Shane Life

I suppose this movie should be called X-Men III: The (Almost) Last Stand. (There are rumors that this will NOT be the last X-Men movie…apparently Kelsey Grammer and Vinnie Jones have signed up for 4 and 5.)
I wanted this movie to be better than it was. From what I understand, a lot of people liked this movie (enough for it to have the 4th largest weekend opening ever), but for me, it just seemed like it was trying a little too hard.

I must confess that I have never read an X-Men comic, let alone ANY comic book in my life (I stick to comic strips…they are easier to digest and have funny talking critters). But I love comic book movies. I don’t want to put the work in to read all the back story of Superman or Spidey or anyone else for that matter, because if I were…I would probably have to read it all…I’m a little obsessive that way.

So it comes as no surprise that the stuff that was for comic book nerds in that movie went over my head. Not only that…the movie just seemed to lack focus. It was more worried about cramming as many cool new mutants into it as possible and forgetting about those little things called DIALOGUE and PLOT.

Granted, there was some plot to push the story along, but I really felt that it fell short where XMen and Xmen 2 succeeded in focusing more on 1 or 2 or 3 of the characters. Instead, The Last Stand really jumped all around. It TRIED to be about the whole Jean Grey/Phoenix thing, but it got too sidetracked and I never really felt like it fully told the story.

It also really lacked good action sequences, particularly those between mutants. In the mutant battle royale near the end of the movie, the camera jumps around so much that the fights seem really unsatisfying. Not that it lacked violence…it just lacked the Saber/Wolverine fight of X-Men 1 or the Jean-holding-back-the-dam in X-Men 2.

It was entertaining at times, but it really left a lot to be desired.

I was shocked to hear how much it made over Memorial Day weekend. Maybe not shocked, but impressed, considering how underwhelmed I was by the whole thing. Just goes to show you that I don’t know much.