Not too bad, but not quite right, either

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2006)

I went in to this movie with incredibly low expectations. www.aintitcoolnews.com was merciless with bad spin and reviews for this film, and I tend to believe them.
Fortunately, it wasn't as horrible as they were saying. I found it entertaining. The storyline was interesting, the characters were kept interesting (albeit some had unfortunate early exits). The effects and stunts were fun.
The big problem with this film was the polishing. Basically, it wasn't polished at all. And there's nothing like a good polish to make the silver shine. A few of the elements that could have used some fine tuning:
-- The look of The Beast. A bit too silly for my taste. -- The character of The Phoenix. She had her menacing moments, but mostly she just "hung out" and waiting for things to happen. It was like the writers couldn't figure out what to do with her. -- The stunts, especially Storm's flying. Clearly this was wire work, and clearly could have used some polish. Storm flies, she doesn't just hover or bounce around. -- Too many characters spoils the broth. There's simply too many mutants in this film, it's like a cook throwing in the entire spice rack because he doesn't really know how to cook.
None of these things are fatal to the film, they are just things that kept it from being a great movie.
It's a shame, really. The first two X-Men films were really top-notch, it's a shame the studios couldn't stay committed to make the third one top notch as well.
Of course, it does have Ian McKellan. You can't go wrong with Ian McKellan.
7 out of 10, for lack of polish.
Barky