I've been waiting for someone to start a thread about the latest X-Men installment, but I'll have to dump on this myself. WTF!? Anyone else see it and leave at the end in utter disbelief (of how bad it was)?

I suppose the first two were fair warning, but with the second improving a bit on the first, I wouldn't have expected to see the third go "Bad TV Movie" on us. I'll put it into perspective... In my opinion, it was only marginally better than a made-for-TV Stephen King movie (and everyone knows how bad those are - case in point, the recent stinker Desperation). The movie just didn't hit the mark anywhere. Definitely not in story/plot - it didn't have much of one. Not in pacing, action, nor dialog. People looked pretty, make-up was decent, costumes were good, digital effects/compositing also good and pyrotechnics acceptable. I suppose it comes down to a terrible script/screenplay.

Marvel are quickly diluting their brand equity by letting such crap hit the screens. Throwing Stan Lee into a 3 second cameo doesn't make a movie.

I mean, set aside all its other faults and they still manage to rip off a major storyline/plot element from Ultraviolet. They even used the same actor in the same role! It's pretty much the same role the kid also played in Birth (though I suppose that's stretching it a bit).

I saw in the theater, but this flick was barely worth the (unattended) time to download. And definitely not worth the time to watch it.

Bruno

It was sooo disappointing. I do like the Marvel movies, especially the first two X-Men, but this was really bad. The 'story' was badly executed, some scenes were too long and felt drawn out, stupid stuff happened - it was mainly just a movie where mutants destroyed stuff and each other... apart from the cool special effects it was simply lame.

An amusing side note... its interesting how the main characters drive around in lovely and beautiful classic Mercedes (scene in the past), and a Maybach ('near future') while in the main fight scene they are throwing flaming cars, which are all BMWs. I wonder whether that was part of the Mercedes placement deal.

Did anyone stay till after the credits? If you didn't you missed a very very very very very important part of the movie.

All around I think the movie was OK. Some stuff was really cool like the flaming car bombs.

"You're still here? It's over. Go home!"
Chica-chicaaah.

Two of my favorite things:

1. Right after Magneto moves the Golden gate bridge... Day then night! Who missed that one!!!
2. The way Phoenix "burned" people to ashes... the ashes looked like blocky artifacts that weren't rendered well. When I think of ashes I picture the stuff that fell from Mount St. Helens. Not what was in X3

I agree with most critics... 1 1/2 stars. Too bad Marvel wanted to beat Bryan Singer's 'Superman Returns' to the theaters so bad they went with a poor script/director/etc... BTW, Superman Returns will rock!

I'm soooo bummed to read this thread. Damn it, I'm still going tonight!

- Jon

Claremont sucks. Not as bad as the people who came after him, but the only time X-Men was really worth reading was when John Byrne was working on it (albeit with Claremont). And, if I gather the plot from the trailer well enough, this was part and parcel of what he wrote.

DC seems to have started making comics movies worth going to again, after a huge slump from the mid-90s to the early 2000s. Batman Begins, V for Vendetta. Of course, there were a number of real stinkers directly before them: Constantine (which should have been great), and Catwoman.

Whereas Marvel has been wildly hit-and-miss. At the same time they're making the pretty-darned-good Spider-Man movies, they're also making Daredevil and The Punisher, not to mention the Mutant X TV show and the Man-Thing straight-to-SciFi-Channel movie. (For those of you out of the US who might base their SciFi Channel knowledge on Battlestar Galactica, BG is a complete aberration in their typical utter dreck.)

The following movies were (far) better than X-Men 3:

Daredevil
The Punisher
Elektra

By biggest gripes with the Punisher were lead choice and character attitude and abilities. Just didn't match well with the comic.

Just off the bat, I'd venture to say one of the best Marvel movies thus-far was also one of their first (and lowest budget), Blade. This recent movie just doesn't hold up on its own. It's also completely superfluous when taken with the previous two (almost like Terminator 3 when taken with T2). X-Men is just so far removed from anything I remember from the comics. Characters not matched well, they're all practically useless in combat, etc..

What I'd like to see is a good script for a 2.5 hour retelling of the series of issues surrounding Dark Phoenix. I'd also love to see the original Longshot mini series turned into a movie.

Given the "quality" of the Marvel movies over the past 10 years, what do you think a retelling of Secret Wars would be like? I shudder at the thought.

Bruno

For those of us who didn't catch the after credits footage maybe you can post a description...

Bruno

I can't remember exactly how it went but read if you want to know the gist of it.
Spoiler:
Va n ebbz jr frr n zna va n orq ba n erfcvengbe (pna'g ernyyl frr jub vg vf). N srznyr vf va gur ebbz naq ybbxf yvxr n ahefr. Gur zna zbirf uvf urnq naq fnlf gur srznyrf anzr. Gura nfxf ubj ybat? Gur srznyr fnlf Puneyrf..

Elektra was better than X3? Wow, that's discouraging. I haven't seen it yet, but I still think I'll enjoy it just for dumb entertainment.

One comment about made for TV Stephen King movies, though. I think you can include most made-for-theater Stephen King movies. Did you see Dreamcatcher? That was awful.

And I couldn't get your opinion based on your post, Bruno. Did you like Ultraviolet? If you did, I'd love to hear your justifications, because I think it may have been the worst movie I've seen in years. I would have left the theater if there hadn't been such laugh-out-loud piss poor dialogue.

The Punishers probably aren't worth a whole lot these days, but a few of the War Journals might be. They feature some early Jim Lee art. You can take a look over at ComicsPriceGuide.com. It doesn't seem to be too far off base, as long as you ignore the CGC bullshit. Looks like those Punishers aren't worth much anymore. Too bad. They used to be way expensive.

Anyway, most stores these days seem to use either Wizard prices or Overstreet prices, usually just Overstreet for things Wizard doesn't list. Wizard will list all the ones you have, though. Go to a store (most big bookstores seem to carry Wizard these days) and pick up the latest issue. It'll only cost you a few bucks. Or look at it in the store, since you have a discrete few things to look at.

Of course, there's still the issue of grading the books. If you're not interested in them anymore at all, just call up your local shop and ask them if they're interested and how they would like to have them presented. Some shops would like a list just to see if they care at all; other shops will want you to bring them in so that they can judge their condition.

I was indifferent to Ultraviolet. I didn't come away pissed off that I had spent the time sitting in the theater watching it. When I left from watching X-Men I was sorry I hadn't stayed at my parents' watching King Kong on TV. And somewhat upset they completely botched the franchise making it unlikely a better (X-Men) movie can be made in the near future.

Many of the visual effects in Ultraviolet were meant to be stylistic, which a lot of people simply shrugged off as "primitive" or "fake." I thought it might be a big detractor, but I didn't mind it - it worked for me. I had the same apprehension before watching Sky Captain, but was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked and that I actually enjoyed the movie.

Ultraviolet wasn't a very memorable film and neither was Elektra, but with X-Men I find myself trying hard to forget it as soon as possible. Another fairly lackluster movie with similar themes and faults was Aeon Flux. All of these still better than the recent X3 in most ways.

Bruno

I'm kind of surprised by the reactions to the movie here. I haven't seen it (and really don't have a desire to, honestly), but everybody I know that did pretty much loved it. There was a lot more negative feedback on 'The Da Vinci Code' than X3.

-- Tim

I, for one, enjoyed it. I went in looking for a popcorn flick and that's what I got. It was fun. Had I been a hardcore X-men fan, perhaps my views would be different, but other than a smattering of ideas about who had what powers, I have no idea what the backtory is supposed to be.

So, to me, the effects were cool, the mutants were cool, and I enjoyed the story. So there.

For the record, not that it should color your impression of the movie, the storyline that the Daredevil movie was based on was probably the best Daredevil story ever and one of the best series of comics ever, and while I thought the movie was okay, it didn't do the source material justice at all. That story has been collected as Daredevil Visionaries 1, 2, & 3, if I remember correctly. It was written and drawn by Frank Miller, the same guy who wrote and drew Sin City, albeit about 20 years earlier. Batman Begins was partially loosely based on his work on Batman, too.