I'm conflicted over this review. I enjoyed this movie a great deal, but it felt really sloppy. Kind of like a big friendly dog that licks your face. It's fun playing with the dog, but you have to wipe off the slobber afterwards.
Let's start with the good:
Unlike many bladder-control-testing epics that have come out the past couple of years, this one didn't drag on 3+ hours. It didn't have any of the awkward lulls that the previous two had nor the clunker dialogue. Storm wasn't annoying, unlike the first two movies where she seemed to be there to wear a bad wig and cash a check.
Kelsey Grammer did a good job as the Beast. My only quip about the Beast in general was there were a few scenes he seemd too blue, but that was to keep from losing him against a dark background.
A lot of the background mutants from the last movie returned, giving us a sense of continuity.
The not so good:
Speaking of continuity... some of it is hard to get into without spoilers, but whoever was keeping track of continuity for the movie was asleep at the wheel. I'm not talking about continuity vs. the comics, because we know there will be differences (big differences). I'm talking about within the movie. Characters that get instantly from New York to San Francisco, scenes flipping from pre-sunset to pitch dark night.
There are a couple of twists. One I saw coming, the other I'm ashamed to say I didn't because in retrospect it was almost obvious. Make sure you stay all the way through the credits.
Now is the hard part... rating the big friendly dog. This movie will win no awards, but it is very entertaining... for me. If continuity had been tightened up and maybe a few things not rushed, this would have been an awesome movie. But since this is how much I liked the movie and not how much I think critics liked the movie, I'm giving it 3.5 angsty-mutant-flying-monkeys.
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