Producers must have been a bit paraniod

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2003)

Just saw the new X men movie, and I think that the writers have completely sold out.
SPOILERS
Way too much happens in this movie. Sure, there is the whole deal with the bad guy trying to take over the world scheme, but too much else seems like it was just thrown in.
The movie begins when there is an assasination attempt on the President made by Nightcrawler (who's mind is controlled by Stryker). Don't worry , Crawler turns out to be a good guy. An immediate investigation is launched on both sides, human and mutant, to see who was behind the situation.

Logan comes home, and immediately it seems he is in the middle of not one, but two love triangles. It turns out Rouge and Bobby (Iceman) have accelerated their relationship, and the whole "non-contact" thing is driving bobby nuts. Wolverine seems to be the childhood crush of Rouge (eliciting jealousy from Bobby), and Logan is still in love with Jene. A little awkward? No, just poorly placed. Don't get me wrong, you can have a good comic book without the romance, but the movie blows it way out of proportion.
It's a good thing Logan comes home, because the rest of the X-team runs out to handle some things about the assasination. Jene and Storm go to Boston to find Nightcrawler, Prof. X and Scott (Cyclops) go and visit their friend, Magneto. This leaves the Xiavier university vulnerable to attack by government troops, which happens. The attack forces the students to flee, sending a small team of them (Wolverine, Rouge, Iceman, Pyro) in a Mazday RX4 to Boston. Meanwhile, Prof. X and Cyclops are captured by Strykers forces.
And Magneto manages to escape.
In Boston, we are exposed to Pyro's very short temper and violoence fetish as he torches several police cars. On their way back from Boston, the team (now heavy Storm and Jene, in the Blackbird) run into Magneto and Mystique. You figure there would be some fighting, instead, they ally to stop Strykers plan.
It turns out, Stryker was using mind altering syrums to draw out secrets and control people's minds. Now, he has built a second Coloso that he will use, in junction with a sedated Prof X, to destroy all mutants, at once. To make things more interesting, Strykers base of operations is Alkine Lake, Wolverines old stomping grounds.
The team manages to stop Stryker from killing all mutants. Remember Magneto is on their team now, and he manages to change the unit from killing all mutants, to killing all humans (its a double-cross). Don't worry, they all save the day, and force the President into giving a different address to the nation, one that is pro-mutant.
Oh, yeah, Jene dies. At least you think she dies. She goes off to perform some dramatic psyhcic duty, and is crushed by a wall of water. But something tells me we'll see her again, in the next movie.
Yes, at the end of two, they opened a whole can of worms for three. Jene is coming back, as Pheonix. Pyro goes bad, and will probably kill Iceman. And the movie will probably tank at the box office.
The bad part about these movies, character evolutoion is spread too far. I have seen no coming to reason from Storm, Prof X, or Cyclops. they are just, there. Wolverine is learning about his past, and growing stronger from it, Jene is developing her skills like no other, Rouge and Iceman are figuring out their whole mushy-mushy deal.
But what else would you expect an English major to gripe about?