Who would've thought all of these characters will be facing real mortal danger? First of all, Wow! Secondly, WOW! Never could I have fathomed X3 as such a powerful movie. The first two X-Men movies were slick and fun action films, heavy on action but rather light in substance, and so I went into this one expecting more of the same. Instead, X3 began on a darker and more serious tone, then completely ensnared my emotions starting from the half way point. The major plot point completely blindsided me, I didn't believe something like that could happen until the moment I saw it occur on the screen. The tension-building leading up to that moment was flawless.
Of course, I'm trying not to give away too much here, but it's suffice to say after that development I realized this wasn't going to be your cookie-cutter comic book movie. For the first time in watching these movies I felt palpable suspense for the fates of the main characters, as this new director stripped our heroes of their aura of invincibility. It still surprises me how much I came to cared for the characters in this film, especially since I was far from being one those crazy comics buffs. So top-notched wall-to-wall action combined with a surprisingly engrossing storyline, and strong acting from Ian McKellen, Patrick Steward, Halle Berry, and especially Hugh Jackman (the guy is such a believable actor) make this one of the best films I've seen in a while. The only quibble I have with the film is that it never conveyed clearly why the good guys would fight tooth and nail to the bitter end. I had to do some analysis afterwards to come up with a satisfactory answer. Many fans of the X-Men comics are taking issue with the "unfaithfulness" of the movie, but they just have to realize that no two artists would interpreted a subject in the exact same way. You don't want to deviate too much from the original work, but I think in this case the filmmakers used their artistic license well and created a very strong movie. Final verdict, *** 1/2 stars.
BTW, the filmmakers left enough loose ends untied for the making of a sequel, especially if you sit through the ending credits.
