Lived up to expectations, but never exceeded them.

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2006)

I'm sure i'm not the only one that hung on for the final installment of X-Men, and although i didn't expect a mind-blowing finale (because, let's face it... very few are) i did expect it to follow along in the same style of it's predecessors.
Unfortunately, it didn't.
This is probably due to the fact that Bryan Singer didn't stick around to see this one out. But you also have to give credit to the new director - Singer was, and always will be, a hard act to follow.
The storyline, as usual, was as good as it was believable. I wasn't disappointed on that front. I was, however, on the characterization of the cast. Unless you had seen the previous film/s, then you were left in the dark. You weren't given the chance to properly understand the characters or grow attached to them if this was the first time you had watched an X-Men movie. I also have to admit that a number of the new characters were not fleshed out at all - I was excited when i'd heard Ben Foster was in this, but it turned out that his character was barely mentioned. It was almost as if it was just an afterthought, a throw in. A character that was convenient to the plot, and had almost no substance. Although, thought must go out to the rather large cast - so many characters, and so little time to pay homage to them.
There were also many unanswered questions, or many scenarios that weren't seen to the end. You often had to piece together afterward what had happened, and even when you did come to a conclusion, it still didn't put your mind to rest.
But that is where the criticism ends. I believe that the X-men trilogy is one of the few Marvel movies that have turned out exceptionally well. Was i disappointed? No. I didn't leave the theater with a sense of 'but i wanted...'. I ate it all up, and enjoyed the final installment.