The whole is NOT better than the sum of its parts

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2014)

Amazingly, X-men 2 - being the sequel - actually surpassed the original. It was longer, fleshed out the better characters a bit more and generally improved on the original. People awaited the conclusion of the trilogy with baited breath. Then came the news that the behind-the-scenes staff were not happy. Bryan Singer left. Other directors came and went, as did other crewmembers and X3 limped onto the stage trying to convince us that all was still well with the franchise.
To be fair - it's okay. The action is good, as is the special effects. However, overall it seems like a backwards step for the story. It's quite short (just over an hour and a half) - nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that it's X-men and the clue's in the name. The X-men is about multiple characters and, when turning it into a film, you have to try and cram as many of them in as possible. You can't please everyone. There will always be some left out ("Where's Gambit?" many cried before he showed up later in Wolverine's own film). However, there are still too many to really care about. Characters - good and bad - come on screen for one or two scenes and that's all we get of them.
Old favourites Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto get the most screen time and do their best to try and hold things together. But none of their characters are pushed forwards in terms of development. Wolverine has some cool fight scenes. Magneto shows his dastardly side with a brilliant scene involving the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and X reminds us of the X-men's overall message.
But these are just scenes. They're all good, but they're interspersed with second-rate, under-developed characters taking up screen time just so the producers can say, "See, look, there's Collossus!" It's a fun action film, but, after X2, just leaves you thinking it's not much of an improvement (incidentally the same thing I said about Terminator 3's relationship to T2).
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