A few giant robots away from a sci-fi classic....

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2007)

Fox needs to fire Tim Rothman. Whoever was overseeing the production of this film is to blame for its gaping flaws. Some moments were expertly realized, take for example the xavier death scene and its lead up and the wolverine/pheonix finale. Emotional moments which, had the films quality been consistent throughout, could have been the sci-fi equivalent of Gone with the Wind.
Unfortunately throughout the film i had the distinct impression that i was watching a movie that cost considerably less to make than the publicized budget of 185 million ( a lower estimate 205 is another ). I will use previous films in the same genre to make comparisons. Hellboy has an estimate of 66 mill. Its a longer film than X-men and it has more & better effects shots, more special make-up effects and prosthetics. Another example is Blade 2. 54 mill according to box office mojo and to my eye looks better than X-men the last stand for many scenes.
For this price X-men the last stand should be backing spider-man 2 into a corner. But for some reason the production doesn't have the structural integrity of either spider-man feature. I forget however that i am an x-men fan. I used to watch the cartoon and read the comics. When i went in to the movie, i had the express desire to see the giant robot sentinels in some capacity other than a decapitated head. And really that was my only wish for the film. That was not granted. Where my gripe really lies is here, quite simply had the giant robot sentinels been included i could have overlooked the things like beasts immovable hair or Angels abortion of a role, or the power ranger type style direction that the production design was going towards, and i would have considered the trilogy a sci-fi opus.
Other than that there is a rather hokey staged feel to the acting scenes compared to the natural drama that singer tried to create. Its strange that had the robots been included the film would have been great. As they were not, it was terrible. Strange.