Sad-Men 3 and Da Lousy Vinci Code

Haiz… had my customary movie marathon over the weekend (it’s getting to be a fortnightly thing now) and I must say, I was really REALLY disappointed with the 2 shows which I was looking forward so much to.


X-Men 3

I wasn’t a big fan of the X-Men comics but after watching X Men in 1998, I considered myself an X-Men movie fan as I think that the movie really showed how smart and witty a Superhero Movie can be and I think it was really down to the brilliant directing and storytelling by Bryan Singer (of The Usual Suspects fame).

Now when X-Men 2: X-Men United came out a couple of years after that, I must say that I was worried about it living up to expectations as it is a publicly known fact that 98% of all sequels absolutely suck. However, it turned out to be even better than expected and with the lengthy screen time and a great plot to boot, it is to me, the BEST Superhero Movie even till now. Again, Bryan Singer was at the helm and he sure as hell delivered!

This brings me now to X-Men 3. Now, after Singer left the crew to do Superman Returns, I was really happy because I knew then and there that Superman would be the next big thing (we’ll find out on 30th June eh John?). However, I also knew that with Singer out of X-Men 3 (whammy), and with Brett Ratner (of Rush Hour fame) directing (DOUBLE whammy), this supposed last film of the Trilogy would struggle to reach the high standards the past 2 movies have set.



I’ve already set my standards low, I’ve already accepted it would be nowhere near as cool or as smart as X-Men 1 and 2…. But I totally, TOTALLY didn’t expect it to be as sucky as it turned out to be!! From the sub-par plot (all about a cure?), the less-than-dramatic deaths (I won’t spoil it for you guys), the lame one-liners and the short screen time (only cartoons run for 87 minutes dudes), I really felt like tearing my hair out at many moments in the film!

I wanted the series to end on a high so to watch this crap in the cinema was… well… as disappointing as breaking your leg before a World Cup (sorry Cisse). Ah the less said the better… let’s look to Superman from Singer…please bring it on!!


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The Da Vinci Code

Ok the hype over the movie has been totally insane and I am thinking the Studio heads must’ve been gleefully rubbing their hands over all the free publicity that came out of all the religious groups that are against it, and Dan Brown himself who is making loads of dough just going on interviews rebutting them.

If you ask me, I must say that the book was really good as a thriller and I really enjoyed it. It’s true that as a Catholic, there were a few ideals put in the book that were totally against my religion but looking at it at a fictional point of view (which I do with all movies I watch and books I read), it didn’t really affect me much and I’m also quite surprised by the furore that the book has caused.

After watching the movie though, I must say that the problem has solved itself. People who watch TDVC and have never read the book before will find themselves SO lost and SO confused at the end of the 2 and a half hours so they will probably not have an idea what the entire fuss was all about!!



By trying to squeeze the many details of the book (and if you’ve read it, you’ll know just how much details are in it) into a comparatively tiny 150 minutes, the movie just seems so lost in itself midway through the show and never seems to find its way back. Now as I’ve read the book, I could keep up with what was going on although it was still a bit of a struggle here and there… and so I can imagine how bad it must’ve been for those who haven’t read it. In all fairness though, most of the important scenes and lines were in the film (some of the dialogue come STRAIGHT from the book!) but as a movie, it tried to convey too much info in too little time… and that’s not good for your average popcorn-munching movie-goer.

I believe The Da Vinci Commotion will be on a downhill spiral after this… and DON’T even get me started about Tom Hanks’ hair….


The plus point to come out of my movie marathon though, was this nice little cartoon called Over The Hedge. Wasn’t really too keen on it but after watching it, I literally came out of the cinema smiling like a little kid, fully recovered from the previous 2 stinkers. With a simple plot which had good bits of dialogue here and there criticizing our never-ending material needs, witty jokes to go with the laugh-out-loud slapstick humour and fun characters who were totally original, I must say that it’s one of the biggest movie surprises for me so far!



Do catch it if you wanna have a good laugh, or if you wanna get Da Vinci out of your system… haha! (that's IF you have time in between all those World Cup matches... hehe)