Much better than I had feared it would be

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2006)

When I heard, about a year ago, that Halle Berry was demanding a bigger role in X-Men 3 or she wasn't going to appear, I became very worried that the franchise was going to sink into ego-building mediocrity and lose the teamwork aspect which makes the X-Men stand out from other superhero sci-fis. The change of director also didn't bode well.
In the end, the film feels like it took the constraints it was given and made the most satisfying film possible in the circumstances. The stars' egos get their run-out largely by cutting down on the number of X-Men who figure as anything other than extras ... and yet, because these extras are familiar from previous films, it doesn't feel like they're sadly underdeveloped. The special effects are also amazing, as ever.
There are weaknesses to the film that may result from the new director ... the personality of the central character of the film could have been explored much more fully (and beneficially to the film's message), instead of having lots of facial expressions but few lines; most of the new 'bad' mutants are fairly clichéd baddies; and the sole new 'good' X-Man has his part woefully underdeveloped. So it's not quite as good as X-2, but still a satisfying end to the trilogy.
Oh, and I read that a cameraman on a previous film complained that "he was filming the most beautiful woman in the world but she's ... got white hair". I was sure he was going to say, "she's ... covered in blue paint". Well, both he and I are going to be a little happier after seeing this film.