Am I the only one that thinks this is the best X-Men film?

Its funny because I gave the same rating to Origins and that is by far and away the worst X-Men film.

I'm with you. This movie had a hard time holding my attention. Yukio and Viper were fun, but why so few mutants in an X-amen movie? And I know Wolverine's mental state was deservedly bad, but it made the film kind of joyless to watch for me. It was very heavy, and relentless and they didn't even have a B-plot or side character to take the pressure off the audience for a short break every once in a while.

Also, the Jean Grey stuff was tedious and a little pathetic, considering she was in love with and chose another man. I never found Jean to be particularly compelling character and besides her obvious beauty, they never actually showed why Logan fell in love with her or what their connection was. I get he felt guilty about killing her, but the fantasies of her 'waiting for him' were kind of sad, since she was probably chilling up in mutant heaven with Scott.

I would rather have seen him talk to Kayla Silverfox - now that he presumably got his memories of her back - since she actually loved him and they had a happy history of living together (even though she was coerced into it by Stryker at first, she did desperately love him). His time in Japan was similar to his time with Kayla in the Origins movie in that he was rudderless and suffered from ennui stemming from all of the carnage he'd witnessed (much like his mood post X3).

Also, as gorgeous as she was, Logan had no chemistry with the female lead in this. She was kind of a pointless love interest/plot device that could have served a purpose without becoming involved with him. I never got why he felt compelled to stay and take care of her, since he only breezed into town to say goodbye to the guy. He didn't seem that into her, so why go to so much trouble for some chick you barely know who is the granddaughter of a sleazeball who selfishly asked for your essence after you'd already saved his life once?

It would have been nice if they'd developed Logan's relationship with her grandfather a bit more in a positive way in the present - this way it would have made more sense that he stayed out of loyalty to a man he respected. The problem was, he didn't respect him and was skeeved out by the guy when he 'selflessly' tried to convince him to become mortal and hand over his power. He. Ould to wait to get the he!! out of town and away from him.

They should have just had them bond and maybe the old man could have empathized with Logan about his curse of eternal life without asking to take it for himself. He could have even said he envied him without asking him to give it to him. I think this was a huge plot error, because it removed his motivation for staying and made it incredibly obvious what was going to happen at the end (it also didn't help that Yukio never predicted the grandfather's death and is 'never wrong' about her predictions - obviously he was alive and up to something).

What WAS great was Logan's friendship with Yukio. It reminded me a bit of the way he was with Rogue in X1 and that was nice, since Wolverine is always at his best when he's playing big brother. I totally bought that a street urchin (also shades of Rogue) would imprint herself on him like a baby duckling and I hope they include her in future movies again at some point. Her fight scene with Viper was a highlight for me, and WAY more interesting than Wolverine's fight with the ninja robot.

As for the action scenes...the train one was fantastic and reminded me of a Daniel Craig-era Bond film. Viper/Yokio was awesome. The one where Logan takes on 500 ninjas and nearly escapes was kind of lame, because ninjas(!) are not random security guards at a museum. They will kick your @$$.

Overall, I felt the plot lacked motivation, because I didn't get why he felt compelled to stay. And I wish they would have explored the existential nature of Wolverine's life more. Remember the 1970's Superman where he bled for the first time and felt pain from that diner fight and majorly freaked out? I wanted more of that. Wolverine was confused, but the idea that he could actually die didn't really seem to enter his mind much. I wanted him to think about it and maybe toy with the idea that regaining his mortality might actually be a blessing - before deciding that it wasn't.

So yeah. It was a flawed film and I don't understand why people think there was so much character development going on. Ironically, I thought there was more in Origins, because he actually made a choice to abandon the life he'd been leading for a hundred years.

This wasn't a bad movie, but it was definitely my least favorite of the series, maybe tied with X3.

I don't know...I tend to like the darker stuff, like FC and DOFP and even Origins to an extent, so I wanted to like this more, but I just didn't. Maybe more mutants would have helped? Maybe Wolverine needs a more driven counter-balance to keep him focused, like Sabertooth in Origins or Cyclops in the X trilogy? Maybe this film needed a more encompassing villain? Viper was great, but just a side character. The main villain wasn't even in the majority of the film and only revealed at the end. That wasn't the best choice, IMO.

Okay, sorry for rambling, just trying to figure out why I didn't love this. I'm happy for those of you who got what you wanted from this movie, though.

X-Men - 9/10 Extremely fun, entertaining and great character development, my only criticism is it runs only for 95 mins and should have been longer.

X2 - 9.5/10 A superior sequel that ups the bar substantially for the franchise and expands on the themes of isolation and homophobia, although a tad too long it is one of the better superhero sequels.

The Last Stand - 4.5/10 Brett Ratner takes the character development completely away adds more explosions and kills off favourite characters just to show how low the franchise can go with him in the director's chair.

Origins: Wolverine - 2.5/10 Pitiful. Gavin Hood makes the most charismatic superhero and dulls him down, making him little more than a cardboard cut out to propel the action scenes forward. The plot twists courtesy of Skip Woods are mind numbingly dull, a 2 year old with one brain cell could figure out the ending. Just wait till you see Deadpool.

First Class - 10/10 Manages to revive a franchise that was lasting on thin air. A grade performances all around, a strong storyline and plenty of fun ensures that the X-Men live again through the charm and wit of Matthew Vaughn.

The Wolverine - 9.5/10 Fresh, suspenseful and full of comic book fun, The Wolverine is a superhero film that brings back a beloved character and makes him right once more. The Japanese setting helps a plenty with beautiful cinematography and a stand alone story that is thankfully compelling and not one bit dull. So it is a shame that Viper closely resembles Poison Ivy. This is a great film bringing the Wolverine into a good light once more.

OK, I saw DoFP and it is a solid 10/10. Honestly, the only real flaw is the way they used the abbreviation "DNA". And the fact that Jackman is visibly getting older but his acting makes up for that big time.




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