Page 1 of X-Men: The Last Stand...

I really don`t know who to blame because this film has been f*cked at so many stages of production. But the script was mince.

The first X-Men was great because of the characters. That film too was plagued by a rocky production, with it`s original X-Mas 2000 release date pulled drastically forward to summer 2000. But Bryan Singer pulled it off with a mostly fantastic cast and a flawed but script that was at least faithful to the characters. Then X2 nailed everything that was right with the original, expanded and improved it, and got rid of most of the bad. X2 was a fantastic film, with Singer using his production team well, especially John Ottman on music and editing duties. And the script was great, if a little heavy handed in a few scenes.

X-Men 3, stripped of Singer and most of his team, is a mess. It`s not awful, but it`s the worst in the franchise by a long way. You think the "You know what happens to a Toad..." was bad? There are moments in this film far worse. The worst thing is, this film does damage that cannot be undone. Characters are killed off with almost zero impact, and almost in hilariously bad fashion. The film is tacky. I don`t mean that the special effects are bad, they`re not, infact the special effects are pretty awesome. It`s the editing, the performances, everything is off. There is no quiet time, no pondering moments for characters who need to breathe like they could in the first two. Beast is performed well, but his character feels like an after thought. Angel is a waste of space, and his being there ends with a retarded action that makes no sense. Juggernaught is VINNIE JONES, WITH VINNIE JONES VOICE!!!!!!!!

The good moments are few and far between. Huge disappointment. At least we got one great film out of the X-Men. RIP.

here we go again.....wolverine should wear yellow spandex blah blah bloody blah

Going to see it tomorrow... chewie, did you stay til after the end credits for the extra scene?

If you did (or anyone else did), is it worth staying for?

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If you did (or anyone else did), is it worth staying for?

I`d say yes. Just to see how spineless this film is.

Just to clarify, I`ve never read an X-Men comic in my life, I just used to watch the 90s cartoon series and loved the first two X-Men films. Being faithful to the comic books is the least of this films problems. I just wish it was faithful to the first two films, but instead it destroys what Singer had crafted so neatly. The film is a joke, sort of like what Terminator 3 is to the Terminator franchise, enjoyable on it`s own but nothing compared to the original or it`s sequel, and probably best not counted as part of the series. That`s what X-Men 3 is like. I`m annoyed because X-Men had the potential to be a long and successful franchise, but they`ve killed it with this installment, meaning we don`t even have a good trilogy, just a decent start, excellent middle, and a flacid, limp dick of an ending.

I could dissect each character and tell you where they went wrong in this film, with the exception of Magneto. With X-Men and X2, the characters were developed steadily, some more than others (Wolverine taking centre stage). But with X-Men 3 they take backwards steps, and even change characters. It f*cks with the continuity.

The best bit in the film is...

SPOILER:
...near the end, where Wolverine, Beast and Storm are sheltering from the destruction Magneto is causing. Next to them is a catridge of syringe bullets containing the cure, and the looks each character give one another is one of the only true moments in the film, where it alludes to something deeper and they say more in that moment than at any other point in the film.


You want me to say why I hated some aspects of X-Men 3? Here are some characters that get the shaft:

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Cyclops - F*ck me, I can`t really argue too much on this one because he hasn`t been in the previous two films much either, but this was his chance to come to the front but instead he is the Phoenix`s first victim

Mystique - One of the best characters is cured and spills the beans. Her character is an excuse for a plot device and nothing more. But I don`t disagree with this too much either, it`s actually quite a good scene because of what Magneto does

Professor X - The Phoenix`s second victim, poor Charlie is blown into ash before the half way mark. It`s laughable they way it happens, because Jean Grey and Phoenix are so badly written. Also, THERE IS NO PHOENIX FLAME EFFECT, as shown during X2. No, when she kills she looks like a reject from Land of the Dead.

Magneto - CURED... or is he?

Rogue - CURED! So all that character development and controlling her powers during the first two flicks is wasted here.

Pyro - Total waste of space, doesn`t really do anything apart from act as Magneto`s bitch. His confrontation with Ice Man Bobby is pathetic, no kick. A script problem more than anything else.

Angel - Just there as a CURE plot device. Also, that motherf***er can fly fast to get from one side of America to another in just a little bit longer time than the X-Jet.

Also, am I alone in thinking that some of the wire work during the end was f*cking awful? I`m mainly talking about the henchmen mutants, but damn it sucked.

Just got back from this and sorry to say but I really liked it, not quite as good as the second, but far superior to the first imo.

I agree with a couple of your points chewie about the misuse of a couple of characters, and yes Vinnie Jones was a BAD casting choice, especially to use his accent.

But beyond that it`s an enjoyable action movie with a decent and unpredictable storyline in my eyes. 2 thumbs up from me

Though why did the movies never use Gambit? One of the central and best characters of the cartoon

Been to see it tonight too, after reading your review chewie, and after having looked at a few online reviews.

Have to say, that I don`t know how I feel about the film. If it hadn`t been for the last pre-credits shot, I would have thought that they had just completely killed off the entire franchise in one foul swoop. I don`t blame Ratner, I think he was basically left to get on with what had gone before.

Now, can I ask what the point of Storm is. She does f*** all apart from take ages to do anything. During the entire end sequence she fights one person, while the other five X-Men are taking on the other 200 odd people. Why the f*** does she have to fly 30 ft in the air to do anything? Please do not let Halle Berry go anywhere near a superhero film again.

Juggernaut is a decent character, and has a few humerous sequence. BUT, Vinnie Jones was completely the wrong choice for the film. I also agree with the treatment with alot of the characters, some of it totally unbelievable.

SPOILER:
Rogue may have well not even have appeared in it.

The CGI is mostly good, but there are some pretty crap things in it too which kind of evens it out. The ending was big, but felt incredibly anti-climactic. Things were happening, but... I just didn`t care.

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But beyond that it`s an enjoyable action movie

And there lies the problem, X-Men shouldn`t be an action film. X2 had load of action in it, but the set pieces were full of character development. The X-Jet chase with the two F-16s showed how powerful Storm was, and then showed Jean Grey as the Phoenix briefly. In X-Men 3 they do NOT show anything different. As Ben said:

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Things were happening, but... I just didn`t care

I don`t blame Ratner, but I think a lot of his influence was in the comic relief moments, of which too many fell flat. But then I can forgive that, humour is a funny thing and sometimes it`s fun to roll your eyes sometimes in a film that really does get "serious". If Singer had done this film, there would have been less characters killed but the WHACK the audience would have felt would have been astounding. Just look at Jean Grey`s death at the end of X2, I felt that, the reactions of the characters, especially Cyclops, all helped in showing you that these characters are real.

As for Storm, I don`t know. I`m not as bothered by her as some others are.

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The funeral speech was cringe worthy though, just something really off with it

I wonder how Bryan Singer feels about this. He and his team crafted two excellent films with characters that had clear arcs ahead of them, but X-Men 3 just destroys them as quickly as possible.

i love how people say this wasn`t as good as the saturday morning tv shows when they were crap ie badly animated and ridiculous plot lines ripped off from numerous legit comic book storylines.

i`ve collected the comics for over 14 years(eeeppp!) and have yet to see any comic book film adaptation live up to the books.(batman begins is def the closest)

and chewie will say this how you discribed this series of films is exactly how i would have described the original starwars trilogy!

i saw it and enjoyed the film yes there were plot holes in it but considering ratner hasn`t done a superhero flick before and bryan singer couldn`t be bothered to stay and finish it off i think it turned out as well as could be expected.

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have yet to see any comic book film adaptation live up to the books.(batman begins is def the closest)

What about The Crow? (the original obviously)

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I`m going to see it next week - I`m looking forward to it, but I`m not expecting too much so hopefully I`ll be pleasantly surprised (it sounds as though it might be the typical "third" superhero film - eg "Batman Forever", "Superman 3", "Blade 3"...).