X-Men 3:The Last Stand (2006)

I had seen this film previously and been a bit meh on the whole thing but as part of a re-watch I gave it another go. You have the story continued from the original film and the second and it tries to explore the idea of a cure to the mutations that our heroes and villains have. I think that it is trying to have some sort of social commentary on people's perceptions to differences and has a ham fisted approach to people's perceptions of conformity. I think that they overload this franchise with characters and it gets to the point that it is almost impossible to keep a track of who is who and they get a subtle introduction which i sort of missed an makes you not really care.

You have the main cast reprising the roles, however I feel that at the end of the film it has no where to go based on how they deal with the characters ad to be honest my limited knowledge means that i am not happy with how it all ends and I feel that they went in a really strange direction with many of the main characters that mean that this film could actually be ignored completely if they take the franchise forward and thinking that makes me lower my opinion of the film as it simply means that it possibly holds no value.

I am going to give this film 2 stars, overall the acting is fine it is the story and what they do with the characters and I feel that some of the decisions were made by the actors and some of the characters get short changed due to the size and scale they try and bring to the film. Overall not really worth seeing and possibly a pointless film in the franchise.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

I have been trying to watch films that I have podcast reviews for and this is why that I looked out the X-Men Origins film, at the time it came out I was not that keen to see it. My problem with X-Men stems all the way back to the first film and the 90's cartoon, it is so wrong but I had a thing for Rogue from the cartoons. I have no knowledge of the comics and my experience is purely based upon the cartoons and the previous films and when they made Rogue a teenager with angst and played by Anna Paquin I was not that impressed and the rest of the films did not inspire interest, however I do enjoy Mr Jackman.

I went into the film with fairly low expectations as this is another of the recent prequals that takes where the character is in the first film of a franchise and makes up a story that ends where they have to, it has some good set pieces and is a fairly adequate action adventure film. Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine so well hat you know what to expect and as you know where it ends you have certain expectations. I have to say that they made it entertaining enough that I would re-watch it if I caught it on the TV. There were some throw backs to the comics that I did not get and to the film and the ending of the film has already been thrown out by X-Men First Class and where it went with the film so the continuity is already shot.
I give this 3 stars, it is a perfectly serviceable action flick with some good interesting effects if some of the story lines are a bit all over the place. Worth seeing if you have enjoyed all of the other X-Men films.