X-Men III
 

I saw the first screening of X-Men III last night.
All I have to say is....
WOW...
(sorry, no spoilers..)

AWW COMON!!!

I have to admit, judging by the trailers and massive amounts of spoilers around this movie could rock or suck completly. I will have no idea until I see it. I was not impressed with X-Men 1 or 2, but I am a huge fan of the comic and most of the cast....I'm hoping to enjoy this.

without giving spoilers away, what did you like about it? the action? the special effects? the story? the characters? the dialog??

I just want to know if I'm going to hear "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch" at some point during the movie.

Spoiler: Wolverine lighting his cigar with holographic fire was a bit of a let down.

So umm.. did you see the extra scene at the end of the credits? is it worth staying for?

Awesome. I get to see it at 12:15 tonight. Woohoo!

I'm gonna catch it today, so I'll report back to you guys if its worth seeing it or not.

Worth seeing. Nothing spectacular, though. It was too focused in one area and I was expecting a massive battle. Oh well.

it got pounded in my paper today. Said Brett Ratner ruined it

I'm not surprised to hear this. I read an interview with Patrick Stewart in which he was trying to say nice things about Brett Ratner as director, but it was clear what he was thinking. He said something along the lines of how Brett is always so intense and he thinks that intensity will come through to the audience and people will just be blown away. I've seen enough and read enough about the movie to know about that "intensity," and Patrick Stewart is a smart guy. What I read into his statement was more along the lines of "Brett Ratner has one mode: intense. He lacks the dynamic needed to make a movie work and not just be a whole bunch of action." I haven't seen it yet, but that's what the movie looks like to me: completely flat. Peaks are only good insofar as there are also excellent valleys. X-Men III looks like it's in the plains. But, hey, I haven't seen it, so we'll see what I think after I do.

EDIT: Well, I looked on the IMDB message boards because I'm curious, and sure enough it looks like the movie is *exactly* what I've been thinking it would be for some time. It's really sad to me, but this person who did see the movie said it best:Spoiler: "Every frame of this film feels rushed. A slew of characters were killed and cured, and I didn't even bat an eyelash. Ideas are barely explored, and none of the characters get any real focus. Aside from Wolvy, Storm, and Magneto, every mutant feels like an obligatory cameo. All the actors, save for Ian McKelllen, act out-of-character and hurry through their dialogue like they wanna get the hell outta the movie."

at least Rebecca Romijn is naked in it

Well. I'd been thinking it from the beginning, and last night proved it.

Brett Ratner is the second coming of Joel Schumacher.

I'd like to say I was disappointed by X3, but the truth is, I've been preparing myself for it for months. It was completely rushed the entire way, dropped storylines and character arcs like they were grenades, and moved so quickly, Ratner must have been running us away from trying to have a rational thought about it until the credits rolled.

It's funny, because I keep reading these home critiques, where the authors get incredibly defensive and start telling everyone to "stop over-analyzing it, movies are made to entertain us, ugh." And I can't help but feel bad, because in each article, they themselves admit thatfirst two films were brilliant, and they refuse to acknowledge what made them so: The fact that Singer didn't try to create "popcorn flicks," he actually strove to create films and focus upon the heroes themselves as characters, rather than the action, and it's no coincidence that X2 is often considered the best superhero movie of all time.

In an article I was just reading, Singer offers up a quote which indirectly shows precisely why he's such a great director. [On the scene wherein Iceman comes out to his parents, and is forced to leave on the jet]: "Instead of having the jet take off and spending the money on that, we just played it in a close-up on [Iceman]. You get more emotion out of it and save about $100,000."

In opposition to this is a general quote from Ratner, describing "Why do I need a final cut? A final cut is for "artistes" quote unquote--directors whose movies don't make a lot of money. Maybe Scorsese should have a final cut because a guy like Harvey Weinstein or a studio might change it to make it a little more accessible or a little more commercial but he has a vision of what he wants it to be. He wants it to be four hours long or whatever."

I'm not trying to intentionally railroad Ratner, but the issue for me is that it feels like he intentionally set to create something commercial, rather than something lasting and meaningful, and a refusal to at least attempt to create something better than "a popcorn flick," and it doing so, he loses precisely what made the first films great.

As much as I disagree with the claim that X2 is the greatest superhero movie of all time, (for various reasons) it's certainly true that Ratner's fundamental attitude towards his medium is what's wrong with a lot of films these days.

X3 had potential to be much more profound than it ended up being, and that's due to the very reasons you list here.

I could identify many spots in which the movie should have focused more on the characters and it would have made it 50 times better. Still, it was entertaining.

I'm with Halx on this one. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and no, it wasn't Citizen Kane.

Not bad at all. I could have watched another hour or so of character development and exploration, but it was excellent as an action movie, and quite good as a superhero movie.

X-Men 3 was dissapointing. Me and my roomate both saw it, and at the end of the film we were both like "meh." We couldn't really put our figner on it, but after reading this thread I must agree that there simply wasn't enough (if any) character developement.

If you see it, stay until the credits end.

It was a fun action flick
but it wasnt as good as the others....
the other ones had real meaning and emotion behind them...

this one was just a mindless action flick

I thought it was great. I ain't gonna go into why I thought it was great since most of the people here were disappointed in it.

Spoiler: Was that Toad I saw walking on the ceiling during the Church scene??? I thought he was killed off in X1

Such is the curse of the X-Men movies - everyone wants to see their favourite, but there's just isn't enough time. No way around it, really.

I have to agree with pretty much what has been said here... entertaining yes, but nowhere near as good as it could have been.

the first 2 were much better.

when wolvy is looking at xaviers tomb thinger, theres a bug crawling on his shoulder, i noticed that when iw as watching, made me giggle

While I have to agree that this project seemed extremely rushed, and many interesting plotlines were left completely unexplored, I have to give credit to either Ratner or his DP for the powerful imagery in quite a few scenes. For the most part, this movie was great looking, but could have benefited from another hours worth of character development.

Spoiler: The only way to kill Ray Park is to cut him in half. No, Toad survived X1, only recieving serious 3rd degree burns at the hands of Storm. Sabertooth also is said to have survived his collission with that boat after recieving a good old fashioned Wolverine beating. The only character that was confirmed as dying in X1 was Senator Kelly.

What is the secret ending?

Well, I would post it but I don't know how to to the white highlight to cover up the spoiler......

The secret ending:

Spoiler: If you remember when Prof. X is giving his lesson to a class, he mentions a brain dead man and talks about the ethics of inhabiting this body. He is then interrupted. Then has a scene with the brain dead man awakening. He speaks with Prof. X's voice. He moved his conciousness to another body before DP killed him.

Sweet! Thanks.

Man, the only thing I hate about the drive-in (besides bugs) is having to leave immediately to try and got out before the hoardes of other cars. HOW did we miss that ending??!!

That aside... I liked it. Like I liked MI3. Because things blew up, it was action-packed, etc. Not because I enjoyed the characters or could even follow the story. It jumped around so much and half the time I felt like I was missing something. As a movie, fun. As the third in a series... boo.

It was good. Glad I stayed for the extra bit at the end. Thanks for the heads-up on that.

It was good, and part of that is owed to it leaning so heavily on all the backstory in the previous two.
This movie didn't give a lot of time to actual depth of character or story, it relied on the fact that 1 and 2 did.
I will say it was good to see things moving along; events happening and the story moving on.

Spoiler: So far as characters being killed without much ado; well, that's more true to real life than perhaps most people give it credit for. If you're playing around with powerful beings who fight, it would make sense that people are going to get killed. Only in soap operas and comics/movies to you make it a "Event!" when a character gets killed off.

Spoiler: You play with fire you get burnt. This movie did let that happen without extra drama and the typical "let's drag out make a huge deal of the guy/gal dying" portrayal most movies give, and most audiences expect. When you think about it, that's cool.
For example, when Mystique's (sp?) powers were removed, and she's a plain ole' human it's a suprise. It's not some built up, "wait for it, wait for it.....saw it coming" type of situation. Magneto's a cold sonuva' bitch about the human/mutant divide and he's true to form, not abrupt. In fact, him being all "too bad, so sad, you got fucked" is true to character.

For me, that events moved somwhat realistically in the movie give it points for not being a typical hollywood over-drama.

I heard a couple critiques about the movie. I haven't seen it yet but I probably will just cause I enjoy the characters. I hope I'm not too terribly disappointed.

I heard the characters weren't developed as much, there was more action than story, and that there were a number of very cliched lines that didn't even fit too well. I guess I'll have to see it to know.

Well... i've seen it. Loved some of it, hated some too. Many suprises and a few good laughs not to mention tons of drama. All in all I felt there was better charachter development though some didnt get the attention I felt they deserved. Then again this is probably why I dont direct movies eh?

I pretty much agree with all that has been said, good action but dialogue and character dev. were sucktastic. One of the things that bothers me that hasn't been mentioned is the combat tactics, not the mechanics (I get that they have super powers) but their tactics are that of a child, and some of these guys are supposed to be a genius or at least pretty smart.

BTW where do the X-Men get all that technology? Who makes it? It seems like theyre about a 100 years ahead of everyone else. Even the military.

This wasn't supposed to be the Matrix, to be honest. You're right that there were absolutely no tractics, despite the fact that (the REAL) Magneto excells at game theory.
The Xaviers are old money, and the professor is obviously going to be a smart investor. Xavier also has access to the Avengers and to Reed Richards of F4. The prof also got tech from Lilandra, he interstellar queen. Also, Warren Worthington sits on a pretty big fortune.

Thanks [(Edit) to both of you.]

Their tech still seems a bit much though. And that's what I was saying, magneto and what not would be really good at tactics, but it was to the point of absurdity. The military was bad as well.

If I remember correctly, the jet they fly was made by Lockheed Martin.

SR-71 Blackbird, manufactured by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.
http://www.pr.afrl.af.mil/focus/blackbird.jpg
This was the plane that the X-Men's Blackbird was based. Of course various modifications were made, depending on which Blackbird you're looking at. The movie Blackbird was different than the Blackbird of the comic universe. Most of the extra tech was alien.

http://www.marveldirectory.com/misc/xmenjet.htm

Go see the movie if you enjoyed the first two... entertaining, and enjoyable, very nice special effects.

If I remember correctly, almost all of the high tech gadgets the X-Men have are from the alien race, the Shi'Ar. Xavier helped them to save the universe from one of there own, and their new queen, Lilandra, fell in love with him, and has been helping him out ever since. That might not be the exact order of events, but something to that effect.

I really enjoyed it for what it was. Yall gotta remember not every movie is going to be a meaningful piece of art and alot of them were never meant to be. The directors objective was just to entertain you for a couple hours and make some bank doing it.

I think it was a really good movie. I think Brett Ratner was a good director for this movie because the movie needed to be intense and he is, well very intense. The backstory and character development wasnt great but like someone else said they relied on the other 2 movies for that. I really enjoyed it and am so glad they didn't try to go into the original Phoenix Saga.

I saw a Wolverine clip on Conan last night where Wolverine's fighting soldiers/mercs in the forrest and the action looked pretty intense, to me.
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
If the movie is mostly like that, then I'll definitely be getting the most bang for my buck(s).

This isn't Citizen Kane, folks. Relax & enjoy. ;)

edit: D'oh! Beat out by ratbastid, again. :D

Apologists: Stop lying to yourself. This movie was bad, not compared to Citizen Kane, but compared to other superhero movies. It was slapdash, ugly, and stupid. The idiots in my theater braying at the obligatory shot in the nuts were the target audience for this movie. The pathetic attempts before and after the credits to undo all the movie had done were stupid -- if you're going to go big, don't wimp out. Spoiler: Patrick Stewart seemed happy to be out of the movie, and with good reason. Just bad and disappointing all around -- but still not as horryfing as Ghost Rider.

How can you compare a movie based off a comic book revovling around 20-30 mutants to a movie not based on a comic book made in 1941 revolving around one guy?

Sadly enough, this is exactly how I feel. Thanks for putting it into words. Oh well, at least X2 was great.....

read the post, he says "not Citizen Kane," but to compared it to OTHER comic book movies. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I was pretty pissed about the last two scenes and undoing everything important in the movie.

Spoiler: Snape kills Dumbledore

That right there is what really pisses me off, though.

I just drew up the most wonderful allusion!

If you compare the mutant scenario in Xmen to the Civil Rights Movement...

Charles Xavier = Martin Luther King
Erik Lehnsherr(Magneto) = Malcom X

Malcom X also changed his thinking towards the end.....

Nice...but not the first time this has been noticed. In fact, I think Stan Lee intended the similarities. Does anyone know more about this?

Well, I'm 100% percent sure it's intentional.

I saw the movie and it's true that there is not much character development. The Phoenix storyline is not fully explained. Also, I'm pissed because I didn't know there was an extra scene after the credits were over. But, as an action movie I thought it rocked! I may just have to see it again.

I personally thought the action scenes weren't any good, either. They didn't get anything right in this movie. The acting was probably the only thing that didn't suck like a Hoover vac. That was mainly because a lot of the characters were "repeat visits" and knew what to do already. The action scenes were repetitive, with "crouching tiger hidden shitfest" wirework and terrible, "I just learned how to use 3d studio max" CGI. if you can't use it correctly, don't use it at all. some of the graphics were great, others were embarassing. all it takes is one crappy shot to ruin an entire action scene. you can't turn chicken shit into chicken salad, as my dad says. this movie was sugar-coated turd. man I need a drink.

I thought it sucked, and I imagine if I were an actual X-Men fan I'd be pissed.

My sentiments exactly, if they would have played up the Pheonix story a little more and made the movie longer (at least make it 2 hours come on) it would have been way better.

I wonder how the spin offs will be: http://www.movieweb.com/news/79/12979.php

My die hard marvel fan was kicked out of the theater for yelling out of total outrage..
i.e "WHERE THE FUCK IS NIGHTCRAWLER!" "HALLE BERRY, YOU BITCH!!!"
(Because Halle Berry threatened to not be in X3 if she didn't have a bigger role..IMO, it's probably her fault that Xavier has to die.)
Everything was off, and the more I talk and think about it the more I get pissed. I still know the animated series theme song by heart.
If Brett Ratner directs 4 (and the ending of 3 is just totally like..ok, we're doing a 4 if this one still sells!), fans should protest. It's unacceptable to ruin people's childhood dreams like that.

Well, since I spend way too much time on Wikipedia, I found out about 2 things. Due for release are a Wolverine spinoff (sometime in 2007), and possibly a Magneto spinoff, both would be prequels.
I'm in favor of both, if they are well directed, because I would love to see Logan's bestial side come out on screen. I mean, he tears people apart. It's what he does.
Magneto would be about why him and charles diverged...So yeah.
Hope they repair their mistakes.

I loathe this movie and this series so much, it is totally irrational, so what I am about to say is probably self-contradictory. I have read the comics and surely this taints my opinion. My main problem, besides the poor acting, is the altered story lines. Here's why. (In general) movies based on books try to be as faithful to the story as possible. Many fail at being adequate adaptations, but at least they attempt to remain faithful.

Hollywood also has its clichés and this movie/series adheres to them too well, thus making it pure popcorn escapism. Surely, it is a movie, and movies, particularly summer movies have this intention, but I think the only reason this series came/comes out in the summer is to capitalize on the potential box-office draw that is so typical in the summer, and May starts the summer season for Hollywood.

With all that said, I think the biggest flaw with the series is deciding when it ends or should end before they started filming. When they decided to make X-Men (meaning when they were sipping expensive wine in a boardroom), the actors signed on for only three films, and thus the filmmakers decided that they were going to do only three films. With this in mind, the last film (as the title suggests) had to somehow be conclusive. Thus, they had to bastardize the mythology that is the X-Men and bastardize it they did. Anyway, I have so many problems, with the plot, the actors, the acting, etc. that I'd probably write a thesis on it, so suffice it to say I was wholly disappointed.

I saw Xmen 3 at the drive in so i didnt get the great "theater" sound but I like the movie, tho i'm not sure if it is my favorite. There were a few parts where I was like OH SHIT!