X-3: How Much Is It Gonna Suck?

In all of movie history, only two franchises in the super-hero genre, Superman and Batman, have been successful enough to make it to a third film, so it's hard to call it a trend and you know that I don't believe in "curses," but with that third movie, both of those series begin to seriously stink. Whether this mini-trend continues with this summer's X-Men: The Last Stand is something we'll have to wait and see, but there are some negative indicators. The biggest is that, just as in the case of the third Bat film, Batman Forever, the director and guiding light of the first two films, in X-Men's case one Bryan Singer, has moved on. He is replaced by Brett Ratner, a man whose resume does not exactly inspire confidence in his ability to steward the X franchise, as he is responsible for the celluloid wasting Rush Hour films, including, and, Dear God, I wish I wish I were making this up, the upcoming Rush Hour 3. Yes, the one thing the world needs less than another Adam Sandler film is another film starring the incredibly annoying Chris Tucker. (Sorry, my despair at the very idea of the horrid spectacle of a third pairing of Tucker and Jackie Chan led to wander off topic for a moment.) Getting back to the subject at hand, there's also the packing in to X-3 of even more mutant characters, including the Angel and the Beast.

Having said all that, I will say that I really like the casting of Kelsey Grammer in the role of Hank McCoy aka the Beast. McCoy is, after all, in many ways a blue furry version of Frazier Crane.

And now that, with the addition of Beast and Angel, all five of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original Silver Age X-Men are in the movie's cast, it would be ckind of cool to see at least one scene of them working together again for the first time.