WOLVIE, STORM & THE EX-MEN.

NOW I KNOW why it's called that. And why Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman ended up topbilling the film. I may be an X-Men fan but I will not be patronizing some crappy movie that should be called "Wolverine, Storm and the Ex-Men: The Final Stand."

Before I even watched the movie, a friend of mine already told me that it wasn't good. Really? Maybe it's not THAT bad or maybe it's just another way to tackle the X-Men like the Claremontesque drama with a new director around, I told myself. Then I watched it. And couldn't take it anymore. If it wasn't for my high school buddies who I haven't been with for awhile, I would have cursed myself for wasting my time and money, of course.

So, here's the crap. In the X-Men comics, Jean "died" and was resurrected as the Pheonix, and so on, which became the "Dark Phoenix Saga," one of the BEST stories from Marvel and arguably the BEST from X-Men ever. It tackled personal relationships, judgements and ideals and most importantly how power corrupts. In X2, Jean died, and we(viewers) knew that the Phoenix would become a part of X3.

And it did. What's hard to swallow is how the movie just used that now-legendary X-Men story to dispose of most of the leads: first, Scott, then, the Professor, and Jean also who had nothing to do with the theme of the movie. Here's the thing that bothers me: did they really intend to dispose of these characters without any plausible plot to give Storm and Wolverine the limelight?

Why would I even think of this? Here's why: First, the poster. Seen it? Look at the billing. Second, there's been a lot of talk since X2 that Halle wouldn't want to reprise her role as Storm, because of her short exposure in the previous installments. Finally, I saw in an interview of Halle saying that she reprised her role in X3, because it was good material and she had a more juicy role.

So... here comes X-Men 3. Halle Berry's name is printed on the X-Men 3 poster alongside Hugh Jackman's as if it were some fantastic duo flick. If I'm not misjudging, I think Hugh's name was just printed there to make it seem normal to give Halle, an Academy Award winner, her own.

In the movie whose central theme on the mutant 'cure' was underdeveloped, Jean was apparently alive. She had some drama part then she and Scott kissed. Kapoof went Scott. As this happened, Storm was having some scenes showing off her ideals and was earning some compliments from the Professor. Jean then had some drama again then makes Charles Xavier go kapoof also! Finally, the lead X-Men were only Logan and Storm with Jean once again having dramatic poses in the enemy base. Storm becomes the mighty protagonist again with her choice of not closing the school and she even had some enlightening speech. Then, she and Logan goes into 'war' then wins ending with Logan killing Jean. I don't know if it can be more obvious than that. The movie was just meant to please Halle. I'm excluding Hugh because he always had a big part. What more could he ask for.

I hate that they used Jean Grey and the Phoenix just to make Storm the ultra-protagonist by killing off the others. IT COULDN'T BE MORE OBVIOUS! For an X-Men fan like me, seeing the Phoenix used as a vehicle for that kind of thing without proper characterization and plot couldn't be more infuriating. It also kills me that they killed all those characters for that crap.

Besides that, the movie was really scattered in parts. There was no real development going on. It was as if I was watching an extended telenovela. I hate it. I hate the directing job. I hate the story. I hate the movie. I can't believe they did that.

Sorry for ranting. I'm just sad.