You should probably see it in a theater, but don't pay too much.

Rating: 3/10 (26 May 2006)

I've come to expect more out of most of the actors in this film. I wasn't convinced that they were actually mutants, but I found myself repeatedly having to redirect my thinking from, "I'm watching a bunch of actors run around in silly costumes." That wasn't all the actors' faults; it had to do with the editing and the direction of the movie as well.
The music in the movie felt very cheap. In fact, much of the movie did. It felt like it wasn't very thought out and almost thrown together. At one point in the film, the Golden Gate Bridge is moved at about (I've only seen it once so don't quote me on this) midday--at least a point in the day where there is plenty of light. Some trixy camera work happens, and in the span of about 4 seconds the scene becomes night. Now, I didn't get confused--someone actually tried to pull the wool over my eyes. That was silly.
The special effects were good. From what I recall, better than the first two movies. That was surprising in and among the rest of the movie, but almost all the SFX were seamless. Weird. They spent some money there.
The movie lost me at the beginning. The first two scenes felt contrived--from first "20 Years Ago" and then "10 Years Ago." We are given an introduction to Gene Grey back when Magneto and Professor X were still friends (aww), and then given an obvious set-up for a later scene where we meet some inconsequential scientist's (governor? public figure?) son. We're all glad we got to meet him then so that we could feel for him more later in the movie when he -a- defied his father so that he could be who he was born to be (a winged man) and -b- saved his father from dying with the very wings his father would rather had disappeared. Looks like daddy was wrong. I think I'm rambling on that one. Sorry. The point is, the movie started to lose me then, which is unfortunate.
And then the first scene we see in the "Not-to Distant Future" was on a holodeck--for lack of caring to come up with a different term. A training simulation. Surprising idea. Luckily, Logan was able to show his recklessness in that scene by lighting his cigars off of fires in poorly-shot ways. Wow, I'm ripping on this movie. Oops.
The point is, I didn't like it. If you see it and do like it, then I'm glad you have this review to look back on and say, "That guy was a jerk. This movie's good." I mean, we all like to disagree with a bad review, right? I suppose I'm probably just sad it was done so poorly. And surprised, after that preview. I felt like it was the best Theatrical Trailer I'd seen for a movie in years. Let-down.
Thanks for reading. d.cakes