Great action, great storytelling, questionable plot decisions.

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2006)

A lot of critic's complaints I had heard were about how Rattner was great with action, but weak when it came to handling characters and drama. I have to disagree, I think Rattner got a bum rap there. The storytelling was just fine. You got a good sense of the emotions and struggles the characters were going through without getting too bogged down with drama.
This is an action movie. Any decent superhero movie should be primarily an action movie. You don't take a box of tissues to a movie like that. You're there to see stuff get blown up, see explosions, things flying around, etc. You're there for a great ride. X-Men 3 delivers. It's a great ride from start to finish. I do think some of the characters were underutilized, and the movie was too short, but that's not my biggest gripe about the movie.
Here goes... I left the theater feeling kind of let down. I think the main thing that nagged at me, and kept me from being totally blown away by this movie, was the story itself. It wasn't the overriding plot of the X-Men vs. The Brotherhood vs. "everyone else", or the "cure for mutation" thing that bothered me. That was great. It wasn't Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, and that whole conflict that bothered me. It was what they did with some of the characters.
I don't want to give too much away, but basically there were casualties on both sides. Some major characters ended up either killed, or changed, presumably forever. I don't think that should happen, especially not in a movie. I'm there to be entertained, and to feel great at the end. If I'm left feeling disturbed about some of the major plot decisions, then I'm going to hesitate to give a movie high marks when I talk it up to people who haven't seen it.
I'll say this though... stay through the credits. It's crucial. The story is not over until the credits are over.