X-Men 3 (2006) Rewatch and Thoughts

[Castle]

Obviously its been years, I was still left with this movie feeling mixed to negative after 15 years. Some thoughts about the movie are good. Kesley Grammer as Beast and Hugh Jackman perhaps never gave a bad Wolverine performance.

When Bryan Singer exited to do Superman Returns ,Brett Ratner was the wrong choice to replace him. Brett Ratner was known more as an action guy and while I loved his Rush Hour movies, he was unsuited to do an X-Men movie especially with the two stories, which leads me to the second issue, they chose two of the thickest and over-layered x-men story and quashed it to a 95 minute movie that was never going to work.



Some positives of the film.

The cast is great as usual. Ian Mckellen, Kesley Grammer, Ellen Page, Hugh Jackman, Famke Jameson and Patrick Stewart. Kesley and Ellen made the prefect Beast and Kitty Pryde.

The cure storyline had some meaning and nailed some of the right themes that was written in the Joss Whedon Astonishing X-men run but it would have been better if this was the only main plot of the film.

VFX was good, maybe even better for a 2006 movie compared to what we see now, although it lacked the creative stand out artistry from the previous movie. case in example Nightcrawler storms the Whitehouse in X2.

A genuine darker superhero tone, although this is common with a lot of x-men movies

In 2021, X-Men 3 had Good Cinematography for a comic book movie

ArcAngel's story was the best of the bunch.

Storm and Wolverine as co-leaders. I think Halle was underrated here but Jackman does suck a lot of air because he has too much of a presence and Wolverine is ....whatever

A plausible -passable finale to end the Humans vs Mutants storyline on if or not they can get along without trying to kill eachother.



And now the negatives

Too much action, never works in any xmen movie.

The director is not the best story teller, he stops many plot lines to develop action scenes that takes more time than the plot.

Too little time, too much baggage to carry for many characters.

The director and writer did not understand what and who Dark Phoenix is

Film is very scattered and all over the place, too much going on, probably the worst weakness of the film. X1 and X2 were very neatly structured.

Cyclops should have been replaced with another actor.

Wtf was the Pryo and Bobby fight??? this was almost gag reel level of awful

Grand action driven finale????? although not on wreck city levels.


So my feelings are still the same and the movie deserved the mixed reception it got. I think critics and fans were spot on with the mixed reactions to the film.

Bryan Singer did leave this movie to do Superman Returns , which was by far the much superior film at least from a film making experience POV.

its ironic that both films had some mirrored main flaws. Superman Returns needed less drama and talk and more action while X-men 3 needed more drama and talk with less action.

[Mutant 77]

Nothing wrong with the Pyro/Iceman fight, it's superb and played SERIOUS.

My judgement:

It's a bleak and brilliant superhero movie, featuring a different take on the "Phoenix". Nice team work, the one most resembling to the comic book X-Men.
It's an excellent superhero movie, the criticism is truly beyond me.

[Castle]

Nothing wrong with the Pyro/Iceman fight, it's superb and played SERIOUS.

My judgement:

It's a bleak and brilliant superhero movie, featuring a different take on the "Phoenix". Nice team work, the one most resembling to the comic book X-Men..

It felt as if the entire movie stopped itself so they just could fight. the flow of the fight in the movie was poor.

It's an excellent superhero movie, the criticism is truly beyond me

well, you are talking about 2000s comic movie, this movie had a brilliant sequel that should not even be called a comic book in 2021, Batman Begins had just come out a year before and Spiderman 2004 a year before that. the standard back then was very high. the divided reaction was earned.

[AnakinFlair]

The problem with X3 is that Singer had wanted to tell one story (Dark Phoenix), and the studio wanted to tell another story (The Cure). Then Singer bounced to do Superman, and Ratner had to come in and try to merge the two stories. And it just didn't work as well as they wanted.

I remember liking it well enough, but I wanted a straight Dark Phoenix story, and so did a lot of other people.

[sunofdarkchild]

X-3 is 2 movies shoved together awkwardly. One of those movies is brilliant, the other is horrible. The cure storyline is really well done when it's the focus. The ethical dilemmas it raises are real and compelling and it gives great material for Magneto to work with. The problem is that because it's one of 2 main plots it's underdeveloped. The Phoenix storyline is awful from start to finish. To be fair to Ratner, the setup he was given from X-2 was not the way Phoenix is supposed to be from the comics in that it's not a cosmic entity that merges with Jean and whose power gradually corrupts her. It's some vague powerup she gets for no reason. It also doesn't help that none of the movies ever really made Jean or Cyclops compelling characters who the audience could relate or root for to before or after X-3. The whole plotline should have been dropped and the movie would have been better for it.

[WebLurker]

It has a good cast, but bad direction and smashing the two stories together does not do it any favors. I will watch it when watching the rest of the movies, but I can't say I think it's a good movie on any level. That said, it did do the Dark Phoenix story better then the actual Dark Phoenix movie when it was trying to do it.

[Castle]

X-3 is 2 movies shoved together awkwardly. One of those movies is brilliant, the other is horrible. The cure storyline is really well done when it's the focus. The ethical dilemmas it raises are real and compelling and it gives great material for Magneto to work with. The problem is that because it's one of 2 main plots it's underdeveloped. The Phoenix storyline is awful from start to finish. To be fair to Ratner, the setup he was given from X-2 was not the way Phoenix is supposed to be from the comics in that it's not a cosmic entity that merges with Jean and whose power gradually corrupts her. It's some vague powerup she gets for no reason. It also doesn't help that none of the movies ever really made Jean or Cyclops compelling characters who the audience could relate or root for to before or after X-3. The whole plotline should have been dropped and the movie would have been better for it.

The Phoenix story was treated too much as a plan b. some kind of bad love story for wolverine and jean unlike the comics that the story was centre to the entire x-men.

I also liked how things ended for Magneto in the movie, it was fitting to the character, but like I said, the story wrapped the Humans vs Mutants battle in a satisfying way. Magneto got demoted, Beast got promoted. maybe things cooled off a bit until DOFP.

The problem with X3 is that Singer had wanted to tell one story (Dark Phoenix), and the studio wanted to tell another story (The Cure). Then Singer bounced to do Superman, and Ratner had to come in and try to merge the two stories. And it just didn't work as well as they wanted.

I remember liking it well enough, but I wanted a straight Dark Phoenix story, and so did a lot of other people.

That would make sense, I never knew the deep details about the pre-production of X3 though I now recall X2 hinted Phoenix in the end,

Either way if Singer had directed X-Men 3 Phoenix or X-men 3 Cure, it would have been good and he would have done a better job at mashing both stories than Ratner though both stories deserves its own film

[Jokerz79]

Hated the Phoenix aspect of the story due to it being botched IMO, but enjoyed the cure storyline. Also loved Beast in it while deeply flawed I still enjoy the film more than Dark Phoenix and I haven't seen New Mutants yet to judge. Yes I like Origins more than Last Stand or Dark Phoenix honestly until they go to 3 mile island I found Origins an enjoyable Wolverine movie.

[BushidoBlade2]

I remember the year it came out, I was in high school. My friend who went to see it before me told me Jean Grey killed Cyclops. I didn't believe him. No way would they kill off one of the most important recognizable X-Men, I thought. Then I watched it. Not only did they kill him but it was so early in the movie. It happened so quick too. I was just sitting there like... that's it he's dead.

I agree about the fight between Ice-Man and Pyro. They just stood there shooting ice and flames at each other.

I did like Storm's fight scenes. As Halle Berry mentioned during an interview promoting the film, she wanted to finally get in on the action because Storm barely did anything in the other two movies.

I also liked Beast which is odd because I've never cared for him in any incarnation.

[basbash99]

I'll echo others in saying that had they stuck with "the cure" plot, the movie probably would've been a lot better.

Frankly, doing the Phoenix saga in one movie doesn't make much sense - would work better as a season of a tv series or something. Fox tried it twice and the result was abysmal each time. And no, i definitely am not interested in a Phoenix trilogy or anything like that. Hopefully Disney will focus on other x-men stories to adapt when they get around to it.

[Jokerz79]

I'll echo others in saying that had they stuck with "the cure" plot, the movie probably would've been a lot better.

Frankly, doing the Phoenix saga in one movie doesn't make much sense - would work better as a season of a tv series or something. Fox tried it twice and the result was abysmal each time. And no, i definitely am not interested in a Phoenix trilogy or anything like that. Hopefully Disney will focus on other x-men stories to adapt when they get around to it.

When making Dark Phoenix I have no idea why they didn't do Infinity War/Endgame scenario where you film 2 films back to back and release them one year apart.

Do the Phoenix Saga and go all Cosmic with the Shi'ar and Starjammers then do Dark Phoenix and go more smaller with the Hellfire Club.

[Castle]

I remember the year it came out, I was in high school. My friend who went to see it before me told me Jean Grey killed Cyclops. I didn't believe him. No way would they kill off one of the most important recognizable X-Men, I thought. Then I watched it. Not only did they kill him but it was so early in the movie. It happened so quick too. I was just sitting there like... that's it he's dead.


.

I only found out later that James Madsen switched over to do Superman Retruns and X3 had to kill Cylops quick to make up for that, however a replacement should have been fine

I agree about the fight between Ice-Man and Pyro. They just stood there shooting ice and flames at each other.

True. It exposes the director's shortcomings. he loves the characters for their powers. I felt the fight between Pyro and Iceman felt too much like a 2d video game.

@BatKeaton, This is a much superior scene of iceman fighting in similar style to X3. Superior VFX, Superior cinematography , Superior directing and use of other characters in one scene unlike X3 where the movie felt like pyro and bobby were the only 2 people in the movie. this is just a better masterwork from a far talented director

I did like Storm's fight scenes. As Halle Berry mentioned during an interview promoting the film, she wanted to finally get in on the action because Storm barely did anything in the other two movies.

I don't mind the fight scenes in X3, Strom fighting with Calipso was a nice reference to the comics but Storm's best moment from the movies was the 3rd act in X2, it can be very easy to not appreciate that if you are more intune with the more action driven comic movies with the expected big cgi fight finale . X2 does the complete opposite , one of the reasons it was a neat movie compared to X3 that was a very scattered messy film

I also liked Beast which is odd because I've never cared for him in any incarnation.

I am sure they are fans out there but I have yet to come across one comic book fan who did not like Kesley Grammer as beast, he was the most acclaimed part of the entire movie

[Maestro 216]

Because Frasier is the best Beast. Joking aside his actor made him much more lovable because he isn't doing shady crap behind the team's back.

[Frontier]

Because Frasier is the best Beast. Joking aside his actor made him much more lovable because he isn't doing shady crap behind the team's back.

He even got to say Beast's catchphrase .

[Joker]

They should have just run with The Cure as the story. That's really what the previous two had been leading up to.

The movie itself isn't as bad as it's made out to be, but yeah, it is two completely different stories being told at the same time, and it didn't work. It could have, but it didn't.