When a "cure" for mutancy is developed, every mutant has a choice; retain the powers that isolate them from the rest of humanity or give them up and take the chance to lead a normal life. Dr Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, promotes tolerance while Magneto believes in survival of the fittest and sets out to start a war against humanity.

Ratner rips the heart right out of the movie, replacing emotional involvement with big explosions, sly wit with cheap gags, brooding darkness with comic book primary colours, hard-looking leather with wimpy lycra, personal vendettas with all-out war and strong narrative with virtually no through-line. It shows the law of diminishing returns in action and what happens when a successful franchise is handed over to a jobbing director who has no history in superhero films. Where Singer clearly felt a bond with his characters, Ratner treats them like pieces of meat, shoving them around from one spot to another regardless of whether there's a reason for them, to be there. I mean, can you imagine Magneto hanging around with a bunch of leather-clad teenagers in a wood in the other films?

The screenplay by Zak Penn is an abomination from start to finish. It lacks all the subtleties of the first movies and replaces them with cheap gags and big explosions. For a kick-off he plays fast and loose with the characters we have come to know and love over the course of the franchise. Several integral players are dispatched at a rate of knots during the opening scenes, leaving a void that newer protagonists simply can't fill. Killing key characters is always a mistake and those that survive have undergone such shifts in personality that they are virtually unrecognisable. Wolverine has become more emotional and therefore more of a wimp and has lost his talent for sharp comebacks. Rogue has been watered down and has lost any semblance of backbone. Storm has developed inner steel that sits ill at ease with her earth mother stylings. Still they fare better than the new characters that aren't even afforded the luxury of a personality. They are defined solely by their powers and most of them (I'm thinking of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants) aren't even referred to by name. They are just a bunch of pierced, tattooed weirdoes. Poor Angel comes across as a guy who's a bit mopey because he has wings and Shadowcat's subplot and potential romance with Iceman is never sufficiently explored. There are too many new players for any of them to be given enough screen-time to grow. The result is a series of stunted protagonists we don't care about. We're left wondering why Magneto would go to such pains to seek some of them out.

Hugh Jackman is disappointing as Wolverine in this outing for some intangible reason. I think it has something to do with the script rather than his performance. He's gone from being an intriguing loner to part of the furniture at the school and comes across more as grumpy rather than gruff. He's too present emotionally when he should be more distant with his feelings - he's never revealed too much before. He has a nasty habit of throwing in the odd bout of moralising and he's robbed of his continuing rivalry with Scott/Cyclops.

Famke Jansen is a more intriguing proposition as the Dark Phoenix character than as Jean Grey. She's overtly sexy for one thing and has more about her than the nice girl next door type. But she's never given the opportunity to expand on the role's layers because the script is so slipshod.