How Ratner tried...and failed: a biased review

Rating: 3/10 (9 June 2006)

The beginning of the movie was quite promising: few flashbacks from the past about Jean Grey and Archangel(although nobody did name him that during all film), then present time, where Scott Summers goes to look for Jane and there everything start to go downhill. Actually, Brett Ratner was very successful in making promising scenes and then totally spoiling them.
The main storyline is about mysterious cure from the mutant disease, made from other mutant's genes and Jean Grey who decides to play Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Very original. She kills Cyclops(although nobody bothered to show exact way and poor guy's corpse) then goes horny on Wolverine and kills Proffesor X. Gosh - I got the feeling that the so called "Director" wanted many dramatic moments and used first stupid ideas which came to his not very wise head.
Talking about dramatism - the saving of Mystique, certainly one of the most attractive and enigmatic character of X Men series, was so pathetic, that it shocked me totally: I never knew that Magneto was such fanatic mutant activist, that after saving his closest comrade from custody, he left her naked on the prison's floor just because she lost her powers saving him from the same thing. "You are not one of us anymore, so git." Yeah, it was truly masterfully designed emotional scene, it was so emotional, that I wished for slow and painful death of that smart guy, who wrote it.
Effects were great. Maybe because the movie consists mostly of them. You can see tons of various mutants with the most spectacular powers, but without names. I think Ratner wanted repeat epic battles from the Lord of the Rings and concentrated solely on that goal.
Result is the most amazing fight scenes, fantastic special effects and almost no dialogs and deeper looks into main characters. Who is who is told only through appearances, there are no more distinctive actions except the ones taken in combat. Did Ratner thought that effects could compensate awful script? Probably. All losers think so. And they all are wrong.
After watching this movie, in my imagination I created my version of it. There were more dialogs(not declarations), relationship scenes(Magneto could at least cloak naked Mystique with his mantle and explain that without her powers she cannot survive in their war) and a little different outcome(for instance both powerless Magneto and Mystique playing chess or baking a cake in the Magneto lair:)).
I hope that one day Brian Singer will return deeply regretting that for one movie he abandoned epitaph of whole trilogy, and remake The Last Stand.
Also I hope that Ratner will turn into a rat.