X-Men for dummies

Rating: 4/10 (28 May 2006)

Discards all the subtleties of the previous 2 films in favor of a plot in which everything can be taken entirely at face value. Dialogue is dumbed down to the point where characters (except Storm) have 1-5 actual lines to deliver, most of which are attempts at humor or catch phrases that fall flat, and most of which seem out of character. Major characters are killed off at random (very early on) without much of a benefit to the storyline, and main characters lose their powers with seemingly no benefit to the strength of the story. None of the new characters introduced have more than a handful of scenes, none of which offer any satisfactory exploration of back-story. All in all, a dumber, flashier, trashier version of X-Men, successfully sabotaging a formerly intelligent and groundbreaking superhero franchise.