Some of you might appreciate this cartoon.
Anyway, I did actually learn something from this movie. I had always thought, from reading the comics, that Magneto’s power was actually the control of magnetism. So it’s not? Is it really a power to control metal? Non-ferrous metals aren’t his weakness?
(note: Magneto didn’t show up a lot during the stretch when I was reading X-Men, so I’m honestly ignorant here.)
Magneto in the comics can manipulate pretty much anything in the electromagnetic spectrum. Anything with a magnetic field is subject to his powers.
Thanks 
Originally, Hank McCoy wasn’t all blue and furry. He, and the other original X-men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Iceman, and Angel) were all pretty human-looking if you can discount the giant wings growing out of Angel’s back. In fact, when Marvel was looking for fodder for a new X-book, they regrouped this original team as “X-Factor”, and Angel went around wearing a giant backpack on his shoulders which hid his wings.
Beast has, from time to time, been alternating furry and clean-shaven depending on who’s writing whichever book he appears in and how they’d like to handle it.
Maybe the Beast we saw in X2 just hadn’t mutated to his furry point yet.
You remember well, Merijeek. Marko was Xavier’s half-brother, and it was a magical ruby which cursed him to be “a living Juggernaut.” The helmet protected him from psychic attacks, but after being bested on some occasions when the helmet was removed, he had the material reforged into a close-fitting mask that would be almost impossible to take off.
As to Psylocke appearing on the bad guys’ team… the British Betsy Braddock (say that five times fast!) that was the companion to Captain Britain and memorialized forever in CapCom fighting games had at least one turn of continuity where she was born some stripe of Asian and had her memories fabricated. Like Beast, her appearance and history (and in this case, allegiance as well!) depended on who’s writing her and which book(s) she appeared in.
Overall, I enjoyed X3. I was disappointed in seeing so many key players in the Marvel Universe dead or rendered powerless, but there is indeed room for another movie. While it might seem hokey to most to introduce time travel or pan-dimensional hopping, Marvel fans must remember that such wacky contrivances were responsible for the appearances of Bishop, Cable, and Rachel Summers (the other Phoenix!).
That’s good, but I like this one better.
Betsy Braddock is Brian “Captain Britain” Braddock’s twin sister. As the white, British telekinetic, she was boooooring. She was almost always wearing dresses that looked like they belonged in the 19th century. Likewise, her century-out-of-date hairstyle. She had no fighting skills and was extremely fragile, and so the X-Men had to invent some armor for her. She was presented as a “proper” English lady, but came across as frumpy, sheltered, and naive.
Enter The Hand (I think). Betsy was abducted by The Hand, who completely modified her DNA and turned her Japanese. Her mind was wiped and refilled with l33t sk!11z, turning her into the “perfect assassin”. Her hoop dresses were tossed out and replaced by a revealing body stocking.
To me, it was a blatant attempt to salvage a weak, 2nd-tier character. But it worked. Betsy Braddock went from whimpering, telekinetic, white girl to sleek, aggressive, cool, trendy, Japanese killing machine who gets to spend lots of time on the cover of the comic
Betsy Braddock, yeah I remember her. Telekinetics & telepaths were a dime/dozen, yet for some reason they just couldn’t resist introducing another one. Then they have to somehow make them distinctive.
Wasn’t Betsy Braddock the telepath who you knew was using her powers because there was a butterfly stuck to her forehead?
I was relieved when they remade her Japanese, gave her those psychic daggers and stuck her in Wolverine’s head just long enough to make her a bit psycho.
I really enjoyed X3. There was one rather horrific continuity problem, but we found the movie quite entertaining.
I dunno what everyone’s big problem is.
Which one was that?
Mostly, it was that we didn’t find the movie very entertaining.
That always made me wonder if all of these other mutant powers are ultimately little more than “wild” mutations, and given many more generations the universal mutation will simply be telepathy/telekinetics. I mean, if there are half a million mutant telepaths in the Marvel universe, why aren’t there half a million mutants with eye beams, and half a million teleporters, and half a million with healing factors, and … you get the picture. As it is, there are loads of mentalists, while every other mutation seems to be unique.
Could it be that all of the other mutant powers are ultimately psionics-based? If you think about it, super strength could simply be a matter of telekinetically enhancing the body’s natural strength. Flight? Telekinetic levitation and propulsion. Eye blasts? Telekinetically storing and releasing a specific form of energy. Healing factor? It’s what the Dungeons & Dragons psionics rules call “psychometabolism” - mentally controlling biological processes. In effect, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and Leech all have the same power - each simply focuses it in a different way due to the filters each individual’s unique DNA imposes on that power.
That’s her I wonder if other people in the comics could see that effect, of if it was simply a visual cue to let the reader know she was using her power - like the wavy lines around Spider-Man’s head to indicate his tingling spider sense.
We saw it last night in a drive-in double feature with “Cars.” Great drive-in movie. I enjoyed it.
But I’ve never read the comics, so I’m not having to compare it to anything.
Oh, and the Superman trailers seem to go out of their way to give every damned plot point possible. Bah.
I thought the first one was one of the better comic book movies ever made. Why shouldn’t it be good? Bryan Singer is a more-than-competant director. The second one was less memorable, but it didn’t stink or anything. The third one isn’t his work, but Brett Ratner’s. If he is a competant director he has yet to demonstrate it, so I’m not surprised if X3 stinks, honestly.
That said, I’m curious in return, and likewise not intending to be snide. Why would the films’ fans be limited to adolescents and children, in your estimation? Not even the source material is, and many adults enjoy genre films.
Just saw this last night…
Thought it was an ok movie, but there were some HUGE holes that made the movievery unsatisfying.
Plot issues:
1a) That said, Leech’s existance is pretty relevant to mutants. So what happened to him at the end? How are the ‘good mutants’ going to deal with him? He gets rescued from Magneto and then…? Does he go back to the lab? Does the pharmasutical company keep producing the ‘cure’? Does he go into hiding? Do the X-men keep him hidden?
So the cure isn’t permanant at all? What a lame cop-out. So, it wasn’t even that big a deal after all, since it wears off after a while? A more pitiful set-up for a sequel I have never seen; not only does it mean that all the high drama about ‘curing’ the mutants is meaningless because the cure is ineffective, but it also ruins the… pathos maybe… of seeing Magneto become genetically what he hates (and all of the Jew/Nazi historical irony that implies).
And so, after this battle, everything is hunky-dory? The ‘cure’ still exists. There’s no huge reason why public opinion about mutants would have changed. After all, humanity was not at risk in this movie! It felt like there was just this battle, you know, 'cause there ought to be one, and then everyone lives happily ever after.
Jean’s powers. I’m just not sure how powerful exactly she was supposed to be. I mean, I think this is a problem in the comics as well. With her power, she truly should have been able to do anything, right? Why didn’t she? This leads into…
Implementation issues:
The battle. As others have mentioned, the power hierarchy was kind of ridiculous. What was the point of having everyone duke it out if Jean’s just going to vaporize everyone. And, if she seems to be able to do so pretty instantaneously, then how does Wolverine manage to fight and fight and fight as she just kind of takes a little skin and flesh off bit by bit? It seems that he should have turned to dust just like everyone else.
Jean’s complexion/makeup. I saw this and the first thing I thought of was Galadriel in LoTR. You know, when she gets all, “powerful queen of retribution.” I didn’t particularly like it then, and I didn’t like it here. It’s also reminiscent of the makeup for the White Which in the Narnia movie. Is this how things are going to go now. When we need an all-powerful sorceress, we give her sallow skin with veins showing, somehow indicating her ferocity? Seemed lame and contrived to me. And, as others have said, her true interest in passion/anger/whatever seemed pretty limited. I’m not sure why she deigned to be Magneto’s toady, nor why his interests were hers.
All that said, I did enjoy a lot of this movie. I just think it was horribly written, and would never consider it a quality piece of filmmaking.
I agree. In fact, I felt like this was one of the more understandable bits in the movie. I also enjoyed that she didn’t go ‘jealous bitch’ on Iceman. She observed a tender moment between him and Kitty which was mostly harmless, but just reminded her that that physical’spark’ was something that she could never have. She wasn’t jealous of Iceman, but of anyone who could experience what she could not. Imagine, as if being a mutant wasn’t abnormal enough, she also can’t experience ‘normal’ physical affection of any type.
And what about big ol’ feathery wings growing out of a guy’s back, or blue fur? Are those just psychic, too? 
Even at that, though, saying that they’re all “psychic” powers doesn’t really mean any more than saying they’re all “meta” powers, or “mutant” powers. A psionicist is someone who can do things ordinary people can’t. A superhero is somebody who can do things ordinary people can’t. A wizard is somebody who can do things ordinary people can’t. What differences there are are mostly just stylistic and cultural.
And healing factors, in one form or another, seem to be pretty common as well. In this movie alone, we’ve seen Wolverine, Angel, and that Brotherhood guy who kept regrowing his arms, and possibly the guy who threw those bone spikes, and in the previous ones, we saw Sabretooth and what’s her name, Yuriko?, who had healing factors as well. I’m not sure about Beast; does he heal fast, too?
Oh, good. People are still posting to this thread.
I finally saw it last weekend. I’m 41, college edumacated and have never read the X-Men comics.
I would mostly agree with what others have said. Could have been worse, but also could have been better. In particular Phoenix didn’t have much to do through most of the middle of the movie except glower under a red heat lamp. And it wasn’t at all clear why she would do Magneto’s bidding.
Another bit that seemed awkward to me is the way both Wolverine and Iceman both separately went from New York to San Francisco just so they could both go back to New York so they could go back to San Francisco with the rest of the team.
Count me in as someone else who got an icky vibe from the Iceman/Kitty scenes, and ONLY because of the difference in the apparent ages of the actors. The girl who plays Kitty looks several years younger than she is, while the guy who plays Iceman looks his age. Kitty didn’t lead him on at all but there was enough in the way he acted to piss off Rogue, so it doesn’t surprise me that some people (myself included) came away with the impression that Iceman’s intentions where less than 100% pure.
I liked seeing Dr. Frasier Crane as a furry blue action hero. I would have liked to seen more Colossus kicking some ass in the final showdown. I think the Storm character asserting her leadership more was very believable, and I was therefore disappointed that Wolverine and not her seeemed to be coordinating the defense of the Worthington building.
Hey, it’s psychometabolism again 
Good points, all.
Well, Sabretooth is/was alleged to be Logan’s father, so that one would make a certain amount of sense. The Yuriko/Lady Deathstrike thing happened in the comics before I started collecting, so I don’t know the whole lowdown on that. I know Yuriko was sort of Logan’s girlfriend for a while, and I don’t remember reading that she was also a mutant. Which leads me to believe that in the comics, at least, she may have been artificially modified at some point.