Whilst X-Men 3 conquered the box office in the US with an astounding $44 in one day, I sat down to catch the movie myself. This is a logistical challenge with a 2 week old baby, the details of which I won’t go in to, but believe me when I say getting to the cinema whilst keeping the family happy was interesting.
Still, I finally caught it this afternoon, in a completely full theatre. Any good? Bloody great mate. It’s much faster paced than the previous two, but manages to balance a lot of plot with a tonne of action and a basket full of plot twists that I didn’t see coming at all. Special effects are excellent throughout, on top of great performances across the cast.
If I had to complain about anything I would say that I suspect that Brett Ratner was a little over-enthusiastic in the cutting room at times, whilst leaving in a couple of redundant characters or sub-plots, in particular Angel, who seemed to serve no purpose at all to the film overall. He is also the basis for an annoying continuity error - the X-Mansion is in New York, right? How does Angel get from NY to San Francisco in the same time as the X-Jet?
Anyway grumbles aside this is a great addition to the series and if it ends there, then an excellent conclusion to what must be the best superhero trilogy until Spiderman 3 arrives in 2007. I do hope that we see an extended cut on DVD just because I feel that a slightly slower paced movie would do the characters a little more justice and fit with the previous movies.
All in all, get yourself to see it, if you liked the first two you will love it, if you haven’t seen the first two then sort it ahht!
