Just saw my first must-see movie of
2006. And here’s what I thought
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
X-Men 3. Nope, I'm not referring to it by its real name. Because (A) I thought it was lame when they announced it and (B) My least favorite part of the movie makes it so there's really no Last Stand to speak of. Which is sad since it came right at the end and I thought everything else in the movie was sweet closure.
But I really liked it. I thought the conflict with the cure for mutants was really well done. It was something I believed would be the final straw for Magneto to start his brotherhood and thus, have the X-Men defend the fact that mutants had a choice if they wanted to be mutants or not (despite the initial claim of cowardice by Storm).
Sure, the politics and the characters have always been great in the series, but action sells. And it was damn fine again this time around. The Phoenix attack in Jean's childhood home, Wolverine's rampage in the woods, Magneto fucking TEARING cars apart, a Danger Room sequence (finally!), Juggernaut chasing Kitty Pryde, the entire Golden Gate Bridge sequence and Phoenix's farewell. All very well done.
As for the characters, I accept that there's a fine line between comic X-Men and movie X-Men. Cyclops was offed as if he was a bit-character. Why? Because he WAS a bit character in the movie series. A shame? Maybe? But it's not like they were going to suddenly build him up to be the Scott Summers he was on the page in the matter of one movie. I was glad for the storyline in which Rogue felt as if she had to, to use the corny tagline, take a stand for herself and give up her mutation to win Bobby Drake over for good. Rogue always did consider her ability to be a curse (with due cause), and she got to do something about it. Oh yeah, and Angel, while I found him cool looking, was underutilized and pointless. Still, him being in the movie made for the cool scene of him bursting out of the lab, refusing to be the first to be cured, but still, pointless to the greater plot of the movie.
Sure, the Phoenix Saga is classic on the page, but I knew they weren't going to have time to do Jason Wyngarde and Emma Frost and all that the same way they didn't have time to do the whole M'Kraan Crystal deal in X-Men 2 (again, no dumb official name please). And while I could've used maybe a LITTLE more time spent with Phoenix, I liked how they worked everything. My favorite tip of the cap to the Phoenix Saga in comic form was Phoenix holding back Scott's energy blasts and kissing him. All the movie needed was a simple Xavier explanation to Wolverine had all the info out there right quick. Let's face it, they'll never going to get all the details out there in the movies and they'll never be as pure as the comics were. But the X-Men movies have done a fine job given the challenge of translating the source material to the big screen, and the Phoenix Saga was no exception. It resulted in some real cool sequences and a finale to the character that I thought was absolute closure.
Ah yes, closure! I really liked all the other major character transformations. Why? Because it brought a sense of closure. Wolverine starring out in the distance of the Charles Xavier School for the Gifted, knowing the future that maybe more adventures might take place, but we'll probably never see them on the big screen. As that image played on the screen, I realized that the three movies had let me into a huge period of time within the adventures of the X-Men, and I enjoyed them all. Sure, there may be more adventures afterward, but I felt I had seen the best of them, and that it was soon to be closing time in the X-Men movie series. I felt satisfied with that.
The movie cuts to an urban park. We see Magneto: Powerless, sad, a portrait of a once-great man with a great power. Now: an average joe forced to begin rebuilding his life anew. He holds out his hand to try to manipulate metal as he once did...and fails. He hangs his head and the credits roll.
Oh, no. Wait, this is still Hollywood.
Yes, the fucking chess piece moves leaving the door wide open for a sequel.
And yes, after the credits, the coma-striken body turns to Moira MacTaggart and says "Hello Moira" in Xavier's voice. Thus kicking the door even further wide open.
I try not to let bad endings kill movies for me. And by no means did I let these brief moments in the very end and after the very end of the movie ruin what I thought was yet another solid X-Men installment. But why leave the door open? Especially when the movie had such a great sense of closure, with its huge circumstances, epic action sequences, massive moments that shifted (and sometimes ended) the lives of the characters and a fine finale. Why not leave well enough alone?
It's really too bad some suit and tie at 20th Century Fox had to stand up and say "Wait, what?! No! We need MORE X-Men movies after this! We need the bank!"
But hey, let’s just pretend a gust of wind caught that chess piece and that the whole “Hello Moira” bit was just a dream sequence on Moira's part. Because, besides those moments, the movie definitely delivered the goods to a big fan of the series.