Big bam boom.
I was pretty worried about this movie. X2 was great but left with a cliffhanger I needed to resolve. Six months later, it all went to hell.
Bryan Singer announced he'd be making Superman Returns (which comes out in a few weeks)before X-Men 3. The executives at 20th Century Fox got so pissed they cancelled his contract and went looking for another director (because a good release date is more important than a good director). Matthew Vaughan came in, made a couple of decisions, and left. Not a good omen. Finally, Brett Ratner was signed and made this movie very quickly. I'm amazed it doesn't suck.
And it doesn't. But it's not the great film X2 is. Gone are the complex characters. Famke Janssen's layered Jean Grey is now the eeeeeevil Dark Phoenix. Patrick Stewart's serene Professor X comes off a little too 'Picard' in the opening scene. And Ian McKellen spends most of the time stretching out his hand and squinting his brow.
But it's geek nirvana. The Danger Room. Sentinels. The Fastball Special. Iceman vs. Pyro. Wolverine vs. Juggernaut. Kitty Pryde vs. Juggernaut. Kelsey Grammar as the Beast. It all works. The fight at the end really feels like a fight in an X-Men comic. Meaning there's a thousand characters throwing different powers at each other at once.
The studio says this is it for the X franchise and that the next movie will feature only Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I can see it. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper and the fan base will return for a less complex story. Oh yeah, and this movie kills a whole lot of characters.
Told you there'd be spoilers.
4 comments:
john,
i'm not a big follower of the xmen - so i have a kind of dumb, newbie question.
remember when that chick fused juggernaut into the ground. Juggernaut said "you know who i am? i'm the juggernaut, bitch"
did juggernaut always say that, or was that a reference to that hilarious youtube-esque xmen cartoon overdub those guys did a few months back? Maybe even a tip of the hat to chappelle?
I think it was a nod to Chappelle. My guess is the youtube video (which isn't all that funny) is a coincidence.
Of course, catchphrases to make a movie look current are always the first thing that makes a movie look dated.
BTW that chick is Kitty Pride who can walk through walls....but you can tell that....
Also she is from Chicago, which is why it was cool [yes, and ice pun] for them to go ice skating.
.....I should be ashamed of myself.....
I fell asleep. And I don't do that very often.
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