Review: "X-Men III"

poorly done.

anytime you give a comic book with the stunning depth and breadth of an X-Men to the maker of the 'Rush Hour' movies, you're in trouble.

the first two X-Men were much much better.

the most recent installation focused too much on action sequences, at the dire expense of plot, dialogue, and intrigue. X-Men the comic (and the first film version) was never solely about the actions of superheroes; what set this series apart was the theoretical underpinnings that served to make X-Men a social-problem story. sure, the series locates itself in the realm of the fantastical absurd, but that's the point. good fantasy/sci-fi/comic book fiction uses the freedom of plot provided by wide-open generic conventions to address real sociopolitical concerns. X-Men has always been about mutants, about outsiders (many in the gay community swear that X-Men tells their story of alienation, scorn, and struggle) working against a system that, while allowing for mutations, does all it can to purge them with prejudice. good fantasy/sci-fi/comic books also, as part of their generic conventions, are funny, extremely witty, erotic, and, yes, action-filled. the problem with the new X-Men is that it is all action and very little anything else. even halle berry as storm is weirdly a-sexual and stunted intellectually. the professor, played wonderfully by patrick stewart -- truly one of the great actors of any generation -- does not hold forth in his usual manner. just when he starts to say something profound it's as if the director, who clearly wanted to make sure he didn't lose all the action junkies and the big box office that they bring with them, reeled him in in favor of a sequence of explosions.

i don't want to ruin the plot for anyone who hasn't seen the film, but i'd also like to lament the killing off of many of the main characters in the series. their deaths felt cheaply done, written in only as something dramatic to manipulate the audience's emotions. don't get me wrong -- death in film can be moving, and if done right should push the film to achieve new and interesting kinds of meanings. but all the death in this film accomplishes very little. it teaches us nothing, it fails to entertain us, and it doesn't move the story along in any way.

the movie is still "good," sure. but it's not up to par.

i can only hope that superman does not disappoint so.