Solid, Solid Movie

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2006)

After hearing so many negative reviews and lukewarm "positive" reviews by the so-called experts, I went into the theater tonight with my wife halfway expecting to walk out disappointed. I can honestly say that this movie is just as good if not just a tad better than X-Men, though X2 is still, by far, the best of the three.
What kept this movie from being as touching and hitting as X2 was that it seemed to lack the emotional intensity that X2 delivered. Now, the script had it's chances, including the climatic scene and the surprise towards the beginning that I didn't see coming, but I didn't feel "stirred" like I did in X2 when Jean sacrificed herself and Logan and Scott were losing all emotional control. Part of my theory is that music goes a long way in making you feel really emotional to a character: a la Luke's theme in Star Wars. The music that was playing when Jean was about to sacrifice herself was heartfelt, touching, and gut-wrenching; because you KNEW what was happening and the music's sad, mellow, and touching sound just tugged at you. That wasn't the case in X3.
There was more than enough material here to make this a 140 minute epic. It had plenty of source material to do so. It will be interesting to see what the reason was that they decided to go with 104 minutes. Maybe then they could have beefed up a few rolls. I'm not complaining though; it was solid entertainment and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My favorite aspect of this movie is that it still showed the humanity of the mutants, especially Magneto. Those who have no empathy are left in the dust. It was especially nice when Magneto chastised Pyro in a particular scene. Sorry, can't detail it without giving a spoiler! This was a very good movie and a good way to send off this trilogy.