underwhelming

Rating: 4/10 (4 June 2006)

I'm sadly disappointed at the third and last(?) installment of the X-men trilogy. I am a huge fan of the first two and was excited to see the final piece of the puzzle. I was concerned when I found out that Bryan Singer had left the project to direct Superman Returns, but I hoped that the aspects of the first two films that I so enjoyed would carry on the tradition. Wow, was I ever mistaken. To kill off Cyclops and Professor Xavier, neither of whom die in either the cartoon or the comic books to the best of my knowledge, seemed unnecessary and done purely for shock value. As well, where was Sabretooth, Jubilee, and why were Arcangel and Rogue just glazed over? Famke Janssen was grossly underutilized, apparently being the most powerful creature on the planet renders one silent and paralyzed, because she did little more in the movie than stand and glower. I even forgot she was there in the climax a couple of times because she was so inactive. The first two films had great dialog- funny and witty, as well as realism. This one felt two dimensional, I actually felt bad for the actors having to deliver these clichés, remembering that the first two movies demonstrated that they were capable of delivering more engaging dialog than, "way to go, Furball." Seriously. And the TERRIBLE editing error in the climax when the 'last stand' begins to take place broad daylight magically switches to nighttime...wow, millions of dollars spent to make this movie and that's what happens? Apparently there were tidbits for those who stuck around after the credits, but I was not one of those, I couldn't wait to get out of the theater...I was actually laughing about how poorly it was done...Shame on you Bryan Singer for abandoning such an excellent movie and leaving it to be undone, for the actors to become marginalized by the action, and the story to be left in the dust, while special effects reigned supreme.