Well made yet a bit incoherent in its story telling

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2006)

Taking the lead from Bryan Singer after the first two X-Men movies certainly would be a tall order for about anyone and kudos to Brett Ratner for taking the risks he took with the storyline going into this third and final installation.
Admitted, with no fourth movie planned, it is easier to get a shot at killing off established team members, but actually doing it - some chutzpah! Along the way the story appears to be rather simple - you could basically write it up on the back of an envelope over lunch - which probably is what happened at some point before dialog was added. It shows on mental rewind, but is glossed over nicely with elaborate and good looking effect work at first view.
Most of the cast don't get to shine, though. There's a flash of Xenia Onatopp when Famke Janssen tries to seduce Logan in the X-Men sickbay, but most of the time she's not coming out to play. Wolverine gets to throw around some of his one liners, do some berserker work, yet hardly even gets to puff on his stogies. Hugh Jackman looks a few years older a bit tired - hopefully the spin-off will play more to his strengths.
The best performance quite likely comes from Ian McKellen, who plays his Magneto with relish but could have afforded a bit more elaborate dialog - the character is missing the tragic misguided depth of the first two installations. That, thinking again, could be said about any of the characters we've come to know in Part 1 and 2.
These pieces were more character than effect driven and will be much better to look at ten years from now. If anything, X-Men 3 is decent popcorn movie, will earn the budget back and then some, but what it mostly does it make me look forward to see what Bryan Singer will do with Superman Returns.