pros and cons

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2006)

yes, i had a few problems with this movie. it was too short and the characters were underdeveloped. everyone pretty much agrees on these points. just like everyone else, when it comes to sequels i'm a huge advocate of consistency. i told myself going into this movie that it was gonna suck b/c of the new director, writers and pretty much everyone else with the exception of the actors, obviously.
but there are so many more positive points. this movie, although it doesn't strictly follow the plot outline of any comics, is more like the comics than its predecessors. the mutants actually flew, battled a sentinel in the danger room, and the threat that magneto posed was actually a serious one (unlike the mutant machine in the first installment). they didn't tack on characters, they replaced them. this kept it from getting too saturated with new mutants, even though there are a lot of cameos but that's just to satisfy the die hard fans. yeah i miss nightcrawler and cyclops did get shafted but that's nothing new. he's been a worthless character to this entire trilogy. beast was awesome, just like the comics. wolverine and jean had a great relationship. they found a different way to portray logan's ongoing pursuit of something he could never have. they could have done better with the iceman/kitty/rogue relationship. storm was worthless but that's nothing new. giving her a bigger role was a mistake. the elimination of key characters was quite jarring at first but they wouldn't have been useful in the end anyway. plus, death is always gonna stir up emotion so it's a good thing there was plenty of it. also, i'm not sure if anyone noticed but when they started this trilogy, the x-men were more or less the same as the ones in the uncanny x-men series. however, by the end of the third movie, the majority of the x-men left standing were the ones from the original comics in the sixties. so when you were watching them introduce new characters to the movie sequels, they were really going back in time in the comics. once again, this doesn't apply to all the x-men but you get the point.
ratner shook things up a bit and that's exactly what this series needed. i definitely enjoyed this movie.