f13.net

View here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x3/)

Actually pretty long for what's supposed to be a teaser.  I'm not going to get my hopes up but it looks like it could end up ok.  One thing that bothered me though is that they show two clips of Storm doing some fuckin stupid looking whirlwind spin through the air.



Edit: From Magneto's mention of the cure and IMDB's cast list (http://imdb.com/title/tt0376994/fullcredits) mentioning Dr. Kavita Rao, it looks like Joss Whedon's first Astonishing X-Men arc is part of the inspiration for the story in this one (and obviously there's some Phoenix stuff thrown in there too, but I knew about that).  I'm sure that's probably been pointed out somewhere on the Internet, but it's the first I'd noticed it.

I thought Halle Berry left or something?

No Alan Cumming though...Which is a shame.


Anyways, here's an interesting screencap:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/x3.jpg)

I doubt it'll be that bad. I really like Cumming as an actor, but he wasn't necessarily crucial here, I guess.

I won't miss Bryan Singer though. What's funny is that many gave much of the credit for the success of the X flicks to him (including the actors themselves). I almost did too, until I remembered that this was the same thing that happened with the Usual Suspects (that story belongs to Christopher McQuarrie and the actors imho....What the hell did Singer do really?).

Now look where he's at with Superman Returns....

[edit] Eh, might as well post the teaser for that here as well:  Doesn't show much really (http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/trailer.html)

Of course, you can just save your time and look at this (http://inlandempirestrikesback.net/v-web/gallery/albums/supes/Brandon_Routh_as_Superman.jpg) again.

She bitched about not having enough screentime in the first two movies and from the looks of it in the trailer (and the rumors of a Storm and Wolverine romantic sub-plot) they seemed to have beefed up her role for this one.  Besides, it's hard to act picky about what movies you'll do after you've been in Catwoman (and yes, I seem to recall that you didn't find Catwoman to be all that bad).

It wasn't "tear my eyes out" bad is all I meant. Heh. I was able to sit through it once.

It wasn't like "Torque" at least, which I flipped to the other night. I couldn't even stand 10 minutes of that. I was offended just for it's use of a specific camera zoom and shot. That's all it took for me to turn it off.

People tell me it gets worse.

Halle can be picky though. Oscar winners are allowed to make a few Catwomans if they want to and not suffer for it. Besides, it's good that someone bitched, even if it was her. Anything to keep it from totally being about Wolverine.

I don't blame them for focusing on Wolverine.  He's one of the easiest characters out there to do right, and make semi-interesting.  Even most X-men writers for the past decade or so have struggled to make characters like Storm interesting.

Hmmmm, I'm torn. Some of it looks good. Some doesn't. Beast looks really awful, really not organic to the rest of the characters. He looks more plasticy and out of place than Nightcrawler did. He should be furry, even on the face. Meanwhile, Halle Berry looks like Tina Turner.

I'm trying to figure out who they have in the regular team. Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm, but it looks like they've added Colossus? If so, good for them. The others may be Beast, Angel is shown (and looks good), and I am guessing Kitty Pryde, though there are two short females who I can't place. The other may be Jinx or whatever the hooker's name is. Rogue is in there barely.

As for the Brotherhood, we know of Pyro, Juggernaut looks terrible, and none of the other evil mutants looks familiar other than Jean Grey.

I await this one with wariness.

Vinny Jones isn't the most gifted of actors, but I think he may be just right for this part at least. His personality may pull off Juggernaut well enough so that physical appearances could be put aside.

It's either that or going full CGI ala Hulk......Which would probably be much worse.

Isn't she supposed to be "second in command" or something though? I always found her interesting at least. She always came off as otherworldly and regal to me in the comics, more of a loner type than even Wolverine, and almost as powerful as X or Jean.

Either way, bitchy or not, Storm did come off as a sort of minor character in the other 2 flicks. Even Rogue got more screentime. It's a valid complaint -- Not just because the actress playing her is Halle Berry, but also because of the character as well.

I have no problem with Vinny Jones physicality as Juggernaut, I was talking about the costume. It's not red and it should be.

Everything's gotta be DARK, man. You know that.

Wolverine: You actually go outside in these things?
Cyclops: Well, what would you prefer? Yellow spandex?

I would just like someone in the X3 world to say "Fuck that!" and put on some bright shit. Just to contrast. Motherfuckers are starting to look like a Quake level.

They did't add Colossus. He was in the second one, along with Ice Man and Jubilee.

For a while in the 90s, the X-Men had two teams, one lead by Cyclops and the other by Storm.

Here's the direct link to the trailer for those of you who made the mistake of installing QuickTime 7 but like to have local copies of the trailers:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/x-men_3/x-men_3-pre_teaser_h640w.mov

Edit: here are the links to the HD versions:

480p - http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/x-men_3/x-men_3-pre_teaser_h480p.mov
720p - http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/x-men_3/x-men_3-pre_teaser_h720p.mov
1080p - http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/x-men_3/x-men_3-pre_teaser_h1080p.mov

Second-in-command is a job title though, not a character trait.  Cyclops is a leader too, but that hasn't stopped 90% of the people who have written X-men from making him a dull character.

I know that. But he looks to have been added as an actual X-Man instead of window dressing for the fanbois.

Was he ever match for Juggernaut on his own? Just wondering. I seem to recall instances where it takes the entire team of X-Men to ever do anything to Juggernaut.

As always it depends on who's writing, but I don't think Colussus has ever been close to a match for Juggernaut.  Brute force really just isn't a viable way to take Juggernaut down.

Pretty much, Juggy>Colossus.

Funny, though, when you consider their names mean roughly the same thing.

Nightcrawler could teleport his head off, though.  Too bad they kicked him out for this movie.  Bet you guys are regretting that, huh?

I think Alan Cumming just wanted to leave, and wasn't kicked out per se. Too bad, because the guy's badass. Scottish Eurofag or not!

[edit] I think he mentioned somewhere that it was the time he had to prepare for and spend in makeup that made him quit.

But dude, you get to be fucking NIGHTCRAWLER.  I'd fuck Alan Cumming to be Nightcrawler.

I bet he smokes.

That's be the only thing that would make me sacrifice a big paycheck and a chance to play Nightcrawler. If I couldn't smoke during all of that preparation time, then to hell with it!!

Seriously though (smoking aside), waking up early every day and sitting still for 10 hours in one place would drive me nuts. That isn't what I'd sign up for as an actor at least. That's torture.

[edit] Unnecessary stuff. Forget it.

Would have been nice to see Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler all on screen together, but from what it looks like I don't think there was going to be a lot of time in X3 to spend developing Nightcrawler's character further anyway.

Rogue is bound to get more screentime than Storm; Rogue has angst. It's all about the angst.

I never liked Storm and the fact it's Halle Berry bringing it to the screen with all of her drama queen bullshit, it just helps me continue not liking storm. She's fucking Captain Planet. I mean she is Captain Planet, she's not giving it to him in the ass. But I bet Captain Planet could give it to her. He has heart[/u]. Seriously though, it's all about Rogue. Oh and Phoenix. It's definately all about Phoenix. And Dark Phoenix. And Magneto ripping out Wolverine's adamantium. Oh it would be great it they completely fucked with continuity to make a kickass movie. Like the new Batman, they should add MAIN characters with INVOLVED plot points just to do the Killing Joke story in the next movie. Oh man, I'm brilliant.

Actually, I kind of like Storm, especially when they play with the fact that if you crank up the claustrophobia and let her stew for a while, you end up with a Rageing Bitch Goddess of Natures Wrath and Fury of the kind who makes Dr. Doom go "Holy fuck, make it stop!".

Captain Planet?  :|

About the only thing I remember about Captain Planet is that they used rings or some shit, one of the villains was this slutty euro who would be hot if not for all the scarring on one side of her face, and another who was pretty much a copy of Pineapple Pokopo.

I liked the X3 trailer, but then I often like trailers more than movies.  I'm not too worried about Ratner as director, actually, since I feel he's proven himself capable of more than just Rush Hour with The Family Man and Red Dragon.  Really, the only thing I have doubts on is hokey dialogue, which is something that is really hard to prevent in a movie like this.

Also, while it's old news now though I haven't seen it mentioned here:

The Superman Returns teaser trailer (http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/trailer.html) for those who haven't seen it yet.

I linked to that in my first post.



Marlon Brando will be the best part of the film, I think. Whoever put that teaser together probably thinks so too.


I know it's the most obvious of gripes, but I think it'll fail solely because of Brandon Routh (or whatever his name is). Regardless of Kevin Spacey or Eva Marie Saint or John Williams or whoever else.

That teaser disappoints me on another level though too. The urban landscape just seems all wrong for a Metropolis. The Daily Planet building looks like a freaking cathedral.

One of my favorite bits about the old films was the vibrant 80's NYC atmosphere, all set with stereotypical pimps, cops, crooks, and the like (The same corny 80's version of New York used in Muppets Take Manhattan or Moscow on the Hudson). It was perfect for a Superman film.

Now, I know they can't recreate that, and I'm not saying I want them to. I'm just wondering why there isn't a very "New York-ish" look to the sets and locations at all. It looks more like Gotham than it does Metropolis.

[edit] Cleared up something...

[edit] Eh, no wonder. It appears that the film was made in Sydney.

Amazingly enough, the Superman teaser got me more confident in the actor playing Superman than the screenshots had.

Earth!
Fire!
Wind! Water! Heart!
GO PLANET!
With your powers combined, I am Captaaaain Planet!

Captain Planet, he's a hero!
Gonna take pollution down to zero!
... something something, crap, I can't remember the rest.  Blessing in disguise?

You can at least smell like him. (http://www.cummingthefragrance.com)

Heh, yeah I've seen that.

Something I had hoped to see in the 2nd movie which they are showing in that trailer is:

THE FASTBALL SPECIAL!!!!

Near the end of the trailer, you can see Colossus throws Wolverine up into the air and Wolverine flying with claws extended. Hooray!

In the funeral scene, there is a young dark haired girl sitting next to Colossus. At first, I thought it was his sister, Illyana. But, the same girl is in the opening part of the trailer walking with the team and it leads me to believe that it is Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde).

I wonder who the other women sitting in the last chair is in the funeral scene. It looks sort of like what I would imagine Dazzler would look like.

In the screenshot that Stray posted, I recognize Magneto, Jean Grey, and Pyro. You guys pointed out that the big guy is Juggernaut. I thought it was going to be Avalanche.

Any idea who the rest of the mutants behind him are?

What they did with the Juggernaught is a fucking travesty.

I can't help shake the feeling that I'm watching some Drew Barrymore directed, Charlie's Angel-ized version of the X-men.  All that gravity defying crap, and heavy cgi; it just felt like too much in that trailer.  And maybe Mr. Grammar will do the role justice, but I couldn't do anything but say "FRAZIER" to myself everytime I saw that blue fucker.

The black chick behind him to the right is Callisto (I found this (http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/311/xcast18nd.jpg) btw), which could mean that the others are Morlocks.

I read the credits somewhere on the intarweb and one of the other girls is Stacy X. I wish I knew who that was.

X Slut apparently.

Ahhhh, fucking hell. That's the chick I thought it was. She was a "member" of the X-Men for like 10 issues, then forgotten completely when the book switched writers (from Joe Casey to Chuck Austen). She was a prostitute at a mutant brothel where normal people paid to have sex with mutants as a fetish thing. She could tweak people's pleasure centers I think. That was about it. Based on how she left the X-Men, she was a throwaway character. Shit, you might as well put Cecilia Reyes in there for all the importance in overall X-Men lore she had. I think she left because she had the hots for Havok, who meanwhile got the hots for the school nurse, who also left or some shit.

Seriously, outside of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and some decent Austen stuff, the X-Men has become a really shitty soap opera since Morrison left.

Ah, OK. I am guessing the "X" part of her name is supposed to be a sly nod to Ecstacy the drug.

I wish they wouldn't use characters that aren't really that well known in X lore. I know the fans are waiting to see guys like Gambit and Bishop, but I highly doubt anyone is interested in the least in seeing Stacy X. If they needed a female character, why not Havok and Polaris?

I kind of get the feeling that Callisto is being introduced so that they can spin her off into the rumored "Storm" movie.

Havok and Polaris would make a lot of sense, seeing as how it'd be easy to explain their presence. The only person who gives a shit about Stacy X is the goddamn hack director.


After Catwoman, Halle Berry never deserves a starring role again. ESPECIALLY in a superhero movie.

I guess it's too much to hope that Stacy X is being included so they can kill an X-Man in the movie without worrying about pissing off a segment of the fanbase?  Yeah, probably.

Stacy X was included because the director had a hard-on for a "sex mutant". Seriously.

X-cutioner, Agent X, Xternals, Weapon X, Adam-X (also known as Xtreme), X-23, X-Man, Soldier X... they really don't need much of a reason to throw X into the name of a character or a book.

'X-Men 3' has another villain in Melancon (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051230/film_nm/xmen_dc) (playing Psylocke)

Huh?  Did I miss her doing that, uh, ever?

You didn't miss much, but yeah it happened.

I thought she was best known for being really hot, having the first "modern" female costume and those pink mind blade thingies.  Mostly for being really hot.

Hasn't she died and come back 2 or 3 times?

I was still reading when they sent her through the gate-thing and she got reincarnated as ninja-Psyloche....

She is best known for "man, I don't feel like drawing some plain brit - let's find some bullshit way to turn her into a hot busty asian chick!"

Yeah, she had the ability to teleport through shadows for a while. Her abilities have constantly changed, mainly because she was so goddamn boring of a character, no one wanted to bother writing her consistently. Yes, she's alive... AGAIN. With no explanation for how she's alive, just another in a long series of Chris Claremont subplots that might get finished by him two years down the line.

Blearg. X-Men 3 sounds like it's going to have WAY too many characters to have a coherent plot built around the copious explosions and car tossings.

I remember her being a kickass character in a Sega Genesis X-men game.

I'm hoping they're mostly cameo appearances like we've seen in the other two movies.

Damn, 56% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Will probably check it out later today though.

The movie was weak.

I'm sure a number of lines of the movie will be very quotable, to the point where you may have to kick people out of your guild if you play any MMOs, and there were some darn nifty special effects... but overall the movie was bland and uninspired.

Pretty weak is right.

[edit]

Seriously, the X-Men franchise has been completely destroyed. If there ever was a time to use the phrase "jumped the shark", then this might be it [BIG SPOILER: Jean, Scott, and Xavier DEAD! Fucking dead. Mystique, Rogue, and Magneto -- no longer mutants. Wtf? ]

The shining moments are the effects. Something Singer didn't go all out with --- But it lacks all the depth X-2 had, and in my opinion, that's a bad tradeoff.

If it wasn't an X-Men movie, it'd be no better than the Fantastic Four or Elektra.

Stray, the last shot undermined half of your spoiler.

Overall I thouhgt it was decent. Maybe not up to 1 & 2 but its hard to sustain that level over an entire series of movies. Singer may have been able to do it but Ratner did okay.  I enjoyed it and so did my wife who is a big fan of the prior movies.

I liked Fantastic Four.  :-(

I think it was just too much, and an extreme way to add "depth". Like they were just compensating for the lack of any other dramatic ideas.

I've been reading that the studio rushed Ratner to get it done before Superman's release (thereby shortening the schedule considerably) and mandated the length of the film (it was crowded I will admit) so its shortcoming maybe the fault of the "suits."

Oh, and there are good reasons for the other half of your spoiler:

These actors were only signed up for 3 films so they likely couldn't have gotten them back for any more.

Stray - regarding the first word in your spoiler, I knew that was going to be the climax of this movie anyway, its ripped right from one of the classic comics. The rest of it suprised me, but as I mentioned in the thread I started, some of its undone in the damn after the credits clip anyways.

The movie had plenty of flaws, but honestly, I liked it better than the first one.

Spoiler [ I still can't get over the fact that Scott, Jean, and Xavier are dead (which I guess what you might be referring about the end credits), but let me comment on some other things.

The idea of Xavier or Jean dying isn't necessarily a bad one really, but if they are going to bring these kind of tragic closures to the Mutant War, they would have been better off with 2 films (a 3 and a 4). Hell, I could have been happy with one 2 1/2 hour or 3 hour film. Instead, they tried to compress all of this shit into 97 minutes.

Some things seemed fitted in just for the sake of it. Like the Sentinels (a subject so important to the X-Men storyline that it alone could have been the basis for one film).

Instead, we get Phoenix, Sentinels, Trask, Beast, Angel, Juggernaut, the Morlocks/Callisto; the deaths of Xavier, Jean, and Scott; the fates of Rogue, Mystique, and Magneto, and whatever the hell else.

That's way, way, way too much to handle for one film (if those events are going to be meaningful). Everything just felt like a cheap, fast, cliffnotes version of a better story.

Some of the newer elements could have been really fucking cool too -- Like Callisto (who was great whenever she was on screen) or Pyro's and Iceman's rivalry. Or Juggernaut. For the little time they treated these parts, they were good -- But in the end, I just felt teased. ]

SPOILER (the entire post, just move on to the next one):

Killing Xavier.  Wow.  Balls.  So, as I said in the non-spoiler thread, I'm of two minds about this.

Part of me objects on the basis that doing something like that is a cheap shock.  Sort of a gimmick that comics try to do to boost sales. Kill a major character, etc.

However, part of me thinks it was handled quite well given the time constraints and the setting.  It seemed appropriate.  I also violently rebel against the people who (like the friend with whom I saw the film) say things like "You just can't kill Xavier!"  Listen, that's exactly the attitude that makes comics suck these days.  You're not allowed to significantly progress the story, because fans hate that and bitch about it.  But at the same time, they bitch that nothing really ever happened.  I feel the same about Magneto's loss of his powers.

Now, I am of course aware that Xavier is not really dead.  I am also aware that they intend to undo Magneto's power loss with the little wiggle of that chess piece they showed.  I'm putting those aside for the moment.

Things I wished:
I would've loved a shot of the fiery Phoenix.  My friend and I were discussing how cool it would've been during that last scene to have massive psionic flames emit from Jean, and show them crossing the sky all around the world, to finally back up and have the iconic shot of the Phoenix cradling the world in its wings.  Maybe too much, but the nerd in me would've loved it- especially if they'd shown something like the Hulk or Daredevil in another city watching the flame cross the sky.
I would have liked to see Psylocke at least "unsheathe" the psiblade.  She didn't even have to use it on someone, just show it off for a second.
I wish Cyclops got better treatment in the movie.  They basically threw him away right at the start.  Waste of a good character.  In fact, it seemed like such an obvious waste that I almost didn't believe he was dead until the last few minutes of the movie.
Nightcrawler.
I think they should've skipped Juggernaut and gone with another character for that part.  Didn't really fit, was only related to the Juggernaut in name.  I also didn't like the look and attitude of Jamie Madrox, but really that's nitpicking. It was a cameo at most.
Would've liked to see Quicksilver, even not related to Magneto.
A better actor for Angel would've been nice.  The guy's movement acting was particularly bad, with the wings flexing and the running to jump out the window.  Just... cheesy, poorly done.
Less "blue paint" more "blue fur" for Beast.

Things I really liked:
They gave me my "Oh my stars and garters." line from Beast. That's all I asked.
Imagine being a guard at Alcatraz, and you find you're being invaded by the Golden Gate Bridge.  Suddenly, you think back to the advice your grandfather gave you when you were just a kid.  "If you're ever on guard duty at Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge attacks, you head for the hills, boy.  Don't you try and fight that bridge."
As always, fun to watch the references. Stan Lee and Chris Claremont in the 20-years-ago scene, the various mutant names popping up, the Sentinel, Trask, etc.  Just nice tidbits to give fans something to giggle over.  I don't mind that they didn't go fully into the Sentinel story, it was just a Danger Room exercise.
By the way, they finally have a Danger Room.
Mystique as the president, cracked me up for some reason.
Iceman in full icy form.
Halle walking down stairs in a rush.  Always a pleasure.
Car bombs. Clever idea.
Other stuff, but this is long enough already.

Verdict- enjoyable, fun, good movie. Not art.

Maybe we should just create a spoilers thread so we can ditch the blank posting.

But I enjoyed that.

I thought the movie was ass, but the special effects weren't as embarassing as I thought they'd be.

The Juggernaut alone was enough to ruin the movie for me, and I like the Vinnie Jones.

Didn't like the acting.  Didn't like the lore changes made to certain characters.  Didn't like the direction they took Xavier in.  Didn't like how they handled the main characters from the first 2 movies.  Plain didn't like the story.

Giggle.

Plot hole:

I forgot that McCoy showed up in the second one.  McCoy, for those who don't know, is Beast.  In the second one, he's a regular looking guy.

That means in this series, they did intend the blue fur to be some crazy sciency fuckup or whatever independent of his mutation.

So Leech's powers shouldn't have changed his appearance.

Before, I just assumed they made it part of his mutation.  Clearly they did, but without realizing they'd already said otherwise.

Actually, he was on TV in the FIRST movie, I think, not the second one.

But in the comics, Beast started off looking like a human, and then later his mutation kickstarted and he became blue and furry. Even later, his mutation changed him again, into less of a monkey-looking man and more of a cat-looking man that he is now.

No, I think it was the second one.  Right when Mystique was slipping a mickey into the fat security guards beer.

Bollocks, I think you are right. I remember there being some news item that was geek-candy in the first one about the political ceremony that Magneto interrupted with his flashy-bang, but I can't remember what the geek-candy part of it was.

Beast is a late bloomer...

It seems we're both right.  He was doing some sort of experiment to reduce his mutation (or the visual effects of it) and instead jump-started it, giving him the fur and whatnot.

So Leech could potentially affect him.  I'll buy it.