Hot damn, does this one look good or what? I'm stoked. I quite liked the first two, and this one looks poised to smash them in terms of quality.

I don't know if it will be as good as X2, but at least they put some effort into getting some more characters into this one. Seriously, the only new mutants they introduced in the second one were Pyro, Deathstrike, a couple random students, and Colossus for about three seconds.

Those three seconds of Colossus were enough to get me hyped. I remember him going "I can help you" and I was like "TAKE HIM!"

Plus Iceman may finally Ice Up this time, which will be reason to see it in its own right.

Nightcrawler was also introduced in the second film and he was a pretty big plot point (tried to kill the Pres and then joined the team).

I think they actually had too many characters. I watched the first one with some friends and everyone was "wait, wait-- who's this guy?! Bear-Man?! What's his power?"

A plot outline for the third film was leaked on the Internet about a year ago. It sounded....weird. But the person who broke the news was completely inflammatory about it. Like: "This is teh most stupidist thing they culd of done. Wher's Gambit?!"

Some people have complained that the X-men films are too wide-spread in their plots. Plot 1: "Everyone will be turned into a mutant". Plot 2: "all mutants will turned into NORMALS". Plot 3: "all mutants will be killed".

To me, there's something "not quite right" about the X-men films. I didn't care for the first film, but really enjoyed the second.

I somehow forgot about Nightcrawler. Bah.

And I love Nightcrawler. Seriously, I might have to commit ritualistic suicide now.

And I do remember hearing an extremely weird plot leak several months ago, but nothing in the previews for X3 supports any of it.

Isn't X3 going to be the Dark Phoenix Saga?

From what I heard-- no. I've heard it compared to a Zero Tolerance/Fun With Sentinels story.

It looks like Jean does come back, though. I think we see her in the trailer. The crappy outline I read had her flaming out and croaking, five minutes after her re-birth. But not before killing Cyclops. Oh yeah-- Wolvie and Storm have sex alot.

I hope that outline was FALSE. I haven't followed any of the hype or updated spoilers for the third movie.

Oh God, I really hope those spoilers were false. I heard the same ones and I was freaking nervous until I saw the previews online.

Though I don't know if anything will top how depressed I was after seeing X-Men in 2000. I had waited over half my life for that fucking movie and it didn't even come close to meeting my hopes and expectations :(

They should have let Whedon write it. They only kept two of his lines. :-/

I'll probably enjoy it as a casual fan, unless they really fuck it up.

I'd like it a lot better if Halle Berry wasn't in it.

Talk about overrated

Halle Berry has been the worst part of both films.

Almost as bad as Kirsten Dunst in the Spiderman movies

You're not kidding.

See, Lord of the Rings had the right idea: virtually no one in that movie was a superstar actor, they were just really good. X-Men? A little bit of both, and Berry just isn't very good. I got high hopes for Kelsey Grammar, though.

I still don't get the Kirsten Dunst hate in the Spider-Man movies. I think she's been just fine.

She's no Mary Jane. Gwen Stacy, maybe. But she's not Mary Jane.

HOLY HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! Amazing movie. Best X Movie ever. Hands down. Solid Story, good acting, GREAT ACTION and ::ahem, fanboy moment:: DARK JEAN IS FUCKING HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

9/10 from me. Discuss.

I'm dragging the girlfriend to see it on Tuesday. Fun times

I'll quote myself:

But to comment on the Storm line, I actually meant to say "Which makes it worse"

I liked it... I mean, it's a comic movie, how much character developement do you expect?

Well, seeing that the first two were character driven, I'd expect something of the sort

And I'll be a bit more specific.

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**

They could have done the whole mutant cure storyline without Jean. Honestly, I'll say that bringing Jean back actually messed up the movie. It diluted a honestly workable plot.

The following is in white text for severe spoiler purposes:

With Jean gone, they could have focused more on the relationship between Angel and his father, and how that brought about the cure. This would have made the actual cure storyline resonate more.

They could have had Scott lead the X-Men at the end, and not Wolverine, which would have made a hell of a lot more sense. Not to mention it would maintain consistency in the aggressiveness of his character, as him holding people back and then slicing up villains is a bit hypocritical.

Okay, so that's part of it. I'm also upset because both Storm AND the President's character FLIP FLOP like John Kerry.

I mean, she's wanting to preserve the Professor's dream, which is peaceful coexistence between man and mutant with the desire to help mutants control their powers. But she's all for killing Jean for being too powerful and out of control.

And the president is pro-mutant, but allows them to use the cure as a weapon? Why not tranquilizers instead? And then he makes Hank the Ambassador to the UN, representing both human and mutant for the US. Why wasn't Hank the least bit upset that the President used the cure as a weapon?

These are just a FEW of the complaints I had. Nothing fanboyish. Actual logic and plotholes in the movie.

... Damn. That movie seems a little less good now. Thanks for ruining that for me, Swigg.

You asked. I answered.

As I said before this was out.................Brett Ratner would fuck it up. Surprised?

And that doesn't include my gripe about:

Storm taking over the school after Jean and Professor X die. As far as I could tell, it was implied that Professor X helped his students learn how to control their powers by going inside their minds and finding the trigger for their powers. Well, Jean was the one who had been trained to follow in his footsteps. So with both of them dead, how the hell does Storm teach new mutants how to use their powers? Does she show them the same mercy she showed Callisto at Alcatraz? Because that was pretty cold and if I were a student, I wouldn't want the teacher that electrocuted someone just because they were hard to fight.

Not at all.

I said somewhere else that this movie wasn't Batman and Robin bad, but it's Batman Forever bad.

I was half kidding, Swigg. Sorry, forgot to indicate that. I'm going to go see it again, this time keeping some of those things in mind.

What shocked me is that most of the problems I had weren't fanboy problems. They were just logic/plothole problems. I expected fanboy problems

Saw it today... felt more like an "episode" than a movie.

-Biggest problem: Magneto's out building his army, but it's not clear until the final 30 minutes WHO they're going to fight. You know WHAT they're upset about, but it's not really apparent who they feel the need to punch. The lab on Alcatraz didn't seem like it needed 100 mutants to attack.

-Juggernaut was the biggest disappointment to me. His signature line: "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!". Laaaaaaaaaame.

-That was Callisto that Storm was fighting? I didn't see the connection at all. I'm sure all the rest of Magneto's troops had comic counterparts..but damn if I knew 'em. I caught Arclight and Spike (ugh) from the movie, but I saw Jubilee and Psylocke in the credits. Think I saw Jubillee, though--she had blue hair, right?

-Was it really necessary to have Nightcrawler appear for all of 1 second?

-I don't think Halle Berry's hot at all... and I don't like her as Storm. To me, Storm always seemed to look a bit more...exotic. Like, I dunno.. Grace Jones. If I squint really hard, I could even see someone lke Vanessa Williams as Storm, but not Berry.

-I liked the security around Magneto's camp... guy with spikes out of arms (based off of Marrow?)..but the other "guards" had a sniper rifle and a baseball bat. Guess they ran out of guards with worthwhile mutant powers. "What's your power? I collect dust really well". "Great. Here's a baseball bat, you're on security detail!"

-Was that R. Lee Ermey's voice when they were passing out guns? (The drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket)

-Marked out for the Fastball Special! I liked the Sentinel cameo and the way they were building them up, so I was really disappointed that they weren't the main villains. Bolivar Trask (Bill Duke, aka "Mac" from Predator) was in the film and I spent most of the film looking for more Sentinel hints. I was expecting the National Guard to give way to Sentinels, or something.

-Iceman is a future pedophile. Kitty looked about 13..and Iceman's gotta' be about 19. I wasn't feeling the Iceman/Kitty/Rogue subplot at all.

-Magneto also has perfect perception and measurement powers. He tore off exactly enough of the Golden Gate Bridge to reach Alcatraz. Not too much, not too little. In retrospect, wouldn't it have been easier to rip off the Bay Bridge?! It's closer to Alcatraz, so he wouldn't have had to carry it so far. Eh...but who the hell wants to see the Bay Bridge?!!

-I thought Beast was perfect.

-Oh yeah..you guys DID see the final scene that rolled after the credits, right?!

Yeah. It was totally predictable, though. They telegraphed it in the first part of the movie.

It wasn't Jubilee with the Purple Hair, It was Psyloke, I think.

And I really wasn't feeling the Iceman/Kitty/Rouge stuff either. That was the only boring part of the movie for me.

That was one of my biggest issues with the movie. If I hadn't gone to the website a few months ago, I wouldn't have recognized who Callisto was. Especially since I've always been sketchy on what her powers were.

And honestly, why not use Quiksilver for the speed. It would have been a bit more interesting.

I didn't even notice him in the movie.

My wife and I had a discussion after X2 that Halle Berry's storm is WAY too "priviliged American." My wife hated the character, and after I explained the comic character's roots, she said "That's way better."

My problem with Berry is that she doesn't come across as a strong black woman in the movies. I would rather they cast someone with the ability to play Storm more like Aunt Viv in "Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

My question is: If Trask hasn't created the Sentinel program yet, how do the X-Men have Sentinels in their Danger Room training. And how is anyone who isn't and X-Mark supposed to know what to call that thing? Did they reference it by name?

Yikes. That last one is a big enough gap to drive a freaking truck through. Hadn't even occoured to me...

My bro was disappointed with this movie, but I haven't seen it yet. Kinda leery now.

This movie seems to be getting 50/50 feedback. People either loved it or hated it.

I must admit, though, that most of my hate comes from the lack of development in the characters and the story. I can't enjoy a blockbuster popcorn flick just for the sake of entertainment anymore.

-Yeah, the Trask issue and the Sentinel incongruity was bugging me too.

-They didn't mention the Sentinel by name.

-Nightcrawler was there on Magneto's team at the end. When all the worthless mutants charge the lab, you catch a glimpse of Nightcrawler's teleportation effect on the left side of the screen. You see him briefly and then see the dark blue smoke. The scene was so dark and quick that you'll miss it easily. Real disppointing, because Nightcrawler's character was handled well in the last movie. I guess he lost his "faith".

-I got the sense that Madrox and Juggernaut had already opposed the X-men. So I'm sure there's already some shitty fan-fiction out there for "X2.5 and X2.6"

-Minor complaint: but Madrox's power is based off of impact. Hit him, then he multiplies... but I can see how that could be ignored for the sake of the wider movie audience.

Wow, Nightcrawler is on Magneto's side?

Guess I'll never get the chance to see since I'm not going to watch the movie again

ES, isn't the video game for X-Men Legends 2 supposed to cover a lot fo the in-between stuff? Maybe that's where the Juggernaut and Multiple Man stuff comes from...

I'm going to have to see it again, but I still really loved it the first time. Perhaps the fact that I'm not really a Marvel Zombie helped for once...

The "Legends" video games seemed to have their own canon-- a little of the movies, a little of the comics and a little of the cartoons. Fanboys can wank and figure out what goes where, but it's of no great concern to me.

Heh..it was also kinda' funny how all the evil mutants dressed like rockstar groupies or kids at a rave.

I don't think he had an official name, but the guy who was speaking in the church before Magneto stood up... physically, he looked like a read ringer for Mastermind or even old 60's "Factor Three" Changeling.

I think the X-3 Video game is supposed to explain a lot.

I think they were going for "Enter the Matrix" synergy. The problem is, Enter the Matrix wasn't necessary for watching the movie. It looks to me like playing the X-3 video game may be, though.