As with a review from Aint it Cool News, I'll give a brief backstory. I'm saying that now so you can skip this part if you want.
I'm a big X-Men fan and as such, I have issues with the first two films. I thought Wolverine was too much of a cry-baby in the first film and I hated (still hate) the leather costumes. Like others, I thought Cyclops was absolutely abused to the point of it being stupid. He should have had a much larger role in the X-Men films. And that, actually, is my problem with the second film. Cyclops. Otherwise, despite the costumes, I really enjoyed X2. Great film.
I'll pass on commenting on X3 because it was such a mess. Actually, I'll say one thing. Juggernaut. That's all.
I got a chance to see this film after loving the Wolverine and jumped at the opportunity. I really hoped Singer could restore my faith in the series and fix the mess that is the X-Men film universe.
End of backstory.
As many reviews are probably going to come out soon, I'll address things that hopefully others won't comment too much on. I'm completely avoiding spoilers here.
First, I think that if you liked First Class, you'll really love this movie. Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawerence are given a lot of screen time and importance in this film. Ian McKellan? Wasted, I think. Kind of pointless. More on that later. In my opinion, Fassbender and Lawrence got a lot more screen-time because of their star power. I'm mentioning this now because liking them is integral to liking this film. As an X-Men fan, I hoped some of the others like Colossus and Iceman would get more to do. Going in I lowered my expectations and perhaps that is why I avoided being disappointed.
Of course, Wolverine is the backbone of the movie in many ways. I've always liked Jackman in the role and loved his performance here. Like him or not, the guy completely owns this role. I hope he'll hang onto it for a few more films, at least. He brought humor and some great action into the film. I feel like in this film, he corrected the poor way he was handled in X1.
The visuals in this film are awesome - especially the sentinels. Very creative and very cool. I think you guys will really enjoy the way they were portrayed. Overall, the action is also great. As one reviewer said, Mystique's fighting style is odd. I noticed that too, but I didn't feel that it was a negative in the film. She was like that in X1, right? To a lesser degree.
Sound was also awesome. Great soundtrack. No complaints at all. Definitely suited the feel of the film and if anything, helped move the 2 hours and 10 minutes so it really felt like it was flying by.
If I can say anything about the film, it's that despite the serious nature of the story, the film itself is a lot of fun. Lots of "jaw-dropped, holy crap" scenes. Characters you could care about and some really great surprises as well.
Compared to the comic, which I have probably read at least 50 times, I actually preferred the film. It plays out "more neatly" and there are some twists that felt natural. I never really cared for Kitty Pryde in the comics, so having Wolverine play that main role was a welcome change for me. And as for the ending... awesome. Very well done. Comic-fans are going to lose their minds, similar to seeing Thanos at the end of Avengers. Personally, I had that same feeling.
Compared to the other films, I rank this up there with X2. Too early to say it's my favorite of the bunch.
I'll close with this, if there's one thing hindering the film, it's that there are a lot of characters and they don't get as much time to do what they need to do - i.e. Rogue, Future Magneto, Future Professor X and some others I don't want to mention. My take-away feeling from the film is that this film feels like Bryan Singer apologizing for X3 and promising to correct everything with this great film and something even better for the next film.
Ah. One more thing. Something very major was corrected that caused me to nearly jump in my seat. Somebody else commented on it, but in this spoiler-free review I won't. Not yet.
4.5/5 Stars
This has been a great year for film so far! (Yes, I liked Spider-Man 2.)
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