But is it the final stand? The third X-Men film perhaps suffered a bit from having to follow X-Men 2, which was, as I recall, voted the best comic book adaptation of all time by Empire magazine. So they were really on a hiding to nothing. Having said that it wasn't a bad film just not as engrossing as its predecessor. Killing off, or de-mutating in some cases, some major characters is a big move but with so much to draw from within the comics it's not a bad move.
I went in expecting Jean Grey's transformation into the Phoenix to be something special but I found it a shade ho-hum. She wasn't bad but she just, ironically, lacked animation. She did more standing around and being talked about than anything else.
Whether there's another X-Men movie remains to be seen. I'd say there probably will be, knowing what Hollywood is like - a sequal is a lot easier to come up with than an original idea. I gave it a 7.5 out of 10 which pales in comparison to the 9 out of 10 X-Men 2 received. It's now about three months since I've seen a 9 out of 10 (this year both Brokeback Mountain and Capote received that honour) and it's not looking good for the rest of the year.
Great review Ray. Totally agree that Phoenix was a disappointment. They certainly took the axe to the cast as well!
ReplyDeleteSome pretty cliched lines too. But other stuff that I liked.
For my money, SpiderMan 2 is the best comicbook adaptation of all time...