These scenes, as well as the great trailers the movie had, set us up for something great. Philosophical and ethical issues have been at the heart of many of the great X-Men conflicts. And we end up expecting that. Similarly, there was always great action, and with the sentinel at the beginning, we get the feeling that the battles in this film will be massive.

Sadly, it does not deliver on either front. While setting up those intellectual issues, it shies away from them. Of course explosions and protests are more appealing to the eye, but this brings the issues to a Least Common Denominator level, where they seem to be brushed under the rug to make way for fighting. And while the visual effects here are the best so far in the series, the battles seem to lack magnitude and a strong emotional attachment. Very unusual for Wolverine/Logan to be giving these speeches that are supposed to rouse the X-Men to battle heroics; in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men Wolverine muses about how much he loves beer while battling a sentinel.

There are many weird casting decisions that fans have had to live with, but we knew that there was trouble when Bryan Singer jumped ship to do Superman. Brett Ratner, of Rush Hour fame took the helm. He’s a good action director, but when it comes to quiet, subtle moments or emotionally tense scenes, he hardly manages them.

X3 finds us shortly after the events of the last film. Jean Grey’s dead and Cyclops isn’t over it. Professor X has a bad feeling about things, but he isn’t sharing. Mutant-human affairs are going relatively well, until a "cure" for being a mutant is discovered. Magneto, ever the reactionary, intensifies his terrorist crusade championing Homo superior over Homo sapiens.

One of the things that the movie does do well is showcase Magneto and his arguments. He can be played up as a terrorist with legitimate grievances, a former victim now committed to never allowing himself, or anyone he considers as one of his, to be victimized. However, one would need a good idea of his origins to fully appreciate how he plays out in the film.

So, as ever in the comics, we find mutants and humans having at it, and the X-Men having to come in the middle and break it up. What adds to the complications is that not only do they suffer from external attack, but the return of Jean Grey and her alter ego the Phoenix poses a grave threat to the team (spoiler alert) cutting away at their already limited numbers.

The set-up here is great. It’s the X-Men, taking fire from all directions, trying to do the right thing in a world gone terribly wrong. However, the magnitude of these conflicts never really seems to take hold. And that’s probably due to the lackluster writing. There are so many lines here that make you cringe, gag, or slap your forehead. Want an example: "No, I didn’t do it for them, I did it for you. I did it for love." I may be paraphrasing that one a bit, but you get the idea. Plus the aforementioned rallying speeches and all kinds of expository dialogue or just plain bad lines; "Don’t you know who I am? I’m the Juggernaut, bitch." Sometimes, you just have to shake your head in disappointment when the writing gets too corny.

For fans who had gotten used to the sharp writing from Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon, X3 will disappoint as it turns the characters back into plain old superheroes. No depth or anything of the like for the X-Men in this movie. Here it’s all about plot and big explosions.

That said, the big explosions are admittedly entertaining. There are some things here to like, if only to watch the movie as a diversion. Unfortunately though, it’s supposed to be the last X-Men movie, and the series ends with a whimper instead of a bang. It aimed for going out big, but it just didn’t deliver. And sadly it falls into that pit where most comic book adaptations have fallen, changing to please the blockbuster movie audience and not really pleasing comic book or movie fans.