A Review

Everyone I know said, Everyone we know dies, why do you want to watch it? But I was adamant. I said, No, I’d like to see for myself, if you don’t mind. They gave up. I bought a 3-in-1 DVD, with X-Men I, II and III. I proceeded to watch X-Men III or X-3, as it will go down in movie history.

It was, without doubt, one of the most difficult movies I have ever sat through. I know Brett Ratner is a good man in his own right, but I hope he had nothing to do with the development of the story for X-3. After seeing the cracks in Bryan Singer’s psyche in the way he destroyed Superman Returns, I’d like to think this was also a mistake – that is, I’d like to think that the storyboard for X-3 was also Singer’s baby during his difficult period. I would not like to think that anyone, any writer with a moderate respect for the movies, would go in for such a killing spree as this, unless he was of the mindset to make Superman Returns. That was some serious warped shit, man!

I am a writer. I love characters. I love death as it is portrayed in movies. I am a great fan of both Bergman and Pasolini. But comic book heroes exist in a world of their own. They are entertainment. I love them. I will watch anything. But I will not stand for such endings. You do not simply KILL superheroes.

Alright, sagas (Sagæ, you say, Monlith? Okay, sagæ it is.) – sagæ have to end. I agree. But it is not worth it to simply kill off everyone in the bloody piece. I admit, we knew that Jean was a Class-5 mutant, a Fifth Standard Party, as we know it in Ovar Yindiaa, but there’s no need to make her look like Nemesis reincarnated (and mutated, if you’ll pardon the pun). No need to have good ol’ Wolverine become a cryin’ lover. No need to have Charles X. Xavier show weakness, even if it was a scene of him being bested. The only person’s portrayal I liked was Ian McKellen’s, though even he needn’t have suffered such a fate. Halle Berry again was wasted.

Singer, please quit the Superman Franchise (unless you’re planning to continue with Superman – True Brit) and come back and end X-Men properly.

No, better still, come back and do another X-Men. Let the series not end.

One of the greatest wielders of the English language, and probably THE greatest of all of them thriller writers, Alistair MacLean, put it beautifully, when he had a German, one of the Enemy, say very simply, in one of his novels (Probably THE LAST FRONTIER, or one of the NAVARONE novels):

“No one should die like this. Not even our enemies should die like this.”

This is so very true, when it comes to X-Men III. A remake is needed.

Singer, please oblige.

K.