Like the X-men? You'll hate this film.

Rating: 3/10 (26 May 2006)

This review contains a frank discussion of the film's contents, and will spoil the movie for those who've yet to see it. Don't read this if you haven't seen it. I encourage all movie-goers to see a film and form their own opinions before reading those of others.
That being said, I'm going to be quite honest. This film made me upset. Let's frame this by saying that I'm no purist, by any means. I quite enjoyed the first two films. I thought they were well made, with well-developed characters who stayed true to their comic book counter parts, as well as maintained a unique on-film continuity. As for this film, it has cool action sequences. And Beast is awesome. That's about all I have positive to say about this film.
Rumors flew before the films release about Halle Berry demanding more money and a larger role, and rumors followed about the studio caving quite completely to her desires by killing off Cyclops and Professor X. This obviously occurred. The movie should have been titled, "Halle Berry is awesome." Professor X's character completely changed. Far from wise, patient, and honest, he became presumptuous, short, and seemingly reckless. This was apparently to make him a dick, so that people wouldn't take it so personally when he was killed. Colossus's only purpose in the film, despite being one of the most powerful mutants, was simply to throw Wolverine. Angel's character was pointless: his sole function was to be a visual icon for the third film, and as witnessed on every single billboard advertising X3, he lived up to his goal. The story lines were generic and predictable, the dialogue was throw-away and cheesy, and nearly every X-man looked foolish for the benefit of Storm.
All of the film's problems can be traced back to a disregard for continuity, appreciation of the fans, and decent film-making. When it comes down to it, the filmmakers discarded anything that made the X-men worth watching in favor of marketing. And because of that, there were countless untapped opportunities in this film. Someone at the top didn't understand that what makes the X-men great isn't their powers, and how cool they can be. That's just the cherry on top of great characters with interesting dynamics and charged relationships.
For example, Scott as a leader of a team would have had INCREDIBLE conflict in confronting Phoenix, for obvious reasons. There could have been some conflict between Wolverine as a loner and the X-men during its' shakeup. Magneto could have been slightly more than one-dimensional, like he was in the first two films. Rogue could have actually done something. I'm just throwing these out there. Just because the film was "cool" doesn't make it good.
Take Beast for instance. The film allowed Beast depth: more than one level of character, and (with the exception of some poorly lines included for the benefit of Storm) dialogue that defined him. From an extra-contextual standpoint, they nailed his character from the comic. And that's why he's the best part of the film. It wasn't his being blue that made him interesting, it was his character.
One point for nailing Beast, and a point for making some great action sequences. But doing something that the audience already expects you to do doesn't excuse you for discarding anything that would have made the film more than a pulp action flick. A generous 3 out of 10.