NOT a great effort

Rating: 5/10 (30 May 2006)

Let me start off by saying I'm a HUGE X-men fan. I know quite a bit of the history of the comic book and the mythology/evolution of the characters.
What I saw, was nothing short of a Director that didn't seem to have any earthly idea of any of the aforementioned dimensions. There are nagging things that will drive the die hard fans nuts. The casual fans will likely be confused and disheartened by some of the occurrences. The action fans, they will be appeased.
(SPOILER ALERT SKIP PARAGRAPH IF YOU WISH TO BE SURPRISED) I'll say this, the premise, action and acting were all good. However, the movie was held back by the deaths of Cyclops, Professor X and ultimately Jean Grey. Say what you will about the characters being the most flat of the characters, but this movie successfully and pointlessly killed the Heart, Mind and Conscience (respectively) of the team. I realize that comic book characters die and get resurrected all the time, but I don't believe this is the case, as they have always been determined to keep this "realistic." Add to that the stripping of Rogue, Mystique and MAGNETO's powers and the fans are just left wondering "why on Earth were you determined to kill the franchise so mercilessly?" (END OF SPOILERS) We can only hope that if this is not the end, they will do something about the injustices done in this movie. If this truly is the end, it's a shame, and I dearly hope that much like the Superman franchise was resurrected, this one will be too, with this film forgotten. In the end, I think this movie will be attributed to what happens when actors want too much, they ruin movies.