Over-done conclusion.

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2006)

The final (?) movie in the X-men series was a bit disappointing. Where the two first movies were subtle and had rather good character development, this episode was over the top with silly one-liners and an endless gallery of characters that could populate a small city.
The main cast, however, is overall great: Famke Janssen is stunning as the tormented Jean Grey, while Hugh Jackman is tougher than ever, and Kelsey Grammar is perfectly cast as Beast. Patrick Stewart (as always) delivers a great performance, while Ian McKellen as Magneto is good, but the one-liners he gets makes Magneto a parody of himself.
In my opinion, X-men 3 lacked the finesse of the two predecessors: Magneto has become a true megalomaniac lacking the intelligent sense of logic he used to have, and where we previously were left to ponder and really feel with the characters (as in the complex friendship of Wolverine and Rogue), we are faced with an endless list of more and more powerful mutants with no function in the story, other than making Halle Berry as Storm look puny with her fog and lightning.
Moreover, I felt that the violence became a bit too extreme: There is simply too much killing in this movie. Perhaps it was supposed to make the story more grave and powerful. However, the story is after all based on a comic with silly super-heroes in colored spandex suits, and violence was always very superficial in the comics. But here, bystanders and more or less innocent people are killed off without as much as a flinch.
A really entertaining movie, nonetheless, but not a very satisfying conclusion to the otherwise indisputably best super hero comic-adaptation series to date.