Saw X-3 yesterday. Was really, really annoyed by it. And I hate being one of those fangirls who gets miffed because they make changes from canon, but this is the one time I'm going to have to let my freak flag fly.

They killed Scott, Xavier and Jean in the same movie! And only Jean's death was in any way interesting. They 'cured' Rogue! The freaking leader of the X-Men! Her character is not one of those that would want a cure! I don't think even her character in the first two movies would justify her wanting it in this one. Angel, who they made a big deal of in the press, has about three lines. They introduced a huge array of new chracters, which the geek in me enjoyed, but won't have meant anything for a lot of the audience, and also meant less time devoted to the Phoenix story. Plus the whole Bobby/Kitty/Rogue bit was pointless, and, again, distracted from the main storylines, which were being smooshed in anyway.

There was stuff I liked - Juggernaut wasn't nearly as bad as I thought he'd be; Colossus was cool, (plus fastball special!); they showed Ice-Man iceing out; and Ian McKellen is always a joy to watch. Plus, the 'cure' plot was interesting, and I thought they dealt with it pretty well.

So I'm pretty sure that if you're not particularly invested in the characters (and I'm not even a particularly big X-Men fan), you'd enjoy it well enough. It's not brilliant, but it's a fun enough adventure. Le Bloke has been looking at it as an Alternate Reality X-Men, which definitely helps me appreciate it a bit more.

I also watched Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang last night, which I thought was hilarious. Robert Downey Jr. was a joy, as usual, and Val Kilmer was funny. I didn't know he could do funny. The whole meta-noir structure worked really well, I thought.

I found X3 irritating. First off, that's really not my Storm. The additional screen time drove that home. Stand with your back straight woman. Act like a thief and a goddess. But really? You don't kill. Most of the X Men don't.

Except here in the movie.

I thought characterisations were off, plots were stupid (why did Magneto bring Jean along if he wasn't going to have her do anything? Especially if she can do everything?)

I'm glad I saw it, but there will be no purchasing of this DVD.

First off, that's really not my Storm.

All of what you said, ita, plus? Was the spinning thing really necessary. It was really not working for me on film.

You don't [whitefont]. Most of the X Men don't.

And, and and....! Wasn't the person she killed Callisto???? That feels very not right to me. I seem to remember bonding between those two at some point or other in the comics.

They played fast and loose with the names. I think that was Callisto, but she didn't have the right powers. Technically, Storm did kill Callisto in the comics, or might as well have. But she has a healing factor, and in the end there was some bonding.

I could ignore the slaughter of my favourite woman in the first two, but with the more lines and strange behaviour in X3, it was too much.

ita, I know you weren't fussed on the Superman Returns trailers so far. Apparently at some showings of X3, an entirely new trailer was shown. Currently the only way to see this online is at this YouTube link.

Me? Still excited to see this film.

I think it's gonna be good. Which annoys me, because I want X-Men 3 to be good, and don't care that Superman will be good, because I don't care a whit about Superman. So I wish Brian Singer had stayed with the X-Men, and let somebody less decent do Superman.

Much like I wish Sam Raimi had done something other than Spider-Man, who I also don't care a whit about. Good movies, but I couldn't love them because Peter and his whole Spidery world just doesn't do it for me. If he was going to do a superhero movie, it should have been Daredevil, maybe. Without Ben. Or a Huntress movie. That would be sweet - Huntress should totally be in the third Batman Begins movie.

Just for the record, I also don't care very much about Wonder Woman, though of course I'll be seeing that movie as well. I do like her more than Supes and Spidey, at least.

But the world likes Spidey, and Supes, so I have to settle for my beloved X-Men getting only two good movies. I can deal.

Just saw X-Men. Good lord, was that a bad script. I enjoyed parts of it, but ultimately it was unsatisfying: the pacing, the characterization, everything felt a little off. I agree with whoever said that it was too much to squish the "cure" plotline and the Phoenix plotline into one movie, and several characters were badly underused (Rogue and Angel, for starters). Not to turn anyone off seeing it, because it's a pretty fun way to spend a couple of hours, but just keep your expectations low.

Oh! And stay through the credits; there's a short scene at the end. Anyone else catch it?

I saw a Superman Returns trailer, Pete. Still, too much whining, not enough "I am the most powerful entity on the planet--but do not fear me" for me. It felt like it was coasting on Superman being an icon. But I think Superman the icon is...limited and flat. And the movie looks like another sort of limited and flat with Abercrombie Fitch models and Kevin Spacey eating the scenery.

Kate, I caught the end scene...it's too much that they apparently killed Cyclops offscreen, killed Jean without attempting to cure her, and castrated Magneto and depowered Mystique. By that point I'm not that concerned with Xavier being in a new body...and is he a mutant still?

I just saw X Men, too, Kate. I caught the scene at the end because I read in EW that you should stay through the credits. Thought it was one of the highlights of the movie. Don't know how sad I am about that, but there you go.

I will preface this by saying that everything I knew about X Men prior to the movies I learned from watching the cartoon or reading right here on Buffistas. I didn't hate this X Men. I thought it was definitely not as good as the second one, but I'd actually put it pretty much on par with the first. I was annoyed at the death of Cyclops. I thought it was shoddily handled for such a major character from the first two. I also know enough about the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comics from reading here to have been annoyed at the way it came off in the movie. What annoyed the most, though, was that they brought in about ten million new mutants and then none of them really did much of anything. I still don't know the name of that one mutant who could sense other mutants powers, and she played a pretty prominent role in the plot. And the Angel character had maybe two spoken lines in the whole movie. Pretty, though.

However, even given all that, it was an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours. It was loud and mostly fun and there were a couple of WTF moments (I went in completely unspoiled). Nowhere near as good as the second, though.