Character Development......?

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2006)

The change in director for this movie was clear from the beginning. Brett Ratner did a great job with the action, pacing, and special effects, but the emotion and character depth emphasized in Bryan Singer's X-Men and X-2 were absent, which is what made this film fall short of its predecessors. The biggest case of this is Halle Berry, who allegedly only agreed to do this film if her character were developed more.
Note to Halle Berry: more screen time does not mean character development. Seeing more of her merely led to further revelation of the flatness of Storm's character. She is sad about all the sad things, and always does the "right thing." There is no conflict in her life. There is one moment where she appears to be in conflict (can't spoil what the moment is), but there is no reason given that she wouldn't choose the obvious course of action.
The other characters' levels of emotion and personal conflict take a hit too. The depth of newcomer the Juggernaut's character can be summed up by this line: "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch." Wolverine is usually a very conflicted character, but we don't see nearly as much of his personal journey as in previous movies. When characters get into high-stakes conflicts (Ice Man and Pyro, Prof. X and Magneto, Angel and his father, and so on), they say words, but there isn't much emotion behind them. Actions happen, but the high stakes seem extremely artificial. There were laughs throughout the theater in the supposed "tender" moments.
And most disappointing of all, Nightcrawler isn't in this movie. Apparently there were already too many blue characters. 20th Century Fox should have waited until Singer was done with Superman.