A disappointing end to the trilogy

Rating: 3/10 (9 July 2006)

They were always going to have trouble following X2, but I never dreamed just how bad this movie could be. The direction, the editing, the acting and the story all fail miserably. Flat out, it's just a poorly made movie that fails on all levels.
The movie gets off to a bad start with the sloppily handled death of Cyclops, who apparently gets offed by Phoenix 10 minutes in (although we're never actually shown what happens). Unbelievably, none of the X-Men even seem to care that Cyclops is missing! As soon as they see Jean Grey, all concern for Cyclops is gone. This scene is never satisfactorily resolved.
The direction doesn't get any better. Characters appear and then disappear with no mention as to why and what their purpose is in that scene. Angel is a good example. He very briefly shows up at various points in the movie, but they never bother to give him much of a character or a personality or anything like that. As a result, his scenes fail to convey much emotion. Another example is Colossus. He appears in all the fight scenes, but I don't know if he had a single line in the movie. He's just another of the many no-name mutants to appear.
The Phoenix storyline just never worked at all. She basically stands around for most of the movie doing not much of anything. When she finally starts to show some life, she more closely resembles a demon from some schlock B-grade horror flick than an actual X-Men character.
Characters also say and do things that don't make sense. In addition to the X-Men forgetting about Cyclops, there's a scene where Magneto frees a couple of mutants and they just join his cause with no questions asked. There's nothing wrong with them joining him, but you'd think they'd at least want to know who he was.
Overall, the acting was poor. Storm gets a much bigger role this time, but Halle Berry fails to convey any sense of strength, power or conviction in her performance. There's one scene I'm thinking of in particular, right after the Professor dies, where Storm takes charge and declares that the school shall remain open, but she does so with such a lack of conviction that I'm surprised no one said, "no, seriously, what should we do?"
Hugh Jackman also seems pretty disinterested this time. Gone are the snarling one-liners and that sense of being on the edge that characterized Wolverine in the first two films. This time, Wolverine seems like a tamed animal.
The Golden Gate Bridge scene was typical of the movie. They spend no time developing the story or characters, but then spend three or four minutes on some superfluous and unnecessary FX shot just for a "wow" effect (it was unnecessary because Magneto could have easily got everyone across to Alcatraz without using the bridge). Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against special effects, but a well-developed story forms the backbone of any good movie, even a special effects extravaganza, and this movie ignores that fact.
From a production standpoint, the movie gave the impression of being a rush job. There were glaring errors in continuity and editing. Here's a great example: when Magneto drops the bridge on Alcatraz, it's daylight. Seconds later, all the mutants jump off the bridge and it's nighttime. Doesn't anyone "proof-view" this stuff? There's no way an error like that should happen in such a big budget movie. It's just one more example of why this movie sucked. Big time. 3/10