Living the life of a comic book revolutionary, I tend not to leave the bunker often. But for the third installment of what has been, so far, a fairly brilliant movie series, I climbed out for a rare excursion, and last night made it for a viewing. I took a seat (snack food, of course) and then sat down for the show, only to have to watch 5 trailers first.
***** WARNING WARNING WARNING! SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS *****
There is no synopsis, per se, in this review, but I’ll be going over plot points, and don’t want to ruin it for anyone. So, if you’ve seen it, or dont’ care, read on.
Ok. X-Men 1&2 set an unreal expectation for this movie. It had more than enough successful lines, special effects, plot twists, and quality acting to be considered a good movie. I’ll surely buy it. It is better than Fantastic Four, and blows the doors off of the Hulk (although I think that Daredevil was probably a better written movie). But as a continuation of X-Men 2 especially it is disappointing.
Characters spout cheesy lines (“I’ll kill you first” “Told you so”) give fairly lame speeches and seem to look into the camera, act out of character (Magneto leaving Mystique when she was depowered) or are just thinly defined (like the mutant fodder to be disintegrated in the end scene). The special effects are impressive, but lack the naturalness found in X2.
Basically, none of the characters were given enough time to connect on an emotional level with the viewers, so that by the end of the movie, when Jean died again at the end of this movie, her death had none of the impact it did in previous one.
In short, the movie had the makings and the potential to tell two great stories, but doesn’t take the time to let either of them develop, rather moving quickly from plot point to plot point, all the while stuffing bad dialog into some very good actor’s mouths.
One sentence summary: Don’t expect too much from the movie, and you won’t be disappointed.