Better Than The Original, Not as good as 2

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2006)

I have to admit I was skeptical on X-Men 3. I mean since the beginning I've heard how Bryan Singer (The director of X-Men, and the even better X-Men 2) left the film to go and direct Superman Returns. His original plan was to come back and direct the third (and final?) X-Men film. Marvel Pictures wasn't to thrilled with Singer going off to direct a film about a DC Comics character so they fired Singer and replaced him with Bret Ratner of the Rush Hour films & Red Dragon. Now don't get me wrong the Rush Hour films are good action/comedies and Red Dragon is everything that the terrible Hannibal should have been, but does Ratner have what it takes for an X-Men film? the answer is yes...and no. As a long time fan of the comic book I found myself telling me that I had to keep the comic as far from my head as possible. Which after I did I found X-Men 3 to be a decent action film and a good trilogy as a whole. Needless to say X-Men 3 doesn't fall into the same category as Superman III or Alien 3 (2 films that came after great sequels) but it's no Return Of The Jedi either. The plot get's complicated as the script tries to combine 2 story lines, the first (and the 1 that takes center stage) is the mutant cure story line, in which a lab creates a cure for the mutant gene. The second is one of the most complicated stories from the comic, The Dark Phoenix Saga, which aggravated me that it was a side story. Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes, X-Men 3 felt rushed to get finished, while X-Men 2 was a whopping 2 1/2 hours and told a great story. The bright spots of the third chapter was the new mutants such as Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones) and the man that stole the show Beast (Kelsey Grammar, who I usually can not stand, yes that Frasier in a ton of make up to make him look Blue & Furry). However there was not nearly enough character development for either of these characters, not like they did with Nightcrawler in X-Men 2. Ian McKellan shines once again as Magneto the X-men's big villain, and just like the fist 2 films X-Men 3 turns into the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) show. The thing that really made me mad was Halle Berry whined and cried to get more screen time as Storm and still does nothing for the film. As mentioned before if you are a fan of the comic, as I am, then just keep that out of your head for a good 90+ minutes and you'll be fine. X-men 3 is a good ending to the trilogy (as it stands there is no X-Men 4 planned but a Wolverine film planned). Let's just hope it doesn't go the route of Alein 4 after fans of the comic call for Ratner's head. On a scale of 10 I give X-Men 3 an 8.