still head and shoulders above the competition

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2006)

I don't want to scare anyone off from seeing "X-Men 3". If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend just seeing it before you read this or any other review. It's a lot better than anything else in the theaters.
That said, I found it the weakest of the three X-Men movies.
They've tried to jam three of the major story lines from the comic books into one movie: the government's war against mutants, the conflict between the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood, and Jean Grey's transformation into the Phoenix. Plus they've added some more twists that differ from the comics. It's good material, but it's just too much to cram into a single movie and do it all justice.
Also, the action and special effects have come down a notch. They set the bar high in the first movie, and then raised it in the second, but in the third they lost that edge. In the first two, they found clever ways to make small things capture your attention, like the toy on Magneto's desk that was powered by his mind, or the way Xavier froze all the visitors in the museum. The first two also had scenes you can watch again and again on DVD, like the fight in the Statue of Liberty or Nightcrawler's attack on the President. I didn't see any scenes in the third that I'd watch again and again.
Finally, there are lots of new characters, but none of them are developed. In the first movie, all the characters were fresh. In the second they added Nightcrawler, William Stryker, and Stryker's son. In the third they add a ton of new mutants, but none of them are given any individuality. Magneto's army of mutants was the biggest disappointment. You expect a battle filled with hundreds of strange mutant powers, but all you get is a big fist-fight.
I'm not saying this isn't a good movie. It's worth seeing, it's entertaining, and it has a solid story. I can't think of many third movies in a series that were as good as this one. I'm glad I went to see it, and I'll definitely be seeing the fourth movie when it comes out. Maybe the X-Men series will follow the pattern of the Star Trek series where the even numbered movies are the best ones.