Kath and I saw it last night at an advance Marvel screening.
Guys, honest injun–I thought it kicked ášš.
I’m discussing it below, and others are free to join in once you’ve seen it, but I’d like to keep this one as spoiler-free as possible, mainly because of the caliber of certain jaw-dropping moments.
Weaknesses first–The first two films were primarily character-driven stories. This time out, it’s largely plot driven, or even device driven, the device being that a “cure” for being a mutant has been derived from Leech (cast with eerie accuracy; the kid’s eyes are perfect.) This leaves open the opportunity for discussion of matters of free will, of government abuse, but the script is such that you don’t get the feeling of real people interacting so much as characters pontificating.
New characters are mostly either given short shrift (Angel, Madrox) or not developed quite as well as, say, Nightcrawler was in X2 (Beast comes to mind.) The script desperately needed another dialogue pass–Joss Whedon to punch it up, perhaps–to bring characterization more clearly into focus, and to eliminate some stilted and cliche-ridden dialogue.
But to me, the weaknesses were far outweighed by the plusses.
The actors were uniformly well-cast, even those given tragically minimal screen time. I’d been concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to see the Beast as anything other than Kelsey Grammer in blue makeup and fur (he’s simply not an actor who disappears into his characters like, say, Alan Cumming), but I needn’t have worried. He’s fully believable as Hank McCoy, and you have to love the Shakespearean gravitas he applies to his reading of the Beast’s trademark “Oh my stars and garters.”
Storm had enough screen time to still the complaints of Halle “I don’t have enough to do!” Berry, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is as compellingly watchable as ever, and Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart shine as Magneto and Xavier. It’s no coincidence that the best scenes are when these two brilliant British thespians are playing off one another. And Famke Janssen FINALLY has some major meat to chew as Phoenix, although there was one sequence where the passionate Jean wraps her legs around Wolverine and I just kept flashing back to her trying to crush the life out of Pierce Brosnan in a Bond movie.
And, oh my lord, enough major action sequences and set pieces to satisfy the most rabid of comic fans. Whereas director Brett Ratner may lack the touch for deep character and cerebral moments that come so easily to Singer, no one can deny his handling of action sequences.
The film has a sense of epic sweep, a go-for-broke attitude that really makes you feel as if the first two films were building toward all this. Not everybody makes it through in one piece, and there’s more of a sense that absolutely anything can happen and nobody is safe. Which makes for a feeling of a freight train of a film, as if you’re not watching it so much as hanging on for dear life as it continues to build up steam.
Hightlights include the long-awaited Iceman versus Pyro smackdown, and Kitty Pryde versus…Juggernaut?!?!
And you must, MUST remain in the theater until the credits are over. There’s a tag that MUST be seen.
PAD
• 
Probably won’t go to see it again anytime soon. Was fun while it lasted, but I regret the missed opportunities to add some more depth and character to the movie.
There were so many places where they could have disussed what was going on. Not that I want a movie full of talking heads, but missed opportunities about to add that depth that would make you think as well as just enjoy the knock down drag out fight scenes.
– in the church the first speaker could have gotten into it with Magneto, raised some comparison’s of Magneto to the Nazi approach.
– Wolvie and the Prof in the lab disussing what one should/shouldn’t do
– Rogue’s “They have a cure?” and Storm’s reaction to this could have brought out more taht this wasn’t a mutant vs humans thing. There are many mutants who don’t have cool weather powers, you know.
“… but missed opportunities abound to add that depth…“
couldn’t wait any longer so I saw the movie, well first of all Rogue should have had more screen time and that at bit near the end for those who have seen it, well just does’nt lie well with me.I’m still not quite sure where Nightcrawler is in the movie, but I am disappointed, as in the case of Rogue that they didn’t use one of the greatest comic characters of all time.And another thing for those who have seen the movie, those who aren’t at the end are critical characteters in the comics, does a Cable vs Apocalypse fight ring any bells(for the comic fans)I don’t know, they did leave it open, with 1)the last Magneto scene 2)Nightcrawler missing 3)a cure for the cure(to turn them into mutants again)4)the after credits scene and 5)the ressurection of dead characters(because lets face it, as said earlier in this page all x-men have died in various issues but each was ressurected,including the Jean-Pheonix storyline)
“I’m confident that there has never been a Rogue-Iceman-Kitty love triangle in the comics!”
Actually, there has… in Ultimate X-Men.
“I’m confident that there has never been a Rogue-Iceman-Kitty love triangle in the comics!”
Actually, there has… in Ultimate X-Men.
I thought Kitty was with Spider-Man. But then, I haven’t really paid that much attention to the X-Men side of Ultimate.
Just saw this movie and…..wow…..just freaking wow. Best comic movie ever.
I have never really followed the comic books (just enough to really appreciate Wolverine and such) and I never even knew who the original five x-men were until I started researching for the movies. In between the first and second movies I actually read some of the comics and discovered something: I preferred the movies. With some exceptions, I found the comics very hard to follow, and found the plot lines often involved, complicated, and involving way to many people and events to really follow well (and I love russian novelists, so it MUST be bad when I think its too complex :)) The movies simplified things. Instead of Star Trek crossovers, or the mutant island, it was a simple, believable plot line, that addresses the issues as they might be in real life.
One of my friends criticized all the changes from the comics. After reading up on the comics I found I agree (or don’t care) about most of them. For instance, Angel wasn’t one of the original X-men in the movies. Well, thank goodness. Maybe I missed an issue, but as far as I can tell, all he can do is fly. Maybe hit someone with his wings. Maybe even poop on their windshield. But that’s IT?!?!? You have people who can lift sit with their minds and you give him wings?? Who is his arch-nemesis, a dude with a hang glider? Oh sure, one time he gets metal wings with shootable feathers. Still a sucky power.
Anyway, there were problems with this movie, primarily little things that just….irked me. My biggest being that, in the one fight, Magneto should have realized that after God knows how long of the world knowing “hey, the bad guy moves metal!” he didn’t realize they would use plastic weapons. That just smacks of poor planning.
For me though, it was the little touches about this movie that really bring it home. As someone else mentioned above, the way everyone gets down from the wall. The use of Beast. Kelsey Grammar as Beast. Magneto showing what a zealot he really is. Actually, the one I liked the most was Kitty. Instead of being a hard-assed superhero like Colossus (pun intended) she is much more youthful, even in the way she runs. When everyone else runs in this movie, (Juggernaut excepted) it is the typical “Hero run:” Head up, arms pumping, skidding across open corridors type of run. The way you expect a superhero to run. When she runs, she runs like what she is: a scared kid trying to think as she goes. Comes across as more believable.
Finally, my friends and I were discussing the fourth x-men movie. I know they said that their would be a fourth if this one did well….so what would (will?) it be?
I think it would be similar to the plot lines in the first 3. Perhaps it takes place a few years down the line, with a new President, elected on an anti-mutant platform (not hard to do after what happened at Alcatraz) We then get the whole original “Mutants Bad” plotlines, and get to really see the Sentinels. Or it might be Apocalypse.
Jason Powell: Wasn’t Madrox a criminal in his very first appearance?
Luigi Novi: I seemed to recall that too, but when I double-checked withWikipedia, couldn’t find any mention of it. This technically doesn’t mean that this wasn’t true, since WP is a perpetual work in progress, but I didn’t feel like digging out my MU Handbooks, and figured it was my memory playing tricks on me. Perhaps it wasn’t. 🙂
Thanks, Kath. 🙂
Red XIV: He survived because he’s the Juggernaut, bìŧçh. 😛 Even without the magical origin from the comics, he’s still unstoppable
Luigi Novi: Has it ever been established that being phased would not kill him?
Peter David: Much more involved and expensive appliances.
Luigi Novi: Yeah, I know. Still…… 🙂
1I’m curious as to what Peter thought of the guy playing Maddrox?
“I thought Kitty was with Spider-Man. But then, I haven’t really paid that much attention to the X-Men side of Ultimate.”
You are correct. But before that developement, there was a Kitty-Iceman-Rogue love triangle.
Jason Powell: Wasn’t Madrox a criminal in his very first appearance?
Madrox first appeared in an issue of Fantastic Four (Ah, a few seconds with Google and I see it was .) and he was teh “bad guy”. IIRC, he was raised on a farm by his dad who created a suit to contain his powers. When dad died the suit started to fail, he wandered into the city, caused problems and came to the attention of the FF. By story end Reed had fixed his suit and Madrox was back on his tractor plowing fields.
Something like that.
sigh Hate it when I get my tags wrong. SOme nice administrator-type person want to just delete my attempt at this posting (and embarrasment)? Glenn?
Jason Powell: Wasn’t Madrox a criminal in his very first appearance?
Madrox first appeared in an issue of Fantastic Four (Ah, a few seconds with Google and I see it was Giant Size FF #4.) and he was the “bad guy”. IIRC, he was raised on a farm by his dad who created a suit to contain his powers. When dad died the suit started to fail, he wandered into the city, caused problems and came to the attention of the FF. By story end Reed had fixed his suit and Madrox was back on his tractor plowing fields.
Something like that.
As my techno-savvy friend likes to say when searching the net, “Found it in seconds, man. Seconds!”
Synopsis of the first appearance of Jamie Madrox featuring the FF and Prof X.
This was a blast: way more than I expected from it. Like a comic book, it was full of action. I particularly liked how they handled the whole Phoenix thing, which I felt made much more sense than in the books. This raised the bar higher than I think Superman Returns will be able to leap… I’m not a Marvelite first, I’m a DC guy who’s enjoying the heck out of Marvel right now, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t bothered by any of the things long time fans were.
‘As my techno-savvy friend likes to say when searching the net, “Found it in seconds, man. Seconds!”‘
***Of course, Kathleen David already replied to the question days ago…
“Actually, there has [been a Kitty-Iceman-Rogue love triangle]… in Ultimate X-Men.”
***Wow. I had no idea! Man, I am gladder than ever that I don’t read “Ultimate.”
— Jason
Jason Powell:
‘As my techno-savvy friend likes to say when
searching the net, “Found it in seconds, man.
Seconds!”‘
***Of course, Kathleen David already replied to
the question days ago…
Kath’s post was “Yep Maddrox did start as a villian but very briefly. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Madrox is a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants.”
So I don’t see that my specifying which issue and linking to a synopsis fails to provide significantly more info.
Finally saw it. I had to threaten kids with punishments that would make their mothers weep to keep them from sharing info on the movie.
A few observations:
(ACK! I wrote all this stuff and then went back and read everyone’s comments to see if there was anything to add and saw Peter’s no spoiler rule…so now I need to make some changes…)
1- Obviously Halle Berry’s agent told them to beef up her role or she’d walk. I would have prefered they answered with a variation on the old “don’t let the door hit your ášš on the way out.” Maybe it’s because I liked the comic’s Storm so much and Halle’s version so little. This is no African Goddess.
And if you had Storm’s powers and someone was kicking your ášš wouldn’t you just surround yourself with lightning and let her get electrocuted when she tried to hit you, as opposed to spinning around like a top? Well, I would.
2- Also, if I were Magneto and were faced with the “problem” of getting people to an island, I don’t think I’d go through the trouble of lifting a bridge when they could have all crowded into a trolly or sat on pizza pans or what the hëll, sat in bumper cars for all I care, the point is, the whole bridge thing was just Eric showing off. But that’s our Magneto.
3- What exactly was Jean’s purpose in the final battle? Stand there and look smoking hot? Mission accomplished, but still.
5- You know how I know that Hugh Jackman is a Better Man Than Me? In the scene where he is (deleted) I’m pretty sure I saw a BEE crawling over his shirt. He doesn’t give it a moment’s notice, whereas I would be shrieking to the nearest crewmember “Get it off! Get It OFF!” much to the merriment and derisive laughter of the key grips and best boys.
6- Cyclops was ill used. Ditto Colossus. Kitty was a welcome addition.
7- For a very brief moment I thought that one character looked exactly like Monica Lewinski. Was it just me?
8- Framke was smoking hot. I may have mentioned this.
9- Though would it have killed them to show the Phoenix Force behind her just once? Or did I blink and miss it?
10- The post credits ending was good and I didn’t see it coming, though I really should have.
11- Some have been upset that Juggernaut was just a big dumb guy who run’s through walls. I’ve always thought of him as a big dumb guy who runs through walls. In that sense, he was spot on. Magneto gives him one order–keep Logan out of Jean’s house. So what does he do the first chance he gets? Throws Logan into the house. What a big dumb guy!
12- Kelsey Grammar– Acting Gold. Seriously, this guy will go down as one of the greats.
13- Angel was just there. The shot of him spreading his wings was cool but once they had to move and flap…well, that almost never looks good. And it didn’t. Winged guys only look good when they are standing around; once they start flying you have to giggle.
14- Like the Juggernaut vs Kitty bit–reminded me of that great Jonathan Glazer ad for Levi jeans where a guy and gal race through walls like two kryptonians. On the other hand, the Iceman vs Pyro fight didn’t live up to expectations.
15- I really wish Nightcrawler had been in the movie.
Overall–liked it for what it is. The Phoenix Saga is one of my cherished comics memories and it happened when I was at the pinnacle of my love for comics. Because of that I don’t mind as much as some do that this version was just a brief taste of the comics saga. Nothing could equal the comics story so the fact that they just gave us an abreviated version is ok by me.
PAD’s right about the script needing another dialogue pass, though he modestly leaves out the person perhaps best suited to do it. When Xavier said something to the effect of “You must control your power or your power will control you” I had a flashback to MYSTERY MEN’s Sphinx.
Oh and it occured to me that while the President in X2 was obviously meant to be Bush, didn’t the new guy sort of resemble McCain? Huh? Ya think?
Bill Mulligan noted:
“it occured to me that while the President in X2 was obviously meant to be Bush, didn’t the new guy sort of resemble McCain? Huh? Ya think?”
Hm… could be. I really do have to see the pic again to absorb and process several things about it. I think I can safely say this president didn’t bear too much resemblence to Hillary ;). (Though… Wes Clark at all?)
Bill also wrote:
“Cyclops was ill used. Ditto Colossus.”
Yeah, while Peter’s presence was increased from X2, still not enough. And would it have killed ’em to give him a Russian accent? …What? Storm? Rogue? Um… well… Nightcrawler’s worked! Yeah! If Alan Cummings pulled it off, maybe the actor-portraying-Colossus-whose-name-I-can’t-recall-right-now could, too… maybe? (He does have a pretty good combination of youth and size for portraying Peter, anyway.)
Seriously, speaking of Peter, there’s one thing I liked which Colossus does which I forgot to mention in my reaction post above. It doesn’t seem to have been mentioned yet, so I don’t know if I’ll get real specific about it – though the first time it happens is during the first fifteen or so minutes of the movie, among several other cool/fanboy moments. Now, the wind-up was a bit of a surprise; but still, it was very cool to see that little classic bit of X-Men repitoire thrown in there. (I’d be surprised if I’m the only one who liked it; the amount of people who wrote in and reported being brought almost to tears [happy tears] the first time it happened in Astonishing X-Men was not small…)
there’s one thing I liked which Colossus does which I forgot to mention in my reaction post above. It doesn’t seem to have been mentioned yet, so I don’t know if I’ll get real specific about it – though the first time it happens is during the first fifteen or so minutes of the movie, among several other cool/fanboy moments.
Oh yeah, right there with ya pal. Good moment. That whole opening had a few “Holy Shiite!” moments for me.
“So I don’t see that my specifying which issue and linking to a synopsis fails to provide significantly more info.”
Sorry, dude. Must’ve been in an overly smartass mood. My bad.
Well, after avoiding this thread for days, I can finally join the fun.
Like most adaptations, there’s the purist in me wanting to get out. Making Logan instead of Scott front-and-center of the action and decision-making just seems wrong.
Besides the purist in me, though, this was well-done overall. Exactly what I expect from summer blockbusters: a little too much action and too little plot to be totally satisfying, but good for the “popcorn” aspect.
The one scene I really thought should have been altered was the argument about the cure. Rogue coming in and being excited all but ends the scene. It should have been the beginning. Ororo is right to point out that there’s nothing wrong with being a mutant, but in Rogue’s case, there are barriers she just can’t get past. That’s a discussion worth having. Instead, though, we’re left with a scene that just gets cut short. With this being a 1:45 movie, they could have extended it a bit. Maybe they thought it was obvious and heavy-handed to do it, but this movie was both of those things throughout.
A couple of nice touches: where Magneto brings Pyro down a notch about his comments on Xavier, plus the final scene before the credits with the missing person.
I won’t comment on the last scene post-credits except to say “why didn’t I see THAT coming?”
From Luigi Novi’s post of 6/1/06, 12:08am:
Red XIV: He survived because he’s the Juggernaut, bìŧçh. 😛 Even without the magical origin from the comics, he’s still unstoppable
Luigi Novi: Has it ever been established that being phased would not kill him?
Luigi, I don’t think it has because the Marvel Universe Juggernaut (as opposed to the X-Men movie version) has the Cytorrak energy which “makes him impervious to all injury up to and including molecular destruction. He does not need food, water, or air, being sustained by mystical energies alone.” (Preceding information comes from the first Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series, issue #5, cover-dated 5/83. The OHOTMU Deluxe Edition, issue #6, adds a notation how Juggernaut was beaten by Nimrod, but Juggernaut’s mystical force field was apparently not working at the time.) Now, if he’s unable to be affected by molecular destruction and if he doesn’t need air, I don’t think that Kitty should be able to phase through him.
Eh – this really didn’t do it for me. Kelsey Grammar was spot on as Hank McCoy, and there were a couple other good moments for me, but on the whole I thought it was pretty flat. Too much stuff, and not enough tying it together. And poor Cyclops – he could’ve used a little more love in the past two films.
I dunno… I didn’t really dig the flick. I thought for as much that they did to one bird, they took away from her more. I saw that tag coming miles away (what else would the point of that previous scene be?) and on the whole thought they used way too many characters to do anything real with any of them. I’m dissapointed that “The X-Men” turned out to be “The Wolverine and Storm Wild Pals Extravaganza”. There’s alot of good set-up in the movie, but pay offs are totally lacking. The thing that really bothers me is how little they did with the whole “Cure” debate. I don’t think there was really any debate on either side, just everyone who’s a bad guy went one way, and all the people who’re good guys went the other. The X-men kinda looked to me like scabs crossing a picket line. On the whole, I thought they just turned it from a potentially interesting story into an excuse for excessive special effects.
Just saw it yesterday (yeah, I’ve been busy). Overall, I liked it, although there were parts that made my inner fanboy cringe (minor spilers follow):
-Calisto friends with Arclight?!?
-Calisto doesn’t have an eyepatch?!?
-Calisto (I’m sensing a theme here) has superspeed, and Caliban’s mutant detection abiltiies?!? Granted, she has heightened agility, but not to the extent in the comic.
-Quill?!? WTF? I mean come on! Why not just use Caliban as a throw-away lackey-mutant, instead of giving Calisto two powers?
-Still no Gambit! I’m not even that crazy about the character myself, but he deserves screen time more than some of the guys used. Did I mention Quill?
-Don’t even get me started on Psylocke.
If it were up to me, there would be an X4 (BIG SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!). Start with Cyclops turning out not to have been killed by Phoenix, just badly beaten up. Have him pìššëd øff that Wolverine and the X-Men killed Jean, and be seduced by Emma into becoming the White King (opposite Shaw and Selene natch). One by one, they take out the X-Men until only Wolverine is left, and you know the rest. Any similarities to the first part of the Dark Phoenix Saga are purely intentional. However, things are not up to me, no matter how much I wish they were. 🙂
Also, in the last scene (after the credits), they totally setup Xavier to return as a major villain. Onslaught anyone?
Correction, that was Kid Omega, not Quill in the movie. The fact that Kid Omega both looked like and had the same powers of Quill is very confusing.
Luigi Novi: “Since when is telekinesis electromagnetic in nature?”
Well, physically speaking, there are only two macroscopic forces: gravity and electromagnetic. Since electromagnetic is by far the more powerful of the two, it is extremely likely that it would be an electromagnetic force, especially at the strength Jean uses in the movie.
Also, when ever Phoenix manifested in the first movie, it upset any electronics around her (as it did in this one as well). That was why she had to get off the X-Jet so they could get it started.
mike weber: “What if Juggernaut and the Blob came up against each other? I mean, Juggy can’t be stopped once he gets moving, and Blob can’t be moved once he gets set…”
I would guess Juggernaut would knock the Blob over, but with the ground still stuck to his feet. See Blob vs. Strong Guy in X-Factor 107, give or take an issue or two.
I avoided any reporting on this movie for the last few months so I wouldn’t have surprises blown for me. And here are a few thoughts after having seen the film:
1 – I just about jumped out of my seat and cheered when Jamie appeared on screen. And when I saw the government going to attack the group of mutants, all I could think of was, “It’s Madrox,” and was thrilled to be right. That’s how cool you’ve made Jamie Madrox, Peter – he gets probably less than a minute of screen time and he was one of my favorite parts of the movie.
2 – Never saw the deaths coming. I give the film makers credit for shaking things up like that.
3 – I have to thank the lovely young lady working at the theater for letting me know about the tag after the credits. And like most people here, I didn’t see it coming although it was set up beautifully earlier in the film and I should have.
4 – Iceman Vs. Pyro. I was hoping for a more elaborate fight, but it was still cool. (An inadvertent pun, I know.)
5 – They couldn’t have put Nightcrawler in this for one simple reason – three blue characters would be pushing it.
6 – Fastball Special. Wow.
7 – Final thought. If the main stars don’t come back for more movies (unlikely given the success of the series so far), we already have the basis for a great X-Factor film. I know, I know…but I can dream, can’t I?
THANK YOU EVERYONE! I really, REALLY thought I was the only one that didn’t see the postscript after the credits coming, and I was feeling very dissatisfied with myself.
Talking about the movie with my brother this evening, and we both said the same thing. If the two major storylines had been seperated into their own films, might they have worked better? Not that they didn’t work together, but just stomething writer-boys like us think about, and I was wondering what you guys thought.
Bill Mulligan’s number 9 (number 9, number 9, number 9…) YOU NAILED IT! THAT was one thing I was really waiting for in the movie. Unfortunately, I can see why the Fuzzy Elf didn’t get in, there were just too many characters as it was. Still, I would’ve liked a smidge more development of Magneto’s little band, but again, with that MANY characters, how much more than lip service can you give to them?
Posted by: Peter David at May 31, 2006 07:47 AM
“The X-Men costume that Beast wears is just dorky-looking. It would’ve looked better if he just wore the pants, and went topless”
Much more involved and expensive appliances.
(A) A lot better than his costume in the first issues of the comic.
(B) Let’s them get in a funny throwaway gag.
As to Goldfinger being a sequel to Dr No – yah, but remember, From Russias with Love came in between…
Amnd there are films among the other sequelae that make even Star Trek: The Motionless Picture look good…
Just saw the movie yesterday with my sister, who is my partner in crime for anything fantasy related.
I’ve read reviews of the movie that claimed the characterization and plot were neglected at the the expence of effects, and that currect director was not up to the task.
While watching this movie I thought that this criticism was wrong; that there was an excellent balance of character, plot, effects. Up until the last part. Leaving the movie I felt I enjoyed it but was also disappointed with the way some of the characters were handled:
1) Cyclops. An opportunity to finally let him shine was missed. This is unfair to his character.
2) Rogue. She was doing really well up to the middle of movie and then faded. The coclusion to her strory was also unfair.
3) Storm. It seems that hey wanted to highlight her but then it didn’t come out right.
I liked the wat Kitty, Beast (except the part where they discuss the future of the school, it was not his role to be the naysayer), Iceman, and Phoenix (except the end) were handled. I think her indifference in the final battle was appropriate to her character in the movie.
I think Angel was handled well for this movie’s purposes, except maybe more detail of his reluctance in his most important scene.
Madrox was really handled well considering the small role he (appropriately) had in this movie.
All in all I enjoyed the movie but felt it could have been better. Comparison to Revenge of the Sith is unfair, I believe.
After I and my sister left the movie, we started rewriting, as we often do if we are disappointed with a movie. We think it would have been better to let Cyclops do most of the things done by Wolverine in the movie, ths allowing him to be explored as a character. Perhaps by allowing Wolverine to join him in some of these endevors, their relationship as rivals/buddies could have been explored. Friction between him and Storm with regard to the fates of Phoenix and Xavier could have also helped highlight her.
The friction between Strom and Callisto should have been further developed. Perhaps as a lead for a future movie (maybe Calisto would have lost an eye?).
I think the solution to the Phoenix problem was inappropriate considering the message of the movie. I felt Rogue could have offered a better solution, which would have also given a better conclusion to her character in the context of the movie. She would have learned the value of her powers, sacrificed her relationship with Iceman for the greater good, perhaps gained some unknown powers(and red hair?). Considering Phoenix’s powers, interaction between her and Rogue could have had random results, and offered an intersting movie alternative to her origin story.
A non related thing: the theater I went to also had the Da Vinci Code. On the way out missionaries handed pamphlets warning not to believe in the story of the movie. Considering where I live (Jerusalem, Israel) I thought it was funny.
It occurs to me that if they had followed PAD’s advice and let Joss Whedon take a crack at a final polish, he might have noticed that a major scene had a very very close resemblance to a something he had previously done. Think yellow crayon.
Cyclops couldn’t have been given a larger role in the movie due to the actor’s limited time available for filming X3. They might have pushed it back for him (and Singer), but they didn’t.
Also, I don’t believe Cyclops is really dead. We didn’t see it on camera afterall. For all we know, Jean might have just TK blasted him away from the lake.
(POSSIBLE SPOILER as to how a scene resembles another scene, if you’re familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Looks like it’s my turn to say “right there with you, pal,” Bill. The scene in question in The Last Stand also reminded me of the BtVS scene you mention, and in fact I thought that the X-Men scene might turn out the same way as “yellow crayon” did. (Well, not with an actual “yellow crayon”; that would be weird.)
Though, Andrew did refer to “Dark Phoenix” near the end of Buffy season six, tacitly acknowledging an influence, or at least ressemblence, so maybe here we have some reciprocal influencing or something. (Not sure that sentence makes any sense… Ah well. I’ll blame it on Monday.)
Cyclops couldn’t have been given a larger role in the movie due to the actor’s limited time available for filming X3.
Which goes hand in hand with the fact that FOX more or less force the character/actor out of this movie bsaed on the forced schedule for the movie to get it out before Superman Returns.
FOX’s antics really didn’t help this movie.
FOX’s antics really didn’t help this movie.
No, they sure didn’t. Imagine how great this movie would have been with a little more time put into it. But Fox was bound and determined to beat SUPERMAN RETURNS to the theaters. If anything will kill Hollywood it isn’t piracy, it’s the fact that it’s become routine to begin making 100 million dollar movies without final scripts, with the release date being considered far more important than any questions of quality. Dolts.
Unfortunately, it’s things like that that point out just how movie making is a business. It’s a dámņ shame when creative types are pushed into producing something in a limited timeframe by the accountants. Something I can relate to pretty closely, actually. We needed aerial footage of the track where I work, so the two owners got a camera and hired themselves a helicopter. Unfortunately, no one onboard KNEW HOW TO SHOOT. So, the footage that came back was pretty mediocre to put it as gently as possible. No one in the actual TV department(you know, those of us that DO know how to shoot) knew anything about it until 3 days after it happened. So we had to try to turn this, er, film into a worthwhile presentation all the while saying to each other, WHY? WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?
Still think Last Stand was a dámņ good movie, though.
yeah I’ve got to agree that a final script would have been good.They might have had more dialogue.but as well I’m sorry to say it, but I think cyclops is dead,but don’t get me wrong, he’s only dead for now.Here’s why (MAJOR SPOILERS)if prof can have sombodies body who never had conciousness then why can’t jean(without pheonix)have a body as such,I mean there must be other people who were never concious.If she does come back she could have her powers still and still have control of them, this way she could get her body back and re-particalize scott and prof.Also that was a METAL chess piece at the end so maybe after the cure gets out of your system you get yor powers back, because leeche’s only works if he’s near you. Also I still want nightcrawler,and I think they have so many blue characters, is because marvel got cheap and wouldn’t buy any more colored pencils so they just re-used blue twice LOL.
Can someone email me what happened in/after credits. I missed it as the theater always closes the curtains during credits and I’m not paying again just to see that.
linux.scott@gmail.com
BAD BAD movie. I can’t belive PAD liked this crap. They ruined what the other two movies achieved. A total waste of money. I wished I had never seen it.