X-Men 3

Movie info from IMDB
Movie reviews from Metacritic

I’m a big fan of Bryan Singer. He may not be the best director ever but there is a certain style and realism he brings to his movies that I like. He’s very adept and camera sleight of hand and seems to have the right ‘image’ in his head.

Just a pity that, after the first two X-Men movies, he didn’t do this one.

I think the main problem with X-Men 3 was that it was just too formulaic. Too calculating, and ultimately too damn insulting.

Without giving any plot away, there is a shot right after the death of one of the characters. It’s a poignant moment but it’s just so very clumsily handled. We get some gentle classical music, as the camera slows pans back out of the, now, empty room.

The annoying thing is that this SHOULD have been the best of the 3 movies. It was all nicely setup in X-Men 2, the closing scene of the phoenix swooping under the lake setting the scene. Unfortunately it was all a bit flat and there was a distinct lack of surprise or suspense. Even in the action scenes you knew what was going to happen, there were no surprises, it was all to familiar.

So, now matter how good the special effects were (and they were good), and no matter how climatic the storyline was (and it was VERY climatic) it never really gripped you, sucked you and pulled you along. Instead you are left thinking, “Well, *I* could’ve directed that…”.

Shame.