical expediency for want of anything better to do with the character, I remain to this day utterly baffled at the purpose of Xavier's death. Was it merely to create dramatic pathos? If so it failed, not least because the context was so poorly handled (by which I mean nonsensical dialogue and tenuous plotting), and because by this stage in the film we were all so thoroughly ticked off we couldn't dislodge frustration in favour of sorrow. It probably didn't help that we discovered Jean's chosen method of extermination was not, as in the comics, impressive bursts of telekinetic fire, but rather confetti-isation. A mode of destruction suitable for nuptials I suppose: a theme followed through by Jean's increasingly "Bride-of-Frankensteinesque" appearance.
Then of course there was the death of Jean at the movies' pretty but preposterous climax. Boring is probably a good word, though that doesn't do it justice. Was I the only one left wondering why someone didn't thrust Leech in her general direction? Hey presto, Jean has no powers: you can subdue her then (should you want to, I was actually keen to see her offed by this stage). Or what about those fabulous instant-curealls? Not beyond the "team work" of the X-Men to somehow get one of those past her is it? No, instead, we have Wolverine gut the bad-girl with his claws. Again. And so ends the short but immensely tedious existence of the Phoenix, whose purpose post-Xavier slaying was exactly what? Magneto's heavy guns? Lame. Bad enough they treated the Phoenix so heretically, but to then run out of meaningful things for her to do halfway through the film really is inexcusable.
Much opprobrium has been heaped on Storm/Halle Berry for the disproportionate amount of screen time she got. I don't think Storm's the worst culprit actually: my perception was that, once again, the film revolved about the most uber-tedious of the X-Men: Wolverine. Here we have Wolverine assuming the role (and personality) of Scott Summers and thereafter dominating most of the action and dialogue. I always thought that the X-Men were something of an ensemble cast, but no: apparently the only ones people are interested in are Storm and Wolverine. One wonders how characters like Cyclops, Colossus, Rogue, Professor Xavier, Angel and so-on have endured for forty years. The dominance of these films by this character is particularly galling when one considers Wolverine was also the star of his own film. For those of us who regard Wolverine as their least favourite X-Man character this brings on particularly intense periods of teeth grinding.
If Storm and Wolverine hogged too much screen time, then the so-called new introductees suffered the opposite problem. I still have no idea what the purpose of Angel was, nor really Hank McCoy, well acted as he was. As for the Juggernaut. Good God one is lost for words. Setting aside for a moment the questionable choice of actor to play him, one wonders what possessed the script writers to include the character at all. They sacrificed the awesome Mystique (again, presumably for the pathos: that didn't work either) for him? In short, this film was a rushed job, on the basis of a meaningless script developed by writers who had no clue about their subject material (or else didn't care), passed on to a less than competent director and chased out onto the cinema by a studio that had either lost interest or couldn't wait any longer for the dollars (or both). It was an unworthy use of otherwise interesting and compelling characters, a betrayal of the source matter in every way and a hugely disappointing end to what was otherwise an awesome franchise.