X-Men 3

The third and (possibly) last X-Men movie is the first of what promises to be a good summer season for movies, and one of two huge comic book movies. It was extremely nice to get back into the theatre and enjoy a good, solid movie. However, in comparison to the previous two X-Men tales, this one had to live up to a lot.

From a sequel standpoint, X3 pretty much delivers as you would expect. The fight for mutants continues as we throw more and more mutant characters on the X-Men fire. Making a return are, of course, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Storm, and Professor X. But, as seemed to be a trend in primetime TV shows this season, many characters are eliminated from the cast. Some expectedly, some as a surprise. Joining the team are several classic heroes and villians from the comic books, including Beast, Juggernaut, and Colossus.

In short, Jean Grey managed to survive the soggy pummeling she received at the end of X2 and, thanks to a flashback, we find out that she is the most powerful mutant ever. But Jean isn’t the same old Jean, and Wolverine is determined to save the one he loves from herself. All the while, the human government has found a “cure” for mutants (that works extremely fast). Naturally, Magneto wants to kill all the humans to preserve the mutant way of life and superiority. Blah, blah, blah…nothing new there, frankly.

I’m sure I’m not spoiling anything by saying everything turns out OK in the end. The good guys still win, but at a price.

Despite the additional mutants and the pinnacle of mutant battle, X3 does not top X2. X3 tackles a very deep storyline with Jean Grey returning all while trying to progress the fighting between good and bad. Because of this, X3 moves at seemingly breakneck speed, moving from huge event to huge event without letting you really grasp or digest what’s going on and why. X2 had a great buildup for the final confrontations at the end of the film, yet the movie moved at a great pace.

Several new characters are introduced in X3, some X-Men, some just mutants with side stories, but none are explored in any great detail nor are their talents exploited on screen as much as they could/should have. It’s good to these characters in any capacity, but I was looking to see more of Angel and Colossus both. Even the new villian characters were under-utilized. You can’t get behind any of the new characters because you barely have any time to examine them. The only one that comes close is Angel, who gets a wee backstory at the beginning of the film.

But, despite all that, we do get to see action in the Danger Room and a first look at a Sentinel giant. Both being those tiny little high points that get the “Hey, cool!” response from fans that read the books or the cartoon.
Don’t get me wrong, X3 is a good movie that delivers for the summer season. But as a fan of the series, I was hoping for some more story, even if it means slowing things down a bit. Even making the film (gasp) 2-hours would have been acceptable to get what the audience wanted.

(BONUS: A trailer for Superman Returns is showing with X3)