[QUOTE=FilmGeek]
One question: Is Pyro dead? He should’ve been pulverized as he was lying unconscious on the island when Phoenix went all medieval. I guess the same question goes for Juggernaut.
[/QUOTE]
I wondered the same thing in the other, more appropriately titled, thread.
I guess the rule is that if there’s not a death scene, they’re not dead. And in this movie, not even then.
Wow! I actually got to see this one on opening day!
And apparently I’m not a total phillistine or a soon to be pariah for saying I really liked it! Better than the first two, even!
And maybe I was reading too much into it, but I liked the play of “moralizing and idealism about mutantism as a metaphor” against “mutant powers as a legitimate threat.” Magneto and his gang may represent the oppressed minority of the time…but in the end, they were just terrorists and tyrants, and the government wasn’t trying to exterminate all mutants. :smack: 
Anyone else catch R. Lee Ermey’s voice cameo? “Put yer back into it, Maggott!” 
And if the Golden Gate Bridge part was “over the top”…come on, it’s a summer movie. It has to be at least a little over the top. That’s where the magic is.
Besides, Magneto is a terrorist, and a comic book supervillain. Those guys aren’t exactly known for their subtlety and low-key, practical plans. They want to make as big an impression as they can.
All in all, I give it four skulls. Thumbs up!
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
Come on, there’s a spoilers tag in the title, it has the word X in it…
[/QUOTE]
You have a much more liberal definition of “word” than I do…
[QUOTE=Leaper]
You have a much more liberal definition of “word” than I do…
[/QUOTE]
Well, since “X” can also stand in for The Unknown (“Oooooweeeeooooweee”, for you Theramin/Mentok The Mind Taker fans out there), I maintain I’m right on a technicality- but yes, “letter” was probably a better choice of words…
I thought it was disappointing. Too many seemingly senseless deaths, too much cheesy dialogue and not enough good lines. Not a total disaster thankfully but just not good enough to live up to the 2 prequels. 3 out of 5 stars is my rating. Fans everywhere are probably crying right now.
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
Well, since “X” can also stand in for The Unknown (“Oooooweeeeooooweee”, for you Theramin/Mentok The Mind Taker fans out there), I maintain I’m right on a technicality- but yes, “letter” was probably a better choice of words…
[/QUOTE]
Well, my point was that it was a little tenuous to expect general enlightenment on what, in all of popular culture (encompassing music, movies, TV, and food), you were referring to based on one letter.
But all is forgiven! (At least by me. squeegee, I’m not so sure!)
And as long as I’m here, I should give my opinion. Any disappointment I felt was based on what was NOT there, as opposed to what was. My favorite characters are Mystique and Colossus, so you can sorta understand where I’m coming from with that.
However, I was greatly pleased at what turned out better than I thought, like Juggernaut. I’m not sure how well it all balances out for me. Mostly, I’m hoping it does well enough for the franchise to continue, so it has another opportunity to fall into the hands of Singer or someone more like him. Ratner did a passable job, but I’d love to see what would happen with the original director and writers (or a close facsimilie thereof).
Rendering the Phoenix saga, where Jean sacrifices herself in a crisis, and then fights to control the Phoenix, as a tacky-assed MPD+Teke!Xtreme! episode is retarded, and on that basis alone invalidates X3. Put it in the same rubbish bin as T3, Aliens 3 and 4, and all the Halloweens past the first two, and all the Matrix movies after the first.
Ooo. Wonder if we’re going to get into the old argument of the cost/benefit analysis behind being faithful to a movie’s source material. 
[QUOTE=Leaper]
squeegee, I’m not so sure!)
[/QUOTE]
Meh, I’m cool. The thread has an interesting fanboy vs other reviewers flavor, so it’s going fine. I just wish Martini would see fit to ask a mod to retitle the thread to something remotely intuitive. Please?
[QUOTE=ACC_Expat]
Oh, if you believe the tales…
[/QUOTE]
Mm. No reason to doubt them, I suppose. Bummer.
I just got back from the 9 PM show.
At age 54 I loved it. Enjoyed it just as much as the others.
High points:
I’m Jugernaut bitch! Loved this one.
I love how every time the wheelchair stops the wheels form a perfect X 
Beast’s comment about how his uniform used to fit.
The editing of the final hospital scene. People in my theatre were yelling at the projection booth that they had cut the movie off too soon. Got to admit at first I thought the scene was going to be Jugernaut complaining about a headache.
Well, I’m back from the 10pm show, and have been chattering about it for the past few hours and have talked everyone to sleep, so I’m lucky I remembered the dope! (I don’t get the thread title, though…is it supposed to be like wtf?)
I suppose that’s a good way of putting it. I was undeniably entertained by this movie, and I read X-Men from its beginning in the 70’s (only later on, as I wasn’t born then). But I still came away completely unsatisfied, and just restless. I can’t stop brooding about the stuff they could have done better. And they should have; I know they’re mostly out to make a quick buck, but deserved acclaim can only help!
For the record, I’m almost 24 and I liked the first X-Men, though not the second (not memorable, characters got short shrift), and enjoyed Batman Begins but disliked Spiderman immensely (refused to watch Daredevil, Elektra or Fantastic Four since they looked so shit-tacular in the commercials).
Everything was painfully choppy, and all for naught. Every story ribbon, every character ended up being either pointless or unfinished. And I didn’t need it to follow the books exactly, but they could easily have done more research and adapted all those made-up mutants into existing ones. Why not? It’s not like there’s a shortage of existing mutant characters that don’t need to be major. Take Chinese Porcupine Boy. Why not make him Skin, and have the spines be just one of his powers, so he wasn’t so useless? Why not adapt Fishnet-Shirt-Androgyne Hipster Girl into a girl Havok or something? And Needlessly Belligerent Jada Pinkett Clone Girl could have toned it down a bit, learned to fly, and been M.
That was the most cosmetic of my worries, but I thought of someone for every random mutant I saw. Now the relationships and positions in the movie - why did they get so piecemeal and unresolvable? The Mystique betrayal on both sides was blindingly fast and superficial. And what the hell was up with Kitty? Why did they hire an actress that looked 12, just to be creepy? How was she suddenly a full-fledged X-man out of all her fellow students? Was weaseling into Bobby’s affections supposed to be endearing? And what happened when Rogue came back (after totally wussing out - that was not Rogue at all), nothing? I didn’t like anything about how they handled Kitty. And she should be more Jewish. ;j
I was also disappointed with Phoenix. She lost all motivation. I saw no conflicting joy and rage and pleasure, just her doing a half-assed bipolar act and standing around comatose for much of the movie. It was nice of her to disintegrate everything and create an apocalyptic scene, but it was one that most of them still walked away from. :rolleyes: And it wouldn’t have been that hard to do the Phoenix effect and wouldn’t have taken away from the movie (why would they have it in X2?), although I don’t really mind that they didn’t explain the alien bit.
What was the point of the tattoos? The never explained them, not all the inexplicably goth evil contingent had them…no reason for it! Great, Angel embraces his talent and saves his dad (yay Russell!). Then what? You can’t rightfully expect everyone to read between the pages for this stuff, because the movies weren’t faithful to the books in the first place. And Storm once again displays no exceptional leadership skills or endearing or interesting qualities (seems to be Berry’s fault, really). And either have an African accent or don’t! At least she sounded slightly more interesting when she had it, such as it was.
Andwhen did everyone get so ugly, whiny and attitude-y? It was like both sides were just flailing around and one side just happened to flail better.
I guess the sequels were geared towards the young’uns. Just ended up immature, incoherent and incohesive. But like I said, I enjoyed a lot of it nonetheless. I don’t mind Scott being killed, and Colossus and Juggernaut were a cute touch. It made me laugh and maybe wince a bit once or twice. But as hungry as I am to see movies about things that I’m actually interested in, I’m not really looking forward to any more of these (thought it was supposed to be the last, but they might as well have put a big “THE END???” at the end). I wish Hollywood would just take a risk and get someone new to direct superhero movies.
[QUOTE=squeegee]
So, um – why is this thread titled “xtf?”. What all does that have to do with the title of the movie? Or anything?
[/QUOTE]
As noted, it was presumably a play on “WtF” common abbrev for “What the fuck?”
We do ask that threads titles be informative, so that readers can just look at threads they’re interested in. See Forum Rules: PLEASE READ and note post #6. So, on the one hand, we want titles of threads to be helpful/descriptive. On t’other hand, we don’t want to stifle creativity and cleverness. Consequently, I’ve left the thread title, but expanded the “Spoilers warning.” That should cover it?
[QUOTE=Viridiana]
And I didn’t need it to follow the books exactly, but they could easily have done more research and adapted all those made-up mutants into existing ones. Why not? It’s not like there’s a shortage of existing mutant characters that don’t need to be major. Take Chinese Porcupine Boy. Why not make him Skin, and have the spines be just one of his powers, so he wasn’t so useless? Why not adapt Fishnet-Shirt-Androgyne Hipster Girl into a girl Havok or something? And Needlessly Belligerent Jada Pinkett Clone Girl could have toned it down a bit, learned to fly, and been M.
[/QUOTE]
Are you referring to Quill , Arclight , and Callisto? All actual characters, i’m afraid (though they screwed with them a bit).
How so? I only saw her betrayed by one side, Magneto’s. The others were just happy that she gave all the information she had (possibly in exchange for a lower sentence after having killed a few officers).
Ok, am I the only one who doesn’t see Kitty’s actions as weaseling, just as being friends? She could have done more if she wanted to supplant Rogue, instead she didn’t and remained a friend. And Bobby was looking out after Rogue, he wasn’t interested in Kitty in anything other than a friend.
As someone said above, Rogue’s desire to give up her powers is understandable (maybe not in the angsty comics, but in the real world). She’s a teenager, she wants to hug, feel affection, kiss. She cannot do that without making the other person sick! Of course it would make sense for her of all mutants to want to give up her power. Like others said, her powers were useless. Although, it would be nice if she would be able to control them with Xavier, and have them only work when she wants them to work. That way she can kiss Iceman while sucking up life from Pyro.
Bobby was the one seeking out Kitty, not the other way around.
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven]
As noted, it was presumably a play on “WtF” common abbrev for “What the fuck?”
We do ask that threads titles be informative, so that readers can just look at threads they’re interested in. See Forum Rules: PLEASE READ and note post #6. So, on the one hand, we want titles of threads to be helpful/descriptive. On t’other hand, we don’t want to stifle creativity and cleverness. Consequently, I’ve left the thread title, but expanded the “Spoilers warning.” That should cover it?
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that, Dex! Yes, it was supposed to be a clever play on “WTF”… I figured since X-men was a big movie and the post was in Cafe Society people would twig. but I apologise if it wasn’t clear enough. Thanks for fixing it, though… works for everyone, I hope!
Interesting to read some of the posts here… I hadn’t thought of X-men 3 as a “Summer Blockbuster”- it’'s autumn/winter here, for a start, and the movie has had almost zero hype beyond a few posters.
Considering the competition (The Da Vinci Code), it’s almost like they knew they couldn’t win and sort of gave up halfway through.
In fact, from reading the thread, it seems X-men 3 may be bordering dangerously close to “Fan Service”, as a case of “How many Mutants can we get on screen, how many explosions and fights, and let’s get some hot women not wearing much just to keep the guys happy… actually, get Heath Ledger to take his shirt off, too. Then we get the gays and the women as well.”
I’m not going to pretend the film didn’t happen (a la Alien 3), but I can’t raise my reaction to the whole film above “Meh”.
I thought it was okay. I was a little surprised to find out that Callisto and Psylocke were in it, or rather that those particular characters were supposed to be Callisto and Psylocke.
-I was pleased to find out that apparently all female mutants have the additional power of being a total fox.
-I agree that viewing the movies as a separate universe like the ultimates is pretty essential to not get too hung up on the inconsistencies with the comics.
-It’s hard to strike a balance between introducing all the characters that the fans are demanding, and still have a coherent story line. Sure, we’d all like to see Gambit, and we’d like to have a little more background on the characters they do introduce (or merely identifying them, see the named characters above), but we don’t want to end up with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, with its parade of pointless one-off characters who each get a line of dialogue before getting uppercutted into a pit of spikes, or whatever.
I was more amused that Callisto and Arclight were on the same team( Arclight in the books killed most of Callisto’s group), and that Callisto was so intent on beating up Storm, given their comic history (they had a really nasty brawl to lead the Morlocks at one point). Leech wouldn’t have doen much against Jean, since she could have just atomized him or dropped a car on him.
Juggernaut’s line made me laugh but groan. The internet influence strikes again!
So, no one else caught the other creator cameo? Chris Claremont was the guy whose lawnmower was being lifted away by young Jean.
And the guy with the throwing spikes (which I thought was pretty cool) was a made-for-tv mutant named, obviously, Spyke, though he was likely influenced by another mutant nammed Marrow.
This movie had a much higher body count, and it was strangely satisfying to see Magneto and Wolverine cut loose. Very in character. Poor useless Angel.