Film Review: X-Men 3
X-Men 3: The Last Stand, is the third and supposedly final chapter in the X-Men movie saga (a trilogy I suppose). Being a huge fan of the series as a cartoon, the comics, and the first two films, I was very excited to see this installment. I consider X2: X-Men United to be the best superhero movie ever, so naturally I expected greatness. Is X3 a fitting end to the trilogy?
X3 is action-packed and it has tons of characters in it, which is sure to please many casual fans. However the number of new characters introduced really limits what the writers are able to do story-wise, leaving us with several plotlines that are left unfinished. Also, no new character is fully realized in a power sense, leaving the reliance on previously established abilites. The halfway-decent story is not nearly as good as the first two, and lacks much of what made them great.
What differentiates the story of X3 from its predecessors is the audience’s perception of the mutants. In the first two films, we can really identify with their state: outcast, rejected, and fighting for survival. We as the viewers sympathized with these characters and that really helps bring the movie home. In X3 we are not given this same connection. The development of the characters and their predicaments is not as well fleshed out, which does not lock the audience in as fully as before.
There are plenty of things I wished would have happened. I wish Archangel would have been in the movie more, and the absence of Gambit is simply inexcusable. I wish a lot of the plot points were done differently, and some not at all. There is plenty of wasted potential, for example the showdown between Pyro and Iceman. That could have been an epic one v. one, but instead it is just a cheap Dragonball Z rip-off.
The movie was a disappointment, and as far as I am concerned the series consists of the first two movies. X2 is a brilliant, entertaining film, whereas its sequel is a shell. At least I can console myself in the fact that Wolverine is still cool. There is a Magneto spinoff in the works, but I have very low expectations. If you have not seen the first two films, check them out immediately. If you see the third, just do not expect more than an average superhero movie.
6/10
November 15th, 2007 | 11:22 pm
This review is spot on. There was minimal character development and a huge amount of unreacted potential. I was expecting a lot from this movie, and very disappointed in the result.
It sometimes seems like they don’t put as much effort into the third movie (i.e. Spider Man) when they know that people are going to see the movie just based on the success of the predecessors. I wish that this wasn’t the case, but a few of the final movies in trilogies lately have simply been sub-par. Not that the execution was poor, just that the plot and story line was underdeveloped and not well thought through.