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Just got back from seeing it. Liked it, but it was no where near as good as Singer's films. Now, this isn't necessarily Ratner's fault. For a guy who came in at the eleventh hour, he did a bang up job. A lot of the problem has to do with the script. It seemed like they took the second draft and ran with it.
For instance, the Bobby/Kitty/Rogue love triangle. Now, in order for a love triangle to be successful we have to actually know who the third person is and what she thinks of the male lead. Case in point: Kitty. We never really know all that much about her aside from she can walk through walls and helps Iceman out now and then. Rogue gets jealous and goes to get cured so Bobby can touch her like he touches Kitty. However, we no nothing about Kitty. We don't know how she really feels about Bobby, nor he for her. Thusly the love triangle fails.
I also didn't care for Cyclops getting offed so early. Now, it's not like I'm a big Cyclops fan or anything. He's always come off as a whiner, so I felt he had it coming. But give the guy more than 5 minutes of screentime, for God's sake.
Angel was also underused. He flys away from the cure, joins Xavier's school and saves his dad. That's it.
Speaking of Xavier's school, why were they even contemplating shutting the school down and sending the students home? Xavier told Storm she would take his place should anything happen to him. There shouldn't have been any question that the school would remain. It was a useless plot device that lasted all of thirty seconds.
Now, for the things I liked:
Wolverine. The comic book purists can say what they want, but in my book Hugh Jackman kicks all kinds of ass as Wolverine. There's a reason Wolvie's gotten so much attention and screen time in the previous films: he really is the coolest and most psychologically complicated character in the X-men. I really love how his character came full circle in this trilogy. He started off a loner, only caring about himself. Then in this film he really becomes totally selfless, and sacrifices his love for Jean in order to save lives.
Juggernaut at times was pretty awesome. He just should have never spoken.
Ian McKellan, I'll say it again, is one of the greatest actors I've ever seen. He could do an entire movie sitting on the toilet and he'd make it brilliant. I loved how he actually showed some compassion for Xavier and recognized that Xavier had done a lot for mutant kind. It was also neat seeing that chess piece move at the end, showing that the cure was temporary and letting the audience know that Magneto will return. It should also be interesting to see what will happen (should there be another film) between Magneto and Mystique. Since the cure is temporary, Mystique will be her normal self again and I'm sure she'd love to get back at Magneto for turning his back on her.
Storm was fine. We got to see her do some kickass stuff that was missing in the previous films, but otherwise Berry played her as she's always played her.
And of course, you can't forget Phoenix. I've never read the comics so I don't know what she was like in them and I don't care. I sympathized with her the entire way, knowing that Jean was deep in there and just wanted to be freed. Her moment with Wolverine at the end was heartbreaking.
So, overall I'd give the film a B-. I'll buy it on DVD of course, but it still isn't as good as what Singer did with the first two.
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