X-Men Never Truly Die...

Rating: 6/10 (28 May 2006)

I didn't have any expectations of this movie due to the fact that Bryan Singer was not involved (OMG if you went to this movie thinking the same team was working on it, were you in for a nasty surprise). Lauren Schuler Donner made her point, that they could still make this movie without Singer, but they surely could have chosen a better screenplay. Rattner did OK with the direction of the actors, but he seems to be the one getting flak for the plot. Blame the editors and the writers! Without Singer, Donner should have brought in Chris Claremont as content expert (he's in the fricken' movie, did they listen to anything he had to say or even bother asking!). I get the feeling that this movie was heavily edited, I hope that an extended version is released on DVD (this movie should have been 30 minutes longer). The language is dirtier, but the claw action was toned down far too much in my opinion. Cyclops' mysterious "death" is a ridiculous departure from the comics, however more on that later. Plus side: Dark Phoenix was terrifying! She should have done more at the end though and had more abandon and evil laughter (like in the comics). There's no way Magneto could have controlled her like he did in this movie. This was also the best Storm and Iceman that we have seen so far. Leave out the Juggernaut!!! Or else spend some proper time developing him and show some childhood scenes of him and Charles in the Marko household. He could still be Xavier's step-brother in the film, the subject wasn't approached one way or the other. So, with all the deaths, who is that surprised, after all this is the X-Men where the characters die and come back to life all the time. We never saw what happened to Cyclops, and the Phoenix always rises again; Xavier is still alive on the astral plane, he'll come back with the ability to walk again - come on, this has already all happened in the books, so it can happen in the movies. If there is an X4, it can salvage the franchise, provided that a good screenplay is written (why they don't get Claremont or Whedon to write one is beyond me). I also don't care how much they edit the crap out of movies for the theater, just release the "real" version on DVD (a la Daredevil). SHAME ON SCHULER DONNER and Avi Arad for letting this happen!!!