Excited going in, disappointed going out.

Rating: 4/10 (7 March 2007)

There was a lot of anticipation for X-Men 3 after the incredible first two films. Singer had worked his magic and brought a comic book to life in a high-caliber film. Now it was up to Brett Ratner to keep that money-making ball rolling.
This film offers you fantastic visuals, a lot of action, and great special effects. Everything looks beautifully done, and it's complemented by watching your favourite characters duke it out as you point at them on screen and say "I remember you from issue #..." (though I still have my beef with Vinnie Jones as the Juggernaut). It's great to see them brought to life in such an action-packed movie, though! But watching X-Men 3 did not satisfy me as a follow-up to the previous films or as a closer to its series, and I think it has several fatal flaws. The film feels rather bloated, especially in it's far too short time-frame. It tries to introduce so many characters, and develop so many sub-plots, that it lost precious and limited time that could have been used to focus on the main plot line.
The hook from the first two films that made them superior products is that they chose a character to center the films around, decided whose story to tell. The first was Rogue's story, but it built up to Logan's, which was told in X2. X2 built up to Jean Grey's as the Phoenix, but when you watch this one, it's not told at all. Instead, the story bypasses the circumstances and situations surrounding Jean after she disappears following a quite shocking introduction for the majority of the film, only returning when there is more action so that her story is not told at all. No one's story is told specifically, but instead, it tries to focus on many characters, both entirely minor (such as Angel) and major. It makes great use of characters, but not of time - with it's 104 min length, it cannot handle that many plots and side-stories. As a result, the bulk of this film feels bloated and fluffy.
There was also one tiny thing that bugged me to death - Storm. If I had to watch her eyes turn white one more time after watching this movie... come on, give us some credit. We know she controls weather! We don't need a huge introduction each time she uses her power.
While I didn't like this movie, it was still decent popcorn entertainment. But as a follow-up of the first two, which had the perfect balance between nostalgia, action, and story, this one felt awkward and crowded. It still sits with the other two on my DVD shelf, and I'll watch #4 if it's released, but if it is, I certainly hope they snag Singer again to make an X-Men film worth being alongside other great comic book movies like Spider-Man!