X3: Should be remade

Domestic Gross: $234,362,462
Foreign Gross: $224,997,093
Yahoo Users: B+

The X-Men franchise was a very successful one indeed. Having such characters as Storm, Wolverine, Beast and Cyclops come to life was nothing less than a comic nerd's fantasy. All of the X-Men movies were successful with each movie scoring higher in domestic Gross. So why should this smash success be remade? Call me old fashion, but when a story becomes somewhat established when it comes to special characters in the comics, it should stay that way in the movie. I am of course referring to Jean Gray's super powered alter ego: The Phoenix.

In the comics, the X-Men go into outer space to investigate an issue. On the way back to earth the shuttle gets damaged and everyone is in danger of dying. Jean secured everyone into the escape hatch and tried to use her telepathy to steer the ship out of danger. Being at the highest peak of her powers, she was heard by the Phoenix force, who came and inhabited her body. The escape pod landed in the Jamaica bay and the X-Men watched as Jean and the shuttle crashed in the water and sank. Before all hope was lost, Jean burst out of the water engulfed in a flaming bird aura and a new costume declaring she was the Phoenix.



In X2, there were a few but acceptable changes. For starters, Jean's powers began to fluctuate everywhere she went. She would get these power boosts, and then her eyes would start glowing with energy. At the end, she sacrificed herself to save her friends from being caved in by a rushing flood of water. As she saved her friends, Jean was shown with this flame like aura before the water over came her. At the very end, the camera looks over where Jean was buried by the water and you could see something coming to the surface which looked like a bird. The final scene excited fans to no end, and prepared us for the third one, which was going to be the entrance of the Phoenix. Everyone had played the triumphant burst from the water and a new form fitting suit. What we got instead, was something we would have never expected.

In the third installment, The Phoenix had arrived, but lacked the super special effects that made her the fire bird vixen. Instead, viewers received a read head with a severe case of multiple personality disorder. The Phoenix had shifted to the Dark Phoenix, her evil persona that took a good while to manifest in the comics, was already ready for blood in the first few minutes. Throughout the movie, she killed Cyclops, destroyed Professor X molecule by molecule, and offed an entire army and some mutants before being put down by Wolverine. As graphically alluring it was, it strayed too far off the story for my own good.

For starters, Professor X should not have died at all. He is never killed by the Phoenix and only dies through story arc situations. Scott doesn't die either. Besides untimely deaths, the story just seemed very off. The dark Phoenix doesn't make her appearance until there is at least a good Phoenix. There is no mention of the Shi'ar empire, which is part of the reason why the Phoenix appeared. It was critical elements like this that robbed movie goers of their escalated experience from X-Men 2.

Obviously due to the domestic Gross, there are alot who think other wise, but there were a bunch of folks who went to see the movie because of the previous hype, only to be let down by the lack luster story. It also doesn't help that there was a director switch for the third movie, which served as a main reason for why everything shifted so suddenly. I believe that this movie is due for a re-do with a better storyline and the graphics that X-Men fans were cheated out of. The series may need to be rebooted for this to happen, and if so, I just hope that the movies leading up to it will be just as good as the first two original movies.