X-Men: O Confronto Final

Wow, where do I start on this fiasco of a movie. In regards to my affection for the first two movies in the series, please see my rating for them. I gave them both high marks, and had anticipated the third movie with much joy and glee. My glee turned to flee not long into this horrible flick. The only thing that remotely saves it from being a total disaster is the graphics, and the hope that you will see it develop into a good movie. If you wasted 8 buck o roonies like myself to see this in theater, well don't feel bad, because some poor jokers sat out all night to see it on opening night. This one is even debatable on rental. Let it go to the special section, or as I call it "The Last Stand."

Positives:

• Most of the action
• Interesting ideas (Though explored better in the comics)
• Main cast
• Musical score

Negatives:

• Writing
• Messy story
• Pacing

I have the luxury of not being a fan of the comics, so I find no offense when some character's superpowers or origin don't match the "book." Also, I have seen enough Marvel-licensed projects to set my expectations low. In short, I was expecting almost nothing.

The first two X-men were poor projects, but at least had *some* imagination. Sadly, it wasn't visual or cinematic. This lacks everything, but you can read all about that elsewhere. Here, all you'll find is some speculation about the root of thing: why it is rotten and probably unfixable at the core.

The book depended on a the universality of differentness. The idea behind the notion of "mutant" was that there were perhaps tens of millions of mutants including nearly every reader. Different, strange but talented beyond the norm in some usually unappreciated way. Spurned or at least misunderstood by parents and bosses.

In this cosmology, we all live in a modified noir world, one that toys with the fate of a whole class rather than a single, accidentally selected individual (and his girl). When we see higher level mutants behaving heroically, they do it as representatives of us, or so the comics go.

That's turned on its head here: lower level mutants are innocent pawns just as all the other types of people, soldiers, random motorists — whose idea was it to show that every car had children in it, then use those occupied cars as firebombs?

And if the target demographic is 14 year old boys and those who wish they were, why use 40 year old women? Or is it not supposed to matter? Well, it didn't to me, but the complete lack of cinematic imagination says this needs to go away.

The anti-mutating mutant was apt, though.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

The latest X-Men movie is disappointing to say the least. I don't know who had the final say on the finished product, (Brett Ratner, the producers or editors, or the studio) but the end result is an eyesore that has been rushed through production.

The movie is full of unexplained cut scenes that run into each other, that leave you frustrated and a little confused. The plot is sub-par with very poor dialog. The plot is not that difficult to follow, it's just full of holes. Holes that leave true X-fans wanting more. The music score throughout the entire movie is horrible and off. Music makes a movie. The writer of the score of X-Men 3 should be ashamed of the final product.

The unexplained introduction of a dozen or so new mutants was attempt to cover up the lame plot. The new mutants come and go without explanation or warning and spout a cheesy one-liner of dialog before they are rushed of the screen. There is an occasional curse word that gets all of the prepubescent teens in the audience a chance to chuckle like a little schoolgirl in their Sunday's best.

Brett Ratner was a poor choice to direct the third installment of the X-Franchise. With his not so impressive track record of Rush Hour movies, with Rush Hour 3 in preproduction; he should have been last on the list to direct this highly anticipated movie. It's like the powers that be just drew his name out of a hat and said lets go in that direction.

I'm not saying it's the worst movie out there, but it is defiantly the worst of the three. It was a poorly planned and over rushed movie that doesn't live up to the standards of true fans, such as myself. I've been reading and collecting X-Men comics for years and I know all of their back-stories and sub-plots and I expect it to at least live up to the standards of the previous two movies.

The end result is a movie that does not live up to the standards of the trilogy. The bad plot and dialog is replaced by CGI and special effects that try to district you from this poor movie that you shell out your hard-earned cash to see. It's worth seeing, but try to go see the lower priced day showing of the film.

It is safe to say that every X-Men fan, or any movie fan for that matter would have much rather seen Bryan Singer finnish out his first two X mens into a brilliant trilogy. I was very unsure that Brett Ratner, who has directed some pretty decent movies, not great, but not terrible could do a good job. Much to my chagrin Brett Ratner exceeded my expectations on how well he could direct the final chapter of this comic masterpiece.

Although I feel a comic book movie has yet to top Batman Begins, I feel that all superhero movies owe it to the X men for 'relaunching' this superhero craze that we have been blessed with, and for that we have to thank Singer.

For those who have seen the movie you can agree with me that Ratner did not give us the in depth character build up that Singer gave us. Instead, giving us a fun action packed movie, with a little character glimpse at Wolverine and a touching moment between Kitty and Bobby. However, that is not the director that Ratner is. Ratner is 'an action' director, one who focuses mainly on fight sequences and explosions mixed in with some mild humor, and that is what made this movie work.

Although Singer's genius was deeply missed in this third chapter, I do not feel we need to be ashamed at the third movie. I know we all feel that Singer could have given us a better close on his trilogy, Brett Ratner still needs to be applauded for giving us his different yet great take on the wonderful and never to be forgotten X-Men series.