I also understand your point about the Wolverine/Professor dynamic—so I hear ya on all these points.

I just wish the movie fulfilled my expectations, which I do not feel were set too high.  Beyond all the spectacle, effects and stunts (which are a dime a dozen these days—even Emmerich’s Godzilla was gorgeous) I go to the movies for an emotional experience.  I’m character driven, and it’s what I look for.  While this movie had great ideas I just didn’t feel they were fostered to fruition the way the previous movies had.

I’m front row center for the Magneto and Wolverine movies, I just pray they have different directors.

Get me Aaronofski!

X2 really wasn’t very self-contained. Jean’s powers were starting to fluctuate due to the events of the movie, Magneto was in prison, and there wasn’t a lot of time spent explaining any of this for the benefit of those who didn’t see the first movie.

I’m sorry, was there conflict between Professor X and Wolverine? I must have missed those two lines

I addressed this in the comments after my review, but long story short: Wolvie has had his mind messed with, finds out Xavier has done the same thing with Jean, he defies him and their conflict is pretty much unresolved when Charlie snuffs it.

PS what was Phoenix all about? She’s just crazy chaos without Professor X to contain her? In the comics, does Jean go through anything more than in the movie?

This version of Phoenix is pretty much Jean’s superego unchecked, which has a much better command of her powers. It’s part of her that Xavier has locked away.

In the comics, the Phoenix is something totally different. While the X-Men are returning from a space mission, their shuttle starts falling apart and Jean sacrifices herself to save the team. An alien energy entity thingy that’s just passing through the neighborhood is impressed by Jean’s sacrifice and resurrects her, making her more powerful than before.

The problem is, the Phoenix force has a really dark side: it’s hungry. To make a long story short, eventually this aspect of it corrupts Jean and turns her into a supervillain (emphasis on the “super” aspect, in one scene it snuffs out an entire solar system, snuffing out a planet of broccoli people).

The Imperial Guard shows up (think of them as an interstellar version of the Avengers) to put Jean on trial, the X-Men choose to defend her, and she ends up committing suicide during the battle. That’s the original story done during the Chris Claremont/John Byrne run during the 70s, which many consider some of the best X-comics ever.

Later on they really screwed with things. Later, Cyclops married a girl who looked exactly like Jean (Madelyne) but turned out to be an evil clone. After that they established that the Phoenix was actually a copy of Jean that didn’t know it was a copy, and the original was found and revived.

And then there’s all sorts of convoluted stuff with their kids from the future, one who is a son of Madelyne and Scott’s (Cable), and a clone of him (Stryfe), and another one that’s a daughter of Scott and Phoenix (Rachel). On top of that, Scott and Jean were actually thrown forward into the future at one point. It’s a real mess.

You can see why I prefer the simpler Phoenix from the movie – Jean’s messed up in the head. ;p

Batman III (and IV, of course) need to be added to that list as well.

Let’s hope that Spidey III doesn’t fins it’s place there as well..although the lack of Elfman is a step in the wrong direction.  Raimi should stop being a pod person.

Every word typed by Junktape about X-men: The Last Stand is 100% Correct.

Every SW comparison and opinion about Episodes III and VI are incorrect.

Thank you and Slurpshh,

Cybergosh

I did think Hank McCoy was the best character in the movie.

I’m sorry, was there conflict between Professor X and Wolverine?  I must have missed those two lines

I’m always harsher about details – I did enjoy this movie, but when compared to the first two I felt it was lacking in so many emotional areas.  Seemed like it needed to cook in the oven a lot longer before serving…

I agree with Chris, that it hurts me to see studios make a big return on movies that they rush into theatres.  It means it’s only gonna get worse for big films with little time for script development.

PS what was Phoenix all about?  She’s just crazy chaos without Professor X to contain her?  In the comics, does Jean go through anything more than in the movie?  Does she have an agenda or an opinion?  I really wanna read these – if you can recommend some of the best story arcs I will totally pick em up.  If I’m harsh it’s because I do love these characters…

Who knows, they may have filmed a scene that explained this, but it would have done more to increase the conflict of the character.

He never had a “bestial” nature, though, the way Wolverine does. Hank McCoy has always been a kind intellectual soul trapped in a monstrous-looking body. That’s what the character has always been about, and I think it worked in this movie.

(Now you’ve got me going…) I felt the explanation of what the Phoenix was all about was very straightforward, and so was the main conflict of the film that you neglected to mention – Xavier and Wolverine.

See the comments in my review for the “holodeck” stuff, too. If anything, Star Trek cribbed from the X-Men comics.

This movie definitely had its flaws, but it wasn’t the complete mess that you’re making it out to be.

I’m a fan of both BTTF sequels, but must admit that neither comes close to TOUCHING the brilliance of the original.  But considering that it was a perfect movie that did not warrant any sequels at all, I enjoyed them.

BTTF 2 was a big experiment in technology for Zemeckis, as well as a love letter to fans who looked for every in-joke and enjoyed all the parallels that were exlored.  Still, it was short on story – the major arc being Marty’s need to suddenly go ballistic when someone calls him “chicken,” which is an amateur concept at best.

But with BTTF 3 there was a chance to simply give Doc Brown a story, and some conflict about his scientific need to do what is right (get the hell out of the wrong time and not meddle with the past) versus his emotional needs (a sense of belonging, purpose, and love).  The casting of Mary Steenburgen was good, but she played the character with a little too much of a whine and got annoying.  Still, it was at least an emotional story, with more interesting conflict.  I’d say the third film was successful though I think the first movie has remained a timeless classic where the others (with the exception of Cybergosh and myself) have fallen into obscurity, only to remind us they exist with a few TBS late-night reruns…