When we last saw Charles Xavier and his mutant X-Men, they had weathered an attempt by William Striker to start a war between mutants and humans, but had lost Jean Grey in the process. X3 begins with two flashbacks: Charles Xavier and Magneto visiting a young Jean Grey to tell her about the Xavier Academy, and a young blond boy locked in his family's bathroom, deperately trying to saw off the wings which have started to grow on his back. These images set the tone for the third film about Charles Xavier and his X-Men, the mutant superheroes who have "sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them."There was a lot of negative buzz surrounding this project, and approximately 98% of it came from internet gossipmonger/misanthrope/"film critic" Harry Knowles of aintitcool.com. But who would you rather believe, the man who gave glowing reviews to such dire days in the history of cinema such as Godzilla and Blair Witch 2, or me, your friendly neighborhood comic expert and film geek? Yeah, that's what I thought.
The plot of X3 revolves around a "cure" for the mutant gene created by Warren Worthington II, the father of the aforementioned blonde be-winged boy, Warren Worthington III, aka Angel (Ben Foster). He makes the cure available to the public, igniting a controversy and provoking the ire of Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his "Brotherhood." But the X-Men are hardly in a position to respond: Cyclops is shattered over Jean's death, forcing Storm and Wolverine into a more prominent leadership position at the school. Along to help them deal with the crisis is original student Henry McCoy, aka Beast. But Jean mysteriously re-emerges early in the film, and sets into motion a tragic chain of events that come to a head in an epic battle on Alcatraz Island.
But enough about the plot, how was X3, anyway? I thought it was pretty good. Brett Ratner pulls off the handling of directorial reins from Bryan Singer, who left to handle Superman Returns. The thing about Ratner is that he doesn't really have much of a style, so the tone of the film is very consistent with the first two. I think that the plot would have been a bit tighter if Bryan Singer was still at the helm, but these are fairly small details: X3 is great popcorn entertainment, just like the first two. If I had to scale it, then I would say that I enjoyed it more than the first one, but that I don't think it's as good as the second installment.
Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen are all still very good as Wolverine, Professor X, and Magneto, respectively. Wolverine is a bit tamer, but that's the writer's fault, not Hugh's. As long as he gets to drop the occasional streetlight, or eviscerate about 10 mutants whilst sneaking into the Brotherhood's camp, I'm happy. Halle Berry is a little better as Storm this time around, thanks to vastly increased screen time and a treatment of Storm in the script that is more in line with the comics version of the character. Kelsey Grammer shines in a letter-perfect performance of Beast, the conflicted Secretary of Mutant Affairs for the U.S. Government. It is also worth noting that Grammer is the 2nd casting of a character in the films that virtually all of fandom clamored for (the first being Stewart as Professor X), and it looks like they were right. Stealing every second of his sparse screen time is Guy Ritchie staple and ex-footballer Vinnie Jones (of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) as the unstoppable Juggernaut. I was a little concerned as to how the Juggernaut, a longtime favorite villain would be brought to the screen, but I wasn't disappointed.
This review will be expanded later on, but I had a lot of fun at this movie. The plot doesn't bear quite the significance and weight of the second film, but it moves well and doesn't drag. If anything, I think a few minutes could have been added to flesh out some characters and relationships. I give X3 a 16 out of 22 on the 22 scale.
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