What a mess...

Rating: 3/10 (4 June 2006)

XMen 3 is a special effects movie. Period. (This is not an endorsement btw.) Rattner does a great job of showing us really cool burning-cars-as-bombs, etc, but the weirdly rushed and glossed-over treatment of the human dimension left me nodding off. The telling of the story -- and explosions are *not* a "story" -- was simply a disaster. Thus... It was all about the explosions. I forgot everything about the movie by the time I got to my car.
The way it was treated by Rattner, this "cure" for mutantism came across as non-compelling. Somebody announces a 5-second cure for mutantism in all its bazillion forms, and within 3 minutes we have a Race War, with thousands of 8th-tier mutants (Really-Bad-Dandruff-Man? Farts-Smell-Like-Chanel-#5 Girl?) lining up behind Magneto, who sets right out to destroy the world if the "cure" is not abandoned.
Consider: Here you have a situation (far-fetched to be sure, given that "mutantism" isn't a specific condition, but a normal genetic process that leads to bio-diversity) that could have been very, very moving. EVERYONE in the audience can relate to being the outcast; what would you give up to "fit in"? How would you decide? And should OTHER mutants have the right to choose for themselves? This final point -- that everyone should make their own choice -- is what our dear XMen should have concluded... with Magneto, like Osama, or Mao, or any megalomaniac throughout history deciding for everyone the way it's gonna be.
Rattner's shorthand shortchanged any any pathos: or rather, there were little scenes here and there that said "quick dose of pathos here, now let's get back to the action!" Jean Grey -- Alive? Ugly? Who cares? Cyclops in tears? Who cares? Rogue, will she or won't she? Who cares? Oh well. It's just a movie.