Monday, May 29, 2006

XMen 3 - 2006

Been an X-Men fan sometime in the early to mid '80's. Bought the comics every month for many years. Stopped sometime in high school as the art quality and storylines declined. Was very happy with the first two movies. Just saw the latest one today. Really enjoyed it. Think they've really geared these movies towards the more hardcore fan and I'm ok with that. The series has played fast and loose with much of the comic book 'history' and I'm ok with that too. I haven't known how any of them would really play out and that's a nice thing for a movie.
[Spoiler warning] This movie wastes no time with the return of Jean Grey. The commercials really didn't make her resurrection any kind of surprise I guess. What is surprising is the death she causes when she comes back. In fact this movie didn't shy away from killing people. Lots of death. And some surprising loss of powers.
This movie centers on a controversial cure for mutation. The manufacturers see mutants as damaged people and are wanting to help them. Mutants are justifiably upset that such a thing exists. What's interesting is that some mutants see this 'cure' as a road to a better life. (There's a scene where Magneto proclaims that 'We are the Cure'. Um, not without Robert Smith you're not.)
Magneto uses the threat of this cure as a way of creating a mutant army. He attacks the lab on Alcatraz island to destroy it. To do so he rearranges the Golden Gate bridge, which kinda seems like overkill. A big battle ensues and so on.
This movie brings out one of my favorite villans, Juggernaut. Big, stupid and unstoppable (and lots of fun). It also introduces Kelsey Grammer as the Beast. It's actually an inspired choice. One unexplained abscence is Nightcrawler (my personal favorite). Colossus is back and actually used to some extent. And Wolverine, the star of the team, is finally let loose.
I liked it.

UPDATE: Just found out that there's more movie after the credits. We didn't know that and left the theater. Whoops!

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